• Posted February 3rd, 2011 at 17:32 EDT by Adam Dolge
• 19 Comments

(continued from previous page) ...of war colors, like greens and browns. Killzone 3’s color palette ranges from oranges, to purples, and grays and reds, giving a truly unique look that goes beyond KZ2. Despite the impressive scenery, we did spot a couple of niggles in some of the earlier levels, however. One particularly nasty glitch in the jungle forced us to restart the last checkpoint about a dozen times. In addition, there are also some visual and audio bugs, which is a bit disappointing, but they’re relatively minor and we imagine can be easily ironed out with a patch.

There's no doubt you’ve already ascertained that the game looks and sounds great, but how does it actually play? Well, the good news is that the gameplay hasn’t changed a great deal since Killzone 2. As such, all the familiar mechanics are very much still in place. You can hide and snap to cover, and your weapons still carry a fair amount of weight. Killzone 2’s gun mechanics were a turnoff for some, and if you fell into that category, it’s worth giving the sequel another shot. Weapons are still heavy, but they are easier to chug around. Guns look incredibly realistic and you have three slots to juggle, enough for a pistol, medium and large weapon. We especially enjoyed the ultimate Helghast weapon, a variation on their green-bio arsenal that disembowels your enemies. One shot takes out a single target, but you can hold down the fire button to charge it, sending out a giant green orb that evaporates anyone in its vicinity.  

Sliding into cover offers some awesome action sequences. If you time it right, you can slide behind cover, quickly jump over it, and then land a series of deadly melee attacks. The brutal melee attacks are just that: absolutely vicious and full of gratuitous violence. What’s great about hand-to-hand combat is the way you can use the natural environment to your advantage. You can smash heads against the road or even gouge eyes out with your thumbs.

The new feature of flying around on a jetpack is exhilarating, but airborne combat proves somewhat of an annoyance. You have limited airtime, so you have to make sure you aren’t going to fall into a swarm of enemies, or land in deadly water. We found it best to fly out of the way of oncoming enemies, find a safe vantage point, and unleash the fury. Still, it’s a cool addition and if you get the hang of it, it becomes more than just a great weapon; it transforms into a vital tool in the art of stealth and ambush.

One of the most requested features from Killzone 2 is the ability to play through the campaign in local split-screen co-op with a friend. Fortunately, Killzone 3 has this feature, and it works just fine. We didn’t get a ton of time to try co-op, but what time we did have was enjoyable. We could see people beating the game on their own, and then playing a second time with a buddy.  

If you are looking for a killer online multiplayer first-person shooter, Killzone 3 is your new home. It’s truly incredible. The campaign takes about eight hours to beat, but you’ll get plenty more content with online multiplayer. The key to multiplayer is the changing gameplay dynamics, just like in Killzone 2. There’s more here than just your rudimentary ‘search and destroy’ type objectives and we promise FPS fans will find plenty here to keep themselves occupied for months on end.

The maps are perfect for multiplayer, with plenty of places to hide, tons of layers, and plenty of different environments and themes. Killzone 3 online does a great job of keeping the war between the Helghast and ISA alive, and the vast majority of missions require the bad guys to defend against the good guys. We played the multiplayer beta, and feel like the actual game has improved—of course, that could just be because we played the regular campaign before jumping into the multiplayer. Our time online was relatively smooth and we rarely encountered any hiccups.

As expected, you’ll gain experience points and skill points as you rack up the hours online. You can spend points on various weapon ... (continued on next page)