Killzone 3 gets you another violent date with the Helghast

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This article was published 24/03/2011 (5339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The war against the Helghast rages on in Killzone 3, despite the death of their leader. At the end of the previous game, Interplanetary Strategic Alliance Sgt. Rico Velasquez killed Emperor Scolar Visari despite orders to take him alive — and that was exactly the wrong move to make.

The almost-human, warlike Helghast are not a people to fold in the face of adversity — that they nuked their aptly named capital city of Pyrrhus to cripple the ISA’s land assault is a big clue (to say nothing of the city’s name itself).

The survivors of the failed ISA assault on planet Helghan are now trying desperately to escape the fanatical soldiers out to destroy them, and players once again take of the role of Sgt. Tomas “Sev” Sevchencko, often accompanied by Rico, as he battles through legions of orange-goggled Helghast soldiers (a second player can also join in on the campaign).

Sev and Rico will fight in the bombed-out industrial hell of Pyrrhus, in jungle snowy mountain climes and in other locations. The settings are more varied and there are some new toys, like a jet pack, but the game play is familiar — take cover, kill Helghast, pick up a new weapon or two, move on to the next area. It’s well done and feels a lot like a sci-fi Modern Warfare.

The lasting draw, as is often the case in shooters, is the multiplayer mode. Killzone 3 has many improvements over the previous game’s already-great offerings.

Killzone 2 featured a variety of soldier classes to choose from, each with two intriguing powers, but strictly regulated how they were earned.

Players had to earn progressively higher amounts of points to open up new classes and weapons, and each class required a special goal to be met to unlock their second ability. It was time-consuming and required players to spend a lot of time using classes they might not prefer in order to open up one they were interested in.

Killzone 3 streamlines the process. There are five classes — Engineer, Tactician, Field Medic, Sharpshooter and Infiltrator — and all are available from the start. Secondary abilities are still locked, but players can pick and choose which abilities and weapons to open up by spending points earned through play in several game modes.

— McClatchy Newspapers