KILLZONE 2
it’s taken what 5 years for Guerrilla to release the sequeal to 2004′s PS2 shooter KillZone. But oh my fucking god was it worth it. we all remember the e3 trailer a few years back with the stunning graphics that most had dismissed as fake, and that some one from the show even announced that it was prerendered. Well, with it’s release, i can honestly say that yes the graphics are just as good, if not better, than the e3 trailer. The motion blur when you turn is great, and the game maintains a constant 60 fps without any hiccups except near the end before you take on Radec because there’s a lot of shit going on. It continues on the path of destruction and a strange beauty about that killzone one introduced and GoW perfected, until KZ2 that is.
The animations are superb to say the least. when you jump, it actually looks like you jump. reloading is a joy to watch, and so are the in game rendered cutscenes. And the most rewarding part of the great animation? The enemy deaths. the death animations differ on how you kill them. all i can say is that it makes it truly realistic.
The detail is incredible, and not just in the pixels, but the movement and animations. Everything looks believeable. at the moment i can’t think of any graphical glitches, no pop ins, no bably rendered textures, it is simply beautiful in a gears of war kind of way.
Speaking of Gears of War, KZ2 features a unique cover system that is quite reminiscent of GoW, basically in which if you’re not in cover YOU’RE GOING TO DIE. A LOT. You hold L2 to attach to cover and move the left stick to poke your gun out and pop off a few shots, all while maintaining the first person perspective. It takes a little while to get used to, but once you do you’re going to wonder how you played FPSs before without it, as it quickly becomes intuitive.
Now, going back to that dieing a lot part. You will. I’m playing on what the normal difficulty would be, which is noticeably harder than KZ one’s hard mode. I don’t even WANT to know how hard Elite is, ok of course i do. and to be able to beat elite without dieing once i am going to put out as impossible unless you cheat. This game is MAD HARD. Fuck Legendary. I know people that can beat legendary without dieing, but if someone can beat KZ2 on elite without dieing, i will bow down to them and imbue upon them the rank of god of gaming.
The guns are perfect and all feel unique. especially the lightning gun. fuck yeah, lightning gun. that’s what i said. but other than that, there are two basic assault rifles, on better at longer range and one that is great in close proximity. There are two pistols in the game, both have infinite ammo: a revolver is your standard one and it packs a punch, you can also get the helghast pistol which holds a lot more ammo per clip at the price of damage. The only regret i have with the weapons is that they no longer have a secondary fire, but with what they have right now and how well it’s done, a secondary fire is not necessary.
The AI is great. The enemies try to flank you, and if you don’t pay attention they will be successful and kill you…again. They take cover when they should, suppressing fire works. they run from grenades more effectively than the first game. oh, and they want you DEAD. you see that wood table over there? you know that’s a dead tree, well they want you deader than that. they want you so dead your great great great great great grandma is gonna be like ‘damn, you’re SO dead’.
the level design is linear mostly, a few different routes to take out enemies, a high and low ground, or left or right, but that’s about it. However, you’re not going to be playing and all of a sudden be like ‘i think i’ve been here before’ which happens a lot in halo and most other shooters, but that will not happen in KZ2.
online is amazing and is similar to CoD4′s class system. you get points every game and you level up your rank from private to general granting you new abilities and classes and weapons. some maps are better than others, but you will find your favourites quickly. some like the Tharsis Refinery and Visari’s Hammer, but i hate them both. Unfortunately there is no Park Terminal, perhaps they will remake it as an add-on. I think i’d pay $5 for just that map in KZ2. Some are better for just run-n-gunning but others can accomodate the tactical player that likes to snipe. Unfortunately no half-way-across-the-map-shotgun-sniping that i like to do.
Graphics – 10/10 easy 10 most beautiful game evar
Gameplay – 10/10 no stupid extra stat building or any rpg elements like bioshock or anything, just straight up fun with points of frustration, but they are few and rather far between.
Controls – 9/10 because it takes quite a bit to get used to throwing grenades with R2 and such. KZ one controls would have been perfect
Online – 8/10 if games would be a bit easier to set up it would be better, but the class system and and actual just fun it is to play online is great, and the last game i played online that was this much fun was socom 3 or F.E.A.R. (which is still my favourite game to play online on a console, yes i know, it is the only FPS i’d actually rather play on a console than PC, and i’m actually pretty good at it online.)
Difficulty – 7/10 some parts can just be a little too hard, like the ATAC boss fight and the part where you fight two Heavys and a bunch of infantry at the same time. and the end game, which simply said is EPIC.
Story – 8/10 an amazing score for an FPS i know. it has a story. and a fairly interesting one. Sev is quite cool, something happens that will shock you if you played the first game, and a scene to rival that of CoD4′s nuke.
Sound – 10/10 guns sound great, proper squishes when you destroy and enemies cranial cavity, everything sounds right.
Technical overall – 8.8
RealFeel – 9.5
buy or rent? if you want a solid online game that doesn’t scarifice online for campaign or vice versa – buy
if you just like to complete every game you can play, then rent. completionists should buy simply because of elite mode is going to take forever for you to beat if you even can.
