Killzone 3 Beta Impressions

Well upon downloading and installing the Killzone 3 beta about an hour later I booted it up and was blown away immediately by the new features right off the bat. Mechs are in multiplayer and they are a force to be reckoned with. I was annihilating people in this thing with its missiles and turret gun until I was finally taken down. Jet-packs are also in multiplayer which are very fun but you can be vulnerable in them.  You make think that these additions may imbalance the game.  Well if you plan on taking a Mech head on then of course your going to get crushed but with the right tactics it’s not hard to take out a Mech.

Building your character in Killzone 3 is much more personal as oppose to Killzone 2 where you rank up then unlock things. As you rank up in Killzone 3 you are awarded Unlock Points and these points can be saved up and spent on weapons or skills for any of the class, not just the one you used to rank up. This makes the player have much more room for deeper customization for example you can have a class have an unconventional weapon for that specific class with limitations of course.

One thing that can get a little confusing is the objectives. It can seem hard to figure where and what you are supposed to do at some points during matches. Objectives can be all over the place and then you must figure out what to do at that objective which could have been made clearer, I think during the match itself. Take Bad Company 2 for instance; as simply as it is, you are verbally told during the match what needs to be done (attack this position, defend this one, plant this bomb etc.).  I even believe I saw a spawn point in a place only accessible with a jet-pack which would make it hard to take control of.

The classes you can be in the beta are the Engineer, Marksman, Tactician, Infiltrator and the Field Medic.  The Engineer which can deploy turrets that become more efficient as you level up as well as having a repair tool that will eventually be able to hack enemy turrets to work for your team until you die.  His primary Weapons are the M224-1A LMG, STA11 SMG and the STA3 LMG. The Marksman class can go invisible as well as being able to scramble the enemies radar with his primary weapons in the beta being STA14 Rifle, STA11 SMG and the VC32 Sniper Rifle with one of his secondary weapons being a Shotgun Pistol! Sweetness. The Tactician class is what you want when it comes to capturing points as he can capture them quicker making them spawn points for your team with occasional jet-pack/mortar beacon spawns there. The Tactician can eventually deploy flying Sentry Drone unpon ranking up with his primary weapons being STA11 SMG, M224-1A LMG and the STA14 Semi-Auto Rifle. Infiltrators can disguise themselves as a member of the opposing team and with increased stamina, their primary weapons are the LS13 Shotgun, STA11 SMG and the STA52 Assault Rifle. The Field Medic can obviously revive mortally wounded allies as well being able to eventually deploy a Medi-Droid to help heal with his primaries being STA11 SMG, LS13 Shotgun and the M82 Assault Rifle.

All primary and secondary abilities can be upgraded and may have different versions meaning you might not always want to use the most upgraded one. That being said you can have different abilities mapped to a separate button like LEFT on D-Pad or RIGHT on D-Pad.
The spawn screen looks like this which you can mix and match with it all depending on what you decided to use your unlock points towards:

• CAREER (Engineer, Marksman, Tactician, Infiltrator or Field Medic)
• PRIMARY (Primary weapon)
• SECONDARY (Secondary Weapon)
• EXPLOSIVES (In the Beta it’s only Frags or Proximity Mines)
• SKILL (Passive abilities which are Extra Health/Ammo, Armor or Extra Primary)

Overall the additions made in Killzone 3 really make it a better game and a lot fun to play.  With this being the beta, I can only imagine what the full game has in store for us.  You might think there are balancing issues when it comes to Mechs/Jet-packs but it doesn’t take long to learn how find their weakness and take them down.  One thing that Guerrilla should take in to account are the maps, because a game like Killzone is very reliant to the way the maps are set up and can make or break the multiplayer.  With the right team though, communicating and doing their part to co-ordinate the win, the Beta is balanced and once again tons of fun despite the confusing objectives.  Can’t wait for the full game to hit shelves February 22nd, 2011 for the Playstation 3. We are giving beta codes away so grab them while you can!