To simply put it, Killzone 3 is leagues beyond what Killzone 2 offered. The game moves faster, is more fluid, but it also allows you to hang back, sit in cover with your shotgun or sniper rifle. In other words, it provides great balance for all players. I’ve enjoyed trying different tactics, and if you devote yourself to one style, chances are you will be successful. Even jetpacking has its advantages. First, it comes with its own gun, and allows you to carry your primary weapon too. So you can use the jetpack to get into a nice sniping location, ditch the jetpack and pull out the sniper for massive damage!
Cool Assassinations:
The animations you get when you melee someone in close range is pretty cool. However, it’s a little too easy to pull off. For example, me and another player were running right towards one another, I shot him point blank in the chest, but I guess I was half a second too late, cause my gun didn’t shoot, and he rakes my face from the front. Perhaps the assassinations should be reserved for from the back, similar to Halo. And, a double melee hit required to kill someone from the front.
Moving Props:
It’s always cool when you get to interact with the game’s environment. When I saw a file cabinet and the drawers were open, I walked up to them and was able to close them. Sure, it’s a very small detail, but that’s exactly why it was cool.
Before we go any further check out this video I made that basically goes over everything below…
Classes
Engineer:
In addition to placing turrets, you can repair damaged or destroyed ammunition dispensers, mounted guns and automated turrets. Also, you can hack enemy placed turrets, this will transfer ownership until the Engineer is killed or the turret is re-hacked.
Marksman:
The Marksman can disable enemy radar within 15 meters and can stay cloaked indefinitely unless the Marksman damages another player.
Tactician:
There’s a lot of responsibility as a Tactician. You can capture spawn points for your team, reveal enemies in a 30 meter radius, and deploy a flying drone that can track and fire at enemies. Probably the most diverse class but also the most difficult to master.
Infiltrator:
As an Infiltrator, you can disguise yourself as the other team, making it super easy to infiltrate an area filled with enemies that would previously be a death trap. Also, you can obtain unlimited stamina and perform actions such as placing and disarming explosives 50% faster.
Field Medic:
Medics have that amazing power to bring their teammates back to life. Although, a Medic can make the player even stronger than they were before they died. Also, a Medic can be a walking tree of life, emitting health to any teammates around him.
Glitches
Stairs
On the map Frozen Dam, I got stuck on the stairs in the same spot, every, single, time. I’m sure this will be fixed in the final version but, right now it’s annoying, very annoying
Bots:
They often got stuck on corners, and moved in pretty defined patterns. This is another thing I’m sure they’ll fix before the final release.
“Session Master Not Available”:
In the middle of a match, I received the above message. To me this means:
1) The dedicated server went down
2) They’re using P2P and the host quit or their internet died
Regardless if it was reason 1 or 2, the effect of this error was the frustrating part. My player froze in his spot, however, the background noise continued to play, and the round timer continued to countdown. In fact, when the round timer reached 0, it reset to 515:54 then froze at that time. Pressing Start would not bring up the pause menu, the game was completely unresponsive to controller input. To get out of this, I had to quit back to the XMB.
Clan Support
I didn’t have anyone to join my clan, so my ability to test clans in Killzone 3 was limited. However, in the video, I did walkthrough how to create a clan, so you can at least see what that looks like.
Opinions
Radar:
I’d like to know if I’m visible or invisible on the enemy’s radar. For instance, in Halo the dot on the radar that represents your player will disappear if you’re invisible. Killzone 3’s radar is not a duplicate copy of Halo’s radar so copying the disappearing dot tactic would not work. What can be done in Killzone 3 is, if you’re visible on an enemy’s radar, your dot is one color. If you’re invisible, it’s another. That would clear up the confusion and is easy to keep track of in the heat of battle.
Final Thoughts
Whether you hated or loved Killzone 2, or if you’ve never played a Killzone title, Killzone 3 will be worth your time. In the beta alone, the controls are vastly improved over every previous iteration of the series, the gameplay is much more refined, and the unlockables will keep you busy for a long time to come. Also, for all of you on the cutting edge of new technology, Killzone 3 will ship with full 3D support. Killzone 3 may not have the hype of its predecessors, but, it might turn out to be the best Killzone yet!