Killzone 3: time to kill the series?
About two weeks ago, February 22nd, the Playstation 3 saw the release of Killzone 3 by Amsterdam based developer Guerrilla Games. Contrary to the name the game is actually the fourth game in the series. There was a lesser known game, Killzone: Liberation, released on the PSP (Playstation Portable) way back in 2004 that is overlooked as handheld games tend to be. The game series was essentially Sony's answer to the Halo series on the Xbox 360. At least that was what the series began as all those years ago back in 2004 but now I feel like both of them are becoming irrelevant. As you can probably guess from the title of this post the third/fourth installment, based on your perception, does little to distinguish the game from the already flooded market of first person shooters.
The story takes place directly following the events of Killzone 2, which was released two years ago. The quick summary of the series is that there's a war between humans and human descendants who colonized another planet a long time ago, known as Helghasts. The helghasts are human in features but have had to adapt to another planet and are no longer considered to be true humans. The series starts with the Helghasts invading the human planet of Vekta. The humans, known as the ISA (Interplanetary strategic Alliance) forces, are able to fight off the invasion; this takes place in killzone and Killzone: Liberation. The second game has the humans invading the Helghast home planet of Helghan to capture their leader, Scholar Visari. Of course being the human and therefore good side, the forces are able to find the leader but rather than capture him one of the soldiers kill him thus ending Killzone 2. A bit convoluted but honestly the story isn't very interesting but up until this game it's always been passable and interesting enough to make me plow through.
The third game (I will refer to it as such from now on) takes place directly after the death of the Helgahst leader, Scholar Visari. Having had their leader killed you might consider the matter closed but that isn't the case for a money making first party property. Out of thin air new people emerge to assume the role of leader. Following proper movie cliche there is an internal power struggle between two wannabe leaders all while the war is still being fought. Neither of the two aspiring characters had any real personality they were both just cliche and stock. The main plot involved some super weapon that the Helghast were planning to unleash on planet Earth and the ISA forces were trying to stop. Honestly it's very hokey in general. Whereas the story for the past games were acceptable and believable in the sense of the world that was created this story seemed tacked on. It felt like a sequel just for the sake of a sequel. Almost like the execs at Sony went to Guerrillas Games and went "hey guys, you're about due for another Killzone game." The story didn't feel well thought out or even cleverly written. The biggest slap in the face for the player comes at the end when the matter seems irrevocably closed the game slips in a bullshit scene that only serves to allow yet another sequel.
Let's move on to the actual gameplay, shall we. The game is your standard affair first person shooter. As the player you see through the eyes of one of the ISA soldiers in this case Tomas Sevchenko, referred to affectionately by the other soldier as "Sev." The game has a stick to cover system that is easy to use but completely useless for the most part. The enemy always seems to be able to hit you no matter what you try to take cover behind. Eventually I gave up and just manually ran behind things and popped out to shoot.
One of my biggest gripes with this game is also related to the cover system. When the player uses cover the computer AI always seems to find a way to shoot through or around it. But when the AI uses cover there are cases when no matter how carefully you aim at their exposed body parts the hit detection will not register. This leads to cheap and frustrating deaths.
Besides those few major complaints my other problems with the gameplay aren't anything flawed. It's just the lack of anything original or new. As I've said previously the first person shooter genre is flooded these days with the "Call of Duty" series standing high atop the hill, the king waiting patiently to be toppled. So in order to distinguish itself in the crowded genre a game needs to have a gimmick or something new or done better than other shooters. Killzone 3 has nothing. It is Playstation Move (Sony's motion controller) compatible, which in my opinion feels a bit frivolous. I have a standard move controller, which is underwhelming to say the least but that's a story for another post, and I will not shell out more money for a navigational controller to play this completely mediocre game. The game just feels lazy there are basically no changes whatsoever from the two year old predecessor, Killzone 2.
I played a few rounds of the online multiplayer, which was my main reason for buying this game. And as the rest of the game nothing was changed. The game modes are all the same as the previous game. They changed the rank up system slightly to allow players more specialization based on what class they prefer to play but with enough play it makes no difference and will ultimately end up being exactly like it was two years ago. The new maps, at least the few I was able to play through, were claustrophobic and didn't play like they were well thought out. In one map the snow effect made it near impossible to play. After only a little over an hour with the online multiplayer I'm about ready to go back to playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops."
If it isn't apparently clear from reading my review so far, I did not enjoy Killzone 3. I had a hard time even playing through the entire single player campaign. The game is marred by lazy writing and just a miasma of mediocrity. I mean it's a functional first person shooter that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. I personally feel like the game is banking more on the name than it's own merits. People will continue to buy this game like the Halo games based on the name alone but that doesn't mean it should keep going. Based on this latest release I think the series should quietly bow out and give way to some new properties before it turns into a complete farce like the Halo series has become.
I will give Killzone 3 a 5 out of 10 based. It gets a middle of the road score, which I feel is fitting for it's middle of the road gameplay and below par story.
The story takes place directly following the events of Killzone 2, which was released two years ago. The quick summary of the series is that there's a war between humans and human descendants who colonized another planet a long time ago, known as Helghasts. The helghasts are human in features but have had to adapt to another planet and are no longer considered to be true humans. The series starts with the Helghasts invading the human planet of Vekta. The humans, known as the ISA (Interplanetary strategic Alliance) forces, are able to fight off the invasion; this takes place in killzone and Killzone: Liberation. The second game has the humans invading the Helghast home planet of Helghan to capture their leader, Scholar Visari. Of course being the human and therefore good side, the forces are able to find the leader but rather than capture him one of the soldiers kill him thus ending Killzone 2. A bit convoluted but honestly the story isn't very interesting but up until this game it's always been passable and interesting enough to make me plow through.
The third game (I will refer to it as such from now on) takes place directly after the death of the Helgahst leader, Scholar Visari. Having had their leader killed you might consider the matter closed but that isn't the case for a money making first party property. Out of thin air new people emerge to assume the role of leader. Following proper movie cliche there is an internal power struggle between two wannabe leaders all while the war is still being fought. Neither of the two aspiring characters had any real personality they were both just cliche and stock. The main plot involved some super weapon that the Helghast were planning to unleash on planet Earth and the ISA forces were trying to stop. Honestly it's very hokey in general. Whereas the story for the past games were acceptable and believable in the sense of the world that was created this story seemed tacked on. It felt like a sequel just for the sake of a sequel. Almost like the execs at Sony went to Guerrillas Games and went "hey guys, you're about due for another Killzone game." The story didn't feel well thought out or even cleverly written. The biggest slap in the face for the player comes at the end when the matter seems irrevocably closed the game slips in a bullshit scene that only serves to allow yet another sequel.
Let's move on to the actual gameplay, shall we. The game is your standard affair first person shooter. As the player you see through the eyes of one of the ISA soldiers in this case Tomas Sevchenko, referred to affectionately by the other soldier as "Sev." The game has a stick to cover system that is easy to use but completely useless for the most part. The enemy always seems to be able to hit you no matter what you try to take cover behind. Eventually I gave up and just manually ran behind things and popped out to shoot.
One of my biggest gripes with this game is also related to the cover system. When the player uses cover the computer AI always seems to find a way to shoot through or around it. But when the AI uses cover there are cases when no matter how carefully you aim at their exposed body parts the hit detection will not register. This leads to cheap and frustrating deaths.
Besides those few major complaints my other problems with the gameplay aren't anything flawed. It's just the lack of anything original or new. As I've said previously the first person shooter genre is flooded these days with the "Call of Duty" series standing high atop the hill, the king waiting patiently to be toppled. So in order to distinguish itself in the crowded genre a game needs to have a gimmick or something new or done better than other shooters. Killzone 3 has nothing. It is Playstation Move (Sony's motion controller) compatible, which in my opinion feels a bit frivolous. I have a standard move controller, which is underwhelming to say the least but that's a story for another post, and I will not shell out more money for a navigational controller to play this completely mediocre game. The game just feels lazy there are basically no changes whatsoever from the two year old predecessor, Killzone 2.
I played a few rounds of the online multiplayer, which was my main reason for buying this game. And as the rest of the game nothing was changed. The game modes are all the same as the previous game. They changed the rank up system slightly to allow players more specialization based on what class they prefer to play but with enough play it makes no difference and will ultimately end up being exactly like it was two years ago. The new maps, at least the few I was able to play through, were claustrophobic and didn't play like they were well thought out. In one map the snow effect made it near impossible to play. After only a little over an hour with the online multiplayer I'm about ready to go back to playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops."
If it isn't apparently clear from reading my review so far, I did not enjoy Killzone 3. I had a hard time even playing through the entire single player campaign. The game is marred by lazy writing and just a miasma of mediocrity. I mean it's a functional first person shooter that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. I personally feel like the game is banking more on the name than it's own merits. People will continue to buy this game like the Halo games based on the name alone but that doesn't mean it should keep going. Based on this latest release I think the series should quietly bow out and give way to some new properties before it turns into a complete farce like the Halo series has become.
I will give Killzone 3 a 5 out of 10 based. It gets a middle of the road score, which I feel is fitting for it's middle of the road gameplay and below par story.
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