Gorgeous eye candy and mindless fun. Campaign improves on Killzone franchise in every possible way, w/ a few complaints
Killzone 3 improves the campaign in a huge way, yet it taketh away from of the best elements of online multiplayer. Nevertheless the game is clearly a step forward to me as the improvements to the campaign outweight what was lost from what is still a quality (if typical) multiplayer experience. Gone are the metallic steel and overuse of greys and browns. Pretty much every color in the spectrum is represented in this game. At times I was wondering if I was playing Metroid Prime HD, or the latest Killzone. This wasn't ALWAYS a good thing, but in net the game benefited greatly from the new looks and new environmental design.
As far as the story presentation was concerned. I've seen some criticisms of it, and I have to say I am baffled that the story would be singled out as a particular weakness. If anything it is a strength. While the script does come off like a bad action movie, most video games writing and voice acting is laughable at best, and make "bad action movies" look like oscar worthy films. Killzone 3 is without a doubt in the upper echelon of storytelling for a 1st person shooter, for what little that is worth, just like a "cheesy" over-pretentious action movie, I'm quite sure the story will get old with each successive replay, but my 1st impression was that the game kept me engaged from beginning to end as successfully as any shooter can these days. There were times where I scratched my head a bit at the writing, but ultimately the story did what it set out to do.
As far as game-play, Killzone 3 is much tighter and more responsive than the previous installment. Your character just feels lighter on his feet, and the gun responds faster. I am undecided if this is for the better as I enjoyed the "weightier" feel of the last game. However these changes were intentional as alot of people complained about the controls of the previous game and wanted it to "feel" closer to some of the other shooters. With this goal in mind, the changes accomplished just that. The control layout, just like in KZ2, I immediately switched to the "alternate" layout which is more reminiscent of games like Call of Duty and modern Medal of Honor.
There are a large variety of mission types in KZ3, moreso than the previous game. There is a stealthy level where you must stay hidden in the grass or in dark crevaces. There is another (short) "mech" level not unlike KZ2. There is a tank level, which (sadly) is on rails this time, I was a bit peeved by that. There are a couple of on rails flying missions on the surface of the planet, and near the end there is an on-rails flying mission in SPACE. The last one sounds alot better than it was, for me they sort of missed some potential in this section and this caused the last part of the game to be a bit anti-climactic for me.
Nevertheless from beginning to end this was one of the best shooter campaigns I've played on PS3, and easily out-doesthe last effort. It also lives up to it's reputation as the most visually impressive shooter for PS3 - and as of now the margin for this is quite wide.