Helghan home of the helghasts

Killzone 2 came out 2 years ago and lived up the enormous hype. After this huge success Guerrilla Games began working on Killzone 3 in secret. Now after two years Killzone 3 has been released and we entered once again the battlefield on Helghan against the helghasts.

What the nation needs

Killzone 3 continues the battle between the two fractions ISA and the Helghast. The game begins with an unique introduction level, the level shows a plot twist, and after the twist you will return in time, 6 months before, at the point where Killzone 2 ended.  You can see Guerrilla put more attention at the story this time. We get introduced to new characters and new story elements. While there is more input in the story it is not very spectacular. For starters you don’t get to know the new introduced characters and you don’t get to know more of the main character you play as. The main story is that the ISA is in the minority and need to retreat. Sev and Rico need to hold off the enemy lines without any back up. While you also watch the side of the helghasts what they are planning to do, and introducing their new weapon.

Higs up ahead

The action in this game is once again top notch experience. There are new weapons for your disposal and the usual ones. If you have a decent surround system I would recommend you to put the sound to the max, but be careful for the neighbours. Now you can enjoy the communication between Sev with the other ISA soldiers, the impact of the grenades, shots of the weapons and the music. It makes you feel you are in the heat of the battle and this is what was very strong also in the predecessor. It is still tough too kill an helghast, you have to shoot him more than once before he is down. Which isn’t a bad thing, it makes it different than the normal shooting games. The AI of the helghasts is very sharp, they will use a lot of cover and they don’t come up where you expect them to show up. In Killzone 3 you want to go up close and personal, seeing a brutal closecombat melee moves. There are some parts in the game where you can sneak up on some of the helghast soldiers. The controls has been changed a bit from Killzone 2, the aiming feels great and you can now shoot better with the sidearm. There is now a third slot for weapon, allowing Sev to carry heavy gunnery like a RPG or a minigun.

Greatest military campaign

The battles are more intense and bigger on scale, with as highlight a memorable fight with a huge boss. Guerrilla made it less linear than the normal standard first-person shooters. Most of those shooters can’t even make an intense feeling like this game.

The singleplayer is a great adventure which would enjoy every fan. The singleplayer is short compared to Killzone 2, you can finish the story in less than eight hours. The second playthrough will be around an hour of five/six on the highest difficulty. You can play the full story in split-screen co-op, sadly Killzone 3 doesn’t support online co-op though which is a real shame. But the co-op is a nice option and works really well, though it makes the game easier to play.

Next to the singleplayer there is another mode, which can add some more gameplay time. The mode let you play with bots, it is just like the multiplayer but then without the players. You can set the bot difficulty yourself and the AI is really tough here.

Botzone

The online multiplayer is the jewel of Killzone 3. The pace is higher compared to what Killzone 2 has and makes it a nice experience. You can choose between five classes like the Engineer, Fieldmedic and Marksman. Every class has its own specific weapons and features. Which you can upgrade by unlock-points, you get points by leveling. For instance you can place an engineer turrets, but after you upgraded the turret a couple of times you can add rockets to the turret.

There is enough variation levels in Killzone 3, in total there are eight maps. But some of these maps aren’t playable in all the multiplayer modes, modes like Warzone or Operations. In Operations it is the intention to complete tasks, through short cut scenes you see the task you need to do and once it is completed. In these cut scenes the top players of the match will feature in the video. And then there is another mode called Warzone, Warzone was also in Killzone 2, it features a couple of different gametypes tgether from team death match to capture the flag. This is for me the best mode and I don’t get bored by it cause of the variation. And there is a normal mode called Guerrilla Warfare, which is basically Team Deathmatch.

The impact of the bullets are different than in the singleplayer and the aiming of some of the weapons are not great. With every class you can only choose between three primary and three secondary weapons, which isn’t much to choose from. Killzone 3 is improved a lot from Killzone 2 on all fronts.

Killzowned

While you the story is pretty short, I am glad there is an option you can play in co-op although it is only for offline. The gameplay is very good, at some points it is difficult to see what you have to do but once you have figured it out it is great. Killzone 3 even supports the PlayStation Move and 3D which makes the experience better if you have own the move or a 3D tv. Killzone 3 even has a space battle, though you can’t fly the ship yourself. When you are firing with a minigun from the space ship is really phenomenal.