Killzone 3 Is Easily The Prettiest Shooter On PlayStation 3, But Now The Gameplay Is As Instantly Gratifying As The Visuals.

We tried. We really tried. But after 25 hours of gameplay it never really clicked for us. The hefty controls made the gameplay too slow; before long we found ourselves itching for something a little less gritty. We appreciate what Guerrilla did with Killzone 2, and we know there are plenty of people that loved it, but it just wasn't for us. Killzone 3, on the other hand, obviously is.

It's not like the game's changed much at all. There definitely is a distinctive feels to the way weapons bob with your character's breathing patterns, and it's still notably slower than competing shooters. But it all feels snappier. Guns move across the screen with lightning accuracy. That's not to say they are devoid of weight — this most definitely is still Killzone — they just feel more responsive. It's a difficult paradigm to explain, but it makes sense once you are behind the controller. The guns are really satisfying too. Admittedly we're writing these impressions shortly after a 60 minute session so we haven't seen much of the game yet, but the weapons we encountered were punchy and loaded with an erratic recoil.

Perhaps most rewarding (and presumably irritating for the hardcore Killzone 2 fans) are the notices that acknowledge each kill with a score. The Killzone chirp is back, but this time it's accentuated by a more inticing XP system. The reworked XP plays into a less cumbersome upgrade mechanic. In our short time with the game we focused on the medic class, but we're eager to see how the other classes fare.

Naturally the visuals remain top class. Weapon models are beautifully rendered and lovingly designed, while the environments are on a whole new level compared to other games in the same class. The sound is also chunky, with guns reacting accordingly to the environments they are fired in.

Clearly the multiplayer demo is only a small taste of what Killzone 3's full multiplayer component is set to offer, but already we're convinced we'll be getting much more out of Guerrilla's latest offering than the previous iteration. There's an instant accessibility that opens up Killzone 3 to players such as ourselves. How veteran Killzone fans will react remains to be seen, but we're convinced that Call Of Duty die-hards could be converted after five-minutes in front of Killzone 3.