The Charge:
War Perfected.

Opening Statement:
The original Killzone arrived on Sony’s Playstation 2 console in late-2004, a mere week before Microsoft’s 800-pound gorilla, Halo 2, made its record-setting presence felt. Pre-release cries of “Halo-Killer” vanished amidst middling reviews and Halo 2 fever. Killzone was a solid, though perhaps a tad overzealous effort, but when people expect a revolution, solid just isn’t good enough. After close on five years of waiting, controversy over pre-rendered trailers, intense scrutiny from the community, and ridicule from both the press and the players, Sony, via their first party studio, Guerilla, has finally delivered Killzone 2, but does it in turn deliver the goods?

Facts of the Case:
Killzone 2’s setup is simple enough. After chucking the Fascist Helghast forces off of their home world of Vekta, the ISA, which stands for something, I’m sure, go on the offensive and launch a full scale invasion of the harsh wasteland that is Helghan. You take the role of Sev, hardened soldier, one of the ISA’s go to guys, a member of the elite Alpha Squad. Your mission is to work your way into the heart of the Helghast regime and kidnap their ruler, the fiery Hitler-like despot, Scolar Visari. However, to get to Visari, you have to get past his top General, Mael Radec. There’s also some stuff in there about a highly unstable mineral that turns the planet itself into a weapon, and stolen nukes. I’m sure you can see where that’s going. The plot, in typical blockbuster fashion, is basically an excuse to plow through wave after wave of Helghast soldiers, decked out like Nazi Death-Engines with glowing red eyes and gas-masks, and blow up a lot of stuff. In that respect, it succeeds in propelling you forward while remaining semi-engaging as the stakes get considerably higher and the plot hits bends in the road as you progress.

The Evidence:
Killzone 2 is straight up first person shooter fare: You work your way through 10 pretty lengthy levels hitting checkpoints along the way, then move on to your next objective. In that regard, Killzone 2 really isn’t anything too special, and the first hour or two of the seven to ten hours of total time feels downright pedestrian. Somewhere around hour number two, the game really starts to come together, the campaign becomes downright hectic, and you find yourself suddenly fighting a battle more intense and involving than pretty much any other game in the genre. A battle loaded with gob smacking moments of violent bliss.

The designers have also seen fit to include a cover system similar to what’s been popping up in recent shooters like Rainbow Six: Vegas or Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, or even Gears of War. You’ll need it; the Helghast enemy is relentless, brutal, and downright intimidating. While the AI isn’t perfection, it’s certainly some of the best to ever grace this sort of game, playing on Medium or Veteran difficulty, this game will challenge you. On top of that you get a few boss-style fights in the game that feel excellent, are challenging as all get out, and are a true rarity in this sort of title. You’re almost always fighting with a partner or a group of soldiers, and they handle themselves pretty well, and while they don’t often show the level of aptitude that the bad guys do, they are more than just window dressing.

As excellent as the single player campaign is, and it is excellent, the multi-player component is no afterthought either. The cover system from the single player game is gone, and I definitely miss it, but we get a very robust experience-based class system whereby you unlock new character abilities (snipers, engineers, medics, etc) by earning XP throughout your multi-player career. The system is deep, and not something you’ll blow wide open in a few days. We’re almost one week in and the number of top tier players in the game is still extremely low. There’s no shortage of takers at the moment, and games can go as high as 32 players. There’s a solid selection of levels, that all share the stunning look of the single player game, and game modes are diverse enough, with your typical capture, defend, destroy, and shoot everything that moves options. There’s also the option to throw computer controlled bots into any of the multiplayer modes to brush up on your skills (though you won’t earn XP). It’s every bit as good as any other multi-player offering out there, though the lack of co-operative play in the campaign is definitely worth noting, and the menus and interface could be a little more user friendly.

When Sony’s first trailer for the game hit, it raised a lot of pulses, but the pre-rendered nature of the video also stirred up a lot of controversy within the gaming media. Now, some 3 years and change on, the game has certainly lived up. While you may come across the occasional muddy texture, and the flame thrower effects could have been a little stronger, the combination of absolutely brilliant art design that surpasses most feature film work, top drawer lighting and particle effects, excellent interactivity with destructible backgrounds, and some of the best animation work I have ever seen, including amazing death animation on the bad guys, makes Killzone 2 the finest looking shooter to grace the Playstation 3 or any other console. Killzone 2’s graphical engine and rock solid framerate raises the bar so high that you may need a space shuttle to surpass it. The fact that you see so much on screen, at once, with AI and physics running at full steam, is a testament to the power under the hood of the PS3. The sound design is every bit it’s equal, powered by DTS, it fills the room. Machine guns rattle with impunity, explosions thunder, lightning crashes, and the surround effects land you smack in the middle of the warzone. The score is also top drawer, and complements the action on screen in suitably epic fashion. The voice acting is a little more of a mixed bag; your foul-mouthed squad of hard asses are stock and forgettable for the most part, but the Helghast troops are suitably vicious, and of particular note are the principal villains, Scolar Visari, who’s impassioned and patriotic speeches are voiced spectacularly by British veteran Brian Cox (X-Men, The Bourne Identity), and General Radec, a truly chilling bastard voiced by Sean Pertwee (Doomsday, Equilibrium).

Rebuttal Witness:
The one chink in Killzone 2’s armor is probably the control, as it definitely takes some adjusting. There’s a feeling of weight to your movements, like you really are a 220 pound man with 100 pounds of gear swinging around a 20 pound assault rifle. It can make the controls feel sluggish at times, but it feels more “real” than the floating gun barrel feeling of most FPS games. I for one welcomed the added immersion. At any rate it’s definitely a design choice, and it goes a long way towards separating the game from its Call of Duty and Halo brethren, Killzone 2 never really feels like anything but Killzone 2, and never really plays exactly like anything else either. It’s difficult to cite this as a flaw, but veterans of other long running series’ may well be turned off.

Closing Statement:
Killzone 2 is indeed the real deal. The jaw dropping visuals, the stunning sound, and the rock-solid gameplay all gel in one of the finest first person shooters ever packaged for the console market. The less than stellar narrative could use a little more meat, and the good guys suffer from a distinct lack of personality, amplified all that much more by the utter awesomeness of the Helghast, but the sheer degree of spectacle on display is unrivaled. This is action writ large, and a must-play for any fan of first-person shooters.

The Verdict:

 

Platform: Sony Playstation 3 
Developer: Guerilla Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Release Date: February 27, 2009
Rated: M(17+) for Mature.