Underwhelming and a Big Step Back
Guerilla Games is a first-party studio buy those dudes over at Sony. Killzone has been their flagship franchise since the release of Killzone on the PS2. Killzone was by no means a bad game, but suffered from being a bit too saturated and dull. Fast forward to 2009, and the release of KIllzone 2 was a key release for the PS3 early on. The game boasted some crisp visuals along with an engaging multiplayer suite that fueled PSN in the beginning days. Turn your pages to Killzone 3's release in 2011, and you're left with a quality production, but one that is underwhelming and uninspired.
Now I'm partly writing this review because I'm a little late to the party. Killzone 3 was a game I was eager to play, but not something that immediately caught my gaze. While a competent shooter with some awesome visuals, the game has little else going for it.
I'm not going to nitpick the story much, because criticizing single-player in FPS games nowadays is like beating a lame horse. You can beat it all you want, but they're not going to change. That said, it's story is sub par. After the events of Killzone 2 we're left thinking that Rico is a huge dick, and the knowledge that the ISA are in deep shit. The campaign is paced rather nicely, but the AI is just brutal. I played the game on normal and died many times during the opening levels. One portion in particular in the beginning, is a mech suit skirmish in which i died about 15 times. It happened at many other spots during the game and became indifference to what the game was trying to convey in it's narrative.
The gunplay itself is sharp enough, as Guerilla Games has finally decided to use the L1 button for zoom. The game is a lot faster than Killzone 2 as well, which works to its benefit, but still suffers from slowdown from time to time. The cover system used is still the same tacked on gimmick, but it's original.
The Multiplayer is where the game really makes it's statement though. There are a variety of classes that you can choose from and in conjunction with teammates you can pull off some pretty crazy maneuvers. The community for Killzone 3 isn't really too impressive, but the few that do play aren't all pro's so you can still manage to play well and feel as if you're doing well to. It's a fun diversion from time to time, but offers no real substantial experience.
As it is Killzone 3 is suffering from the sequelitis. Killzone 2 was pretty much the same game. And unless multiplayer is your thing, and you feel some sort of connection to the cookie-cutter characters and narrative, Killzone 3 won't give you much to write home about.