A must have
The Playstation brand has had a hard time distinguishing itself in the market. Aside from Metal Gear, and a few other titles, the PS3 never had its showcase game. The game that came out and said “bro, Playstation, it’s here to stay!” Killzone 2 is a phenomenal game that is arguably the best action game in years. Everything from the sound design, to the incredible visuals, this game is what PS3 owners have been waiting for. Guerrilla’s delivered a technical masterpiece, and set a new standard for military action.
Killzone 2 is the third chapter in the series, following the PSP and PS2 games. You don’t need to have any experience with either game to appreciate Killzone 2. The game isn’t too heavy on plot, almost about as much Gears of War. If you do look a little closer, you will find themes of fascism, military aggression, and the cost of war sprinkled throughout the 12 hour campaign, but it doesn’t play a major role at the end of the day. It’s relatively cliché military speak, go here, kill that, blow stuff up, and it totally works!
The game is very focused in what it sets out to do, and that’s setting up impressive military battles on the Helghast homeworld. Constantly you’ll be moving from cover to cover with ships flying over your head, Army dudes screaming at you, soldiers being burned alive in the backround, bullets flying over your head, it’s like being impressed with Call of Duty all over again. Of course, there’s more to the game pure graphical power. While the grand scheme of Killzone 2 isn’t very impactful, it’s more about the minute-to-minute moments that make the singleplayer a standout from other retail games. This is mainly due to the awesome presentation, but the star of the show are the guns. They’re very fun to pickup and shoot, they feel great, and Guerrilla did a great job on making you feel the power of the guns your shooting, and the damage you do to your enemies. One thing I appreciated is that this game takes place in the far future, but non of the guns are unbelievable. Aside from the lighting gun, which only purpose is to give the player a since of invincibility for a brief period of time, you’ll be fighting with machine guns, rocket launchers, shotguns, and so on. That’s a standard arsenal, but are fatastically fun to use in combat.
Controlling Killzone 2 is fairly different from most other shooters. The method of control is unique enough to be interesting, but doesn’t stray far enough from typical first person control to alienate many people. The turning radius has a bit of weight to it, so you can’t just snap into a position. This is a bit cumbersome, but I liked it a lot. Killzone doesn’t sacrifice gameplay for animation, this weight just plays into the game’s pacing. At some points you’ll be asked t utilize the sixaxis to do certain tasks like plant explosives. It’s sorta clunky and weird, but doesn’t happen often enough to be a problem.
Killzone’s campaign is definitely a fun ride, and when that’s over with you can hop into it’s 32-player multiplayer. Online, the game is great, iterating classed classed multiplayer that rivals online powerhouses like Call of Duty and Halo. Like COD4, you’ll be unlocking various weapons, and enhancements for your character. Rather than having obligatory Deathmatch, CTF, or Assassination game types, Killzone mushes all those classic multiplayer modes together to create a unique online that’ll keep people coming back. Player advancement is a large part of the online, and I guess that’s sorta mandatory in this day and age. In Killzone’s case, it’s well balanced, and addicting. The only knock I would have against it is that it’s not too clear on what exactly has to be done to advance.
Killzone 2 is a tremendous action game that no one should pass up. With his hot title it’s hard to not recommend people getting a PS3 in addition to previously released games. This game sets the standard, and any shooter fans looking to make a purchase, look no further. Killzone 2 is an early contender for shooter of the year.
