Killzone 3 Beta Impressions
| Killzone 3 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Platforms | PlayStation 3 |
| Genre | Murder Area III |
| Keep Playing? | Yes |
So
when The First Hour was given a code for the Killzone 3 multiplayer
beta, I wasn't sure I was the man for the job. I've never really been
drawn into the world of online play in shooters -- the exception being
Uncharted 2, which I played regularly for a few months when it launched
-- so I don't have many comparisons to use for my experiences with the
Killzone 3 beta. Luckily, I've heard plenty of commentary regarding
Killzone 3 versus other shooters over the in-game voice chat that I can
relay. And, surprisingly, I witnessed no personal attacks or
foul-mouthed adolescents...and only one instance of a microphone playing Madonna hits from the 80s.
I've
spent about four hours on the battlefields of Helghan, and I think I
have a good enough grasp on the Killzone 3 multiplayer beta to make a
report. I tried briefly looking around news sites and message boards for
a comprehensive outline of the beta's features but didn't find any.
With that in mind, I think I've constructed a pretty detailed outline of
what's going on in Killzone 3 at the moment (as of Halloween,
anyway).
All in all, despite my indifference to the franchise and its genre before jumping in, and the brief re-introduction to dual-analog control that saw many deaths and few kills in my first hour of play...I have to say, I'm enjoying the Killzone 3 experience a lot more than I thought I would thus far. Or, what little of it is available in the current beta, anyway.
For those of you as clueless as I was
when I first started, here are the very basics. The multiplayer
experience is, like most shooters these days, entirely based on team battles
between two factions. In the Killzone universe, that means the Helghast Empire
(red-eyed bad guys with accents) and the Interplanetary Strategic
Alliance (snore-inducing good guys) are going at it at all times. There are no free-for-alls,
multiple team matches, or humans vs CPU modes a la the recent Gears of
War or Halo games, at least not yet. Basic controls are also nothing out of
the ordinary. The left analog stick controls movement, while the right
looks around and aims your weapon. Players can hop with the X button,
reload or pick up weapons with square, perform context-sensitive actions
(arming explosives, repairing turrets) with circle, switch between
their two firearms with triangle, and sprint by pressing in the left
stick. The rest of the actions are customizable, but the default scheme
fires your weapon with R1, throws a grenade with R2, performs a melee
attack with L1, crouches/takes cover with L2, and aims down-the-sights
by clicking the right analog stick. Class-based abilities are triggered
by pressing a direction on the D-pad, while the scoreboard can be
brought up with the Select button.
The current stable of weapons
available is pretty standard, featuring such shooter staples as a
sub-machine gun, a few light machine guns, rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun, and a
pair of assault rifles. Players can also use secondary weapons like the
standard pistol, magnum pistol, shotgun pistol, silenced automatic
pistol, grenade-launching Battle Pistol, and a rocket launcher. Finally,
the handheld explosives include fragmentation grenades and proximity
mines. I've always been a fan of stark differences between each firearm
for the sake of variety, but Killzone 3 seems to be going for a more
homogeneous, balanced approach. From my (limited) experience, none of
the weapons seem to outclass each other, at least not by very much. The
shotgun and sniper are as situation appropriate as you'd expect, while
the sub and light machine gun offer similar functionality, though the
former reloads much faster while the latter hits harder. The standard
pistol is quite weak, and the magnum doesn't seem much more effective to
me, despite its powerful description. The shotgun pistol
makes for a nice counterpart for the longer-ranged rifle, but offers only three
shots before its rather lengthy reload phase. The rocket launcher,
despite its reputation in most games, seems like an inferior choice to
most of the weapons when taking on infantry, though the weapon does
quite well against turrets and mechs. Similarly, grenades seem effective
only when used in the right circumstances. They take a brief second to prepare, and are easily evaded unless cooked for another second or so in your
hand. Further, each player spawns with only one grenade and can only
acquire more by visiting an ammo dispenser.
Speaking of unlocking, Killzone 3 features an experience-based upgrade system not unlike that of Call of Duty or Uncharted 2. As a player accumulates kills, achieves objectives and wins matches, the game awards experience points -- boldly emblazoned above your crosshairs every time you kill or achieve -- that allow the player to advance their military rank. Each time a player's rank increases, they are granted one or more Skill Points, which can be used to purchase new skills or starting weapons for each of the five playable classes. One class may start with a shotgun available as its primary weapon, while others will have to purchase the right to spawn with one, and still others may not have it available at all.
On the skill side, a few upgrades universal to all classes are available after acquiring certain ranks, including Proximity Mines to replace the standard grenades, bonuses to health and ammo, and the substitution of a secondary weapon type for an additional primary weapon. These upgrades can be chosen every time you spawn, but each of the five classes has two unique, upgradeable ability trees that aid the battle effort.
The Field Medic's innate Revive ability can bring back mortally-wounded
allies with full health and a clip of ammo. That ability can be upgraded
twice, allowing for more health, ammo, and explosives for revived
comrades. The medic can also purchase a passive ability that regenerates
health faster for himself, a hovering Medi-Droid that accompanies the
medic and attacks enemies, and the ability to respawn on the spot where
he was mortally wounded if the respawn timer reaches zero before the
enemy can deal a deathblow.
The Engineer's Repair Tool can set up and recover his team's turrets, and that ability can be upgraded to steal
enemy turrets and ammo caches as well. This ability can also activate
and repair ammo dispensers, which are invaluable resource considering players
spawn with only two or three clips of ammo and a single grenade. A Sentry Turret
ability, allowing the Engineer to deploy up to three machine gun
turrets, can also be purchased and upgraded to a more destructive drone
that fires rockets every few seconds.
The Marksman can briefly
become invisible with his Cloak Suit ability. At first, the
effect is reduced when moving and disabled when the Marksman fires his
weapon, but he can kill with a silenced weapon without losing the effect
once the ability is fully upgraded. This class can also Scramble enemy
radars, starting out simply by making the Marksman and nearby allies
radar-invisible, but disabling enemies' radar altogether at its fullest.
The Infiltrator's Disguise works as advertised, transforming his model into
an enemy unit, complete with username to really sell the effect. Aiming
down the sights at a Disguised Infiltrator will reveal their true
colors, however, so it's important to sell the effect with believable
behavior to not arouse suspicion. The effect can be upgraded to
even fool enemy turrets and keep the Infiltrator Disguised after using
melee attacks or stealth kills, though firing a shot will dissolve the
Disguise. A Survivalist ability can also be purchased to increase the
Infiltrator's sprint speed and stamina, and can be upgraded to make Use
actions (arming or disarming bombs, equipping jetpacks) much quicker to
perform.
Finally, my personal favorite thus far is the Tactician.
His Tactics ability hastens capturing spawn points, some of which also
provide perks like jetpacks and mortar beacons. This can be upgraded to
capture objective points faster as well. My favorite perk, however, is
the Recon ability, which marks all enemy positions within 30 meters on
the radar while also placing a target on every enemy in your field of
vision, even through walls and Disguises. The Recon ability's upgrades
allow the Tactician to deploy a flying sentry that patrols an area
around a beacon the Tactician drops. The Recon ability is incredibly
helpful for someone like me who easily gets lost in the intricate maps
and can use the extrasensory awareness to get the jump on opponents with higher ranks and bigger guns.
What's interesting is that many of these
abilities can aid your teammates as well, provided you squad up with
them. Before joining a match, you can squad up with others on your
PlayStation Network friends list and enter matches together. You can
also add players to your squad in-game by going to the scoreboard and
managing them by username. Other than the benefit of moving between
matches together, the squad also gets a pretty significant bonus in that
squad members' class abilities can be shared with each other. For example, the aforementioned Recon ability for the
Tactician will also extend to nearby pals as well, allowing a nearby
Medic or Engineer to see those enemy positions through walls as long as
the Tactician's ability is active. Conversely, if a Marksman activates
his Scramble ability, all allies within 15 meters will also be
radar-invisible to the enemy (and this will also counteract an enemy
Tactician's marking ability). The result is a game where one varied and
coordinated squad is much more likely to succeed than a team of
equally-effective players operating as lone wolves. This is a huge boon
for those who enjoy palling up when they hop online, though it slights
players who simply want to play a few matches here and there and don't care to assemble a
squad or join clans.
In addition to this collection of
upgrades, fulfilling certain actions in a single battle will bestow ribbons upon the player. These ribbons allow for slight advantages for
the remainder of that battle that do not carry over to the next. For
example, I don't think I've gone a single match without being awarded the
Silent Footsteps ribbon, which is earned by sprinting a certain distance
and silences the player's footsteps for greater
stealth. Additionally, I've also seen accuracy, damage, and ammo
bonuses, though their affects are subtle enough as to not totally
unbalance the player.
A few more, shall we say, "tangible" upgrades are
available in the jetpacks and mechs that can be piloted in certain maps.
When players equip a jetpack, they move a bit slower on the ground
but can switch between their standard infantry weapons and abilities and
their jetpack functions. The jetpack, when activated, allows for high
jumps followed by slow falls, giving the player the ability to climb to
places otherwise inaccessible. On the downside, an active jetpack makes
the player a bigger target and does not allow them to use their standard
weapons or abilities, meaning a Medic in jetpack mode cannot revive
downed teammates. He can, however, make use of the effective machine gun
and unlimited ammo built into the apparatus. Switching between
jetpack mode and standard class abilities takes a few seconds, so
don't try it in the middle of the battlefield.
The mechs
seem a bit less balanced in their current state, but admittedly I
haven't really explored the ways to take them down. Mechs are large,
quicker than infantry, soak up plenty of damage, and have a strong
machine gun arm and an alternate missile launcher with unlimited firepower for each.
It takes more bullets than it's worth to take down a mech with weaker
weapons like machine guns and assault rifles, but the rocket launcher
will deal a heavy blow and a sniper rifle can pierce the mech's glass
cockpit to kill the pilot inside. The mechs really seem to control the
flow of battle in the scenario where they're available.
Speaking
of scenarios, there are three game types in the beta. The least
interesting is Guerrilla Warfare, a standard team deathmatch mode where
the game ends once a kill limit or time limit is met. Another setup,
Warzone, is essentially a best-of-seven match where each round features a
different objective for your team, whether it's Bodycount (team
deathmatch), Assassination (protect or kill a VIP), Capture and Defend
(King of the Hills), or Sabotage (one team defends an area, the other
attempts to plant explosives there). The dynamic nature of this gametype
keeps it from getting stale and encourages you to change up your
tactics and priorities throughout the match. Finally, the Operation mode
depicts an ISA assault on a Helghast stronghold in stages. The first
objective is to plant explosives in a certain area. A new section of the
map opens afterwards with a new objective, and this continues in three
stages. If the ISA team fails to achieve any one of their objectives
before its time limit, they lose the match. Bookending each stage are
brief cutscenes that illustrate the action and highlight new objectives.
As for maps, there are three available at the moment, but two of them are only available in the Warzone gametype. Anybody playing Guerilla Warfare or Operations will be limited to the Frozen Dam map, which mostly focuses on close-quarters combat and offers no vehicles. Jetpacks are only available in the more open Turbine Concourse SE-6 map, which has plenty of pathways restricted to those with the power of flight and features a device in the center of the stage that occasionally produces an electromagnetic pulse, destroying any turrets or jetpacks (and players attached to them) in the vicinity. Finally, the Corinth Highway map appears to be a bombed-out city, with surviving buildings and remnants of roads surrounding an open impact crater full of nooks and crannies to explore and mechs to patrol with. The maps all seem full of secrets, organic to many strategies, and well-balanced despite their asymmetrical layout.
As for maps, there are three available at the moment, but two of them are only available in the Warzone gametype. Anybody playing Guerilla Warfare or Operations will be limited to the Frozen Dam map, which mostly focuses on close-quarters combat and offers no vehicles. Jetpacks are only available in the more open Turbine Concourse SE-6 map, which has plenty of pathways restricted to those with the power of flight and features a device in the center of the stage that occasionally produces an electromagnetic pulse, destroying any turrets or jetpacks (and players attached to them) in the vicinity. Finally, the Corinth Highway map appears to be a bombed-out city, with surviving buildings and remnants of roads surrounding an open impact crater full of nooks and crannies to explore and mechs to patrol with. The maps all seem full of secrets, organic to many strategies, and well-balanced despite their asymmetrical layout.
In my short time with the game, I've come
across a number of issues that should be addressed before Killzone 3
goes gold. The developers seem devoted to updating as needed: there was
actually an 80MB update added to the game the night after I
first downloaded it. Still, the following are matters that, I think, deserve
some attention:
Spawn Camping -- The most frustrating issue in the
game right now is the possibility that you won't live more than a few
seconds after spawning, given the right conditions. If the opposition
can coordinate enough to keep your team penned into a single spawn
location, it is incredibly difficult to rebound from such a setback in
the current setup. I've been trapped in the drop zone of the
Frozen Dam in more than a few matches, with the other team's Helghast
forces camped right next to the spawn zone and picking off me and my
teammates as soon as we appear. This often happens when the teams are
unbalanced, only causing more players on the handicapped team to drop
out and exacerbate the problem. Which brings me to a more general
issue...
Matchmaking -- I won't lie, it's convenient and easy to
jump right into a match without any fuss. I can load up the beta from
the XMB and be in a match in less than a minute. On the other hand, I
might not like where I end up. I can specify map preferences for each of
the three game modes, but that's the extent of my control over where I end up playing. I'd rather see a dedicated server list that
shows the status of each game and allows me to choose one. It's a bit
too frequent that I end up in a game where the teams are brutally uneven
(potentially fixed by the addition of a team-switching option), or the game is
completely barren and I end up playing from start to finish alone. Also,
in the couple hours I've played Operations mode, I've never once been
put on the defending Helghast team.
Framerate Dips and Screen Tearing -- There's no denying that Killzone 3 has some impressive visual
effects going on. Watching the clouds of snow rolling along frosted
metal as the wind picks up is a sight to behold. But it's just
not worth it when the framerate can dip well below 30FPS, with plenty
of screen tearing to make things even tougher to see in the middle of a
particularly-busy firefight. I'm confident this will be fixed, as the
game is currently running in alpha code and is nowhere near finished,
but if it isn't, I'll be incredibly disappointed. When every millisecond
matters, I'd rather see Call of Duty's plain but smooth visuals than
Killzone's gorgeous slide show.
Geometry Quirks -- There are some pieces of geometry that don't allow for movement that makes sense. For example, a few staircases must be climbed in certain spots when they look otherwise accessible. Small quirk, but it's there.
Melee -- The neck-snapping, eye-stabbing, throat-slitting melee kills are
brutally satisfying, but I'm not sure what the rules are for who wins a
melee fight or when a cinematic (but slow) brutal kill is activated.
There have been plenty of times where I've hit the enemy from what I
thought was an acceptable distance, only to whiff and hit nothing but
air. Then they'll turn around and snap my neck from what seems like a
meter away.
Aim-Assist, Recoil, and Bullet Spread -- One of Killzone 2's points of contention was its (relative) independence from aim-assist tricks, standard for dual-analog shooters of Halo and Call of Duty ilk. Many were frustrated by the unassisted aiming, weighty movement, recoil effect, and bullet spread in Killzone 2's online matches, while others were further drawn in by its unforgiving nature. It seems Killzone 3's multiplayer beta currently throws in a dash of enemy-following trickery in its cross-hairs and is affected less by recoil and spread, much to the dismay of hardcore Killzone 2 fans. I definitely noticed the invisible hand assisting my aim in a few instances, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate it at my current skill level. I've heard more than a few complaints about this from my headset, though.
Where's the Move support? -- This is more of a curiosity than an actual issue, but I think it's worth contemplating. With the Playstation Move motion controls being integrated into the game, this will be one of the first major shooters to support both dual-analog and pointer-aim controls. The developers have noted some differences between players using the Playstation Move motion controls and those sticking with the traditional controller, so why haven't they enabled Move for this beta? I'd think they would want to collect as much test data as possible to determine if and how the two control schemes should be integrated together.
Aim-Assist, Recoil, and Bullet Spread -- One of Killzone 2's points of contention was its (relative) independence from aim-assist tricks, standard for dual-analog shooters of Halo and Call of Duty ilk. Many were frustrated by the unassisted aiming, weighty movement, recoil effect, and bullet spread in Killzone 2's online matches, while others were further drawn in by its unforgiving nature. It seems Killzone 3's multiplayer beta currently throws in a dash of enemy-following trickery in its cross-hairs and is affected less by recoil and spread, much to the dismay of hardcore Killzone 2 fans. I definitely noticed the invisible hand assisting my aim in a few instances, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate it at my current skill level. I've heard more than a few complaints about this from my headset, though.
Where's the Move support? -- This is more of a curiosity than an actual issue, but I think it's worth contemplating. With the Playstation Move motion controls being integrated into the game, this will be one of the first major shooters to support both dual-analog and pointer-aim controls. The developers have noted some differences between players using the Playstation Move motion controls and those sticking with the traditional controller, so why haven't they enabled Move for this beta? I'd think they would want to collect as much test data as possible to determine if and how the two control schemes should be integrated together.
There are quite a few things for the team at Guerilla Games to contemplate before launch, but that's the whole point of a beta, right? I think the game already has a very strong base to grow from, but I am interested to see where the balance between depth and accessibility ends up. Even in this early alpha stage, Killzone 3 feels very complete and has managed to grab my attention in a way I didn't expect. If you're not one of the lucky few already in the beta and you own a PS3, I say keep an eye out for more invitations and make an effort to get in on this action. It's a good thing that's only going to get better.
