It’s Rico time

Riding with Rico’s Raiders in Killzone 3

FORMAT PS3 / PUB SONY / DEV GUERRILLA GAMES / RELEASED 2011 / SCORE 9/10

Opening this threequel on a whitewashed snowy Helghan mountain retreat, replete with JJ Abrams’ beloved lens flare filling our eyes with rainbow delights, Killzone 3 promised colour. Lots of it. Then it took it all away and dumped us back in the mud and muted palette of the capital city, Pyrrhus.

It takes us hours to fight our way out, but the tease of that snow and colour, something we’ve waited three games for, is worth it. Particularly as Rico, the series’ loudmouth walking tank who treats war like an American football match, is the character to introduce us to Killzone’s new wintry wonderland.

We love to hate Rico. He murdered the ruler of Helghan in our name, which we hate, but he has come to our aid on a flying skiff with a rag-tag band of his own Kelly’s Heroes.

Huddled on top of our flying machine we swoop below, up, and over massive refineries as cannon fire zips past and spiralling missiles leave smoky scars across the sky. Below us the dark and foamy waves swell and subside. Our machine gun whirrs into action and ahead of us structures expload and tiny Helghast villains run for cover. A landing pad bursts into flames and crumples, and we weave between struts surfing the waves. Rico shouts a whole bunch of swears, but we’re having too much fun to consider the reductive writing.

This snowy skybound assault is a phenomenal sequence that teases where Guerrilla Games was destined to take its games on PlayStation 4. Such cinematic spectacles are taken for granted now, but on PlayStation 3 this Killzone impressed.