Killzone 2
| Developer: Guerrilla | Publisher: SCEA | |
| Release Date: February 27, 2009 | Available On: PS3 |
One of the strengths of the PS3 is its supposed graphic superiority over the competition. This was on full display nearly four years ago when Sony first unveiled Killzone 2. Many people remember the E3 2005 trailer of Killzone 2 for being a "fake". It was, in fact, a video rendering of what the developers were hoping for. Critics quickly called Sony out on this, claiming that it was not possible for it to run in real-time on the PS3 hardware. Turns out that they were wrong. Killzone 2 exceeds that original unveiling in many ways.
With so much riding on the success of Killzone 2, the developers at Guerrilla stepped up to the plate and delivered. Not only is Killzone 2 a technical achievement, it is a really fun game to play. An amazing level of detail was put into everything from character models to buildings, weapons and lighting. Levels are highly destructible and as with most shooters, explosives can play to your advantage. Concrete columns and support structures chip away with each bullet that penetrates them.
Killzone 2 is definitely the best looking game ever made to date. You get treated with an awesome opening sequence where you fly into battle in a Normandy-like invasion from the sky. Like most next-gen games, the level of detail is not the only achievement. It is all about the scale of the levels, the number of enemies that can appear on-screen and how few load screens they can get away with. Somehow they managed to accomplish all of this while managing a steady frame rate. The only real hiccups occur when the game autosaves.
As far as the story goes, Killzone 2 follows up where the original left off. After defeating the invading Helghast Empire at their space colony Vekta, the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) go on offense. This time they bring the fight directly to the Helghast's home planet of Helghan. Players take the role of Sgt. Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko. The only main returning ISA characters are Rico and the protagonist from the first game, Jan Templar, who is now a Colonel leading the attack on Helghan.
Killzone 2 is branched into single and multi-player modes. Once you start a single-player game it allows you to choose between levels that you have already beaten and want to replay. There are four difficulty levels to choose from and even on the Normal setting you will run into situations that you will have to retry after you get killed. Dying is the worst part of Killzone 2 since the relatively few load screens present in the game are quite long (approximately 15 to 20 seconds). If you reach a spot where you die several times, you will undoubtedly get bored of the loading screens.
If you have played the demo for Killzone 2 then you have a good idea of how the game looks, feels and sounds. The demo is just the first level and basically an introduction to the controls. At first it seems that Killzone 2 is a bit awkward to control. They have you press in on the right analog stick to zoom in instead of L1 (which instead is used to melee). L2 will have you take cover (you can aim and fire by pressing up on the analog stick), shoot your weapon with R1 and throw a grenade with R2.
The controls work just fine, they just takes a little getting used to. One thing that I immediately changed though was the sensitivity. Your character moves as if he has weight to him, so I guess the developers would claim realism, whereas I just see it as unnecessarily slow. All is good though since you can adjust this easily. They give you the option to up (or decrease if you prefer for even tighter controls) the sensitivity, as well as turn on inverted controls if that is your thing.
The Six Axis comes into use at times throughout the game. You have to turn objects and place explosives by moving around the controller. Further, the Six Axis is used as a sort of "steady aim" and precision shot with the sniper rifle. Instead of having an unsteady and randomly moving crosshair, how level your shot is depends on how still you keep your controller. If you want to aim in relatively short distances, such as moving from a torso to head shot, you can simply move up on the controller using Six Axis and fire.
A big part of any shooter is the enemy AI, as well as your comrades. I am pleased to report that the Helghast are quite intelligent in this game. They will make use of their surroundings in every situation. Unlike a lot of games where the AI is highly predictable, the Helghast will move around quite a bit instead of returning to the same places. They make liberal use of cover and use teamwork to flank your position. They even know when to retreat or push forward.
On the other hand your ally support is not very impressive. They will often sit back and wait on you to take the lead. This is certainly fine, you don't want the computer to do all of the work for you, but I found them to be bumbling idiots that got in your way more of the time than they actually made use of themselves. What would have been great is to be able to play split-screen co-op with a friend to provide you with support.
The single-player in Killzone 2 should last you a good eight to ten hours, which puts it safely in the average to slightly above average length for a first-person shooter. Unlike some other games out there you will probably find yourself coming back to Killzone 2 to either play through on a harder difficulty, unlock the many Trophies scattered about (which in this game are actually quite worthy) or just to have another go at a level that you liked. The great thing about it is that you can pick up from any level in the game without having to play from the beginning.
For shooters these days a strong multi-player element is crucial. The original Killzone was lacking in this department. Not anymore. Killzone 2's multi-player, much like the single-player, is completely fluid. Lag is not a problem unless you are running on a bad connection. You have a number of game types to choose from. But before I get into that let me also mention that there is an offline multi-player mode called Skirmish that allows you to play against up to 15 bots. You get to choose the game types, the bot difficulty and so on. It's a good place for beginners to start or just to play around with for a while. I can't say that I remember the last game to feature offline multi-player with bots.
The online multi-player is extensive. The game types vary from a Team Deathmatch clone named Body Count to a Search and Destroy mission where you have to blow up a location on the map while the other team has to defend against that team setting off an explosive in a given time limit. The main game type is called Warzone. You have two teams of 18 going at each other in various mission-based gameplay.
They give you an objective, so you may have to plant a bomb or protect someone on your team. First you need to select a class and a weapon (all of it is customizable and you can earn new stuff once you gain more experience, similar to Call of Duty). Once one of the teams completes the objective, they win that round and it automatically transitions to a new objective, so that it doesn't go back to a lobby. While the game comes up with a new objective you can still kill people and earn experience by doing it.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding Killzone 2 long before it even launched. With fanboys on both sides using it as evidence that their system was better, Killzone 2 found itself the target of ridicule for an E3 trailer that wasn't actually gameplay footage. Now that the game is actually out for everyone to play, the gossip can finally come to an end. It is quite evident that Killzone 2 has lived up to expectations, both visually and in terms of gameplay. Six years after the words “Halo killer” got printed across gaming media everywhere, Sony can finally say that they have delivered a shooter to be reckoned with. Video games, like all forms of media, are about taste. Killzone 2 leaves a good taste in your mouth. Not everyone will like it, but most people that try it will find it irresistible.
| Graphics: | 10 |
| Sound: | 10 |
| Gameplay: | 9.5 |
| Creativity: | 9 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 10 |
| Final: | 9.7 |
| Written by Kyle | Write a User Review |
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