Killzone 3 Review

The Killzone series has been through an existence most franchises never fully experience. The first Killzone was overhyped, bland, boring, and just overall mediocre first-person shooter with underwhelming gunplay, forgettable story, weak AI, and paled in comparison to Halo and Metroid Prime (admittedly more of an adventure game but comparisons were still made).

Then Killzone 2 came out and stands as one of the most improved sequels in gaming history. EVERYTHING was better. The gunplay was awesome, the AI was incredible, it looked beautiful, its multiplayer was balanced and ridiculously fun, its story was darker and more memorable (still kind of forgettable) and it had an awesome villain with Colonel Radec. It was my favorite FPS of 2009 (yeah, I said it CoD fanboys) and stands as one of the finest examples of the genre this generation.

So how does Killzone 3 stand out in comparison? Killzone 2 had five years of hype that it met admirably. Does Killzone 3 meet the two years of hype? Let's find out.

STORY

The story picks up almost right after the end of Killzone 2 where Visari has been killed and now the ISA is faced with a massive Helghan fleet above. The story basically deals with the ISA attempting to evacuate Helghan and escape a massive Helghan reorganization.

Now, as I established above, story has never been the Killzone series strongpoint. That trend continues here. The story is once again kind of forgettable with forgettable characters and "gung-ho" writing that can get boring and over the top. That said, a few characters go through a certain amount of character development which made it a little more engaging. Rico in particular, the series jackass, goes through a great deal of development which, while still a jackass, made him a much more likable character by the end.

If Guerrilla Games is trying to make the ISA more (or even as) interesting as the Helghast, they are failing. Just like the other games in the series, the Helghast are much more interesting than anyone in the ISA. In Killzone 2 we had the series' ultimate badass with Colonel Radec who stole the show in every scene that he was in.

Colonel Radec, Killzone 2's villain

This game, the villains are not badasses like Radec but show a tense political climate and power struggle amongst the Helghan people to fill in for Visari. First there's Admiral Orlock voiced by Ray Winstone and there's also Jorhan Stahl voiced by Malcolm McDowell. This political and military power struggle (aided by the two actors who I'll talk about later) was FAR more interesting than anything dealing with the ISA. This is pretty much how the series has worked. The Helghast have just always been more compelling and thus are the more memorable (also the costumes are awesome).

One last thing about the story is the really annoying ending. I've talked about cliffhangers in my reviews for Bulletstorm and Dragon Age II. While those left too much hanging, they at least got me excited for their respective sequels. In this case, the ending to Killzone 3 just kind of pissed me off. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the characters/story just aren't as memorable as those games. I don't really know but it really annoyed me.

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Overall the gameplay and controls that were used in Killzone 2 are used in Killzone 3. Meaning if you haven't played Killzone 2, you're going to need to take your time to get used to them because they can be awkward at first. As someone who played, and had trouble at first, with Killzone 2's controls I was able to jump right into Killzone 3 without much trouble using the first-person cover system.

Gunplay is still very satisfying. My favorite weapon would have the main Helghast assault rifle, but they're all fun to use. Shotguns, rocket launchers, pistols, shotgun pistols, chainguns, SMGs, etc. they were well tuned and enjoyable to try out. Popping off headshots with the sniper rifle is awesome no matter what game you play it in and it stands in Killzone 3.

The levels are well-designed though most of them felt pretty restrictive. This was a problem that Killzone 2 had and I was kind of hoping they'd fix it for Killzone 3 but alas, they did not. That's not a big problem and some of my all-time favorites are completely linear. But I would like some feeling of openness and while Killzone 3 has it in a few areas, generally there wasn't a lot of movement freedom.

However, what I did enjoy was the added variety. Rather than just seeing a bunch of bombed out city blocks, you'll see snowy mountains, forests, the inside of spaceships etc. These also lead to some excellent set-pieces. One stage (basically three levels) is entirely devoted to take down an absolutely ENORMOUS walking tank.

The campaign will clock in at about eight or so hours. This time there's also a co-op mode for the single-player campaign but unfortunately I was unable to try it out.

After the campaign, there's the excellent multiplayer. Like with Killzone 2, the multiplayer in Killzone 3 is well-balanced and fun. It's been changed around a little bit. Rather than just getting new equipment and abilities through leveling up, you get points to spend on new weapons, equipment and abilities.

It's fast-paced and it keeps the same Warzone gametype where the gametypes (your Deathmatches, your Capture the Flag, your Sabotage, etc.) switch on the fly without any loading whatsoever which keeps the game moving. It's still a great mode and it's the one I played the most to get the best of all gametypes.

With the exception of how you get equipment, Killzone 3's multiplayer isn't much different than Killzone 2. It does a little refinement but not much else.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

In the graphics department, Killzone 3 looks beautiful. It may not quite hit the level of console graphics that Crysis 2 is hitting (I haven't played it, that's just what I've heard) but it still looks excellent. A few of the character models look questionable especially compared to other PS3 graphic giants Uncharted and God of War III but I could overlook them.

On the audio side, the music is good but not something that stuck in my head long afterwards. It serves its purpose for the game and little else. There are many video game soundtracks that come to my mind instantly even after long periods of having not played them. This is not one of those soundtracks.

The sound effects are excellent and help make the gunplay satisfying but you'll be bombarded by many sound effects during the entirety of the game that will some of the setpieces even more memorable than they would have been just visually.

Voice acting is passable but ensemble-wise, it's not something I'd put against Uncharted or a BioWare game like Mass Effect. However, two performances stand out. First is Ray Winstone as Admiral Orlock who comes across as both a ruthless yet strangely sane man who underestimates his opponents.

But the real show-stealer is Malcolm McDowell as Chairman Jorhan Stahl, the head of weapons development who makes a bid for power after Visari's death. He's hammy but in a good way that McDowell has always been able to pull off and it makes him easily the most memorable character in the game. Stahl even resembles Malcolm McDowell which I'm almost certain was intentional.

CONCLUSION

How does Killzone 3 stack up to Killzone 2? Well it makes quite a few tweaks to the gameplay that from a technical standpoint makes it superior. However, while I really enjoyed myself with Killzone 3, I personally Killzone 2.

I just got more satisfaction from Killzone 2 as it was such an enormous improvement over its mediocre predecessor. Also it's ending, while an annoying cliffhanger, didn't piss me off like the ending to this game. That one at least made me curious as to what was next rather than just being flabbergasted.

Killzone 3 is a strong game, no doubt and if you enjoyed Killzone 2, as I did, I do recommend picking it up, at least a rental. It may not make as big a leap as Killzone 2 did, but it still uses its winning formula and that means a winner. If you didn't enjoy Killzone 2 however, this game won't do much to change your mind.