The story picks up exactly where Killzone 2 leaves off. Players assumes the role of Sgt. Tomas Sev Sevchenko, a brash young member of an elite Special Forces unit of the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) fighting the evil Helghast Empire. At the end of Killzone 2, Sev and his team accidentally kill Visari, the Helghast autarch (a nice fantasy combination of autocrat and monarch), while trying to capture him, leaving the Helghast people without a leader.
Chaos ensues at the start of Killzone 3, as several Helghast factions splinter off to vie for leadership as some prepare to mount a full-scale invasion of Earth. With most ISA forces scattered, Sev and company must fend off the attack on their own, following an old standard in first-person shooter themes whereby characters must prove there is nothing that a small and dedicated group cannot accomplish.
Star Trek fans will definitely appreciate Malcolm MacDowells portrayal of the villainous Chairman Jorhan Stahl in this game. As one of the two top Helghast lieutenants vying to succeed Visari as leader (the Helghast are basically space Nazis), MacDowell brings all the same sinister brilliance to the role as he did playing Dr. Tolian Soran obsessed with beating death in Star Trek: Generations.
Emotionally, the tone is notably brighter than the dark, even somber, seriousness of Killzone 2 that genuinely disturbed a great many gamers. Killzone 3, by comparison, is downright slapstick. Silly quips such as think you guys can leave before the explosions start next time? (followed by you can do that?), along with physical business such as watching a tank driven by Sev tumble down three consecutive mountainsides in a cinematic even makes it possible to laugh at the story on occasion.
Of course, as any serious gamer knows, the true test of a new game lies not in the story nor even in the swearing, but in the gameplay. There, is where Killzone 3 really shines.
As the first game in the series to offer a co-op mode for the offline campaign, splitting the screen doesnt compromise the smooth movement or visual brilliance of the game in the slightest. Doing a side-by-side split, while limiting each player to little more than a quarter of the screen, will be greatly appreciated by any gamer who has ever lost track of which character they are when playing the top-bottom split alternative.
Graphically, the game is clearly pushes the PS3s processor to the limit. Smoke, fire and other complex visuals like plasma are all well defined and the level of detail in the cinematic cutaways is superb, often to the point of making you forget those scenes are 100% computer animation.
Some of the cinematic awesome even translates to gameplay. Witnessing epic mech-warrior rocket-powered showdowns going on across a bridge your party is trying to cross being but a single memorable example.
Unlike the endless cityscapes of Killzone 2, this game does a nice job of using different environments from desert to snow-covered tundra to tropical rainforest to outer space to provide a diverse visual experience. As far as guns are concerned, fancy new toys ranging from jet packs to tanks to space fighters are peppered throughout the storyline. As is increasingly advanced weaponry, ultimately culminating with the WASP multi-firing rocket-launcher, the sheer badassery of which being well worth the wait.
One flaw can be found in the Botzone offline multiplayer feature. Displaying every characters name in green (enemies and allies alike), makes it impossible to tell who is a friend and who is a foe without training crosshairs directly on them first, at which point it is often too late. It is a quibble that could easily have been fixed in development yet, for whatever reason, was not.
If they ever decide to make a Killzone 4, and judging by the way the Killzone 3 story ends they almost certainly will, developer Guerrilla Games will need to actually get Michael Bay in to get it done right. For only the explosive imagination that gave the world Armageddon, The Rock and Bad Boys II could possibly exceed the apocalyptic mayhem that is Killzone 3.
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Killzone 3 Review in Game
