Killzone 3 comes out this Tuesday. Besides being what Metacritic reports is a solid sequel to Killzone 2, it includes full support for the Playstation Move. Up until now, consoles have managed to host some of the best first-person shooters around, but ask someone with a deep history of playing PC FPS and you’re liable to encounter a tsunami of disdain for console shooters. For someone skilled at moving and shooting with the mouse and keyboard, attempting the same skills with a game pad can quickly lead to the impression that it’s an inferior input device for shooters in general. While that’s up for debate, what’s certain is that Killzone 3’s implementation of the Playstation Move will likely change console first person shooters forever.
First-person shooters such as Quake led to the adoption of the mouse as an aiming device. In 1992, id Software released Wolfenstein 3d as shareware. While it helped defined the first-person shooter genre, Wolfenstein 3d predated the shooters that came much later in that it was a keyboard-centric game. Players commonly used the arrow keys to move, CTRL to shoot and the space bar to open doors or activate switches. id Software later released Doom in ‘93 with similar controls as the default setup. The company’s next game, Quake, moved the genre forward by replacing pseudo-3d with a new game engine that could render spaces in full 3d. Even still, Quake shipped with a similar control config to id’s previous FPS games. However, the game also included full support for the mouse as a means of controlling the player’s vision, known at the time as “mouselook”. This enabled a shift from using solely the keyboard in FPS, with precision aiming and circle-strafing as immediate advantages of including the mouse as an input device. For multi-player Quake fans, there could be no doubt--switching to the keyboard and mouse was a natural choice to remain competitive.
Guerrilla Games may be to thank for bringing about a similar moment in console first-person shooters. Its inclusion of Playstation Move support in Killzone 3 helps bring a similar sense of precision found in PC games, although the implementation is much different. In KZ 3, players use the Dualshock or an optional Navigation controller to move forward and back as well as to strafe left or right. The Move is used to turn and look. It feels immediately sluggish compared to using the Dualshock alone, but what utterly damns using the Dualshock by itself is the Move’s additional role as an aiming device. Simply put, you can shoot anything on the screen at any time. Having your target in the middle of your cross-hairs to shoot it is no longer a requirement; a reticle flows freely with one-to-one precision while pointing the Move controller at the television. Using cover while shooting is immediately more advantageous for Move users as they can expose less of themselves while still being capable of shooting whatever they see at the periphery. Finally, when faced with multiple enemies, the Move can be used to effortlessly paint the screen with automatic fire, increasing the likelihood of surviving such encounters.
How the Move is implemented in Killzone 3 could signal a paradigm shift in console FPS--at least on the Playstation 3. The Wii version of Metroid Prime had similar controls, but Killzone 3’s feel more refined and appropriate for online play. After having played the multi-player beta for over 10 hours, it was difficult to resume playing with the Dualshock alone. I found that while it’s easier to turn with the right analog stick, precision aiming trumps precision rotation and I feel my improved kill / death ratio isn’t coincidental. Moreover, with the seemingly slow adoption-rate of the Move I’ve become a bit paranoid when running up against exceptional players. Succumbing to enemy fire at a rate or distance far abnormal from what I’m used to, I find myself thinking “Oh they’re totally using a Move,” as opposed to assuming that such impossible shots are based in exploits or hacking. Alternatively, I wonder if others think the same of me as I manage to somehow survive certain death after defending an objective from a rush of enemies, single-handed. Part of what convinces me of the Move’s edge is that I’m simply not that good. Being a long-time player of Quake, it’s déjà vu--after adopting the mouse for aiming, for a time I found myself at the top of the scoreboard. Eventually though, those keyboard-only holdouts made the transition, and I found myself relegated to the middle of the pack once again. Given that, it’s easy to imagine something similar happening in Killzone 3, and to console first-person shooters on the Playstation 3 if developers adopt or improve upon what Guerrilla Games has done.
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