I beat the game last night. For the most part, I found it to be a very well made, enjoyable game. Honestly, I liked it a lot more than the past few COD releases. The story is decent, if not simplistic; but the characters really help move it along and make you want to fight through the levels (something that the COD games severely lack). I played the game on hard, and found myself really needing to stop and access the situation I was in, figuring out the best place to be and how to flank the bad guys, which again, is something I enjoyed better than the straightforward run and gun aspect of COD.
Speaking about the Rambo bit I didnt find any problems here. I can only think of one mission where you were on your own. Most times, you are with a platoon (or at the very least one other guy), and there is plenty of epic war elements and missions to give you the sense of awe and panic you dont get with one guy taking on an army style game play. I think it balances the two styles very well.
The game does change up its controls (thank god!). That was my one beef with KZ2. The controls feel much more smooth and responsive, without losing the feeling that you are an actual character (instead of simply being a swiveling camera with a gun in other games).
Its a pretty short game, but they threw a lot at you, which made me feel like the game was longer than it really was. Id have liked for it to go on a little more (see point 3 below), but I found it to be a decent length over all thanks to the story, epic missions and over all healthy variety of missions. I also think what helps is that there is no division between missions. You get cutscenes, sure, but there arent any okay, Chapter 1 is complete, lets sit here and load Chapter 2 now moments. Its all like a movie it just keeps moving forward.
There are only three issues I have with KZ3:
1. Sound bugs. Good god were there a lot of bugs with the audio. If the audio sync wasnt 3 seconds off, then there was audio getting stuck on a loop (e.g. Try to out flank them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them!). This happened on SEVERAL occasions, which is a shame, because the quality of the audio (voices, sfx, music) was all top notch.
2. Your buddies always got in my way. Maybe its because I just wrapped up ME2 and got spoiled with their AI, but I found the AI for KZ3 to be frustrating. The AI for the Helgast were good, but my stream of bullets were constantly getting blocked by some moron who decided itd be a good idea to stand right on top of me.
3. The ending. Really? There is absolutely no resolution or real acknowledgment that the game is over. Yeah, I get theyre trying to leave it on a cliff hanger, but if felt more like someones dog got hold of the script and ate half of the last page. It just
.ends. Frustratingly abrupt. I havent been that disappointed in an ending in a looooooong time.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I think they fixed what they needed to from KZ2, expanded upon what was right about KZ2, and overall made a high quality game. If it wasnt for the three points mentioned above, Id give this game a perfect score.
9.5/10