PAX 2010: Killzone 3 Multiplayer Impressions

One of the biggest and most popular booths was the Killzone 3 area at PAX 2010. Strangely enough, the Gears of War 3 area paled in comparison. The booth was showing off both the single player area, shown originally at E3, and the multiplayer component of the game.  The build was listed as Pre-Alpha but was quite well put together with multiple play types already there to try out.  Territory capture, capture the flag and assassination were the three types available but more are planned for the game.  I'm sure one can expect a hearty dose of Deathmatch / Team Deathmatch upon release.

Graphically the game looked fantastic, though you could tell that there was certainly a lot more work which had to be done to this early build.  It in no way matched the stunning visuals of the single player as of yet.  But the atmosphere was fittingly gritty and really imbued the sense of an active battlefield.

The best thing about the multiplayer, however, was the jetpacks.  Not just them being present, no, but the way they felt.  This might be the first time in any game where I think the jetpack just feels right. The sense of weight while wearing it and trying to run was done exceptionally well, and this sense of weight even transferred to the feeling of flight as well.  Often times jetpacks seem to have no encumberance at all in video games. Killzone 3 completely corrects this and it allows even using it to have both positives and negative attributes which the player will have to weigh throughout the game.  The jetpack has guns and even these feel appropriately weighed in addition to the pack itself.

As of right now, the number one use of the jetpack was to allow the engineer to place turrets at high places which, in-turn, shoot down anyone else who fly's into the area.  ITs a great way to defend high terrain and even enhance choke points by removing vertical access to areas.

Killzone 3 is a team multiplayer experience with seperate classes which will have to work together for a team to win.  It was developed especially with this in mind, and in my short time there I saw teams who did not follow this tenant get annihilated completely.

The control still feel very loose to me, but thats a problem I always had with Killzone games.  It's often easy  to over steer targets, especially you're used to playing tighter controlling FPS's like Battlefield and Call of Duty.  I don't see this as a negative for the series, however.  It's a different feel that the developers obviously wanted in their game, and one that takes some getting used to.

Overall the multiplayer portion was a  lot of fun and I found that 15 minutes of play going by extremely quickly.  Maybe if I run over there this morning I can get in a little more time before they load the booth onto the truck.