Eurogamer Expo 2010: Killzone 3 Hands-On Impressions

This years Eurogamer Expo afforded UK gamers who didn’t attend E3 a chance to get to grips with Killzone 3 and see how well it performs in 3D.

As I sat down with controller in hand I felt instantly at home. Those expecting a radical change from Killzone 2 will be sorely disappointed. This isn’t to say that nothing has been changed, but that it still remains true to the design choices laid out in its predecessor.

It’s only right that I commend Guerrilla games on switching up the scenery in the game. The original was a beautiful game, but the colour palette on display throughout the majority of the campaign was dull to say the least. Variety is the spice of life they say and while exchanging grey corridors for snowy mountains is not an amazing leap I can only hope that the game will continue to progress to better locations.

The weapons system has slightly changed too. Now you will be able to carry multiple primary weapons and switch between them at your leisure. The primary and secondary weapon system that has become the norm for modern day first person shooters has been exchanged for a slightly more retro approach. Feel like grabbing that turret to mow down unsuspecting Helghast, but don’t want to drop your trusty rifle? Then be my guest! I can imagine this will give the action in Killzone 3 a slightly faster pace as well as allowing for more options in those epic firefights.

There is also a new context sensitive melee system that is well done and extremely satisfying. To the point that I went out of my way to get up close and personal a few times, so that I could see the brutal melee in action. According to the developers the game actually scans the geometry and selects from a wide range of animations when you execute a melee attack, so you should rarely see the same old animation playing too many times over the course of the games campaign on release.

The demo wasn’t without its problems though. There were a few cases of character models getting stuck in geometry or not displaying their death animation after being killed and remaining “active” on the screen in a neutral state. The AI was far from helpful and I found myself running over to revive my partner more often than not. These are all issues I have no doubt will be resolved in the final retail version, but lead onto my biggest gripe – the 3D.

Killzone 3 is one of the few titles on its way to the Sony’s Playstation 3 capable of displaying in 3D, but the version on display at the Expo wasn’t doing it any favours. The effect managed to reduce the splendid visuals of Killzone 3 to a grainy version of the standard output and was also hampered by quite severe ghosting. Hopefully this was due to the setup at the expo, as I’m sure that 3D was not introduced to gaming to detract from the standard experience.

Unfortunately, we were not able to get out hands on with the Playstation Move version of Killzone 3, but it was demonstrated to us during the one of the developer sessions. It is worth mentioning that the development team are still trying to perfect Move’s integration, but the version shown looked slightly twitchy. It’s also worth noting that the down sight aim for weapons had quite a bit of auto-aim integrated. This is fine for single player, but brings with it some concerns for multiplayer if Guerilla Games intend to have both control schemes available in all lobbies. Hopefully they will continue to balance and tweak the formula as the multiplayer is a major part of the franchise.

In the end I believe anyone who has played and enjoyed Killzone 2 will no doubt thoroughly enjoy the follow up. Guerrilla Games seem to be tweaking the original formula while keeping true to their initial vision. Hopefully they can continue to perfect the 3D experience and we should all be in for a treat.