Killzone 2 was a major killer app for the PS3 upon its release two years ago, boasting an unprecedented level of graphical detail and a legitimate level of threat and difficulty, as is becoming increasinglyrare for the genre. Two years later,
Killzone 3 has rather hastily arrived, and while it feels more like a reinforcement than an outright reinvention for the series, there is a lot here to like. Continuing where the last game concluded, the ISA continue their assault on the gossamer-thin Nazi allegory that is the Helghast. The protagonist from Killzone 2, Sev, returns to lead a squad of Special Forces soldiers against the "Higs" as they attempt to rebuild their ranks, while a power struggle emerges over the legacy of slain leader Visari. As with the last game, the plot certainly isn't beyond a thick slice of Swiss cheese - a planet that the big bad attempts to explode despite his own people residing on it is cheekily called Pyrrhus - and the characters are mostly typical grunt-types that disappointingly lack developed personalities. The narrative is slender and ultimately not something you'll care too much about; the campy politicos, the forthright Admiral Orlock and weapons manufacturer Jorhan Stahl (voiced with gusto by
Ray Winstone and
Malcolm MacDowell respectively), spend as much time arguing with each other as they do trying to eradicate the good guys. Unfortunately, the muckraking is banal and full of clichés; you won't remember it much once it's over. One thing neither the last Killzone nor this one can be faulted for is a want for intensity; this is an incredibly visceral offering in both local and multiplayer components. In the single-player, relentlessly firing enemies of considerable intellect keep the paranoia high and require the viewer to use a keen eye, scrutinising where the enemy might be firing from.
The single-player also offers up a welcome share of diversity; there are sections accommodating stealth, sniping, vehicles, on-rails shooting, and of course, balls-out firefighting. While the fleeting nature of the gameplay keeps the outing short - it can be clocked easily in 6-7 hours, including cut-scenes - it could never be called boring, and whether you're exploring the intricately detailed flora and fauna of a Helghan planet or taking on a giant mechanoid, it is genuinely involving which, given the meager narrative, is surprising. Like the last game, though, there are a few needless motion-sensing segments which require use of the SIXAXXIS controls; while it feels intuitive for planting bombs, its use for turning wheels is awkward and feels nothing but gimmicky. Players will notice that there's certainly less of a challenge presented here than KZ2 - while you're going to die a lot if you can't master cover techniques, set-pieces are far more innocuous and the wave-after-wave of enemies that latter portions threw at you in the previous game are conspicuously absent here. The final boss, while hugely impressive from a technical perspective, is an absolute breeze. There are also even less sections than the previous game where you're on your own; your hand is held for 90% of the game as you're with teammates who can revive you several times if you're downed. And likewise, if you want to survive, you'll have to give them a hand. The overabundance of cut-scenes is also rather unnecessary, not because it comprises approximately 80 minutes of the experience, but because several of them - namely an epic car chase as you attempt to escape a giant threshing machine - beg the question why couldn't they just let us play it...
The multi-player offering is back and better than before; while there is a local co-op mode and the opportunity to practice with bots, the real allure is the online multiplayer, which is a huge improvement on the previous game, both because the tighter controls make it less frustrating, and because Guerrilla Games have taken more than a few pages out of the infallible Call of Duty playbook. There are three principal modes; Guerilla Warfare (simple deathmatch fare, playing until the time runs out), Warzone (random mission-based team matches, with objectives involving protecting something or someone usually), and Operations (where controlling an objective is paramount, and in a masterstroke, this mode has cut-scenes which actually feature yourself and the other players). There are five classes, from the Infiltrator (who can masquerade as an enemy player), to the Engineer, Sniper, Medic and Tactician. Generally they're well balanced, and each class has an opposite that cancels it out. The frenetic pace of the online multiplayer and a few savage additions - such as being able to perform melee kills online, and the ability to use sentry bots to do your dirty work - keep it intense and exciting, while the opportunity to select maps is welcome, and something the Call of Duty games could learn to adopt. Simply, this is a far more concise and rewarding component than the previous game, and with the comprehensive leveling system, there's a lot that'll keep you coming back for more, largely compensating for the single-player's brevity.
Killzone 3 certainly is not the technical leap that the original was but it inarguably looks fantastic; there is a palpable sense of scale that's immensely detailed and helps make the immersion all that more seamless. Weapon models are uniformly gorgeous, and the explosions during combat are some of the best you're likely to have ever seen in a game. For all of its grandeur, though, there are a few hiccups; the lip-sync is disappointingly ropey given the austerity of the rest of the visuals, and the transition between gameplay and cut-scenes is a tad awkward, often stuttering for a moment or two. The frame-rate gets a bit dubious during busy scenes, but for the most part, the odd glitch aside, it stays fluid despite the jaw-dropping level of detail and scope. Aurally, the dialogue is laughably straddled between juvenile tosh and what might just be a sarcastic mockery of the typical grunts-in-a-trench formula, though it's mostly the former. The performances are variable - professional thesps like Winstone and MacDowell chew through their dialogue with delicious vigour, while the rest are mostly forgettable. Sound effects, meanwhile, are incredibly meaty; particularly impressive is how weapons have different reverberations depending on where they are fired; i.e. a snowfield or a confined corridor. On the face of the single-player, this doesn't especially seem worth slamming down the asking price for, but the multiplayer has been duly preened and streamlined for maximum entertainment value. There's the genuine hope that there's a longer break between titles next time, but on the whole Killzone 3 affirms and justifies its stature as one of 2011's premium titles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH7_ym6LEiw This review is based off of a full play-through of the single-player mode on Normal difficulty (clear time: 6 hours, 22 minutes), and several hours of play online. A copy of the game was purchased by OWF. The game
was released yesterday.