KZ3 - Difficulty, Setting, Goals & Objectives

Difficulty:

There are 4 difficulty levels in KZ3 Recruit, Trooper, Veteran and Elite (unlocked after you have completed the game), the game gets harder by AI having more damage and health, they already actively seek you out to eliminate you they just get harder to kill and in elite difficulty 3-4 hits and your dead. the game even in elite is much easier than KZ2 or so it seems, but is still enjoyable to play. The only problem I had with the difficulty settings was on the On-rails levels (gunner from a vehicle) as having no way to cover yourself makes it extremely difficult, but that is probably the hardest part of the game on Elite.

Achievements or "Trophies" are in abundance in KZ3 with lots to earn in the campaign and multiplayer modes. there are both progressive (kill 25/50/100/500/1000 helghast) and objective based for example. 

Evening The Odds	Killed 500 Helghast.	Bronze
Now It's Personal	Killed 1000 Helghast.	Silver
Fight To The Last	Killed 1500 Helghast.	Silver

Frazzle Dazzle	Use the StA-5X Arc Cannon to kill 3 Helghast with one shot.	Bronze
Power Spike	Use the Boltgun to nail a Helghst to an exploding object.	Bronze
Excessive Force	Used the secondary fire of the WASP to kill a single Helghast.	Bronze
Spread The Love	Used the secondary fire of the WASP to kill 5 Helghast at once.	Bronze

Achievements keep the player engaged and adds replay value, a "platinum" trophie is avaliable when you unlock all other trophies.


Setting/Realism/Scale and Time:

As the game is set in a series of harsh alien environments and being a first person shooter the game in theory should not be very realistic, but realism is used well and appropriately throughout as there is a fine line between realism and fun. most modern FPS's are unrealistic for example if  you were shot once and you died it would more than likeley get old fast and not be very fun to play, especially with the amount of enemies in KZ3. alongside other genre charecteristics such as ammo replenishment and reload speeds not being realistic and the amount of time/how fast you can run is not effected from weapon to weapon, you can run the same speed with a pistol as you can with a rocket launcher.. what is realistic however is the brutal melee mechanic (see mechanics) as it takes time to perform this attack leaving you vulnerable, unlike most modern FPS's. The sense of scale is also very realistic as nothing in the game seems out of place or too big/small for reality, this is quite common of modern FPS's as scale is an important factor.Time in KZ3 runs relative to real time, there is no slow/fast time adjustment, guns fire and enemies run at the rate you would expect, another realistic factor.


Goal and objectives:


As killzone 3 is a firs person shooter it is a genre charecteristic to have simple goals and objectives, the overall goal of the game is to battle your way through hoards of enemies, rondezvous and rescue the remaining ISA forces and make your way to and kill the leader of the helghan (stahl). Obviously alongside a narrative there are several objectives to complete to get to the end with on-rails travelling battles, rescuing your forces and destroying exoskeletons (mech type machines). i personally would not change anything about KZ3 goals + objectives as all seem relevant as you proceed from one to the next, the game is called killzone so you expect to have to kill hundreds of enemies and the game does not fail to live up to that expectation.

StarWars: The Force Unleashed: Difficulty, Goals & Objectives

StarWars: The Force Unleashed (PS3 / Xbox 360)

Developer: LucasArts
Publisher:  LucasArts
Released:  2008



Difficulty
The game has four difficulty levels. Apprentice, Sith Warrior, Sith Lord and Sith Master (unlocked after completeing game in Sith Lord difficulty), each level significantly altering the difficulty of the game, with each level of difficulty the AI gets better blocking more of your attacks and being more aggressive, the amount of enemies does not seem to change but they have more health, take less damage and deal more damage with each difficulty level.

This is appropriate for the genre of game as in most games there are several difficulty levels and it gets harder in ways that you would expect as opposed to putting a time limit on levels for example. In Apprentice mode the game presents few difficult areas and allows you to play the game through with a minimal skill level, although just stepping up one difficulty level dramatically increased the difficulty.

Acheivements are given throught the game, for completeing each level and for completeing the game on each difficulty, extra achievements such as Defeat 100 enemies with Force Push, or Defeat 100 enemies with Saber Throw. These are easy to achieve but makes for repetative gameplay, constantly using the same moves can be boring.


Game Setting
Being set in space and able to use "the force" the game itself is not very realistic, although that is the point of it. some aspects of realism are kept such as being able to grab pretty much any object in the game to fling it towards your opponents, also if you break a window in a ship nearby enemies are sucked out in the vaccum, these are things that would happen. on the other hand being able to fall from any hieght and land safely on your feet or take several shots from starships and still surviving are unrealistic, but this makes for good gameplay.

Scale is used well within the game with certain enemies being the size you would expect them to be and environment items fitting in niceley with nothing out of place. The game consists only of pre-defined levels that you can explore to find hidden objects but you are constantly confined to the area relative to the story. natural boundaries such as walls, locked doors, mountains and piles of junk stop nyou from straying outside the level but in a natural way. Time is not changed atall in the game with everything running at real time, which suits this type of game.


Goal
the overall goal of the game is to level up your charecter and unlock weapons to become strong enough to defeat the emporer. In each level there is the primamry objective (to complete the level) secondary objective, forcepoints goal and jedi holocron goal. by completeing all of these you unlock more powerful weapons/customisations and level up. This keeps the player engaged and gives replay value to the game, going back to achieve secondary objectives/goals.

KZ3 - Mechanics, Gameplay, Goals & Objectives

GamePlay:

As with any first person shooter the basic gameplay is to hit the enemy without getting hit. In KZ3 you use a wide array of weapons, equiptmentand vehicles to complete objectives to advance to the next level. This really is as complex as it needs to be as it is what a player would expect from a FPS.

Mechanics:


KZ3 conforms to the genre's basic mechanics; Walk, Run, Sprint, Shoot, Throw grenade, Use/interact, Crouch, Jump and Melee, all of these work well with eachother as they should. Killzone 3 brings two innovative advanced mechanics to the table:

Cover System: a cover system is something gamers are used to in third person games as a defense mechanic, but it is rarely seen in a FPS. Pressing a button on the controller allows the charecter to take cover behind objects, unlike previous cover systems like in Tom Clancys: Rainbow Six Vegas, the cover system in KZ3 keeps you in first person perspective. This in my opinion is a great mechanic and should be included in more FPS games, but not as an afterthought, the reason the cover system works so well in KZ3 is because it is such an integral part of the game, if you run aimlessly at the enemies like in COD series you will die, no doubt about it, the only ay to complete KZ3 is by utilising the cover system.

Brutal Melee: Almost every FPS i can think of has a melee function, wether it be a knife or hitting with the stock of a weapon as it is a genre charecteristic. With KZ3 however the developers have put thier own spin on things, in any standard FPS if you melee an enemy one or maybe two times they drop to the floor instantly and you move on to your next target. In KZ3 when you melee an enemy the game cuts to an animation of the charecter performing a Brutal attack on the enemy. not only is this different and more believeable/realistic but depending on what angle you approach the enemy a different melee attack is performed. and being an 18 rated game as you would expect, it dosent hold back on the gore. this innovative mechanic makes for fun gameplay in singleplayer and multiplayer modes.

As with any AAA title they do not tend to stray too far from the genre charecteristics but throwing a few new mechanics, that work well, into the mix makes the game stand out from the crowd.