Killzone 3: Single Player Review

A little while back I took some time to play Killzone 3 (KZ3). I was already on the hype train before I bought the game so I was expecting to be slightly disappointed; surprisingly I wasn't at all.


Overall I preferred KZ3 to it's predecessor, the pacing of the game was pretty darn good. I actually liked all of the vehicle missions that were "rail shooter" style. It was nice since these parts of the game allowed me to take a break from the usual "run around shoot these guys, set those charges here, etc...". So I enjoyed the fact that there was some variation in the missions to keep things interesting.

In terms of visuals, the game is top notch; amazingly it was even better looking than KZ2, the detail in the textures and lighting was amazing. Also, the game maintained its dark tone and atmosphere which I enjoyed in the previous games. By now you would probably know that I can pretty shallow since I like the games that I play to be pretty. I must say I really liked the Helgan jungle level, it was an interesting take on what wildlife could be like on such a hostile distant planet.

There a few aspects of the game that irritated me but the most irritating of all was the lack of recoil. I really did miss all the recoil that the guns had in KZ2, it gave a sense of realism that pulled me away from the Call of Duty (COD) franchise and other "arcade style" shooters. The lack of recoil made things too easy, especially concerning the sniper rifle. It used to be a challenge to snipe in KZ2 which I liked since I enjoy a challenge. This change annoyed me throughout the game but I can live with it.

Most shooters of this era lack a remotely decent plot in their campaigns but I was surprised that KZ3 had a pretty good plot; it was much stronger than KZ2. There was a lot more cut scenes, more focus on the characters, better voice acting all things that the last game lacked. Although the transitions between cut scenes seemed a little unpolished and the ending of the game (before the credits) was somewhat abrupt I found that the story was told effectively.

All in all, I think KZ3's single player lived up to the hype since it was better than expected. I found the changes in the game play design, namely the recoil issue were implemented to cater to the broader "COD" crowd but I feel that the developers made a mistake by doing this. KZ3 is a great game but I feel like little changes like this made it lose some of it's character so it can be more like everything else.