Killzone 3 Review (Killzone Has Arrived…Finally)
Ah, Killzone, the once shame filled black sheep of the otherwise stellar Sony software line up, has come a long way in its 7 years. The original title developed by Guerrilla Games for the PS2 had more than its fair share of problems, but beneath the haze of glitches and control issues there was an interesting story and character arc. Then there was the rarely mentioned and super difficult PSP title Liberation. Both of these titles sold well and Killzone finally made its PS3 debut with Killzone 2. We’ve talked pretty extensively on the Techpedition Podcast about Killzone 2 and while we agree that it is a better game than the original it had a whole different set of problems. Now, Killzone 3 is out and by golly I think the third times a charm.
I could talk about Killzone 3 in a vacuum, away from all other top notch shooters like Call of Duty or Halo, but to do so would be doing both the reader and the game a disservice. Killzone 3 is a nice melding of those two franchises with some interesting innovation tossed in for good measure. The Move support the game ships with makes a great case for the Move as a technology and adds a level of accessibility that most shooters just don’t have.
The story picks up immediately after the events of Killzone 2. Spoiler alert, the end of Killzone 2 has your buddy Rico killing the leader of the Helghast army and ruler of their planet. The problem is that is they were only supposed to capture him, something the other characters repeatedly remind Rico of throughout Killzone 3. Now the Helghast are pissed and are planning a full scale assault on earth. The gap created by the death of their leader causes a power struggle between military heads. The Killzone 3 cut-scenes dive deep into the Helghast leaders, so much so that the overall story arc is almost told completely from their perspective. The main protagonists are still followed with cutscenes and their story stands up well, but the heavy lifting and back-story elements are all championed by the struggles of their enemy. Its a nice change of pace for the the genre and provides a great forum for Malcolm McDowell to flex his voice over chops.
On the human side their are three main characters, with only one being playable. Rico, who has been a staple of the franchise since day one, is back and unlike in the previous entries, his character grows a bit. Captain Narville, who works as the mouthpeice of the I.S.A. (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance) and Tomas Sevchenko “Sev” your main protagonist and generally vanilla white dude. As a whole, the characters in Killzone 3 are much better realized than in Killzone 2. The death of your teammate Garza in Killzone 2 had little emotional effect because he was just one of the profanity spouting meat heads that were prolific in that game. There’s less pointless chatter during the campaign and the characters seem more maturely designed. The script is solid and the voice acting from the main crew has few holes in quality. Sev’s role as the straight man, is obvious but he plays it well. Tiny pieces of humanity stick out that make the character believable. There’s just enough Nathan Drake is sprinkled into the Sev character to distinguish him as someone to care about.
Visually, Killzone 3 is amazing. The cut scenes are about as impressive as you would expect from a triple A title, but its real strength is the in-game real time visuals. The snow level and for lack of a better word the swamp level are clear standouts in a gallery of extremely memorable set pieces. This is another area Killzone 3 outshines Killzone 2. I can barely remember any of the settings in Killzone 2 (and I just played in last month), but the locales in Killzone 3 are, at times, eye popping and will stick with you. Guerrilla obviously has had plenty of time developing on with the Playstation 3 hardware because Killzone 3 is beautiful, and possibly the best looking game I’ve ever played.
As for the gameplay, Killzone 3 is peppy! Your character moves much faster than he did in Killzone 2, which can lead to areas of frantic aiming when faced with swarms of enemies. The cover system works much better than it did the last time around and several new Helghast enemy types fill out the roster of baddies nicely. Again, by sitting somewhere between the controls of Call of Duty and Halo (with it leaning more toward COD) Killzone 3 should be a comfortable transition off either of those games.
Sony’s Move hardware has not made the splash that Microsoft’s Kinect has, for several reasons. From the marketing, to the similarities to the Wii, to the dearth of mass-market appeal games the Move just hasn’t really moved. Killzone 3 is what the Move needs to help prove its relevance. Having been a huge fan of Metroid Prime 3 and the innovation it brought to point and shoot motion controls, playing Killzone 3 with the Move was a must for me. That’s exactly what I did. I played through the entire campaign exclusively with the Move controller.
Even though the pacing of Killzone 3 is much faster than Killzone 2, it was easier to pick up the Move setup and use it well than it was to adjust to the lazy controls of Killzone 2. Actually, the combination of point and shoot and Call of Duty-esq snap to targeting made head shots and one hit kills almost too easy in some spots. Most importantly the Move controls are comfortable and intuitive. The shear number of non-gamers that don’t understand the concept of dual analog sticks is staggering and the Move helps make a Triple A “M rated” game easy for the common man to wrap his head around.
Killzone 3 took alot of flack for is addition of jetpacks. At the time it seemed like a blatant copy of the Jet packs in Halo Reach. That may still be the case but their implementation in the single player campaign is interesting enough to let it slide. The level with the jetpacks was much like a 3D first person platforming game. The jetpacks don’t make you fly as much as they just allow you to do a super far and targeted jump. They provide a break in the action that fits well with the pacing of the game.
Unlike Killzone 2, whose last 2 hours were amazing, Killzone 3 spreads the action throughout the entire experience. It was hard to put down, and most of the vehicle based missions were welcomed changes to the gameplay. Looking back at Killzone 1 its hard to believe that Killzone 3 is even part of the same franchise. By mixing the grandiose of Call of Duty with the precision and mood of Halo and other sci-fi shooters, Killzone 3 has earned its way into the company of this tier of games. If properly marketed, Killzone 3 could be a breakout hit for the PS3, much like Uncharted was. Its accessible, entertaining, cool and most of all as Techpedition’s own James Knotts would say “Its alot of fun”. This could be the start of a big year for Sony.
Hey, look at that, I actually got through a Killzone review without saying Halo-killer…wait… dammit…nevermind.
Verdict: No matter how good Killzone 3 is, Killzone is still a dumb name.
