Review: Killzone 3 - Call of Space Duty

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 20 February 2011 15:50

Entertainment

It's time to smack in a new clip and head back to the war-torn landscapes of Helghan in Killzone 3.  This PlayStation 3 exclusive builds marginally on its predecessor, turns the action up a notch, and gives First Person Shooter fans an all-too-short rollercoaster ride full of shells, explosions, destruction and death.

So the Helghast versus ISA war is upon us again, and we are one more time thrust into the heavy combat boots of Sergeant Tomas 'Sev' Sevchenko and his good buddy Rico as the story picks up immediately at the conclusion of Killzone 2.

Killzone 3
	Developer	Guerrilla Games
	Publisher	Sony
	Rating	MA 15+
PS3

The ISA have successfully invaded the Helghan capital, but they are not out of the woods yet, resistance is still strong, and the (thinly-veiled) space Nazi s of the Helghast high command have hatched a plot that may win them the war after all.

Story wise, this is truly a continuation of the games predecessor,  with the good guys (the ISA) battling to survive on a hostile planet, whilst deciding which of their commanders orders they should obey and which should be ignored.  Meanwhile, the Helghan commanders, pallid reincarnations of Hitler and Stalin (though, initially with ye olde English accents) fight amongst themselves for power over their forces and secret weapons.

The voice acting is okay, though the lip syncing is terrible, whilst the dialogue choices are straight action-film pap; 'Hey that's Earth' says one grunt in response to an onscreen representation of his home planet.    

Visually, the thing that has changed with this Killzone is the introduction of location variety, in the review of Guerrilla Game's Killzone 2, we said:  'The grimy Gears of War setting is a step up visually from the Xbox 360 exclusive, and even though the brown, grey and blood red pixels get the lion-share of a workout, the game is a wonder to behold.  It's just a little too bad that Helghan doesn't have a couple of jungles, or sea-side resorts with major military installations to be invaded.'

Thankfully this time around, we do indeed get to see the Helghan death jungles as well as ocean based battles and snow, thanks for listening Guerrilla Games.  For the most part however, Sev and the team will be battling through the urban landscapes of an extremely war-torn world.  

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