Killzone 3
DEVELOPER: Guerrilla Games
FORMAT: PS3
AGE RESTRICTION: 18
RATING: HHHHI
Though this is a war set in a sci-fi future, Killzone 3’s lifeblood is siphoned from a dark past. In the fight between Helghast (mutated early space colonisers) and human, it doffs its cap to World War II. There is no better inspiration, should you want to stage the war to end all wars.
We see the evil Helghast Empire cast as a nation no longer prepared to crawl before their earthly vanquishers, the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA). Humiliated in battle, they have amassed a powerful army, ready to sock one back in Earth’s blue eye.
For Helghast, read Nazi Germany. This much is evident in the fetishism of their uniforms and the impressive scale of their rallies. Behind closed doors, however, another war is being waged. The Helghast military council is littered with snivelling yes-men and ambitious power-brokers. A few famous faces dot this landscape – Stalin as a bullish admiral, Hitler content to stalk the background – and amid much table thumping and snide repartee, we witness the stirrings of a coup. Bad news as far as the ISA is concerned.
Meanwhile, the ISA’s soldiers are getting the hell out of Dodge. The evacuation, however, is a suicide mission. Huge Helghast mech-warriors stalk the churned-up landscape while feisty foot soldiers seem to spawn from the ground. The going is tough, pretty much every inch of the way.
Though the story is told from the point of view of one soldier, Killzone 3 is played out on an epic scale. The various scraps with the Helghast take place on land, sea and air, encompassing wild variations in terrain and weather conditions. Visually, from the scripted tension in the cinematic vignettes to the bullet ballet in the theatres of war, Killzone 3 is killer. There’s so much attention to detail here, in the exploding sci-fi shrubbery, in the gory blood cascade that heralds a successful headshot, in the choking crawl of a soldiers final grope at life…
Yet, all this would count for nought if the actual fighting failed to compliment the visual punch. Thankfully, Killzone 3 delivers a devastating 1-2. To say the action is explosive is a bit of an understatement. Shells and grenades rain down on your position. Buildings collapse, machines explode and all the while, bullets and lasers home in on your head. In the heat of battle, with venom stacked up on all sides, the experience can be bewildering as you seek out targets.
The Helghast are also showing good fighting form, charging through defensive lines, playing cat and mouse in the ruins of their cities. They’re pretty accurate shots, too, but you should have more than enough firepower to give as good as you get. Your weapons cache transverses a few ages in terms of technology, with flame throwers and machine guns accompanying the more futuristic licence afforded by devastating laser guns, but the result is never short of satisfying. There’s a heavy edge to the shooting, an almost jackhammer effect as round upon round thuds into enemy targets.
There’s barely a chance of a breather as you are pitched headlong into set-piece battles involving vehicles and jet packs. When tagged on to the odd stealth mission, and a satisfying sniper mode, the action acquires a multilayered substance to back up its visual appeal. You can even incorporate the PlayStation Move! into the story, and the transition from console to motion sensor is seamless.
This is so because Killzone 3 is best enjoyed in 3D. Here, the extra depth perception only serves to enhance the astounding scale of the battle environments, while simultaneously making the game so much more immersive.
A follow-up Killzone is already on the cards. It’s a no-brainer really. Because even though each fight might feel like your last, you don’t really want the action to end. - Tonight