Killzone 2 is Sony’s latest attempt to release a flagship game for its PS3. Lair was met with angry chorus, Heavenly Sword disappointed many and Haze was…terrible. Can Guerrilla Games’ effort meet the expectations of killer-app thirsty fans? Yes.

For those that haven’t been paying attention to the last 3 or 4 years of video games: Killzone 2 is a first person shooter set in an alternate reality. The Helghast are a race of human-like people that are, to all intents and purposes, trying to control the star system. The ISA are the “good guys” that, after being invaded in the first game, are trying to exact their revenge by invading Helghan.

Whilst this back-story is pretty clichéd, the characters do a good job of presenting themselves as real foot soldiers that, while being important, are still part of a much bigger war that would go on with, or without them. Voice acting is okay for most of the characters, but Rico is poorly voiced, and sounds pretty fake.

I’m going to get onto the bit you’re interested in. Graphics. Do they look amazing? Yes. Is this the best looking game on any console? Yes. Can they be bettered? Apart from a couple of loading freezes, no.

Gunplay in this game is great, with an assault rifle that could shoot a fly from a mile away; you’ll find yourself popping off Helghast helmets easily. Even with this ease the game never becomes dull, as later on you find yourself in situations where accuracy doesn’t matter anymore, because you’ll be, “No fighting in the war room” (CoD 4) style, ducking behind stuff while crying for mercy.

I’ve played around 10 hours of the online, and while I can’t say it’s as good as Call of Duty 4, it is at least comparable, with a semi-similar class system that seems more dependant on completing side-objectives (e.g. revive 3 people in 1 match) than normal ranking up. This can be frustrating as you find yourself playing in a way that just get’s that side-objective done, as opposed to putting in a 100% effort to help your team win.

However, when it comes down to it, the online mode really delivers, especially because of the match format. All modes are rolled into one 30 minute (approx.) violence orgy that promises to set your heart beating as fast as it has since…well…Call of Duty 4.

All in all, this game will deliver on the hype that Sony put on it – but the extent to which it goes beyond all of that hype probably depends on how much you like online gaming.

9/10

Matt

Labels: Killzone 2, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Review

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