Killzone 3 review: looks expensive, feels cheap

This has been a pretty pivotal console generation for first-person shooters. Developers like Infinity Ward, Bungie and DICE have dragged the genre away from its PC roots, tailoring controls for thumbs rather than mouse and keyboard fingers. In the process, shooters have become one of the most recognisable faces of gaming (as we're reminded every time an isolated psychopath decides to turn his high school into a shooting gallery), with the triple-A development costs, and expected profits, skyrocketing.

As a result, the FPS arena has become one dominated by a few platinum-gilded blockbuster franchises (Call of Duty, Halo, Battlefield, Half-Life) and clogged by the chaff of many more that couldn't make back their huge costs and died on the vine. The Killzone franchise, developed by Guerrilla Games and exclusive to the Playstation 3, has probably done well enough to step up to the big boys' table in gaming Valhalla, but for many has never quite lived up to expectations.

Killzone 3 represents Guerrilla's latest attempt to firmly mark out its own spot in the FPS big leagues. The story of a war between the earth-based ISA forces and a horde of militant offworld exiles called the Helghast has reached a head by the third game, with the ISA beating a retreat from an aborted invasion of the Helghast homeworld, leaving the player (Sgt. "Sev" Sevchenko) and a few stragglers marooned on a hostile planet trying to work out how to escape.

Killzone 3 certainly has compelling core mechanics, with the chug of the weaponry feeling satisfying and industrial, and the controls slightly tuned-up after the intentionally sluggish movements of the second game (although, in this day and age, it still feels strange to look down iron sights by clicking the right stick). Enemies are suitably engaging to fight, diving behind cover and reacting to the player's movements to maintain a dynamism that's essential in the modern shooter. So far, so triple-A.

It's almost everything outside of the core combat that falls flat with Killzone 3. The visuals are impressive and speak to the immense amount of time and money that was undoubtedly spent on providing an appropriately high-res (and 3-D if you can afford it, which you can't) experience. But the art behind all the textures and lighting is as dull and featurelessly industrial as a never-ending chamber filled with spanners.

Much was made of the new jungle and snow environments, but the overriding visual tone here is still one of bleak austerity and axle grease, an issue from which Guerrilla now can't escape as they've woven it into the canon of the game. Level design remains the same linear experience as the last games, in that it takes pains to constrict player movement through trenches and corridors rather than find a way to direct gamers while giving the illusion of freedom (Guerrilla could take a few Bungie masterclasses in this regard).

Far more troubling, however, are the downright amateurish elements of the game, from both a technical and a game direction standpoint. The sound design, while mostly excellent when it comes to the beefy clatter of the weapons, regularly suffers in other areas. Cut-scenes occasionally lose their impact because something that should be deafening is bafflingly quiet. The ambient chatter of your regular squad-mate Rico is constantly cut off before the end of sentences.

Game direction is a hugely important part of development, especially in FPS titles that should thrive on total immersion. Here it seems to have been virtually ignored, with plot points and basic rivets in the gameplay seemingly abandoned entirely. I'll give a couple of examples, without spoiling anything (although I'm probably doing a fair job of spoiling this game for you anyway).

After a daring rescue attempt and escape from a snow-capped Helghast fortress, Sev and Rico need to figure out a way of getting away. The game then simply cuts to giving the player control of the two of them speeding away on Helghast vehicles, with no connective tissue provided in between. I don't know if a cutscene was skipped because of a glitch or if time or money constraints forced a scene to be dropped, but it was a jarring moment that entirely broke the game's already faltering spell.

In another instance, a crane that's essential to player progress fails to work, giving the Helghast a chance to attack Sev and Rico from below. After the Helghast attack is held off, it magically fixes itself with no explanation. Don't worry reader, you haven't woken up in 2001. This is just a modern game with moments of 2001 game design. All these issues seem to point to the fact that, despite its blockbuster budget, elements of the game feel rushed and incomplete, propped up so they're just about playable and shoved onto store shelves.

The story also feels like a blast from the past, and a small step backwards from even Killzone 2, not a game revered for its narrative. The protagonist is a painfully dull, transparent cypher. Rico is an irritating military rebel pastiche whose bickering with higher-up Narville (himself a borderline parody of the good commander held back by his own rigidity) quickly descends into broken-record territory. There's a hot chick, because hey, games need hot chicks. Shame they forget to turn her into an actual character.

The premise of a stranded platoon of soldiers trying to co-ordinate a fighting retreat provides a great opportunity to force players onto the back foot with a battle that revolves around survival rather than victory. I envisaged the daring raids, supply line attacks and covert assassinations that would surely come with this kind of mismatched conflict. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that this is a familiar brand of Killzone action (complete with a grand plot to foil and cackling villains), during which you'll feel no more under threat than in the previous games in the series.

Of course, Guerrilla have also crafted some impressive set-pieces, with walking war buildings to destroy, mechs and space ships to pilot and jet packs to get introduced to and barely use again. But for all the game's amazing polygon count, it seems emblematic of everything that's wrong with blockbuster game development when it turns sour. Big bangs, big bucks and a gaping hole in the middle where the personality should be.

This is a single-player review only. Will update if the multiplayer is worth an update.