Written by: Chris W.

 

 

 

The original Killzone (released in 2004) was the best FPS game on the PS2 as far as I’m concerned, it was only held back by developer, Guerrilla Games, massive ambitions, whilst the aging internals of the PS2 also meant that the game put a lot of heavy stress on the system.

 

With Sony’s almighty PS3, Guerrilla now have the ultimate proving ground to flaunt their talents as well as the true intelligence of the nasty Helghast race.

Welcome to "Killzone 2".

 

 

Killzone 2 picks up the plot two years after the events of the original game: the ISA have decided to invade the Helghast planet of Helghan in order to show their gasmask wearing, red-eyed enemies who the boss truly is.

 

The story may be decent enough, although it isn’t going to win any awards for storytelling or characterisation, ties to the first game have been near severed (some characters return, whilst others aren‘t even mentioned), and annoyingly, like the vast majority of action games, it’s seemingly geared towards the easier to please teenage audience.

 

 

 

Guerrilla have obviously been doing their homework of how to make PS3 games, such is the visual splendour on show here (see the graphics and sound section), but fortunately Killzone 2 isn’t a looker that plays like a dog, thus the most time and effort hasn’t just been invested in making it wonderful to look at, it also plays as well as any good shooter.

 

The clue is in the recharging health, the shoot and blow things up missions, and being restricted to carrying two weapons at once, yes, Killzone 2 offers few real surprises and is generally a by-the-numbers FPS, but I’ve always been of the mindset that if it feels good to shoot my enemies in a game, then I’ll be pleased.

The shooting in Killzone 2 is extremely satisfying in both look and feel, not only in the manner that bullets cause Helghast bodies to jolt forcefully but also in the powerful feeling that each gun brings with it.

 

The main quirk of the game is definitely the cover system, here the game stays in first person rather than following the likes of Perfect Dark Zero, Rainbow Six and Quantum of Solace (to name a few), which all flit into third person whilst taking cover. Sticking yourself to said cover allows you to move along it, and being an FPS you might even have to press the gun trigger at times as well: firing from cover by peeking out and using it wisely to avoid the Helghast’s shooting.

 

 

The game also makes intelligent use of the SIXAXIS motion sensing to plant explosive charges, to turn valves and to keep your rifle steady whilst sniping. It’s an immersive manner in which to use these actions and they also work as well as one would hope. SIXAXIS, you are deserving of more praise!!

 

Also deserving of praise are the Helghast, the red eyes now have bigger and cleverer brains, something which was promised in the original game, but lets be honest now, as individuals they just weren’t that smart and were certainly at their deadliest in numbers. The Helghast of this sequel now use cover loads, flush you out from your own cover by lobbing annoyingly accurate grenades, and just generally act as if they are also fighting for their lives when you fire in their direction: loosely moving around and not making any stupid mistakes. It’s a shame then, that your accompanying team-mates don‘t match up to the Helghast in intelligence, and on the higher difficulties in particular, they prove themselves to be pretty much worthless (this is why co-op would have been a sensible option to include).