Cool Explosions, Man
So, Killzone 3, a sci-fi shooter set in... well I'll be honest I didn't play Killzone 1, and Killzone 2 infuriated me to no end so I don't know much of the back-story coming into this. Killzone 3's story was surprising in a few ways, other than starting off not feeling like I had to play the other two to get a feel for what was going on. I did have a few complaints however, but good things first. The Good: The main characters are easy to get behind and root for, which is more than most shooters can say these days, while being gruff and sometimes rediculous they do have a surprising ammount of depth (even if it isnt deeper than a 3 foot swimming pool). The story moves along at a decent pace, though the over the top opening was a good way to kick off the action the pacing falls short even if the game is throwing a million explosions and Hellghast at you at once. There really isnt much else I enjoyed with the campaign and I find that in most shooters (ones that arent solidly single player) the campaign falls short of my expectations, well it always falls short there hasnt been a game in years that combines shooter with good story. The bad of Killzone is pretty obvious especially in the campaign: the soldiers are generic, I've knocked every game from Battlefield to Halo for that, the troops you fight alongside have no personality no real reason for you to give a damn about them and so they end up in pieces or underfoot most of the time. Another problem I had with the story was this general guy, or major or whatever the fuck he was: the guy ordering me around being a heartless fuck who couldnt care less about anyone without a big player name over their head, its used so often in games where you have to go against orders to save the world I could make a rope of names and strangle him with it. The MAIN ISSUE is the scriping: i.e being in a certain place for certain shit to hit the fan. Its a huge problem in every game these days, there's no freedom, you stand in this 6in radius of this door or it doesnt open or this enemy cant die because it hasnt performed set action, and so on. While its not the worst scripting (Medal of Honor wins that) it's a pain and the campaign felt so bland I never finished it, sorry I dont care how specfuckingtacular the ending was it just wasnt worth the waste of time to me.
Ok, the Multiplayer. I'd give it 4/5 stars or maybe 3.5, its really good as far as console MP gets nowadays, but that isnt saying much. It's got one game mode -warzone- that's actually a step in the right direction constantly switching objectives and keeping you on your toes. The fun part about this game is the beauty and the way it handles, there isnt a better shooter on the PS3 (but there are several on the PC). Guns feel good to fire and kick just right, the game has WEIGHT to it and that was something that's been lacking in most other shooters. Now its still far from perfect, with the laggy playstation network (i have a fucking 15 megabit connection so dont tell me its cause I dont have good net) and some of the glitches, overpowered weapons and obnoxious players, its hard to want to keep it. Two things I cant stress enough to developers are Map Design and Weapon Balance. Killzone has the right idea with the balance issue but the map issue still cripples it. Maps are unbalanced, its that simple, that is an issue with every motherfucking game on the market today, and not just unbalance as in onesided though that is a huge problem, but unbalanced as in poorly fucking made. Attention to detail was one good thing about this game and they need to carry that full strength into multiplayer. You have a system that can run this beauty, now actually take fucking advantage of that.
So here's the full summary: Killzone 3: 3.5/5, decent game, decent shooter, decent is all nothing spetacular to see ladies and gentlemen rent this one dont buy it.