14 DAY TRIAL // I like Killzone 3, I appreciate the way it deploys the mechanics of the first-person shooter, I like the way it evolves the graphics of the series, I like the tension that builds between the two main villains of the story and the variety of environments that the player gets to explore and fight in.
But there was at least one point where I wished that Killzone 3 would actually have the guts to break through the barriers linked to a major video-game release and actually allow gamers to do something drastic: kill their fellow humans while inhabiting the body of a Helghast.
And this desire did not come at some point late in the game, but right after about 10 minutes of the opening level, where Guerrilla Games puts the player in the orange-eyed helmet of a Helghast and asks him to do some basic training (with funny surrendering human targets) and then takes them to a special television room in order to take part in the execution of the guys that killed the Emperor in Killzone 2.
It would not have been possible to allow gamers to actually take that shot, for reasons linked to a twist which is linked to the main plot, but the game could have benefited from allowing the player a clear perspective into the mind of the enemy, which throughout the series is portrayed as being very tough, cruel and having no qualms about taking human lives.
It's not too often that video games allow gamers to experience something important from the perspective of the enemy they fight, and doing this in Killzone 3 might have separated it some more from the shooter pack and might have lead to some more media exposure for the Guerrilla Games title.
It would have also delivered more motivation to the gamer that then faces Helghast in firefight, beyond that of simple progression, creating a game where a virtual crime against humanity experienced on a very personal level is the drive for going forward.