Killzone 2

Released in February of 2009, Killzone 2 was meant to be the "Halo" of the Play Station 3.  The first Killzone (2004) was originally released to compete directly with the first Halo game, Halo: Combat Evolved, but fell incredibly short and didn't amount to the level of success Halo had, let alone to a very good game in general.  Killzone 2, however, was released on the Play Station 3, a system that meant worlds for the competitor of the Halo franchise.  With a three year gap in between the first and second game, designers, developers, and the like had plenty of time to improve upon what was lacking in the original Killzone.  It suffices to say that Killzone 2 more than exceeds its predecessor and is a worthy competitor not only for the Halo franchise, but likely for the Call of Duty multi-console franchise.

In Killzone 2, you're placed into the game as Sev, a veteran member of the ISA, in a special forces unit known as Legion.  Along side you are several other characters that seemingly are important, but throughout the game, you don't care much about them, so I'm not going to bother naming them.  Legion is placed on Vekta, the home planet of the Helghast, the enemy that invaded earth in the first installment of Killzone.  Now taking the fight to the Helghast's front door, your mission is fairly straight forward: capture the Helghast leader, Emperor Visari.  While the characters aren't incredibly memorable like in other games (*cough* Bad Company *cough*) you still manage to remember where they fit into the story and why they're important, more so in the latter half of the game rather than the first.  The plot isn't entirely complicated and is a little mottled, but is easy enough to follow and understand what your primary objectives are.  In the end, one doesn't necessarily play Killzone 2 for the incredible story line.

The gameplay in Killzone 2 is relatively smooth.  Enemies don't flood you an unnecessary amount, but if you do stay in cover for too long, they will stab you.  Friendly AI tends to be a little stupid, providing you with little to no cover or walking away to the next check point and waiting for you while you're still under fire.  As I said, while all of the people in the Legion squad aren't just jar heads, you'll definitely end up treating them that way seeing as how you easily can complete the game without them.  Dialogue amongst characters in the game both in cut scenes and in-game aren't too exciting either.  Emotions between characters seem forced and even when one of your squad mates dies, while you may feel a tinge of regret, your character's emotions seem a bit painted on.  The one character that does manage to stand out in the game, however, is Emperor Visari.  As an ominous, looming figure, Visari's voice is ever-present throughout the war zone, whether it be far off in the form of a wide spread warning or a radio placed on the ground.  Furthermore, out of all of the enemies you face, he's the only one whose entire face you see and one of only two enemies whose eyes you see.  This being said, Visari stands out among the crowd and some of the speeches and monologues that come from his character are incredibly well written and powerful.  I will say, that while the story of Killzone 2 isn't very strong, it does have an unexpectedly powerful ending.

The controls for Killzone 2 are a bit infuriating at the begging.  This could be in part because I'm used to a 360 controller when I'm playing a shooter, but it is also due to the fact that the control layout is counter intuitive, at least to today's standards.  Where in most contemporary shooters, the left trigger is aim and the right is fire, in Killzone 2, there is no configuration that gives you those controls.  There is absolutely no way to make L2 aim and R2 fire.  The closest you can get is to have L1 as aim and R1 as fire, but that configuration is just as counter intuitive.  What I ended up settling with was using R2 as fire, L2 as grenade, and a click of the right joystick (R3) as aim.  While this took some getting used to, by the time I finished that game, I had gotten pretty well adjusted to it.  Another controls issue is the running; while its placed where one would think (as a click of the left joystick [L3]), you don't stop running once you let off.  If you try to stop and aim, you'll run right past your enemies and get stabbed; if you try to run up to cover, but don't click L3 again, you get stabbed.  Motion controls are also tacked on when you need to set a mine or turn a valve.  By rotating your controller, your character twists a valve; sort of useless in my opinion.  One thing that stands out among the controls, however, is the cover system.  By holding L1, I could get into cover, stay there, and with a simple push of the left joystick, I could lean over, lean to the right, or lean to the left to get a better shot at my enemies.  When I let off of the joystick, I would immediately drop back into cover. 

If anything though, there are two primary reasons to play Killzone 2: the multiplayer and the graphics.  The multiplayer in Killzone 2 is what one would expect: it has your standard kill everything games; your capture the object games; your protect this dude because I said so games, etc.  What is different about Killzone 2, however, is that you can play all of these games together in one huge match.  Once one team wins one mission, it switches to the next without going to a lobby or anything of the sort.  For instance, your first mission will be to get a collective total of fifty kills.  Once one team has achieved that, they get a point, and the next mission pops up: defend the objective, so on and so forth.  For each mission that a team wins, they get a point.  In every game I played it was a best of seven style, which provides for long matches with incredibly varied gameplay.  Two things, however, hurt Killzone's online.  The first of these is its connectivity issues; when I went online for the first time, I couldn't connect at all.  Searching online for a solution for almost an hour, I found hundreds upon hundreds of people with the same issue.  Luckily, I came across someone who said to disable the UPnP, which ,surprisingly, worked.  The second thing is the community, which is on par with the Halo community.  Not only is in-game chatter annoying and obnoxiously loud, but being able to mute someone isn't nearly as fluid as in Halo.  Even worse is tea bagging.  For anyone who hasn't played Halo with me, tea bagging is just what it is in the real world; its when you kill an enemy and then while they're re-spawning with a clear view of their dead body, you stand over them and dip your crotch right into their face.  Tea bagging has been taken to a new extreme in Killzone 2.  When you die in Killzone 2, you can "bleed out" and lay on the ground, gasping for air until you decide to re-spawn, someone revives you, or someone kills you.  On several occasions, I was crawling on the ground, waiting to respawn, only to have the guy that had killed me tea bag me for ten seconds and then pop me in the head right before I was about to re-spawn.

With tea bagging aside, the graphics of Killzone 2 are by far some of the best I have ever seen.  Everything in the game seems incredibly fluid and life like.  Textures on all of the guns are incredibly detailed, human characters look exceptional and, oddly enough, almost life-like when their eyes are closed.  The environments are vast and expansive and seem to take a bit of influence from the grand landscaping designs seen in Gears of War.  The environments are incredibly moody and dark, with bits of ash and fire flickering through the sky.  Lighting is also astoundingly well done, setting the mood for every environments you find yourself in, whether it be a desert or an underground passageway.  Body movements of enemies are incredibly fluid, but not so much so that they have that rag doll effect once they're dead.  All of the movements in the game, such as running and reloading, are incredibly smooth and life-like, and carry the weight that would seem necessary for such actions. In the end, Killzone 2's graphics top many that I have ever seen, managing to create vast environments that span miles, while still defining fine details such as stitching and hair.

Before I close I would like to mention a couple of other quick points.  The guns in Killzone 2 are fairly limited and the good guns don't start to make an appearance until almost over half way though the campaign.  Boss fights are pretty fun, but can be a little easy, save for the very last one.  The Helghast enemies, while there are fifteen different types of them, all look similar enough that its hard to really distinguish which is which, something that is unfortunate because, upon closer inspection, many of them have unique looks.

Overall, Killzone 2 is an incredible game that any PS3 owner should at least play.  The game play is fun and can mold to first time gamers as well as veteran shooters.  The story, while a little weak throughout, manages to end incredibly well, really creating anticipation as to what will happen next.  The multiplayer, while it has its faults and the community is unbearable, once you get on a roll and play for a while, it is a lot of fun.  The graphics for Killzone 2 are beyond amazing and I could just sit and look at my screen for hours in awe.  Now that I've played catch-up with one of the major PS3 titles, I can finally start anticipating Killzone 3, which will be released on February 28th, 2011, and will be in 3D!  Lets hope that works out.