Back in 2009, Killzone was yet an unproven franchise for Sony. The first game was released to mainly tepid reviews and while the second game was shaping up to be a promising game with undeniably pretty graphics there was some uncertainty before it’s release if it could deliver as the Playstation 3’s big first person shooter. Killzone 2 however was a big success and thus leads us to the 3rd installment in the series Killzone 3. It starts off where Killzone 2 immediately left off; the evil dictator Visari of the planet Helghan is dead but there’s no rest for the weary as the Hellgast army quickly comes under new management and they’re out for blood. You’re regrouping with the rest of the ISA forces (aka the good guys) who are now running for their lives as your forces are devastated and are quickly being surrounded. Can Killzone 3 build on the foundation Killzone 2 laid or is this a sequel that could have used a little more time in the oven.

One way to describe the single player for Killzone 3 is that it’s brief, it took me just under five and a half hours to play through it. By most big first person shooter standards that’s pretty darn short. Now with that said I had a blast playing through it. It might have been the fact I played using the PlayStation Move accessory that while not always the most intuitive control scheme to use was however well mapped out for all your common actions. I didn’t feel in battle that I couldn’t find any particular control and there’s something thrilling to being able to press a trigger like mechanism to fire your gun. I don’t know if the gimmick will wear off if I play more motion-controlled games but I just had pure fun messing around. Add the fact the campaign is full of enticing cut scenes that while not exactly telling a complicated plot does provide some cool action movie style sequences that draw you into the world. There are definitely memorable moments in the game, some pretty exciting and some literally gigantic boss battles. The game has both jetpack sequences that I found pretty cool which you could pick off your enemies from mid-air and some mech sequences that only disappointed in that they were pretty limited in what motion controls they had.

As for, you know the actual gameplay I can’t complain about too much. After spending some more time with the game since the closed beta for multiplayer, I’ve definitely started to notice the fact they’ve sped up the gameplay With that in mind though given it took awhile for me to really take in that fact I’d have to say it’s really not such a big deal. The game plays faster with your character moving around the world a little quicker than the second game. I have to say the cover system is simple but effective, duck behind cover and then you lean forward or just press the trigger to shoot. Killzone 3 gives a pretty diverse arsenal to choose from, from machine gun to green blob-firing gun that kills anything in its path, there’s definitely at least some diversity in what you can pack. There are plenty of ammo spots around the map that’ll refill any weapon you have making ammo usually not a big problem. There’s nothing like watching an enemy disintegrating right after you hit them with your ray gun. One thing that disappointed me though is once you move from one level to the next you lose whatever gun you had and you’re forced to deal with your standard issue machine gun instead of the cool gun you had just before. One of the cool things they added to the campaign was the option to play through it with a friend. I’ll keep this rather brief, it’s the exact same as the single player campaign as far as I can tell except you can’t use the motion controls and you only get the left or right of the screen to yourself. To sum this mash of words up, the campaign is fun but way too short.

A short campaign can easily be forgiven if the multiplayer is long and rewarding but I’m left with mixed feelings here as well. If you’ve played through the beta then you should know most of the stuff that’s here but I’ll run through it for those who didn’t play it. You’ve got three different multiplayer modes to choose from: Guerilla Warfare also known as Team Deathmatch; Warzone a mode where it’s the team who first completes five of varying objectives wins the game and finally Operations where two battling teams take turns between assault and defense with the aggressors trying to capture points and items across the map while the defenders try and stop it. Three modes are pretty limited to begin with and there are some more limitations to add to that. There are only six maps for Warzone, five maps for Guerrilla Warfare and a pitiful three for Operations. Now comparing it to the biggest first person shooter of last year Black Ops that has 14 maps to choose from with four more on the way with the first map pack alone. The retro pack was released on the same day as Killzone came out for $5 for two maps from Killzone 2. They can only be used in Guerilla Warfare and Warzone respectively. There’s another of these map packs coming called “Steel Rain” but there’s no sign when it’s due out. The retro pack manages to make me mad simply because game desperately needs more maps and they saw fit to nickel and dime the gamer instead of providing actual content.

Now that I got my little rant out of the way, the multiplayer itself is pretty fun. You level up by gaining experience, which lets you, unlock abilities and weapons just like every other first person shooter since Call of Duty 4. Not exactly creative but if it isn’t broken I don’t see why you’d need to fix it. Guerilla Warfare isn’t exactly creative though if you just want to go killing people it works fine. I really like the Operations mode as it’s new and the most creative. They made a genuine effort to have a multiplayer battle that tells a story. It’s a nice touch that I really appreciate. The objectives seem plausible and it’s only marred at how fast it grows old. Since there are only three maps it really doesn’t take along to be really familiar with all the scenarios and for the novelty to wear off. I’m left wishing they would have given a bit more for me to chew on. The Warzone mode really hasn’t changed much from Killzone 2, and I find them to be quite a chore to play though them, matches can last long and I find myself wanting to play the next round before the current one is over. The objectives are less creative than Operations and pretty generic, that said I don’t think you’ll find anything like it in another game. The game has a Botzone if you want to practice your craft offline but I don’t see that getting much play by anyone.

Killzone 2 has some really impressive graphics, and Killzone 3 has managed to bring it yet another level. The environments look quite good, though that is to say if you like the color brown. I do like they did try to vary the levels a little bit where you have gorgeous winter levels and some generic swamp levels though I appreciated the effort after Killzone 2 was just more of the same. The characters look top notch and I’d have been wiling to give it the PS3 graphics crown if Crysis 2 hadn’t just come out taking it one notch ahead of Killzone 3. The explosions are deafening (in a good way) and the gunfire is convincing. Killzone 3 has you covered when it comes to convincing stock ammunition firing. As for the music, it’s got the usual larger than life over the top theatrical music you’d come to expect from your big time shooter game though most of the time any music is drowned out by the sounds of bullets in the levels. The voice acting pretty good and while you do get some overacting it felt in place with it’s typical action movie feel.

Killzone 3 had a lot of promise, but it failed to deliver in one major area and that’s content. The campaign is really short clocking in at only a few hours and the multiplayer is pretty lacking when it comes to maps. Though it does earn back some points for doing well what it does have, that just isn’t enough in the very competitive first person shooter market where a lot of games can make that very same claim.

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