A Guerrilla threw up on my face
That's right, that's what I said. A Guerrilla threw up on my face, or at least that is how I felt after I finished KillZone 2.
Now before everybody out there that LOVES this game, and feels it is the second coming of FPS's goes off the deep end and starts throwing out words like "Fan-Boy" or "Noob", sit back, take a deep breath and just give me a chance to explain myself.
Have you ever been on a blind date, or even on a date with someone that you "kinda" knew about, or on a second date where you had some pretty high expectations due to your first date? And things just did not work out, you left with a completely under whelmed feeling of "oh well, that could have been better" Well, that is EXACTLY how I feel about Guerrilla's second attempt at KillZone.
I will try my best to break this down, but a warning to all..... This review might seem a little "harsh", that is due to my complete and udder disappointment I felt as I played the game. Oh, and I should also let you know that I REALLY WAS looking forward to this game, based solely my experience with the fist KillZone back in 2004.
Story: 4
Could this part of the game be any worse? They could have made this game with NO story, no speech, no characters of any kind and I don't think anybody would have missed it. With some of the most forgettable characters, and HORRIBLE writing, this is one of the worse stories you will ever encounter in the gaming world. I never felt attached to the characters, or the need to follow along with the story. Oh, and I think if you sit back after your hype induced gaming high, you will find many similarities between this story and..... Gears Of War, does Radec remind you of anybody? Or how about that battle on the train/transport... ever seen that before?
Graphics: 7
Beauty is only skin deep people. How hard is it to make a game look good when nearly every level is dark, and hard to see? Sure, there are moments of flash and wow, but for me they were few and far between. People say "it's in the small details" Well, I looked and looked for the small details and really had a hard time finding them. WOW, look, bullets leave pot marks on the walls (never seen that before).. or COOL, tracers and tons of stuff on the screen... yup, never seen that either. Even the explosions felt bland and harmless. Weapon detail is "good", but again I felt like I was carrying around a toy the entire time. And to answer your question, YES I am playing this in the full beauty of HDTV. Nothing ever made me say "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT" in this game.
I am not sure where to throw this in, but one of the things that I had a real issue with was the FOV (Field Of View). For what ever reason, even when you are not zoomed in with your weapon, it seemed that everything was up close, that you had a very limited FOV. I won't even really go into the feeling of looking through a drinking straw when using the sniper rifle.
Audio: 5
Hmmm, nothing, and I mean NOTHING stood out for me when it came the audio. Given the bland, forgettable environments, I think they did a great job of matching them with some lackluster sound. From weapons firing to background audio... nothing to write home about, they did nothing to bring me deeper into the experience. The good folks over at Guerrilla could take notes from any of the COD games, or Dead Space.
Controls: 5
Oh my... here we go. I think Guerrilla knew long before this game was released that it was lacking in almost ever aspect of what they wanted. Remember, they worked on this game for 5... FIVE years. So in order to make it "unique" they added a control GIMMICK, yes, I do mean GIMMICK. They call it "weighted weapons" or something like that, where you are supposed to feel the pull/weight of the guns. Their goal was to make it so you were not able to spin and fire in a instance. I call it a GIMMICK that made the game completely un-enjoyable, at least for me. I did finish the game, but never did get use to "over steering" for lack of a better term. This awesome idea of a weighted control system got so hyped that I think players bought into it just because they were told to.
I also think this game exemplified some of my issues with the PS3 controller in general. I felt that 80% of the time when I was trying to turn while in a firefight, I would accidentally press the R3 button and zoom in, I did that ALL THE TIME. It also just showed me that the controller is too small, R & L bumpers are to close to each other.
Game Play: 7
Over all, the game runs smoothly and there are very few glitches/bugs. They did a decent job of splitting up the levels between using handheld weapons, or mounted guns..... to sitting in a turret (again, another totally new idea). Some things I felt they over used were the moments when you had to use the Sixaxis control to turn valves, or plant explosives. Those moments were fun like the first 5 times you had to do it. It also got old having to shoot electric boxes in order to advance or cause damage to a enemy.
Online: Un Rated
I was going to give the online a 5 due to my experience with major lag when I tried to play. But then I thought about it, and I only tried online twice so I figured that would be unfair of me to rate. I understand the "flowing/changing" game play might be cool, but I did not get a chance to really experience it.
Over all, I will not say that this is a BAD game, but at the same time I would not say it is GREAT or that it even lived up to its hype. After 5 years of development time I figured this game would have floored me the way MGS 4 did. To me, it felt like a very AVERAGE FPS that at least deserves a rental if you have the PS3.
OVERLALL Score = 5.6
To summarize, below you will see my list of PROS/CONS.
PROS
NO TIMED BUTTON MASHING MINI GAMES!!!!
The game was over pretty quickly
Easy to use waypoint system
CONS
Forgettable story & characters
You are the only team member that can heal others
Did I just play the first KillZone? It was hard to tell the difference
Sloppy control gimmick
Takes WAY to many bullets to kill someone
Horrible FOV
Can carry only one weapon besides the pistol that you can't drop
Load issues/lag/freeze ups between check points interrupt game play
