The Front Page - Review: Killzone 2

Single Issue VI (Written by Gen. Chris)

Killzone 2 (2009)

Killzone 2 The Helghast invasion was a failure, and now it is time to take the fight to their own world. Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko as well as the rest of the squad known as Alpha Team takes part in the invasion of Helghan. Though initially the invasion is successful, the deployment of a Helghan defense system cripples the first wave and kills many ISA soldiers. But the fight must go on, and Sev, disillusioned as he is with the war, vows to kill or capture the leader of the Helghast, Scolar Visari, and bring peace to the system.

Killzone 2 returns the player to the epic war between the ISA and the Helghast, this time seeing the player take the offensive on Helghan, the homeworld of the Helghast. There are several positives that Killzone 2 displays throughout its campaign. In the four years between the first game and the sequel, the Playstation 3 was introduced, giving Guerrilla Games a new system to bring their story to gamers. The new system and capabilities leads to a rather graphically beautiful and engaging campaign. Everything has much more detail, cutscenes and gameplay in general look visually impressive, and the new engine allows for exciting sequences and much more immersive gameplay. The opening scene, a rough descent and landing on the outskirts of a city, evokes images of the D-Day invasion and the brutality of war. The screams and cries of the wounded and dead brings a huge feeling of an actual war to Killzone. The atmosphere, in short, is breathtaking, and it only improves as the game continues. The gameplay itself also contributes towards a much more immersive game. Combat has improved greatly, taking advantage of the new engine, and the mechanics as a whole are greatly improved. For example, the player can now actually look down the sights of the gun when “zooming”, a feature missing from the predecessor. Controls are much more responsive as well, and enemy and ally AI have been built upon to actually be competent and deadly, with the allies being much more reliable in combat as well. A cover system has been implemented as well, allowing the player to stick to surfaces and “peek” above or around corners in order to aim at the enemies. And the enemies themselves have been upgraded as well, with a lot more variety in regards to their appearance, equipment, and difficulty, a refreshing change compared to the predecessor which was much more limited. It is also much easier to acquire ammo for weapons in this game, which might make it easier but nonetheless means that the player can utilize their favorite weapons much more effectively throughout the campaign. There’s also vehicle and turret segments that, while somewhat rare in the game, are nonetheless exciting additions to the gameplay, as the first game had fairly static turret sections. Guerrilla Games also utilized the motion controls present in the Playstation 3 controllers, which while somewhat gimmicky do at least make the player utilize them in parts (such as turning a wheel to open a gate) where it would at least make sense. The soundtrack has improved much over the previous game as well, using the greater capacity of the blu-ray discs to have much more sound and much better quality happening in each song. The soundtrack is also used very effectively throughout the story, to compliment the sound effects of battle and other parts of the game, further contributing to the immersion in the game. The voice acting and cutscenes have also improved, though the dialogue itself suffers some issues.

As always, however, there are some issues that Killzone 2 cannot overcome. Like the previous game, the story simply is not a very strong or memorable one compared to many other games. It is better, to be sure, and the themes of extreme militarism, fascism, and the horrors of war do punctuate the story to make it slightly more compelling. But there is not much there to completely satisfy me, at least not compared to other games that I have played, and the ending is a bit weak. Despite being quite pretty to look at, there are some minor performance problems in the game, such as brief lags while hitting a checkpoint or entering a new area, as well as textures or shadows not loading completely or looking a bit fuzzy. It’s not horrible, and it does not really impact the game greatly, but the large number of lags do add up over the course of the game. Other gameplay elements are frustrating, such as the inability to carry more than two weapons, one of which being a sidearm, can make it sometimes frustrating to accomplish objectives efficiently. Adding to this is the fact that secondary weapons, such as a grenade launcher under the assault rifle, have also been removed, greatly reducing the capabilities of some main weapons. There’s also a complete lack of explanation as to what happened in between the two games, as the only returning characters are Templar and Rico, both of which are not playable, and leaving the fates of Hakha and Lugar completely unknown. I suspect the answer to this lie in the handheld game Killzone Liberation, but it is still frustrating as I doubt many people have played that game, at least at the time this one came out. Related to this is the fact that you can only play as Sev, while in the previous game you could play as all four characters. The focus on Sev does allow a greater degree of character development for him, but the other characters are seemingly left behind, and Templar barely appears in the game. It feels like a step backward, and an odd choice considering how playing as different characters in the first game did make a bit of an impact on gameplay experience. There are also some questionable dialogue in the game, focusing a bit too much on expletives that really serve as nothing but filler in an otherwise boring gameplay dialogue. Really the best dialogue comes from Scolar Visari, voiced by Brian Cox, but his time in the game is unfortunately sparse.

Killzone 2, despite its flaws, is an incredible improvement over its predecessor. There are flaws to be sure, but the action and gameplay drives the game and the story forward, and is rather exciting to play. I did not play the multiplayer, though I understand it to be pretty good, but it does not affect my view of the game. Perhaps one day I will play it, but as it stands I find the singleplayer campaign to be quite good. Overall, it is a great game that, while not quite a masterpiece, nonetheless is a satisfying game. I highly recommend it, and I look forward to Killzone 3.

9/10

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Review: Killzone 2

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