Killzone 3: Review

Killzone 2 managed to garner a lot of fans three years ago, not just for the exciting single player game, but also for the depth that the multiplayer side of the game showed, with gamers still playing online even now. Thanks to the problems that Call of Duty: Black Ops has been having on the PlayStation 3, now is the perfect time for Sony to get Killzone 3 up to the top of the multiplayer tree. The good news is that we have had our hands on a review unit of the game here at Neowin for a couple of weeks, so we can get our views of the game out to you a day before the US release.

With Killzone 3, the developers have tried to fix some of the issues that have been brought up about previous games, from the lack of color to improving the storyline, and thankfully, Guerilla games managed to do a very good job on this sequel.

The story begins where Killzone®2 left off, with Visari, the vicious Helghast dictator, lying dead at the feet of Special Forces soldiers Sev and Rico. The battle may have been won but the war is far from over. Visari’s death has left behind a world of political scheming, infighting and outright murder. Meanwhile his parting gift, a nuclear bomb detonated in Phyruss, the Helghan Capital, has decimated the ISA invasion force. With no re-enforcements and supplies quickly running out, you must now fight against ruthless Helghast war machine alone.

An epic cinematic war experience

With levels ten times bigger than in Killzone 2, this is Helghan like you’ve never seen it before. You’ll face brutal combat in a host of environments that threaten to bury you on the deadly planet. Killzone 3 will see you trudge through toxic nuclear wastelands, get lost in a lethal alien jungle, fight in bitter arctic conditions and take the battle into space as you fight against Helghast domination – with every location featuring a distinct gameplay style for you to master.

Be at the centre of the action

Killzone 3 will be fully playable in Stereoscopic 3D, immersing you more deeply into the ferocious world and putting you at the heart of the action. But be careful. While you experience this world in incredible, High Definition, Stereoscopic 3D detail – you’ll learn to fear what’s around every single corner.

Take on an even more vicious Helghast army

The Helghast are back and they’re bigger and fiercer than you’ve ever seen them. From Jetpack troopers to enemies wielding portable weapons of mass destruction, your enemies will be tougher, scarier and equipped with a host of new toys in their quest for destruction.

Gameplay:

From the get-go, Killzone 3 is a rollercoaster ride. The game moves from one battle to the next and despite some changes to the controls, the game still retains the feel of being more realistic than most other first person shooters. The movement of your character is smoother than before, with a lot less controller lag, though it was never really an issue for most people in the last game.

Killzone 3 also makes use of the PlayStation Move motion controller and we’re pleased to say that it works superbly and is by far and away the best use of motion control ever in a first person shooter, allowing a lot of accuracy when it comes to shooting in the heat of the battle. The good news for those who like to tweak things is that there is a host of control options for you to fiddle with in regards to PlayStation Move.

The levels see much more variety than the previous two games. More color comes into play with forest and ice levels that not only look great, but also add a bit more to the game itself. The forest level, for example, allows for some stealth gaming, which is over a little too quick for our liking, with no stealth elements being part of the game after this point, which is a disappointing. The Ice level sees you taking control of some enemy technology that allows you to fly, adding another new way to kill people!

Guerilla also added a new split-screen mode to the game, allowing gamers to play through the single player game in co-op mode. It works very well, with just a slight hit on the framerate and some small detail adjustments being made, such as objects and character textures popping into view suddenly. This doesn’t detract from the game though, and it is a lot of fun to play with a friend.

Multiplayer is once again excellent, although it has been hard to get many games up and running due to the lack of other players online right now, but what we have seen has shown big improvements.

Guerilla Games has improved Killzone’s load times, mostly due to the new way that the game deals with cutscenes. In Killzone 2, the cinematics would be in-game, running directly via the engine. This time round we have all cinematics streaming directly off of the Blu-ray disk. They were still created via the in-game engine, but to allow the game to load the next level in the background, the decision was made to have them in full motion video format. This is one of the reasons that the Blu-ray disk is packed with over 40GB of data, ¾ of which are movies.

Graphics:

Graphically, the game manages to become the best looking PlayStation 3 title released to date, taking the mantle from Uncharted 2. It also becomes the best looking game on any format now in our view thanks to not just the superb look and feel, but also the wealth of action happening around you. The art direction has seen a big boost too. Whether this is due to the new look locations or the improved graphic engine on show is anyone’s guess, but it looks superb running in full 720p with no slow down.

Stereoscopic 3D:

3D has also been added to the game, and this is something we have really looked into. Playing the game on a Sony 40HX803 3D TV, the first thing you notice is the drop in resolution, showing what looks like half the resolution of the 2D version. The HUD also looks blurred and messy at times.

A game like this running in 3D was always going to take quite a hit, compared to the graphical excellence on display with the 2D version, with a lot of slow down and a less than smooth experience on display. Don’t get us wrong here, though; what is on screen is still great looking, mostly thanks to the great artwork. The depth on screen is also superb, showing bullets flying through the air at you and some great 3D cutscene work; it is easily one of the best, if not the best title to show off 3D on the PlayStation 3 despite the flaws.

There is one big issue, though. the game suffers from loads (and we mean loads) of crosstalk/ghosting in 3D. It gets so bad at times that you can almost see a complete ghost of the characters on screen at one time. This could have just been an issue with the 3D TV we used, but since writing this review, we have seen it on a couple of other 3D TVs too. There is an option in game that can adjust the depth of the picture, but this doesn’t really improve things enough in our view.

Hopefully, 3D issues like this will disappear in the future, but right now it can be so bad that you will end up packing up the game and just running in 2D, something you shouldn’t have to do. This is more a TV issue though, and we would love to hear from other 3D TV users who have been able to run Killzone 3 in 3D perfectly.

Sound:

Sound is once again excellent, and with a game that has so much happening on screen, it is great credit that the sound designers have managed to fill your ears full of the sounds of war. Speech is better than before too, with less swearing too which over Killzone 2 is a big plus. We did have an issue with some speech cutting out, though this could have been a bug with our review copy, which we have had for over 2 weeks before the launch of the game.

Conclusion:

So overall it is another great release from Guerilla Games, Killzone 3 upped its game over its predecessors graphically and in the excellent multiplayer side of the game. PlayStation Move support is great and really adds something to the game, rather than feeling like it was tacked on at the last moment.

Despite all of the superlatives we have thrown at it, the game does still have some issues though, especially as the story and dialogue were both dire and the crosstalk in 3D was awful, but in 2D it is easily the best looking game on any console at the moment. A must buy for those who already love the Killzone series and a game that will hopefully add even more fans in the future.

4.5 out of 5

Killzone 3 just misses out on our full 5 stars due to the lack of a decent story and some really poor dialogue, but it is the 3D crosstalk that really let the side down, especially as the 3D depth effects are superb in general.