Killzone 2 - Review

THEIR HOME, YOUR HELL

Killzone 2 made by the Dutch studio called Guerrilla Games, maybe the most talked object was the E3 trailer of Killzone 2 in 2005. Lots of people couldn’t believe that the playstation 3 could handle these graphics, as never seen before in any game. Now that the game is out, was the E3 trailer true? The answer is... Yes and it’s even better than the E3 trailer! When you start the game, the game immediately launches the intense intro.

This is war!

Killzone 2 is actually the third game in the Killzone franchise; Killzone 1 was on the PS2 and Killzone: Liberation, as a third-person action title on the PSP. In Killzone 2 you play as Sevchenko (AKA Sev), Sergeant First Class, part of a four-man team known as Alpha Squad. The Alpha Squad is led by Rico (who was from the first two games), Sev and his other teammates, Garza and Natko; fight their way across the planet Helghan, the planet of the helghasts. The ISA plans to attack the world of Helghan with the goal of capturing Visari and forcing the Helghast to stand down. The ISA quickly discovers that the goal will not work at all, and as the soldiers discover that the Helghast are just as fierce on their home world than ever before, they also discover that the Helghast have new weapons to unleash on their foes.

Sev can only carry two guns, a main fire gun and a pistol. You can get special weapons on specific missions, like a RPG to take out some tanks. You can hide behind cover by holding the L2 button, and lean over the object your hiding behind it. But watch out! If you stay there too much, a helghast will throw a grenade and blow you to your home planet.

Helgh-AI-st

Let’s talk about the AI of Killzone 2, these are really brilliant.

For example, when you think the enemies flanks, then you might be unpleasantly surprised by the Helghast. They watch you and your teammates as well and you will therefore change your hiding around to your team flanks and also can target! If you play like Rambo you will not make this game, because this isn’t a Call of Duty game, and if you don’t hide you will be killed!

The levels of your AI teammates are happy also thick in order. We noticed that they can get pretty good shots and eliminating steps if necessary. If your teammates get killed, you can revive your teammates. If you leave your teammates alone they will be overpowered by the helghasts and then they go after you and they are not so easy to kill then since the helghasts hunt you down to kill you, so you must check your teammates. If you play Killzone 2 on elite the AI is very hard, some levels are easy but especially the last level is just impossible, a few people completed Killzone 2 on elite. This says actually a lot, how good the AI is. Killzone 2 also contains big bosses; the big bosses aren’t at the end of a level like most games have but more after the middle in a level. Only the last level you have a big boss to fight against but that’s what should be in a game to be a little bit harder and it makes the ending better.

Early credits

Beautiful songs, don’t last long. Guerrilla Games chooses for quality above quantity and gives you an awesome and powerful story, that you can sit easy for it and complete Killzone 2 in around 8 hours. This is very short, for such a long production period, more than 4 years. If the story was longer you will have had more empathy with the characters, which would have made the story even stronger. Not like other shooter games Killzone 2 has lots of details that you’ve had missed the first time or even the second time, you have played it. Killzone also has collectables you need to collect in the game, these are Intel’s and helghast symbols. Which boost repeating Killzone 2 a lot. Guerrilla made a brilliant multiplayer for Killzone 2, but before that you should go after Visari before you enter the multiplayer mode, because the online experience is endless.

Warzone

Killzone 2 has a different multiplayer mode than any other shooting game. A normal shooting game has a death match, a team death match, capture the flag etcetera, but Killzone 2 has only Warzone. In warzone you have different modes, you have every mode as other shooting games but then all in one mode except death match since Guerrilla wanted only to make ISA versus Helghasts. Only in the multiplayer of Killzone, you can listen to your own music, with the in-game music function from the XMB.

What badges?

In the multiplayer you have different classes, you need to earn XP to get rewarded. You get them by skills, for Killzone is this called badges. You can get these for your favorite class and can get another action for this class. If you play the multiplayer long enough, you can combine these badges and create your own class. For example you want to be a medic but you also want to call in air support like the Tactician seconds ability, you just combine these two and you got your own class.

Did Killzone 2 complete the hype?

Killzone 2 definitely completed the hype, the planet Helghan is full of details and the war is chaos. The extremely awesome multiplayer, gives you 7 classes and then you  can create your own customized soldier into a brilliant class. Killzone 2 delivers you one of the best shooters, and will get you addicted to the online multiplayer, I personally liked the online multiplayer more than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The controls in Killzone 2 aren’t that bad you can change your controls to the call of duty one, which I liked the most. Aiming was a little bit slow than Call of Duty but you can get used to it. This is because it’s more realistic since you need to carry a huge backpack, if you run into the wind you will run slower than run with the wind in your back. If you got a PlayStation 3 and don’t have Killzone 2 be a shamed and run to the local game shop and buy Killzone 2 or order the game. Because Killzone 2 is a must-have for every PlayStation 3 owner.

Strong story, environment, awesome action and both single- and multiplayer makes Killzone 2 as a rare masterpiece. It’s a shooter as all shooters should be. It’s not perfect but it comes near it though.

Graphics

9.5

Gameplay

9.8

Replay

9.7

Sound

9.4

Total

9.6

It’s not perfect but it comes near it though.