Killzone 3 - The Game Journal Review

The biggest piece of advice I can give someone playing the campaign of Killzone 3 is to stop and look up every once in awhile. The harsh environments, as oppressive as they feel, are a wonderful sight. While Killzone 3's gameplay mostly consists of posting up against a wall or a barricade, taking down your enemies before creeping forward and repeating the process again, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not stopping every once in awhile and just taking a moment to look around.

The campaign feels very similar to the one in Killzone 2. You are led from objective to objective, pushed down the cattle shoot, if you will, towards enemy engagements. You will never get lost in an environment, you won't struggle to figure out where you are supposed to go next. Killzone 3 is a game of moments, and Guerilla wants to put you in the right spot for each and every one of them. This can be great or frustrating depending on your perspective. While it's nice not to miss out on big moments in these grand set pieces it can be a bit disheartening having an AI character shouting into the com system exactly what you are supposed to be doing next or what weak spot on an enemy you need to be aiming for.

While there may be times that you feel like you are being pushed to a specific point, Guerilla Games does a great job of making you feel a real sense of agency over your character. They do this by keeping you in first person perspective the whole time you are controlling your character. Like it was in its predecessor, Killzone 3's campaign uses a first person cover system. The system is improved over its predecessor as you can tweak so setting so you no longer have to hold a shoulder button to stay in cover. In the setup I used simply tapping L2 placed you up against an object in cover, allowing me to then comfortably use L1 to aim down the guns sights. For those of us who prefer to use L1 to look down the sights rather than click in one of the analog sticks, it feels much better than in Killzone 2. You will also stay in the first person perspective while performing brutal melee attacks. Once again, this draws you into the experience even further. Little things, like seeing your characters arms grabbing ammo from a crate or climbing a ladder all give you a sense that you are controlling a body rather than a camera on a stick.

The heavy feeling when handling the weapons in Killzone 2 is now gone, for better or worse. I liked the weightiness of the controls but I realize that the control scheme was a source of frustration for a lot of people who played KZ2. Those people should feel no frustration now as the controls are tight and movement speed is fast. Personally, I kind of miss the old way, though it should make multiplayer more fun this time around.

A common complaint about Killzone 2 was the lack of environmental variation. You were limited for most of the first half of the game to fighting in war torn urban envirionments. While Killzone 3 still takes place on the planet of Helghan, the environments are more varied and distinct. You will travel all over Helghan during the campaign and each environment is wondrous in its attention to detail.

Vehicular sequences are, for the most part, an exercise in frustration. The only exceptions coming when using the jet pack or controlling the mech. The other sequences, which are "on-rails" have you simply looking to lock on a reticule while hammering on a fire button. The lack of control you feel in during these brief sections of the game is a pain and, while they are brief, there are too many of them.

Story, or lack thereof, was also a complaint about Killzone 2. Killzone 3 is definitely more story heavy. The story picks up immediately after the end of Killzone 2 and you once again play as Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko as he and his fellow ISA troops are stuck behind enemy lines, now you also get a view into the high command of Helghan as men struggle for power in the wake of Scholar Visari's assassination at the hands of Rico. While the voice acting is generally very good, the story didn't really make me feel anything one way or the other. There were also some odd editing decisions with a few instances of jarring, abrupt cuts and audio cutting out.

Yes, Rico is back. The annoying character who tormented me throughout Killzone 2 with his bluntness and vulgarity is along for the ride once again. His dudebro-isms are definitely toned down in Killzone 3, and that goes for the tone of the game in general. While Rico is improved, he is still annoying. There is no Raiden-esque redemption for Rico in this game. Though it is great that he will now zap you back to life with the med gun if he is able to. This does make it feel like you are, at times, fighting along side someone else.

If really want to fight alongside another person, you can do that from the comfort of your own couch. Killzone 3 features local co-op, so you can play through the entirety of the campaign with a friend. Though online co-op wasn't included, local co-op is a nice bonus. The game also supports 3D televisions, though I did not have the ability to test this feature.

Playstation Move integration is a nice alternative for those who want to try it out. You will have to do some tweaking with the menus, but once you get your preferred settings in place, it can be an engrossing experience, taken out only by some frustration with reloading. Still, even with such a minor quibble, Killzone 3, along with MAG show that the Move controller is a viable alternative control method for shooters.

In its best moments, Killzone 3 has the ability to draw you in, making you feel both the oppressiveness of battle and wonder of being in such a well realized environment. If I could be grand for a moment, there are times when Killzone 3 is almost an assault on the senses. You will run into memorable moments, some of which you'll feel like you were dragged by the hand to by the developer. But setting aside the points of linearity, even the small moments when taking in the sights of a destroyed capital or watching the wind whip snow past your perspective, Killzone 3 is a wonderfully realized world to play in. It's not a title that redefines the genre with its gameplay, but it does stand out and is worth playing as an example of how high production values married to the first person perspective can pull you into an experience like nothing else before it.