War is far from over. The murder of Scholar Visari (at the end of Killzone 2), the leader of the rebellious forces, galvanized once more the Helghast into an unstoppable war-machine seeking vengeance at the cost of the ISA troops. The story picks up exactly where the one in the previous installment left off, focusing on the handful of ISA soldiers which were the spearhead of the last assault against the palace, now cut off from the rest of the ISA forces evacuating the planet and left behind on the brutally hostile Helghan homeworld. The start of the game is surprisingly promising from a plot perspective, with new, interesting and highly promising characters joining the old cast on both sides of the barricade and with a flow of events which leaves no room for breathers. The story that follows is equally surprising, but unfortunately from a completely different and highly disappointing perspective. Any sort of character interaction in Killzone 3 exists only to give birth to a whole set of rough, brutish, cliché dialogs. For this I could find an excuse in the fact war doesn’t leave room for social pleasantries and subtle, juicy metaphors, but with that in mind I find no excuse for the fact that none of the characters seem even remotely interested or touched in by the horrors that come with any armed conflict. Scores of friends, colleagues, comrades and enemies fall dead around Sev, our hero, and he is as emotionless as a frozen brick.

Luckily Killzone 3 is not an RPG, otherwise it would have provided one of the most non-immersive experiences in gaming history. It’s an FPS and for all it’s worth it seems the developers at Guerrilla Games never, not for one second, forgot what this genre is all about. The game is literally packed with thrilling, breathtaking encounters brimming with action, and with the help of your imagination, they tend to compensate for the story’s complete lack of depth. Killzone 3 comes with a wide variety of shooter approaches seamlessly mixed together to provide a complete gameplay session. In one level you’ll be jumping from cover to cover tossing grenades around you and blindly laying covering fire against a horde of Helghast forces, in another you’ll be sneaking through enemy camps and silently deal with unsuspecting patrols, while in the next you’ll finally put that rocket launcher to good use and turn tanks into mushrooms of flaming debris. Whatever you like in a shooter game, I’m pretty sure Killzone 3 has it. That includes vehicles.

When it comes to shooters, especially consoles shooters, there is a trend established in the last few years that generally says that if the game doesn’t have a rich and rewarding vehicle section it’s not worth playing. I have no logical explanation for that, or at least not one that wouldn’t offend a lot of players, and chances are a lot of the developers are thinking the same way. But why struggle to swim against the current, when you can simply float with it? It’s certainly simpler to create a level that offers 10-15 min of gameplay in which you place the character on rails, give him a heavy machine gun and tell the player to blast away everything that wonders into his field of view. Killzone 3 not only has this turret level design approach with its cheap and accessible fun, but also plenty of other motorized contraptions which you can fully control as you would control the normal human character. In addition, the old mounted heavy weapons have been revamped from an ammo perspective and now you can even remove the weapon from the mount and take it with you for later use. And it never grows old to storm into a room and sweep it clean with a mini-gun that’s spitting hundreds of rounds per minute. It may feel a bit overpowered, yes, but let’s be honest: it’s fun.

It’s safe to say that once the shooting starts in Killzone 3 you’ll never be idle or bored, unless of course you choose to – very important difference. Like many other console shooters, Killzone 3 suffers from bad-controller syndrome and symptoms of this non-lethal yet highly irritating disease are all around you. Enemies, even if engaged by the player, will never leave their predefined patrol area to pursue, and this is because the player needs a safe zone, an area where he can retreat and recover. They will not spawn behind you, but only in front of you, and if however they do spawn behind you, they make sure to spoil the element of surprise by babbling some threat, after which they will probably first move to cover and only then shoot at you. Why? Have you ever tried doing a perfect 180° turn on a default console controller while keeping the Y axis value unchanged? It’s practically impossible – you can’t efficiently target an enemy located at your six within a response time fitting combat-realism.  And these are just a couple of examples of why the game can be boring if you choose to make so – the list could be a lot bigger. So in order to have fun you must behave in a certain way, in a way which allows the game to keep you entertained. Charge enemy positions after flushing them out with grenades, rush towards them under the cover of suppressing fire, don’t reload, just change weapons on the fly, and whatever you do, don’t stop! Move, move a lot, and work to make the game entertaining. The alternative would be to stay in cover and snipe the enemies from safe distance. The result is pretty much the same and the method is much more effective, but the FPS adrenaline rush is dramatically diminished or completely lost. To be crystal clear: this not a Killzone 3 specific issue, but a defining one for all console FPS. Blame it on the controller.

Killzone 3 is a visually rewarding game, with elements that perfectly fit and enhance the combat scenarios. However, with all the added eye-candy, it doesn’t stray too far from the direction set by the previous installment, but there are some improvements here and there that you are bound to notice. Sound wise, if you manage to ignore the cliché dialogs and the cheesy music, the game is equally impressive. The end result of all those things put together coupled with the correct attitude towards the game’s design and limitations, is a complete gameplay experience which not many FPS can provide. Apart from the single player campaign, Killzone 3 features other gameplay modes such as split screen co-op campaign, a multiplayer mode against bots and the already famous online multiplayer feature. If you’re going for some extra kicks then the PlayStation Move and 3D TV options should keep you satisfied.

While Guerrilla Games didn’t raise the bar for console shooters with this PS3 exclusive, they nevertheless managed to deliver a fun, rewarding and challenging FPS experience. The genre did not evolve with the release of this game, but it is certainly richer with it.