Killzone 3 is a great looking, solid playing game missing a few features that could have put it over the top.
If you've played Killzone 2, the first thing you'll notice with the sequel is the improved handling and responsiveness of the controls. The heavy feel still resonates in your movement, but it has been toned down to a more tolerable level. Aiming down the site is quicker and popping out of cover to shoot no longer requires you to play Twister with your fingers. One of the trade offs however is the level design and how Guerilla Games helped to facilitate this compromise. Almost all of the cover you will use is only waist high, which makes it easy to see what the enemy is doing but this only really protects the lower two-thirds of your body. Enemy aim is excellent and the result is that it can be hard to find suitable cover where you are not taking damage. This renders much of the game's cover useless. Whether or not this was a planned design feature it does make for some frustrating situations where you are desperate to find cover to recover.
The weapons themselves are fantastic. Killzone 3 offers a wide variety of guns and gadgets to cater to different play styles and situations. The campaign in particular gives you just the right tools for each scenario. It does feel a little convenient at times to have a radar guided missile launcher placed beside you when enemy tanks are advancing, but it is a lot of fun nonetheless. You'll find many first person shooter genre staples at your disposal. Heavy machine guns, SMGs, rockets, assault rifles and sidearms are stocked in abundance. Killzone 3 allows players to carry an extra slot for heavy weapons. These are the fun ones. The bolt gun and arc projector are particular standouts and provide some thrilling killing. One questionable feature of the game with regards to heavy weapons is why they feel so much heavier than standard guns when walking but not when running. You can sprint through levels just as fast with a huge missile cannon as you can with a pistol. This does not seem balanced.
Sliding into cover is a cool looking mechanic, but there are issues where you wont slide into the spot you are intending. The hud-less display keeps the screen looking clear but also make it tough at times to know if you are crouched or standing. Popping in and out of cover is subtle and this can be an issue because it makes you guess whether or not you are truly magnetized to cover before poking your head out. The new up close and personal melee kills are fun and are very gory.
The campaign is about as straightforward as you can get. The path is well defined and you are lead through it at a steady pace. Along the way you will asked to perform a variety of FPS standards. Sniping, assaulting, defending and vehicle segments are short and plentiful. The game does a good job to switch between these game types to keep the experience from getting bogged down. The campaign is a bit of a grind in some spots where it takes memorizing enemy positions and behavior before you are able to fight your way through. Enemy AI is very good. Except for snipers, the Helgast use cover fairly effectively and are smart enough to flank and advance on your position if you stay dug in to one spot for too long. This makes for some very intense firefights. Your squadmate AI on the other hand does not uphold any semblance of virtual brains. Teammates will stand in your line of fire, face the wrong way and refuse of fire on enemy positions at times. The story mode really leaves it all up to you to do the work, which is fine, but it makes the teamwork aspect of it feel senseless.
Multiplayer is a huge mode for any big FPS these days, and Killzone 3 does a great job with its competitive offering. Three gametypes are available: Guerrilla Warfare, Warzone and Operations. Warzone in particular is an addictive mode where mission types are randomly rotated throughout the match. You'll be asked to assassinate an enemy, or set charges on a specific location, or defend someone on your team. Online performance is responsive and very fast paced.
Botmode is an offline mode that offers players the same experience as online multiplayer, but against AI controlled enemies. Not all of the maps in multiplayer are available in Botmode which is disappointing. With only 7 maps available at launch, there is a bit of visual fatigue after a while. In both of these modes you can select which character type you want to use. The tactician, medic, infiltrator and marksman classes all give you different weapons, abilities and perks. While this variety is welcome, there is not as much progression and unlocking involved as there is in other FPS shooters.
Killzone 3 does not branch out to offer a new and original shooting experience. All of the fundamentals are here and are done very well, but nothing really pushes the boundaries further than what you have experienced in other games.
The other big void with this game is the complete absence of online cooperative play. There is split screen co-op for the campaign. This is an excellent feature and it is surprising that Guerilla didn't extend it further. Co-op in Botmode for example seems to be a huge missed opportunity.
Gameplay = 8/10.
Graphics.
Killzone 3 is one of the best looking games of this generation. From both a technical and artistic standpoint, Guerilla has done a jaw dropping job bringing the trashy industrialized planet of Helgan to life. One of the game's strengths is how it visually gives you a sense of this massive war raging across open battlefields when in essence you are confined to one solitary path. Every corner, alleyway and far off location has been littered and filled with great looking destruction.
The campaign levels are nicely designed to offer a variety of locations. Jungles, cities, snow fields and interiors have amazing draw distances, are well lit and really hammer home a unique sense of atmosphere. The level design is so dense that many times it is hard to seen distant enemies until they are firing on you.
Characters animate reasonably well. Faces are improved over the ones seen in Killzone 2. There were only a few small hiccups in animation and things popping in from time to time. The frame rate remains crisp despite tons of explosions and things being animated on screen.
There are a lot of cutscenes in this game and all of them are great looking. Set piece battles are few and far between, but when they happen they look fantastic. The one towards the end of the campaign in particular is about as spectacular as it gets. Killzone 3 is one great looking war game.
Graphics = 9.5/10
Sound.
The sounds of a futuristic war sound amazing. The humming of flying transports. The pounding explosions. The buzzing of chaingun fire. Killzone 3 sounds as good as it looks. Voice acting is very good even if the dialogue is commercialized macho-military cliché. The soundtrack is epic and supports the excitement and drama of any given situation in the game.
There were a few points where voice work would inexplicably cut out mid sentence when other sound effects were overlaid. Other than that Killzone 3 had a great audio track.
Sound = 8.5/10
Overall.
Killzone 3 hits all of the checkmarks you would want for a first person shooter. The only glaring omission is online cooperative play which hopefully will be patched in at some point. The campaign is a solid adrenaline rush gore-fest. Multiplayer competitive mode - which is a bit short on levels at launch - is expertly rendered. Few online multiplayer shooters offer such incredible graphics and performance. More player progression and customization would be nice, but the game gives you the basics. More could have been done to make this game push the boundaries of the genre, but there is no doubt that what was put into Killzone 3 makes it a solid PS3 exclusive for FPS lovers.
Final rating = 8.5/10