Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years then you know that Call of Duty and Battlefield are the supreme leaders within the first person shooter market, and with both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 coming out later this year, the hype for both of these titles has reached astronomical levels, and for good reason too. Battlefield 3 looks to yet again raise the bar with its next-gen graphics engine, going by the name of Frosbite 2, and its amazing destructibility and realistic gun physics. Modern Warfare 3 is no slouch either when it comes to raising the bar as the title sets out to improve upon what is already the best selling formula for a first person shooter game of all time. With its addicting gameplay and compelling story, Modern Warfare 3 looks to be the best title in the series yet.
Now, with both of those titles looking absolutely stellar and people beginning to flock back to both Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to hone their skills and killing prowess in time for the release of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, I begin to become worried for what I think is possibly the most underplayed shooter this year. Killzone 3.
Killzone 3 released back in February of 2011 and with the hype surrounding the game due to its powerful graphics engine and the previous success of Killzone 2, the game went on to become the 14th fastest selling title in the UK (Yes, I know. I am British, please leave your jokes in the comments section if you wish.) This of course should translate into a good online community, should it not? Apparently not. A couple of days ago I decided to slide my Killzone 3 disc into my PS3 and decided it was time for an online bloodbath of epic proportions, but upon entering the online section of the game and then continuing on to search for a game, I was immediately thrown into a server which was barely even half full. I thought to myself, “Hey, no biggie, right? I will just find another game.” So, that is exactly what I did, I searched for another game and then, what’d you know? Another less than half full game. I don’t know what experiences with lobbys’ that all of you guys have had with the game in recent times, but I just can’t seem to find a full game. When I do, it is only because there is a huge clan of talented players who suddenly decided that I should become cannon fodder.
Now I know that there is still a good handful of players who decided to stick with this game, but I just can’t help but feel that many people who picked it up just decided to let the game collect dust on their shelves because it was something totally different to what they had played before. Unless of course you played Killzone 2, in which case I sound like an idiot right now. Anyway, back to the point. As I said, I believe people passed on the online experience after only a couple of hours because of how different it was to many other shooters out there. The control scheme is completely different, and it promotes a different style of play. Running ‘n’ gunning will get you killed, there is no aim assist, basically not friendly for causal players. The game seemed so bland and was a very tough mountain to climb for new players, heck, even I felt that way the first couple of hours with Killzone 3. I do admit that the game is hard to master. I mean, I was going 5-18 during my first matches, and I just could not seem to get the hang of the game. This is what I think turned many players off, the sheer amount of difficulty that comes with this game, it really does take a while to get a hang of. Of course, there are some elite FPS players out there who can just pick up any first person shooter game and instantly become a killionaire. For us regular folk, it just isn’t that easy.
However, after what would have been a good couple of days with the game, it finally clicked. Suddenly, I was going 20-8 in every other game and I was piling up killstreaks of 3 and 5. Luckily, the game just came to me, and I began playing like what I felt was a true champ at the game. Now the game became a lot more interesting, it became fun. I must admit, I was not experiencing any kind of fun with the game before this period. Because who would find getting a face full of lead by a cloaked sniper any kind of fun? This is also what I think turned players away from the game. It simply wasn’t any fun getting killed over and over again by the same snipers and same elite players. Why spend hours upon hours of your valuable gaming time trying to get good at a difficult game when you can just return to what you know and love? I do understand that the game, of course, has its faults, glitches, and bugs, which would also turn players off and tell the game to go hump a goat. But, I think that my previous comments are what ultimately caused Killzone 3’s online community to dwindle.
There is still a significant amount of gamers who play this game daily, and the DLC released for the game ended up selling quite well, but the player count is just no where near the numbers you see within the likes of Call of Duty or Battlefield (Halo on the 360). This is a shame because this game is truly one of the most fun games that I have played in recent months. The satisfaction that you gain from killing that damned cloaked sniper with his apparent “epic skills” or headshotting that guy who is pummeling your team into submission is just phenomenal. So, I urge you guys to, at least, give this game another go and not just throw it onto a shelf after a couple of hours of getting slaughtered because you still can not figure out the damned controls, which I admit are fairly sub par. Just hold out and keep playing, and I promise you that it will click. Before you know it, you’ll be gaining tons of kills and having a blast doing it. Killzone 3 may not be for everyone, but I have a feeling that a lot more people would enjoy this game if they were to give it a fair chance. This may not be the case for everyone, as some of you may just plainly hate the game and refuse to play it, which is fair. Why play something that you despise the very existence of, right? Happy gaming, guys!
Please let me know about your experiences with Killzone 3 in the comments. Why do you still play it? Or, why it is still M.I.A from your PS3?
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I stopped reading after you said Killzone 3 is too different from other shooters and how it is very difficult. The reason why I stopped reading there is because you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.
KZ3 has been dumbed down in attempt to gain a wider audience. A large portion of KZ2 fans hate KZ3. The class are unbalanced, the weapons have gone under CoDifacation, and much loved features from Killzone 2 have stripped in KZ3.
Guerrilla Games have realized that they have done wrong and are now patching requests fans of the series have made since the first PS+ exclusive beta.
The reason why KZ3 is “underplayed” is because KZ2 > KZ3 and KZ3 < other shooters out.
Dear reader,
These are all very legit and obvious reasons as to why KZ3 might have failed as a shooter that the author could have mentioned. But, I believe he touches upon some different and unique views that some readers may not have thought of before. Perhaps your reasons didn’t need any mentioning?
Thank you for commenting!
I loved the KZ3 SP and enjoyed KZ2(one of my most played MP shooters this gen), however the changes they made to MP were horrible. Without a doubt GG or Sony wanted to tap into the “CoD market” by making the game more noob friendly and less unique(for example taking the six axis balancing out of the sniping scope).
Good idea for them, but I think they forgot that it would upset their fanbase and that the mainstream market does not generally buy these types of games or that many games either(most of my friends buy 1-2 sport games a year+ CoD and that is it).
Sony is better off making their exclusives more unique and for gamers rather than going for the general audience. It will help them better than trying to compete with multi-platform games that get more marketing, press, and word to mouth in the mainstream markets.
I fully agree with what the reader comment’s just mentioned and would just like to stress one sentence- Guerilla simply screwed up KZ3.
They removed the most attractive features of KZ2 (eg.. spawn grenades) and added absurd features (unlimited sprint, tactical spawn points, rocket launchers, rifle for snipers). I just don’t know what they are trying to achieve.
I am just 2 hours in the game and that turned me off immediately. I tried to force myself to play the game again a month later.. and i couldn’t manage myself to play it more than 2 days. Yes its much COD like but given the choice in this case, i rather play COD.
KZ3 is something sitting within the fence of KZ2 and COD. Why would we want to play something half baked, instead i’ll just either play KZ2 or COD. Forget about KZ3.
Plus. … i hate the RED menu. that clearly reflect the amount of attention guerilla is putting into KZ3 and their blatantly lame decisions.
I find Killzone 3 is the best FPS this generation. No other FPS suck you into the game as Killzone does. The game is epic, very rewarding and alot of fun. Simply put “best shooter ever”
I’ll never buy another Killzone until they get rid of the retard Marksman class.
This class becomes invisible and they just camp out all day staying cloaked. They don’t even show up after firing. It’s the most janky thing I’ve ever seen in a video game and I don’t want to play with pathetic people who think that’s a fun.
It used to be the worst kind of cheating/mod/glitch you could ever do was kill people after becoming invisible. Guerrilla Games somehow thought this was a great idea to put in the game. So retarded.
Let all the losers play together in invisible mode, now they have their own stupid game to grief each other as much as they want. For me though, it’s the last Killzone I ever buy.
I loved the gaem, I agree it was and is a great game, and I put my great deal of time into it and greatly enjoyed co=-op this time around. With the newest patch I believe it is becoming and even greater game, but the one and only thing that got me to stop playing the game, was the fact that there was to little bit of maps in the Operations game mode. That was my favorite mode, and one of the best things that game managed to do when disuccing its multiplayer portion, and I felt greatly disappointed when they, before everything, and when the game came out was deny any future release of Operations DLC. That was the one thing I would of payed good money for. I bought none of the released map packs, because I was not really interested, but and operations map pack I would totally buy. Only 3 maps, seriously? One of the best things to happen to the game, and they woont continue or support it. If they were intending to release the game with only maps that were pre loaded, they should have at least 5 or 7 maps to keep things less repetitive and feeling good for variety, and then focus on map packs for the other more common modes. If the game was to have DLC operation maps in say october, or just end of this year in general, to maybe bring the count up to 5 or 7 maps, i feel it will be complete worth it. But I guess I can understand why they wont do it, being that it is the most costly of the modes, due to the cinematic cutscenes between rounds of objectives, and voice acting having to be done
Hello to all of the readers, and thank you for taking your time to read the article, I appreciate it.
All of the comments make very valid reasons as to why KZ3 is very under played, and maybe I should have mentioned some of the points that are made by some of the commentors. It is however my first article so bear with me here if some of you thought that the content was poor and lacking. Again, thank you all for reading and responding. Means a lot !
Why is it MIA from my PS3 you ask? Because people still play the superior Killzone, Killzone 2. I got Killzone 2 very late, in October last year. A year and a half after it came out. And to be honest, it is probably the 2nd best multiplayer I’ve ever played on the current gen consoles at least. The same month or in November, I got the Killzone 3 beta, and it was HORRID. Everything that seperated Killzone from other fps games was pretty much gone. The only thing I can think of that was added to the game that was good was those perks you got for the more points u got. Otherwise, everything from lower player count, getting rid of custom servers/games and just putting in a quicksearch system, guns have barely any recoil, and more. The 2nd, public beta was better, but still after playing the beta I’m glad I didn’t get the game
I’m looking to get Killzone 3 on ebay (new or used) but only am getting it if I can find a low price really.
Thank God people are still playing Killzone 2.
I’d have to agree with the comments. All I had to do was play 20 minutes of the campaign to know the game was dumbed down. Plus the multiplayer looks like COD so much its not even funny. Killzone 2 was what I would call ‘hardcore’ No killstreaks, no perks, just your class and your gun. I put 76 hours into KZ2’s multiplayer alone. KZ3? I gave it back after the 20 minutes I played.
terrible matchmaking, terrible team and server balancing, and removal of server browser didn’t help either
This game is cool. This game can compete with COD and KZ 2. Sure its very LIKE COD and a little of KZ3, but thats what makes it fun, A somewhat NEW gameplay. A hybrid of both. I think the REAL problem here is people thats played KZ2 before compares KZ3 with the SAME standards and people playing COD before compares with THAT standard with KZ3, when KZ3 does not fit into either COD or KZ2, people are turned off. IF people played KZ3 without standards of KZ2 and COD, and play with OPEN MIND, this would obviously be an AWESOME GAME. You see, GG really took a risk and it failed. There are 2 ways to make a sequal. FIRST is to just make it the SAME as before but tune it up with better graphic a some new features thats not game breaking, OR completely give the game a NEW make over. Both has its risk, if they kept it like KZ2, lots of people be like “oh its just the same thing but with better graphic, boringgggggg” and if the took a wild swing and made it reALLY different, others would say”oh its not anywhere like KZ2 anymore blahblahblah'” so IMHO KZ3 IS AWESOME even if its not anywhere LIKE kz2. IF you like COD, AND KZ2 there is not reason not to like KZ3.