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Killzone 3

Genre: Shooter
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Guerrilla Games

Release Date(s): US: 2011-02-22

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Killzone 3 Review

by Anthony Gallegos - IGN.com | 03 February 2011 12:00

This is a first-person experience.

A lot of games can place you in first person and put a gun in your virtual fingers, but few of them manage to make you feel like you're in the shoes of a person, that you're more than just a moving camera.

It's this idea that separates a run of the mill first-person shooter from what I like to think of as a first-person experience. And Killzone 3, Sony's latest PlayStation 3 exclusive, is definitely the latter. Every action you do in Killzone is immersive; the combat more intense and savage than other shooters. It's this design that makes Killzone 3 so engrossing and fun despite its weak story. With the fantastic pacing and set pieces in the campaign, along with the improved, fun multiplayer, Guerilla's crafted a must own for PS3 shooting enthusiasts.

Watch the video review.

Killzone 3 is all about a war between two factions of humans. On one side, we have the ISA, the good guys with human faces; on the other side are the Helghast, the red-goggled, mask-wearing enemies who are hell bent on subduing the rest of the universe. Killzone 3 picks up right where two left off, with a small group of ISA soldiers struggling to survive after being effectively cut off and left on the hostile Helghan homeworld. Throughout it all, you play as Sev, the returning hero from the second game, who is out to do as much damage to the enemy as he can before he's caught, killed or rescued.

I won't spoil the story, but I was disappointed with where it went and how uninteresting it was. Killzone 3 jumps around in time regularly, constructing a narrative that gives a good reason to explore different parts of the Helghast homeworld, but it's not engaging. In general, the story feels like an afterthought, like it was figured out after the team planned out a series of cool levels and were forced to figure out a way to tie them altogether. It would have been nice to see Guerilla explore the themes of hopelessness as the ISA struggle to survive in hiding on a hostile planet, but instead Killzone 3 basically glosses over this with a quick fade out and a cut scene. This liberal use of fading between scenes, along with the occasional hiccup when loading, broke me out of the experience repeatedly, exacerbating the generally boring story.

The characters of Killzone are one-dimensional. From our hero, Sev, to the evil Helghast leaders, you pretty much have their personalities pinned from the first moment they swagger onto the screen. The interplay between characters is totally predictable, and we're never given a view of the complex dynamics we might expect out of soldiers at war or a moment of pause or regret about how things play out. Unlike Captain Templar from the original Killzone, there are no likeable characters in Killzone 3. Sure, they're charming in a brutish fashion, but Sev and the rest of the ISA feel more like unthinking meatheads than soldiers dealing with a life or death situation and a feeling of abandonment. They just aren't people you can identify with in any significant way.

Yes, it looks this good.

Story and characters aside, Killzone 3 succeeds as a superb first-person shooter. Guerilla has once again proven that they know how to make the most visceral feeling first-person combat on the market. The controls are considerably tighter than they were in two, but I love how everything you do in Killzone 3 still feels like there's momentum behind it. From climbing ladders to running to slamming into cover, Killzone 3 makes you feel like your character is grounded in the world around him. Even shooting feels more real thanks to the weight and swing of the weapon – but not at the cost of overly floaty controls.

Killzone 3 also does a nice job at breaking up the levels between sections where you're on foot, and where you're kicking ass in a super powered vehicle. While the entire game is very linear, Guerilla's done a great job at varying what you're doing just enough from moment to moment to keep you from seeing behind the curtain too much. Each skirmish is so intense, and so visually satisfying, that I'm often too engrossed to think about the story or how I'm being funneled in a very specific direction.

Killzone 3 is beautiful and easily amongst the best looking games on PS3. But what makes its gorgeous environments so important to its design is that it makes the combat more immersive. Enemies are animated so that they realistically fall off railings or cliffs, your own soldiers die in agony as they're cut down by enemy fire, and the environments Sev is fighting through are haunting because they look so plausible. These are not the fantastic alien worlds of a game like Halo; these are dwellings where humans once lived and where humans are now dying in vicious, hate-filled combat. It's strange that crumbling concrete and twisted pieces of rebar can be so awe inducing, but they resonate because they're grounded in scenes we've all seen before in our own world, helping make this war somehow more easily identified with.

Killzone in 5 Minutes

Killzone 3's single player is good despite the story, but the reason it's a product worth holding onto is for the multiplayer. The three modes are all fun to play, offering both standard Team Deathmatch and more objective-driven options (including the new Operations Mode, where the highest rated players get to see themselves in cut scenes between objectives). And the revamped leveling system – where leveling means getting points you can use to buy what you want, rather than using a class to unlock abilities for just that class – is a welcome change. Occasional moments of slow-down are likely to occur in larger matches, but make no mistake: this is one of the better multiplayer games available to PS3 owners, and those who enjoyed Killzone 2 online have a lot to look forward to.

F**king jet packs, son!

Outside of the single player and multiplayer, there's an option to tackle the campaign via local co-op play (where the hell is the online, Sony?), an option to play multiplayer with bots, an option to play with Playstation Move controls, and an option to use a 3D TV if you're wealthy enough to be a part of the future. The Move controls are functional but in no way superior or better than an analog controller, while 3D is...well…3D. Yay?

Closing Comments
Along with its fun multiplayer, Killzone 3 is so enjoyable because it’s not just a shooter, it’s an experience. Guerilla has crafted scene after gorgeous scene that made me feel like you’re a part of a brutal, human war that is somehow fantastic in setting but also eerily reminiscent of the wars we see on TV. Combine this with the superb pacing and you have a campaign that’s totally fun despite its boring characters and uninspired story. This may not be the best game on the PS3, but it’s a fantastic option for shooter fans, and the type of title that non-PS3 owners are sure to envy.

Supplied by IGN.com

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