For a time, while going through the single player, I hoped that Killzone 3 would strive to keep the action small scale, mostly infantry based, a sort of interstellar alien featuring World War II equivalent, to try and distinguish itself from similar first-person shooters with a sci fi theme (think Halo).
I was expecting a “harder” take on the science fiction shooter and, while there was somewhere early on that caused me to arch an eyebrow in surprise, I was hoping that no actual mechs, defined as huge fighting machines walking on two or more legs, would appear or that their role would be fairly limited, maybe a sight on a battlefield somewhere in the distance.
But shooters desperately need monster fights and action that grows in scale and in in-game importance and Killzone 3 devotes quite some time to taking out the ironically named MAWLR, a gun on legs that also has machine guns racks, mortars, rocket launchers and the ability to launch drop ships filled with Helghast troopers.
Mechanically, the fight is handled well by the developers at Guerrilla Games, with ramping difficulty, ever more heroic deeds from all those involved and a final almost sacrifice to take down the “beast.”
From a consistency and common sense point of view, the battle is not that well put together.
The first thing anyone faced with a MAWLR or a similarly spider leg moving mecha is to take out the legs, one or more of them, limit its ability to move and then pound the construct at will from angles that it cannot reach with its own weapons.
But human heroics don't work that way, so instead Sev, Rico and company manage to quickly discover that the Helghast built a very powerful unit that presents incredible vulnerable bits just after shooting and they focus fire on those while withstanding the full power of the defenses that the MAWLR has.
It's adrenalin generating and fun but a little, though always bothered me with the phrase: “This would never happen.”
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