Reviewed: March 15, 2011
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer
Guerrilla Games

Released: February 22, 2011
Genre: Action
Players: 1-4
Online: 2-24

9
10
9
9
9.4

Supported Features:

Killzone 3 continues the epic story of the seemingly eternal battle of the ISA and the Helghast, picking up mere moments after the events where the second game ended. The game opens quite deceptively with you playing as a Helghast. For a moment I actually thought we were going to see a new side of the story, but it just turns out it was you in disguise – one of those non-linear storytelling devices where you will actually catch up to current events later in the game.

There are plenty of familiar faces including your primary character, Sev, who has a causal disregard for orders. I can’t count the times he disregarded command and even challenged his own comrades to either help him or “just give me a gun and I’ll do it alone”. Such bravado! Killzone 3 really mixes up the level design; so much it actually starts to fall apart. You’ll have some frantic urban combat in the nuked remains of the Helghast home world, then you’ll be doing a covert sneaking mission through some crazy wilderness terrain, then it’s down to the arctic tundra for some jetpack missions, then back to the city for some sniper cover-fire missions. There are also a few on-rail vehicle missions in various hovercraft and even an epic final battle in outer space. While I loved each and every mission the whole experience really got a bit disjointed as a cohesive story.

But who needs a story when combat is this much fun. Guerrilla has really polished the controls, addressing almost every issue I had with the second game. Movement, cover, and targeting are all responsive and accurate, and the level of real-world physics has never been better. The game plays flawlessly with the DualShock 3 and even makes use of the SIXAXIS to prime explosives or turn a valve wheel.

Enemy AI has been enhanced creating a much more difficult and realistic story experience. A new brutal melee system has been adding allowing all sorts of cool takedowns and stealth kills, and plenty of new weapons have been added to the mix. Killing has never been this much fun.

For those who have a PS Move, you can play the game much like the old-school light-gun games. You’ll still need to move around with the Navigator while aiming with the Motion controller but it works pretty well. The game takes on a whole new level of realism when you stick those Move devices in the new Sharpshooter gun controller. I’ll be reviewing this separately but let’s just say this is the best gun and the best gun-supported game I have played on any system in my 30 years of gaming. There is a 20-30 minute learning curve to get comfortable with the Sharpshooter and maybe another hour to get proficient, but once you master the device you will become an insanely accurate and unstoppable killing machine – especially in multiplayer.

And how about that multiplayer – starting with Team Deathmatch for traditional competitive killing, and the new Operations Mode where you actually have to plan and complete objectives. The game tracks the highest scoring players and then features them as the stars in their own in-game cutscenes – the ultimate in ego-gratifying bragging rights. I was also a big fan of the new XP system that allows you the freedom to level up your characters as you see fit, even if those abilities aren’t for the class you are currently playing. Wrapping up the multiplayer is a two-player co-op mode for the campaign, but it only supports local play (no online) and you cannot co-op using the Move controls.

Killzone 3 rocks the visuals with a 720p display that puts most 1080p games to shame. Even with levels that are ten times the size of those in Killzone 2, the frame rate is silky smooth, the animations are works of mo-capped art, and the textures are ultra-realistic. Particle effects, snow, smoke, fire, explosions, that green energy stuff; it all looks amazing. The two times you get to wear the Helghast helmet, the helmet display is insane, with all sorts of information just floating off the surface of your screen. It looks very close to 3D even in 2D.

Things get crazy when you play Killzone 3 in 3D, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the technology, if there ever was a game to push you into the next generation of home viewing, this is it. Playing this game in 3D only enhances the experience giving you a heightened sense of depth and dimension. That aforementioned HUD really does float off the screen now and your weapon seems to pierce the glass of the TV. The targeting reticle just seems to float somewhere inside the picture and actually seems to improve my accuracy. If you combine the PS Move with 3D you are as close to virtual reality as this generation is going to give us.

The music is pretty much what we expect from the genre and the franchise, but the combat and weapons sounds, and even the environmental effects are outstanding. Voice acting is also topnotch, even if the script turns our heroes into Neanderthals much of the time. The HDR audio package blew me away, not only with the traditional Dolby Digital mix, but a DTS 7.1 that put my home theater system to the ultimate test. Very few movies and even fewer games make use of all eight speakers in my living room, but when they are all active the acoustic immersion is unlike anything you can imagine, especially combined with 3D visuals and Move interaction.

But even if you don’t have a super-cool 3D TV and high-end audio system, or even a PS Move, Killzone 3 is a total blast to play and one of the most polished FPS titles I’ve played on Sony’s console to date. They story might lose its focus from time to time but there is no denying the cool factor of each mission, even on a standalone basis, and the multiplayer is some of the best I’ve experienced since MAG, and will keep you coming back for months to follow. Killzone 3 is an amazing game that doesn’t necessarily push any genre boundaries, but it does push the PS3 and the people who play it to new levels of immersion and realism, creating a revolutionary new gaming experience that no one should miss.