KILLZONE3 & BULLETSTORM

2011 has been off to a slow start. I've only been concerned with two other game releases, Little Big Planet 2 in January and Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in February. Come to think of it, there was only one cd and movie I was interested in each month also. It doesn't help that I've been unemployed all this time and limiting my spending because of that. The good news is I got a new job the same week Killzone3 and Bulletstorm were released, and to celebrate I rented them both.

Bulletstorm was the first target of my celebration. It's not a cover based FPS like most recent games of the genre, but plays more similar to Halo. The big gameplay change that sets Bulletstorm apart is it's "skill kills," which involved using an electric leash and your foot to push and pull enemies in slow-mo and kill them in creative ways. I had fun playing the game but I wouldn't recommend it for more than a rental, unless you really love FPS or racking up highscores.

Killzone3 was more interesting for me as a Playstation Move owner, but on my first playthrough with a standard controller was oddly disappointing. I'm pretty good at most games and while I enjoyed most sections of Killzone3, there were a few major gun-fights that I found incredibly frustrating. Not to mention the story rang completely hollow, its supposed to be this huge inter-stellar war against this unstoppable enemy but you generally feel like there is little at stake. My favorite games balance being challenging and enjoyable, but Killzone3 was too hard for me to really enjoy. With the Move, amazingly, all that changed. Well not the story, but the gameplay and control mechanics make this a must own for anyone with a Move.

Bulletstorm: RENT
Killzone3: RENT w/Move: BUY
Read more about each after the break.


Bulletstorm
Most of the advertisements for Bulletstorm parody other popular FPS in an effort to set it apart from them, but ironically much of the gameplay is borrowed from those games. The game is most similar to Gears of War, mainly because it was produced by the same company. The main characters are gruff masculine space marines who kill their way to doing whats right, even the main female character fits this mold which could be a step towards female empowerment or just poor writing. The battlefields are littered with small and encroachments for cover based shooting, which is odd because you don't have a way to take cover like in Call of Duty or Killzone, you can only duck or stand behind things like in Halo. After taking so much damage your screen turns red around the edges (a health indicator popularized by Halo)and the screen tells you to take cover, which is aggravating since you can't actually take cover. Certain in game actions take place as quick-time events in a style directly ripped from Call of Duty, and the final battle sequence plays out exactly like something from Infinity Ward.

While Bulletstorm is incredibly derivative at the base level, it does some unique things that make it fun. While the dialogue and plot are easily ignored, it is worth paying attention to for the ridiculous level of profanity that is thrown around like a 5 year old who just learned the concept of a "dirty word." Some of the things these characters say are just so absurd and far from being anything a person with an understand of sexuality or basic anatomy would say that it is kind of funny, unfortunately probably not in the way Epic intended. Actually, the best think about this game is the skill kills it so highly touts. I found it hard to be very creative with the skill kills, and for most of the game relied on a basic few to deal with enemies; but when you do figure out a really cool skill kill it immensely satisfying.

Killzone3
Don't get me wrong Killzone3 is a really good game; the graphics are impressive and there are enough variations in gameplay to keep you interested when the story fails,  which for me it did. Basically there is a struggle for power between the government and private corporations on the Helghan side, and most of the ISA story is about two stubborn "break the rules to get the job done" types and there incompetent commander who repeatedly gets nearly everyone killed. I'm supposed to believe that a world of evil soldiers are brought down by two vigilante types that had just enough good luck and grit to not die all those times they're idiot of a leader tried to get them killed with his idiocy?

My biggest problem with Killzone3 is the difficulty, playing on normal I generally would have to unload on a helghast soldier to kill him. Its incredibly frustrating too battle your way through a sequence just to be shot in the back by a helghast you thought you killed, but you didn't because they're cockroach soldiers and they're everywhere and they hate to die. Seriously, it is just too hard to kill one of these guys. Scope in and shoot one in the head and his helmet pops off, but he's still alive and now you've alerted everyone to your position. And most of the "epic" gun fights take place with you crouched from behind cover trying to get a shot in while 30 helghast continuously unload on you. I had to play most major sequences several times, and while its one thing to be difficult any area of a game that I have to play through more than 3 times to get right can not be fun.

I think its a fundamental flaw in the gameplay that it is too hard to kill the bad guys, but then I got the Move hooked up. Now, I am the soldier. I point my Move and the gun swings with my movement, it handles incredibly, and correlation between my movements and what happens on screen allows me to be more accurate. Somehow I am just felling helghast, they just go down left and right. I am unstoppable. I hope in the gun of the tank and no longer have to worry about walking across the battlefield, the tank steer me to where I need to be and I unload on the helghast. A sequence that took me 5 frustrating attempts with a six-axis is beaten in one exhilarating sequence with the Move. The only problem I encountered was with how I held the two controllers, it was bit irregular and caused my shoulder to get sore after a few hours. That wouldn't be a problem if I had this: