KILLZONE 3 REVIEW

Killzone is often branded as Playstation's Halo, and while the comparison is maybe a little wrong considering the differing aspects of both games Killzone certainly is the best exclusive first person shooter on the system that does 'everything'.  Yes I'm well aware there's also the Resistance series but that tends to be more the thinking man's shooter rather than the space marine blow em all up that Halo and Killzone are.

Killzone 3 starts off right where Killzone 2 left off (spoiler alert of course) after the game's protagonist's are killed at the end of the second game, our hero's Rico and Sev are pretty much abandoned by the ISA on the Helghan planet along with the Helghast, guys who have crazy red eyes, to deal with their anger for you killing Helghan leaders Radec and Visari in Killzone 2.

While the overall story and setting of Killzone 3 is a lot better than Killzone 2, I feel that the protagonists are no where near as good as the second's.  Radec's lust for death and no nonsense killing isn't really matched at all by Stahl and Orlock.  While there is some fantastic political dialogue describing the breaking factions within the Helghan throughout the campaign, it isn't really explored enough unfortunately in the game.  What could have been a fantastic story petered out into just being a good one.  Perhaps that sounds like I'm doing a dis-service to the game's story, don't get my wrong it is really good and kept me engrossed till the end much better than two did, but there was just so much potential to really flesh out what's really going on in the Helghan hierarchy, an opportunity certainly missed.

Killzone 3 - Now with Jet Packs

The campaign takes place in various environments from an alien jungle to arctic landscapes, nuclear wastelands, war torn cities and a rather interesting final mission with a few curveballs with the elements, well worth the wait to the end of the campaign as the final level was a personal highlight for me.

While nothing revolutionary has come to the table gameplay wise the addition of brutal melee's is very much welcome.  Killzone has always been ahead of other shooters' is terms of making you feel like you are a human and not just a floating camera.  The brutal melee's are so well done that you can feel the knife stabbing into a Helghan helmet or the neck snapping, etc etc you get the idea.

Of course multiplayer is back with no real new additions of note, strangely a two player co-op mode has been added for campaign but not for online.  A really weird decision by Guerilla games and I'd love to know why, considering how good something like Gears of War is with online co-op it's a real shame you can't play through the campaign online with a friend.

Possibly the best Peripheral ever made

I can't end this review without talking about the 'sharpshooter' a Playstation peripheral that looks like an assault rifle that utilises the Playstation Move and Navigation controller.  While there's no doubting it looks amazing, there is always a worry with accessories like this that they won't be able to pull it off, well they did.  It's not just some lump of plastic it's a fully functional gun with everything except of course real bullets.  I played through the whole campaign with the sharpshooter because I was so comfortable using it.  For the first half an hour there will be a getting to know each other period especially when turning corners but soon you'll be having so much fun time fly's by.

In closing Killzone 3 is the best first person shooter on the console in my opinion.  It combines the space marine gung ho of Halo with the militarisation of something like a Call of Duty while still having a convincing cast and storyline, oh and the multiplayer is up there as one of the best in gaming.  While I wish they had fleshed out the story a wee bit more and perhaps showed a bit of innovation in multiplayer (something every FPS is accountable for) it's still a must buy for any self respecting PS3 owner.

9/10