Although the assault rifle is still the weapon of choice, at present there's no option to customise your control setup, which was a major criticism of the previous game. It's a personal choice, but we prefer the squishy R2 trigger as our fire button, and in this demo, you're restricted to using R1. In fact, the only adjustments available at present are the options to switch the melee and zoom controls between the right stick and L1... oh, and and you can invert your look controls as well. Woopedy-doo. Every FPS worth it's salt needs fully customisable controls if you ask us, or at the very least 3 or 4 configurations. Still, for the most part, Killzone 3's control system works, but re-programming our brains having been weaned on a diet of Call of Duty for goodness knows how long and having to swap trigger buttons is a minor ball-ache that could be avoided with more control setup options. Really, how hard can that be in 2010?

Taking shelter in one of the many metal buildings that make up a graveyard of twisted girders and decrepit sheds set into the snow, we climb the steps to the roof and melee the waiting Helghast over the railings at the top. It's then just a case of winding our way towards a deserted cargo ship where a Helghast dropship deploys a group of jetpack troopers, who incidentally are easily dealt with using a few well-aimed blasts to the gear on their back, sending them shooting off and spiralling out of control. Combat is every bit as robust as Killzone 2's it seems, as demonstrated in the ever-impressive and meaty reload animations, the substantial visual feedback when shooting an enemy and the emphasis on moving between and entrenching yourself behind cover during fire-fights.

The following section gave us the chance to strap into a jumpack (yes, jumpack) ourselves, and take a break from straight up shooting with a bit of platforming. Killzone 3's jetpack (we'll call it a jetpack, as jumpack sounds silly) enables you to boost vertically by holding L2 before bursting forward with X. It's not quite aviation as you'd like it – and indeed, the Helghast have a far greater mastery of jetpack flight than you do, it seems – but it's a nice diversion nonetheless. Obviously, there's still shooting along the way, and you have a mounted machine gun cannon on your pack that makes short work of any enemies that get in your way. It's every bit as relentless as the rest of what we've played of Killzone 3 thus far, but once we've armed the charge on an AA gun that needs destroying and detonated it as per the mission objective, we're onto the final section of the demo, which easily outstrips the rest for offering up the most resistance.

When tasked with the objective of assaulting a fortified Helghast base that sits at the top of the hill, standing at the bottom looking up at your task is a daunting sight. Along the path to glory sits monstrous tanks and what seems like an endless amount of troopers who’ve dug themselves into positions behind heavy sandbags. Your weapon for this is more than equipped for the job though. The WASP is a rocket launcher capable of launching 9 projectiles at a time, raining a swarm of explosions down upon your target. It's a slow climb, but it's the perfect showcase for the WASP launcher as it makes mincemeat out of the Helghast tanks and leaves bloody puddles where soldiers once stood in its wake. Ammunition is limited, but there are mid-level ammo caches where you can hold down circle and replenish your arsenal. Making it to the top of the hill and weeding out the final few Helghast troops is massively rewarding and the perfect place to end our demo.

Killzone 3 certainly looks like it's pushing all of the right buttons on this showing, with its 3D looking remarkably good and the strong core mechanics remaining thankfully intact, as well as benefiting from a discernible amount of refinement, especially in the sensitivity of its movement. However, the lack of control configuration options is a massive oversight that we hope is addressed by Guerrilla, while the Arctic setting looks just as bleak and inhospitable as the rubble-strewn streets of Helghan. We just hope that Guerrilla deliver a variety of scenery akin to Killzone 1, which ran the gamut with lush jungles, leafy forests, mountain regions and more. Rumour has it that you'll end the game in space, which (spoiler) is where you ended your journey in the first Killzone, so it sounds like the developer has taken on board the criticisms levelled at the last game's relentlessly drab environments.

Guerrilla has a more than adequate period of time in the run up to Killzone 3's February 2011 launch to ensure that it delivers on every front, and given the potential we've seen so far – albeit with the few aforementioned niggles and concerns – there's every chance that Killzone 3 will be the best Killzone yet.

Killzone 3 is scheduled for a February 2011 release.