Killzone 2

Let's face it: first-person shooters is the game-du-jour and many will come out and attempt to take on Halo, Call of Duty or more story-driven games like Half-Life 2 and Bioshock. Some succeed while others fall completely flat on their face so when the E3 video of Killzone 2 blew everyone away, people saw just how powerful the Playstation 3 can be, but then we waited....and waited. And just for a change of pace, we waited some more until it finally came out February of 2009. Reviews were positive, the multiplayer was rightly praised and the graphics astounded yet the game is somewhat seen as a disappointment. I say somewhat because there was no way this game would live up to the hype even if the things people complained about were fixed given how long it's taken to make and the view this game was going to "take on Halo". I spent an incredible amount of hours playing the multiplayer and the campaign's...decent but I will admit there are some faults to this one I can't overlook, no matter how purdy it looks. 
 
In Killzone 1, the Helghast race launched an invasion on the planet Vekta which Jan Templar, the main protaganist of that game, helped stop it and now it's the ISA (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance)'s turn to take the fight to them. Determined to make it to their main city and capture their leader, Scolar Visari, the ISA invade the planet Helghan to try and end the war but you're on their turf and playing as "Sev", you're going to be in for a rough ride. The story is pretty basic and it's also kind of..."eh" in that it's not super engaging and although big plot turns tend to happen, it's somewhat hard to care at times and while the game does occasionally change the scenery and it's got great pacing, there's not really much else to the actual story and characters. Oh and the dialogue is kind of atrocious as characters say "bad ass" lines that are usually peppered with "fuck"'s and "shit"'s.  
 
Graphically, this game's quite a stunner. And although the color palette is really muted and it's not a very visually vibrant game, there is a large attention to detail such as dust and debris kicked off during explosions, huge set pieces and some smooth character animation. Make no mistake, Killzone 2 is a very pretty game although art design wise, it's kind of bland at the same time. But there's one strange hiccup in Killzone 2's graphics and that's the loading of areas in that I don't believe the game actually streams the levels and just loads what it needs to do as it continues but the game will literally stop for at least 8-10 seconds in some cases before you finally regain control. Unless you were already aware of it, you'd think your console just froze and it becomes really distracting over time. 
 
Sound design is quite impeccable from explosions to the sound of the guns, the environmental effects, distant battle waging on and that oh-so-satisfying "chirp" when you get a kill in multiplayer but to a certain extent it almost feels like there's a bit too much sound and it can make things almost sound noisy. Playing on headphones, I noted that it's a very loud game and it can make the sound mix feel almost cacophonous. Voice acting is decent with Brian Cox (X-Men 2, Troy, Zodiac) supplying the voice of Visari but for everyone else they're kind of forgettable as dialogue is rather banal and the lip sync can look a bit silly. 
 
Now comes the main issue of the game for people: the controls. Granted, games have tried to give a sense of weight to how you controlled your character, making it more immersive if it actually feels like you're walking through these areas and honestly, I had no issues with the movement controls and though they may not feel as smooth and "ballerina" - as someone remarked - as Call of Duty, I never felt the movement got in the way. But it was the aiming I had issues with since I was either overextending my shots are it was sluggish. Turn speed would be fine but the iron-sight aiming was inaccurate while other settings had a sluggish feel but more accurate shots and they never felt comfortable. Also the Sixaxis controls feel somewhat clunky as you hold R1 and turn the controller to plant charges or turn valves. I do like having to hold the controller steady for more accurate sniper rifle shots though, I noticed I was very conscious about keeping the controller still. But overall, these aren't even love-it-or-hate-it controls as they're either extreme dislike or mild indifference about them but I'm glad they're being fixed for the next game. 
 
Now comes the multiplayer and man, did I ever sink hours into this one at launch. 8 shipped maps and 6 maps available for DLC and 7 classes, Killzone 2 takes the class-based formula and really makes it a much more unique and dynamic experience and helps keeps things fresh. From the teammate-reviving medics, the cloaking snipers or the spawn grenades available to Tacticians, I had to admit, I was quite addicting to the online. However, the online was also, if you'll pardon my French, a clusterfuck as people died and died repeatedly and it wasn't uncommon to find the top scorer on either side dying upwards of 10 to 15 times from grenade spams, rushers or just spawn traps. While more wide open maps were great fun (Phyruss Rise, Corinth Crossing) smaller maps like Radec Academy and Tharsis Depot were terrible for basically being stuck inside a spawn and spending the entire match trying to get out. It did introduce the shifting gametypes so you could have VIP mode come right after Capture and Hold within the same match rather than separate ones which is something much more developers should copy from. 
 
Killzone 2 is far from perfect and at times I'd say it's flawed to a fault but it was damn good fun, it looks impressive and the online was and is still incredibly engaging but this was a game not everyone got. Whether it was hype, anti-PS3 guys or just genuine dislike for the game, if you're a PS3 owner and haven't played it, by all means as the reduced price will make it a good revving up into Killzone 3.