PixlBit

It feels like Uncharted 2 all over again. Sony sends me a game from a series that I'm completely unfamiliar with, and I'm completely blown away by its quality and construction. Uncharted 2 was easily my game of the year in 2009, and even though it's early in 2011, Killzone 3 makes a strong argument for itself. While I'm not the world's biggest first person shooter fan, there's something about the mechanics and general feeling of Killzone 3 that makes it very tangible, which goes a long way in creating an immersive experience.

The game's story is told in reverse chronological order and is undoubtedly the weakest part of the game. Players start the game infiltrating the Helghast home base. From what I came to understand, the Helghast are adapted human beings that evolved to meet the harsh conditions of the planet Helghan. The radiation there has changed their bodies to be stronger, bigger, and faster than a normal human. Corrupt politicians engendered hatred among the Helghast of humans, and with the rise of Emperor Scolar Visari, the nation becomes a war machine bent on the destruction of the human race and domination of the galaxy.

Players embody soldiers of the ISA, humans who are defending the world against the Helghan threat. Upon arriving at the Helghast base, your intention is to save Narville, your commander, from execution. Assigned to perform the execution, you reveal your true identity before the deed is done, and the game cuts to the past. From here, players pick up as the same characters, Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko and Rico Velasquez, directly after the assassination of Helghast leader Scolar Visari. From here, the tale of Sev, Rico, and Narville is told leading up to the first scene of the game and beyond. Along the way, players learn of a power struggle in the Helghast cabinet after the death of Visari and their military initiatives to destroy Earth, home of the ISA.

Like most first person shooters these days, Killzone 3 has a distinctive Call of Duty feel to it, but it succeeds in creating a much more life-like experience. Enemies take a bit longer to go down, movement is a bit slower and actions take a bit longer to execute. The camera moves and shakes, and you always feel like there's real weight behind every one of your actions, even running. It's a pretty spectacular effect and one that I've never seen done so well in a game. Killing enemies feels satisfying because they don't go down easy and like my own movements, they carry a certain presence. Without question, this is what sets Killzone 3 apart from the crowd and is one of the best features of the game.

Pacing and level design are the other facets that stand out. Many first person shooters these days feel a bit too hectic and often as if you are rushing around disposing of enemies in every angle. Killzone 3 understands when to ramp up the action and when to tone things down to appreciate the environment and create some in-game ambiance. At times, players will even need to sneak around to easily complete sections of the game. Of course, the game shows off its design strength by letting players Rambo things if they so wish. Options like these make Killzone 3 an interesting experience.

To break up the shooting, a variety of vehicles are introduced throughout the game, with none overstaying their welcome. Though Guerrilla Games likely had to do quite a bit of work to include them, they hold no attachment and dump them when they are no longer of use. Whether it's mounting the gun on a tank or ship, piloting a mech, driving an Ice Saw, or flying a jetpack, each are only seen for short portions of the game.

I have a lot of respect for Guerrilla Games for this. Not many developers are bold enough to do such a thing and I'm sure many publishers wouldn't give the go for such an idea either. However, the payoff is huge. Each vehicle feels like a real treat when you get into the cockpit and start traveling and gunning down your enemies. About the time where you've had enough, you reach the next checkpoint and proceed on foot.

Towards the end of the game, other gimmicks are put to good use as well. There are some absolutely awesome weapons, as well as some rooms with reduced gravity. Both add variety to the experience and provide more moments of pure joy. Epic battles round things out, providing further variety to your standard cover-fire shooter.

Killzone's setting thankfully provides a world that is completely of the creation of Guerrilla Games. Nothing about it ties it to reality, leaving the game to explore vastly different environments than anything we've ever seen before. In the earlier segments of the game, I couldn't help but be reminded of Half Life while exploring the world of Helghan. The plant and wildlife is exotic, bright, and colorful. It's also deadly and unpredictable, which allowed the development team to incorporate the concept of environmental kills, which players perform by destroying plant life that neighbors enemy threats. By having a pseudo-realistic world, Killzone is able to shrug the limits of reality as we know it and produce something far more intriguing.

While Killzone 3 is mostly a success, there are some oddities to the experience, namely technical issues that seem to crop up on a consistent basis. Melee smashing doors is one of the worst offenders as none of the component parts of the action were synced together. Depressing the thumbstick would produce the visual cue on screen from your player, but both the sound and the actual effect on the door would lag significantly after the action. Other syncing issues tended to crop up during cutscenes. Other technical oddities would pop up from time to time, which would at times hurt the incredible immersion the game has built.

These issues were not evident in multiplayer, however. Here, players join up as a team to either defeat the opposing side or complete various tasks proposed within the match. The mode builds in RPG elements, as well as character classes each of which have a different ability to use during the match.

Multiplayer is not really my thing, but I did enjoy taking the role of Sniper and providing protection for the field grunts attempting to infiltrate the enemy camp. After trying my hand at the gamut of roles, it was obvious that I wasn't of the caliber of the other players, which perhaps says a little something about the game's matchmaking system. Jetpacks also make an appearance here, which were occasionally fun given the right circumstances. More often than not, the device spelled out death from above, which became pretty annoying.

More my speed was the ability to play the story mode co-operatively on the local machine. Chessa and I had the opportunity to play for a while and it was great fun, as are most co-operative experiences. Again, I tip my hat to Guerrilla Games for including this feature.

Killzone 3 is a top-tier first person shooter that deserves a place in every shooter fan's collection. Chessa, who despises the genre, was able to get into the game – a testament to the game's quality. Even if you haven't played the rest of the series, Killzone 3 is easy to jump into and one of the best games thus far in 2011.