RipTen Review: Killzone 3

Long embittered by their expulsion from the lush planet of Vekta, the army of Helghan once again battles with the I.S.A. in the third installment of the Killzone franchise. Following on directly from the final moments of Killzone 2, the player will pilot mechs, spaceships, jetpacks and more as they slug it out with future-Nazi’s in a race to prevent the destruction of Earth.

Killzone’s visuals have again come to showcase the potential of the Playstation 3 Open GL library. Colours are stunning, animations are superb and you will witness eye-popping vistas and battles that will surpass just about everything on the market. Accompanying this visual feast are a host of amazing sound effects with rifle fire to rival current audio-leader; Battlefield: Bad Company 2. There are a number of disappointing features and some multiplayer options have been removed but overall, this is the game you’ve been waiting for.

As with each previous installment, the point of difference between Killzone and other shooters is built on the feel that’s communicated through movement. Reloading, jumping, running, every single action in the game has a physical weight that gives the series its trademark feel. Even the vehicle scenes have a perceptible lag to movement that will bring you to the edge of your seat. Reloading in particular will set your teeth on edge as your animation obscures the view ahead of you which really adds to the tension of each battle.

Much has been made of the shallow nature of the story and it does feature cardboard cut-out characters and a fairly straightforward narrative. The failure in this runs a little deeper. The Helghast are promoted as being ‘not quite human’ due to their adaptation to the planet’s vicious atmosphere and in pre-release material are noted as being faster, stronger and carrying a burning hatred for humanity. Why is it then that our only interaction with unmasked Helghan’s occurs through cut-scenes showing the political machinations of the Council, and these old men simply have rough skin with one guy having a breathing tube into his nose? I’m not buying it. Wrinkled brows and scar-faced men shouting doesn’t make your bad-guy any badder. More time spent on the cultural impact of their eviction by the ISA from Vektra could have really lent some steel to their motivations.

The story starts up literally minutes after the closing of the last game where an enraged Rico has slain Scolar Visari despite orders to capture him. Creating the new game in this time-space seems uninspired, why not deal with a stronger Helghan, hundreds of years in the future? Or an invasion of Earth itself? They still could have delivered the same incredible moments and in doing so evolved the series narrative, much like ODST and Reach have done for the Halo series. But instead it’s a race between the ISA (personified in Sev, Rico and Jammer) and a retaliatory strike against Earth from the Helghans (headed up by Chairman Stahl and Admiral Orlock). Despite the simple fare offered, the story does serve as a good foundation for a cinematic, roller-coaster experience that you’ll remember long after you’ve put your controller down.

After the opening levels and the aftermath of Killzone 2, we skip forward 6 months to where a thousand ISA soldiers are stranded but surviving on the Helghan surface. The game world here is quite similar to the Lost Planet series with strangely glowing plant-life and skittering creatures. Almost immediately you are thrust into the most absurd stealth section you’ll ever experience. Tasked with evading Helghast patrols, the player slinks through knee-high barely-there grass and headshots their way through a series of corridors. It becomes ludicrous when you walk past a patrol of five with two mechs and the head of the player is visible to the group standing a meter in front. Despite this oversight, the variance of gameplay options throughout the game is superb and there isn’t a single dull moment in the 5 to 7 hour campaign.

The mech-section is incredibly fun and the feeling of striding in that mechanical contraption surpasses games built solely around that type of gameplay. Equal to this are jet-packs that allow you limited flight, these too demonstrate a realistic weight and physics, everything is so wonderfully visceral; these suits are particularly fearsome when worn by the enemy and they appear as glowing red angels trying to decimate you and your squad.

There are many epic moments throughout Killzone 3, each of which has firmly supplanted the God of War series (my former benchmark) in delivering memorable moments. From the many vehicle sequences, to infiltrating a Helghan base (a visual feast right there), to the final culminating space-battle, there are so many air-punching moments I’ve been left without an ozone layer above my house. The standout moment was the MAWLR fight in the junkyard. For those of you yet to play the game, the MAWLR is a giant, and I mean GIANT, four-legged weapons platform. The sense of size is imparted wonderfully through lighting and scale against the battlefield backdrop. In a tense 15 minute sequence I started out on the ground, dodging incoming Helghast waves and missiles as I whittled away at the beast, and after surviving this I took to the air to cut off the beam-weapon attached to its side.

Slaying this beast on the Hard difficulty was supremely satisfying. All throughout the game this sense of accomplishment against overwhelming odds comes up again and again with that beautiful sense of scale really driving home the significance of your victory. It’s a shame then that the ending goes way too far with this sense of scale and is quite unbelievable (even the characters don’t emotionally connect with it). With the trite resurrection of the story’s main antagonist during the closing credits, it seems that Killzone 4 won’t be breaking any new ground either.

After completing the Singleplayer storyline I activated my bonus content and dove right into Multiplayer. As a huge fan and high-ranked player for Killzone 2 I was hoping to get the same experience with some tweaks, and oh boy have Guerrilla Games delivered. Warzone is back, the objective-based gameplay is as solid as ever as two teams of 12 players (down from KZ2′s 32 player matches) vie to complete a series of 7 objectives before the match ends.

New to the series is Operations which is a Bad Company 2 Rush style mode where the attackers are always ISA and they must complete key objectives to open up the map. One such objective tasks you with stealing a MAWLR so you must first open the gates, then operate the crane to carry the power core, then insert the core to steal the MAWLR. A pre-rendered cut-scene plays during each objective where the best performing player tags are shown above one of the soldiers in the scene. While a small element, it’s wonderfully involving and seeing your name appear reminds me of Black Op’s offline practice mode where names from your friends list are used to populate the match.

Ranking-up offers the same standard fare we’ve all come to expect, earn experience to unlock new weapons and abilities. Gone, however, is the ability to pick-n-mix your kit as each class has a limited set of weaponry. Perhaps this was done to combat the rocket-spam that dominated Killzone 2’s online matches, but with all weapons unlocked for the first 24 hours of play for limited edition purchases it was very clear that the rocket-wielding class will be heavily favoured once more.

In a very strange move, a large number of features present in Killzone 2’s multiplayer have been removed, most notably among them being spawn-grenades and the ability to form squads (and thereby spawn on the squad leader). There are spawn points that each side can activate but this has removed some of the free-flowing tactical elements that really gave the game pace. With a decent camp-point, spawn locations can be suppressed so the ability to escape and call in support would be very welcome. Also gone is the ability to wield your medic shock-paddles as weapons or resuscitate from distance, and again this serves only to slow the pace of play as well as send everyone back to a main spawnpoint encouraging further camping from the other team.

The maps that accompany your online experience are uniformly fantastic. Guerilla Games has again delivered an authentic Killzone experience as the settings mimic the singleplayer story. Almost every level contains moving parts and its own sound effects that create an authentic space in which to experience combat. Special mention must be made of the Turbine Concourse level which has a massive Petrusite warp-drive anchored in the middle and throughout each match it will power up with the most ungodly and frightening sound effect I’ve ever heard in gaming. Other developers would do well to note this greater level of animation, in a genre in danger of becoming stale, it’s innovations like this that get noticed by the p(l)aying public.

Killzone 3 offers a rewarding singleplayer experience and a lasting but slightly derivative multiplayer component. By ramping up the set-piece battles to a massive scale and giving the player control of brutal weaponry, you will feel involved in the fight like never before… which fortunately makes up for the lacklustre and weak storyline that can act as an anchor on the gameplay.

Multiplayer has been pared back to deliver a slightly CoD-like run and gun experience, but the inclusion of vehicles and jetpacks and the excellent new Operations mode makes this a lasting proposition. Brilliant audio and utterly stunning graphics combine with iconic imagery to wrap-up the package and make this a must-buy for owners of the Playstation 3.

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Amazingly rewarding singleplayer campaign
+ Set pieces and vehicle mechanics are mindblowing
- Multiplayer feels dumbed down
- Story feels shallow and empty at times

Killzone 3 was released February 23rd in North America for a retail price of $59.99. The reviewer purchased a copy of the ‘Helghast Edition’ and did an unboxing video which you can view below. Singleplayer was played til completion and multiplayer was played til the reviewer felt they understood the mechanics in-depth.