We Review: Killzone 3

I should probably tell you something. It may repulse you and you may give no credence to this review after knowing it, but you should know. I’m not the biggest fan of the FPS genre. I’ve played Mirror’s Edge, Bioshock, and Singularity but never got the whole obsession with COD or Battlefield. It may or may not shock you then that I have never teabagged anyone. Considering that action is so synonymous with FPS, I may as well be considered a noob, perhaps even a nublet to some. The over-the-shoulder adventure titles and third-person shooters are what I’m used to but recently I’ve had the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and into the killzone. My experience continues after the jump.

The autarch is dead. Long live the autarch.

Continuing from the events in its predecessor, in Killzone 3 the Helghan capital of Pyrrhus is in ruin and the charismatic autarch Scolar Visari lies dead, gunned down and martyred by the trigger-happy Sergeant Rico Velasquez. The death of Visari has led to a power struggle in the government as two rivals, the military commander Admiral Orlock and the clever industrialist Jorhan Stahl bicker for control of the Helghan Empire.

The ISA are caught in the middle of this in-faction fighting and want to leg it off the planet before they become casualties. They are of course dropped further into the proverbial doodoo when they uncover a sinister plot. Once again you fill the boots of Sergeant Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko and with the help of Rico and company must thwart the Helghast attack. It’s not an altogether deep story and the characters from both sides feel a little one-dimensional. Perhaps I was expecting too much from the interplay between the different characters but I couldn’t really identify with any of them in any significant way.

Traditionally storylines in FPS titles haven’t been altogether that strong, they concentrate more on the explosive action scenes and use the story to fills in the stop-gaps between these fire fights just to keep one’s interest levels from waning. This is certainly the case in Killzone 3. The story may be uninteresting but Killzone 3’s other parts certainly make up for it.

Tour of duty

Story aside, Killzone 3 excels in the graphical stakes. At every turn I am constantly reminded how beautiful this game is. Gone are the murky boring palettes of Killzone 2, there is an injection of colour in Killzone 3 as you take the fight to the Helghast. From the ruined citadel to an icy desolate territory to urban scrapyards and high tech spaceports, the environments you visit on this tour of duty are varied and beautifully created. The visuals really are top-notch and on several occasions I was killed for doing a little too much sight-seeing during a heated skirmish.

Like the different locales, Killzone 3 does a good job of varying what you’re doing. Sometimes you’re assaulting enemy positions, at other times you’re defending your ground. You’re on foot in one section and in the next moment, you’re onboard a raider shooting down gun batteries. In a few fleeting sections, you’ll fly about in a jetpack and in others you’ll take control of an EXO suit as you punch through enemy nests. These additions to the standard shooting gallery fare are a welcome change although some of the on-rail sections feel a little mindless. Spamming the R1 button usually gets the job done, there isn’t much thought to it, luckily the resulting explosions look so pretty.

I can’t overstate the fact that everything looks so goshdarn pretty, easily one of the best looking PS3 games I have seen. This assault on your senses doesn’t last long though; the single-player campaign can be concluded in a matter of six to eight hours. There are no puzzles to ponder over, no audio/video logs to fill in the back-story, no dog tags of fallen comrades to collect. This would have no doubt interrupted the tight, focused flow of the game. After you have finished the single-player there is little inclination to return to Helghan unless you are interested in completing it on a harder difficulty or a pursuing the campaign with a friend. It is, however, an offline co-op mode. It’s a fixed vertical split-screen and your enjoyment of it may be directly proportional to the size of your TV. It’s a pity that online co-op is missing, perhaps it will be provided as a forthcoming patch.

Is that a gun in your pants?

Like other shooters, Killzone 3 has you shooting with the standard fare of weapons including machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. You can wrench guns off their turret housings and there is even a new weapon or two for you to pick up. I won’t spoil it for you but I’ll leave you with one word – disembowelment.

The guns are beautiful to look at and fun to shoot with. You can juggle weapons in three slots you have – one for your rudimentary pistols, another for a medium weapon, and the third for the heavier weapons. They have weight and impact with the force feedback you receive and the loss of blood that your enemies experience.

Headshots are gloriously depicted as are the new “brutal melees”. True to their name, these finishing moves show you slitting throats of your enemies, taking a knife to their jugular, and smashing their heads into walls. There is a particular “in your face” melee where you stick your thumbs into a Helghast soldier’s goggles and gouge their eyes out. It’s bloody, gratuitous, and strangely rewarding to pull off. You can slide into the conveniently located cover positions, peek from them, and take potshots but take care you’re not behind one of the many destructible pieces of environment. With all the explosions around you, the bullets zipping by, and constant cries of pain and victory amongst your allies and enemies, Killzone 3 makes the gunplay very immersive.

Getting a Move on

Aside from 3D support, Killzone 3’s other major drawing card is PlayStation Move compatibility. Even though it has been available locally for some time now, I have held off on its purchase as none of the launch Move games really interested me all that much. Sony is looking to one of its triple-A titles to hype the Move technology and show how it further enriches the player’s experience of the game. I was skeptical but I thought it apt to buy the Move and navigation controller to test it out. Based on the time I’ve spent playing through Killzone 3 with Move, I can say it is…different.

Given that it is my first full experience of the Move, I expected the learning curve to be a little steeper but it certainly takes a lot of getting used to. Aiming works fantastically well with the Move controller, it’s so very responsive. I receive feedback when I shoot, a quick twist of the wrist initiates a reload (a button is also assigned to it), and a forward jab with the controller starts off a brutal melee – those actions have been mapped well to Move.

So far so good, but what of movement and turning? While the navigation controller is used to control the forward, back, and strafing movements, it’s the Move controller that is used to turn Sev in the direction that you want to face. And it is here where I found the experience to be filled with frustration. Using the default settings I found the process of turning to be less than a trivial matter, I either couldn’t turn quick enough to sight my enemy or when I did spot them, I flung my Move controller so wildly that I overshot and had to re-sight. Many a death and restart followed. This sensitivity is amplified when using the Jetpack, making those sections unbearably irritating.

The default motion controller settings such as deadzone height and width, cross-hair sensitivity, and turning speed can all be tweaked. I have fiddled with these sensitivities but didn’t manage to find a sweet spot. The analog stick on the standard DualShock 3 controller allows for quicker turning but the aiming is not as accurate, whereas the Move is top-notch for aiming but turning is patchy. It was a compromise in the end, I chose turning over aiming and while I would have loved the Move to augment my experience, I prefer playing Killzone 3 with the DualShock 3 controller.

Enter the Botzone

Online multiplayer is a sizeable part of the allure of an FPS shooter. And given some of the heated arguments and moaning prevalent on some gaming forums, it’s an obsession to a large number of folk. While I have competed online with third-person shooters (read Uncharted 2 exclusively), I’ve never had my face filled with lead in any FPS arena. The thought of going online with hardly a lick of experience is a daunting one and I for one am thrilled at the inclusion of the “Botzone” in Killzone 3.

Practice makes perfect as the saying goes, and in the training area, players can set up offline multiplayer matches with AI bots in place of human-controlled enemies. Any of Killzone 3’s multiplayer modes – Guerilla Warfare, Warzone, and Operations – can be played on a number of maps with varying amounts of bots. Guerilla Warfare is the standard team deathmatch mode. Warzone contains a mixture of missions to perform such as protecting or killing an assassination target, holding territory in a CTF-type game, and searching for propaganda devices and returning them to one’s base. Operations is a new mode in Killzone 3 and involves two teams (one offensive, one defensive) attempting to secure and complete objectives. The map is split up into three different sections and teams need to perform certain tasks in a set amount of time to advance to one from another. The players who get the job done are shown in the cinematics that connect the sections.

Players of Killzone 2 will recognize the class-based multiplayer that makes a return in Killzone 3 but for the newcomers, there are five separate classes of player to choose from – Engineer, Field Medic, Infiltrator, Marksman, and Tactician. Each class has its own perks, for example players of the Infiltrator class are able to disguise themselves for a limited amount of time as members of the opposing side, and Engineers are able to build turrets and provide support by repairing ammo crates. Each class has their own selection of primary and secondary weapons and skills than can be upgraded as they progress through their online career. At the time of writing this review, I haven’t been able to test any of the multiplayer but when the servers eventually come online, I’ll update this section with my thoughts.

Bigger, better, faster

Aside from its uninspired story and characters, there is a lot to like about Killzone 3. From the detailed design of the levels and characters to the superb cutscenes, the production values are amazingly high. Killzone 3 bombards you with some of the most stellar visuals ever seen on a console. The soundtrack too is stirring when it needs to be. The firefights are always intense, immersive and have the feeling of a thrilling roller coaster ride. The ride, however, is over fairly quickly as the single-player campaign isn’t terribly long.

There is good pacing in the game although it slows a tad in the middle where some sneaking is needed. There is also decent variety in the gameplay that keeps what is essentially a corridor shooter from being anything but stale. I can’t comment on how fantastic Killzone 3 looks in 3D but the option to play through the campaign with the PlayStation Move is a good addition – it doesn’t feel tacked on but I don’t think it augmented my play style. It’s probably just personal preference but I’d stick to the gamepad. 2011 has gotten off to a good start and Killzone 3 certainly adds much gravitas to the PlayStation 3’s library of amazing FPS titles.