I’ll be honest. When it comes to Sony’s AAA first party titles, I get excited. As a loyal Sony fan since the original PlayStation, I can’t help but get giddy at old veteran franchises like Metal Gear Solid and all the old JRPG classics. As a member of the PlayStation old guard, I have mixed feelings about the current generation of Sony titles. While I miss the simplicity of those fondly remembered titles, I am powerless to ignore the sheer brute strength the PlayStation 3 has to offer. Franchises like InFamous, God of War, MAG, LittleBigPlanet and Heavy Rain all have some amazing things to offer in their own right. However, I am compelled to distinguish Killzone as the current PlayStation crown jewel.
As a long standing fan of First Person Shooters and most games in the genre, I feel I have seen enough of what makes an FPS title really shine and what can drag it down into the hellish abyss of mediocrity. A nice tight FPS campaign is a great way for developers to really show the player some pretty amazing things in the way of set pieces and highly detailed fire fights. With the right amount of polish and detail, these moments can be intense and unforgettable. The lights dimmed, the volume up and the phone turned off, I set out to see what Guerrilla Games had in store for me with their latest entry in the Killzone franchise. I am pleased to say I was not disappointed.
The Single Player Campaign:
Right off the bat, Killzone 3 had me interested. The cliffhanger ending of the previous game inspired curiosity in me as to how big the scale of the war on Helghan really was. It was the perfect “tip of the iceberg” moment to end the game off on. The game wastes no time getting you into the action and before you know exactly where it is you are going, you are thrust into combat against the ruthlessly tenacious Helghast forces.
Ever since the now infamous Killzone 2 E3 trailer, Killzone as a franchise has had a major critical emphasis on the graphics placed on it. This is one of the major places where Killzone 3 really shook me. I do not want to beat around it, Killzone 3 looks fucking amazing. Very rarely does a console game come out that can actually compete with high end PC visuals while maintaining a smooth frame rate. Killzone 3 constantly impressed me with spectacular visuals and really subtle visual effects. The way ash and embers are constantly falling around you while buildings burn and vehicular titans stride toward the enemy. When you fire a weapon inside a hallway and see the muzzle flash illuminate the walls and objects around you in a truly realistic fashion. Small details like these are what truly set Killzone apart from the rest of the titles in the ever crowded FPS genre. A game’s visuals can really help the immersion and intensity. However, pretty graphics are just that. The real meat in Killzone 3 is the action.
Sprinting through a Helghast forest filled with distinctly foreign wildlife and vibrancy, I slide into cover behind a crate just barely high enough to provide myself with a safe place to seek refuge from the perpetual barrage of gunfire squarely aimed at me. I need to think fast, as I know any second now, a cunning member of the Helghast military will either flank my position or force my departure by way of a skilfully tossed grenade. Low on ammo and swarmed with enemy forces, I force myself from behind my fragile hiding place and place the head of the enemy within my sights. Intense moments like these are relentless. The action feels decidedly snappier in Killzone 3 compared to previous efforts in the franchise. As much of a backhanded compliment as this may seem (depending on your opinion of the franchise), the game feels much more akin to Call of Duty. A single press of “L1” will instantaneously bring up my trusty iron sights with no delay. That being said, the game still has this feeling of heft and realism in its movements. While it may not feel as animation prioritizing as Lost Planet 2 or Resident Evil 5, it certainly does take its time to show you every detail in the movements. Whether its in the way your character will subtly look at his weapon while he reloads or the brutally up close and personal action of twisting the blade of your knife after embedding it in the glowing eye of the enemy, the game definitely knows it looks good. And it will not hesitate to show you.
Along with the solid action and visuals, I feel as though the sound design in the game is the unsung hero. Ingenious details such as the satisfying beep of your grenade as it cooks to the visceral hammering thud of a nearby explosion add immensely to the game’s ability to suck you in and keep you there. All of the weapons and vehicles sound like your dream soundboard to a war flick (the submachine gun is my personal favourite).
However, all of the fantastic elements of Killzone 3’s single player portion mentioned above do not do enough to hide some of the game’s most glaring flaws.
As I have gone over in my previous article, the story in action games is rarely the strongest component. Killzone 3 is a colossal monument to this truth. You get the impression throughout the campaign that Guerrilla Games really set out to improve upon the complaints made for the last game’s story. They have hired film prestige such as Malcom MacDowell and Ray Winstone to voice the treacherous Helghast higher-ups, spent time and effort on getting more involved technology and performance capture for use in their cutscenes (which are much more prevalent throughout the campaign) and even added nearly double the lines of dialogue found in the last two games. However, this has done little to improve upon previous instalments and may have actually hurt the game more than it helped. Awkward lip sync work is a major problem and happens enough for me to mention it here, about 90% of what is said is typical Hollywood action movie drivel and perhaps most damning, Malcom MacDowell’s performance is supremely underwhelming. As well, the transition from gameplay to cutscene is almost always awkward. Your character stops dead in place, lowers his current weapon as the screen fades to black for a few seconds to load up the scene. This goes both ways too. There is a particular scene where your character goes from on foot combat to manning the turret of a vehicle with absolutely no explanation. This was very jarring and served to break up the pacing of an otherwise competently structured game. For the purposes of this review, I will only briefly touch upon the ending in an effort to remain as spoiler free as possible. The last game ended with a cliffhanger that made me certain of what was to come and had me rather excited. As for Killzone 3’s ending, I have little idea of the impact of my actions in the final confrontation and I am even more puzzled as to where the series will go from here. That is all I will say on the matter.
Overall, Killzone 3’s campaign is a beautiful, well-paced (for the most part), engaging experience plagued with a few technical issues and poor design choices. I cannot even tell you how many times I was downed only to have the obnoxiously macho Rico stand over my wounded body and tell me he is too far away to revive me. As frustrating as this and the other issues above are, I can’t help but love Killzone 3 all the same. It is my opinion that Killzone 3’s campaign is directly comparable to that of Call of Duty or Battlefield: Bad Company. When held up to the standards of those games and games of that type, Killzone 3 is exceptional. It has incredible highs and head shaking lows, but it will entertain and hold your attention from the first shot to the last.