Killzone 3 is an upcoming first-person shooter for the PlayStation 3 set for release on February 2011, and is developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fourth installment in the Killzone series and the first game in the series to be presented in 3D and will be the first to include motion controls using the PlayStation Move.
The game picks up immediately after the ending of Killzone 2 and follows the previous games’ main protagonist, Sev, a Special Forces operative fighting for the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance against the Helghast Empire. The game’s story has been referred to being similar to the story of David and Goliath.
The game continues shortly after Sev successfully defeated Radec and Rico having killed Visari, the Helghast dictator who leaves them to a fleet of Helghast ships approaching them destroying ISA vessels. The death of their dictator has left the Helghast Empire in a state of internal struggles with political scheming against each other gripping the Helghast Empire. Now, Sev and his comrade Rico are trapped in the cross-fire between the various political factions in the Helghast Empire without any reinforcements and are left to fight alone in order to escape as the ISA struggles to regroup its forces. The game will also give players a deeper look in to Helghan culture such as their language and showcase whatever humanity they have left within them.
Killzone 3’s story will also be a lot more light-hearted as compared to its predecessor which Guerrilla felt suffered from an overly serious and dark story which was one of the major complaints of the original, though they mentioned that it would not be too light-hearted as it is still a war. In addition, Guerrilla Games has also hired an external writer to focus on only writing the story-line so as to give a fresh perspective to the story as well as hiring a lot more Hollywood actors to elevate the level of storytelling within the dialogue of the game. Guerrilla Games has also mentioned that the game’s story will be an integral part of the game with dialogue and character development being greatly improved from its 2009 predecessor. In addition, Guerrilla Games has also said that they are curtailing the swearing in Killzone 3, which many felt were unnecessary in the dialogue of Killzone 2. They mentioned that the dialogue in the game should be focused on advancing the story rather than “gratuitous” off the scale swearing without reason.
The gameplay will strongly resemble that of Killzone 2 albeit with several tweaks and changes. Unlike previous games in the series, the game will take place in various harsh environments such as Arctic landscapes, a lethal alien jungle, nuclear wastelands as well as space battles rather than only the city-scape environment which were present in its predecessors. Another notable new feature is the ability to use jet packs in the game, which were seen in Killzone: Liberation, however, these new jet packs will be used in a different manner than that of those that appeared in Killzone: Liberation. The game will also feature a revamped close combat melee system which include new brutal melee attacks as well as the ability to string together multiple attacks in a combo. Unlike its predecessor, Killzone 3 will feature fully destructible environments which is an improvement from its predecessor which featured only partially destructible environments in limited areas. A new weapon called the Wasp has also been revealed, which acts as a multi-firing Rocket Launcher.
Guerilla’s managing director, Hermen Hulse, has stated Killzone 3 will use close to 100% of the PS3’s power.
