Killzone 2 Review

User Rating: 7 | Killzone 2 (PS3 80GB Bundle) PS3
No Caption Provided

Killzone 2 is a beautiful game that embarrasses the original, and thankfully so. Five years seems to have been enough time to make a proper shooter, although it does maintain many of the idiosyncrasies of the first game. It certainly brings some of it's own. Some of them are good, some of them are bad..

Even as old as it is, from the beginning the game is quite good-looking - thanks to the much more powerful PS3 and newer engine Guerilla Games made for the game. It is much easier to get used to, especially for anyone playing the game late, as it fits in with modern FPS games quite well. The original was hard to play, unless you played it at the time, because of the anachronism, the time shock of playing a 10 year old game.

There is never really any story introduction to fill you in on what happened between games, but as is specified near the end of the first game, the war was nowhere near over. So I guess that's all you needed. What you do get is a nice cinematic intro and almost immediately thrown into a splended invasion of Helghan, and there is no lull in the action until the credits roll.

Instead of the multi-loading screen, cutscene riddled levels of the first game, Killzone 2 has levels with multiple parts that all segue together into one frankly annoying chapter at a time. That's not the bad part, though.

The bad part is that much of the "bullshit" from the first game found its way into the sequel. For example, when enemies take cover - you can't blow their head off, even though you can clearly see and hit their head. Walls once again contain hitboxes that extend far beyond the geometry, and block bullets, even though you should be able to shoot. Enemies still will not try to move and outmanuever you, so playing on veteran or higher is infuriating. It turns into a cat and mouse game where you have to peak around a corner, make sure someone is there, then immediately run away for fear of a missile, or the rare situation where they do move and they shotgun kill you instantly.'

So, because they didn't think keeping the obscene damage from the first game (I've never played on normal so I don't know what the damage is like) was a big deal, they added in the asinine game mechanic of having to revive teammates. While being shot at. Never is this more infuriating than in the mission to capture Visari square. You literally have to fight an entire battalion, with about 5 guys - all of which will die and need reviving, and you are utterly screwed if you don't. I didn't think they would make something as frustrating as the end of the first game re-surface so soon, but they did it.

They threw in some more annoying mechanics too, like the fact you can only carry two guns and evidently it can only be one heavy weapon and one pistol. The targeting, too, of the Dual Shock controller makes the game a little frustrating. It's not "hard" to hit enemies, but the imprecision of the control sticks makes for hair-pulling when the slightest movement shoves it to the left or right of your targets head.

Compared to the original, Killzone 2 seems to have a narrative bound close enough together that you feel like you're actually fighting a war against the helghast, not repelling them from your planet alone by simply killing every last Helghan in existence.

Regardless, the overall package is very tight. The graphics are pleasant, the new enemy types are interesting (albeit not challenging), the game has shed many of its more annoying flaws, and the gameplay doesn't make you regret being a gamer. Killzone 2 is a good entry, worth the negligible price you would now pay for it, and I'd suggest it to any fans of sci-fi, shooters, or those disappointed with what the original game should have been.