No Hype, No Problem
Hype has always been a great problem in the video game industry, with hours of pre release footage combined with a never-ending news cycle gamers are constantly inundated with information about upcoming releases. The Killzone franchise knows this all to well. The first Killzone was touted as Sony’s “Halo Killer” (a term that developer Guerrilla Games came to despise) and was unable to live up to such hype. The second Killzone was to say the least… expected to live up to its almost atmospheric hype. After the Sony Press Conference in 2006 many were labeling the game as one of the best they have ever seen, some also believed the whole trailer to be pre generated. The second Killzone lived up to this hype (even if it did take almost five years to come out) and delivered a breathtaking experience.
However unlike its predecessors Killzone 3 was not hyped up to some great “killer app” it was simply just another game on Sony’s roster. But in reality Killzone 3 is the best 1 person shooter in years.
The story of Killzone 3 picks up right where Killzone 2 left off. The Helghast have nuked their capital city a sent a large group of reinforcements to mop up the remaining ISA forces. With Scholar Visari dead and no bargaining chips left the remaining ISA forces are forced to flee the city of Phyrrus in hopes of surviving the Helghast onslaught.
While nothing about Killzone 3 story is innovative per say it is a rather compelling narrative driven by the characters within it. Lead characters Tomas Sevchenko and Rico Velasquez help sell this truly desperate situation. Unlike the previous in the series both characters are not so much avatars for the player as characters you come to care about. Rico especially sell himself less as a macho asshole and more as a character who is trying to make good for his past mistakes. Sevchenko also feels much more human as a truly desperate solider just trying to survive.
Another of Killzone 3 biggest achievements is the fleshing out of the villains, which your team must survive against. Your new adversary Jorhan Sthal a ruthless and clearly deranged industrialist (voiced by actor Malcolm McDowell) helps put a face to your enemy (something that the previous installments clearly struggled with). McDowell is stunning in the role and fills the gap of villain much better then his predecessor who only seemed to be a necessity, not a character.
If there is one complaint to be leveled against Killzone 3 story is the odd pacing of the overall narrative. The game is very jarring in how much it breaks up the action with cutscenes that sometimes feel very unnecessary. Often the mission structure is simply A to B to cutscence and then repeat. While this is not much different from many shooters of the day it greatly staggers the overall pacing of the game.
One of the biggest complaints with Killzone 2 was the “imprecision” of the controls, which took awhile to get use to. Killzone 3 however does away with that system for a much more precise template similar to that of the Call of Duty franchise, which leads to a much more frantic game. While the change is welcome it does take away from what made the previous installment so unique as a shooter. While you do still have to move from cover to cover shooting from the hip is a much more viable strategy in most close range case, which takes away a lot of the calculating that you had to do in the pervious game.
One of the other big changes to Killzone 3 is the greater variety of mission types throughout the game. For instance one of the earliest (and probably one of the best) missions finds Sev sneaking through the Visari jungle to reset an uplink. The mission is tense and rewarding and shows the versatility of developer Guerrilla. Also mixed in throughout the campaign are large vehicle set pierces that break up the action quite well. While some of the sequences can be a bit frustrating at time it helps break up the some typical pacing of shooters today.
Similar to previous installments where Killzone shines the most is in its technical prowess, and Killzone 3 does not disappoint. Visually the game is stunning both in a graphical and artistic sense. The game varies greatly in its artistic design from wide lush jungles to snowy mountains rendering each of these in beautiful detail. Every object and piece of the environment seems to have meaning and place within the world it exists nothing feels like simple filler. It is also striking a varied environments are, something that many shooters of the day fail to do.
Then there is the sound, and words cannot describe the sound design within Killzone 3. From the sound of gunfire to quiet ambient noise the game literally immerses you with the sound design alone. The gunfire itself sound absolutely terrific in, from just simple burst from your main rifle to missile launchers on vehicles all of the sound has power to it. The voice acting is also greatly improved over previous installments feeling much more mixed in with the world around it, not just someone shouting into a microphone.
The final major component of Killzone 3 is its multiplayer, which also does not disappoint. The game still features the typical deathmatch style along with the returning Warzone mode. Also similar to “Call of Duty” is the unlock system within Killzone 3, for every level you gain another unlock point is opened up for you allowing you to chose which path you go down. All of the classes feel dynamic and fun to play as but early on you will tend to dump a lot of your points into one class as your main.
Warzone is still one of the most innovative ideas in multiplayer gaming in how it implemented. For those who don’t know it basically takes all of the multiplayer gametypes (attack and defend, assignation, retrieval etc) and morphs in into one long continuous match which is a best of seven. It’s a refreshing way to play multiplayer because if you don’t like the current type you know it will eventually shift to something else that is more your fancy.
The one additional multiplayer style known as Operations mode, which is a somewhat stripped down version of Warzone consisting of two game types. The catch with Operations is its almost story driven in a way. The match opens with a cutscene and break up each subsequent gametype with a cutscene usually featuring the most prominent players on either side. It a really great concept and in practice is quite and interesting idea.
Overall Killzone 3 is a fantastic game both online and offline. While the pacing of the singleplayer gaming can be somewhat off the variety of missions and fights lead to a refreshing if not engrossing experience. Technically the game pushes forward the notion of how good games can look in the modern day without sacrificing framerate or design. The online of Killzone 3 is fantastic and one of the best PS3 mutiplayer games so far released. With the addition of the innovative Operations mode Killzone 3 continues to push 1 person shooter forward. With such strong elements its hard not recommend Killzone 3 to any PS3 owner, or any fan of 1 person shooters.
