A game that looked so impressive but is oh so dissapointing.
You start with a set of fantastic cinematics and are straight away into the action. The graphics will instantly blow you away. But past this you'll notice very familiar gameplay mechanics, with a cover system, typical aiming controls and similar weapons. There are some six-axis parts, however, but these feel slightly tacky.
The most noticeable aspect of the gameplay is the controls. Moving your player around, they will move at a slower rate to begin with and then increase in their turning speed. This also applies to the aiming, making it frustrating and a long time to get use to. This also makes for a slower pace to the game, rather than a typical run and gun shooter, such as Call of Duty. This is not helped with the enemies taking a peculiarly large amount of bullets to die.
The campaign isn't particularly long, but there are 4 separate difficulties and there are some varieties in the gameplay, such as tank sections and large enemies. The guns feel realistic but it is annoying only being able to hold one main gun at a time. Overall, it is full of action, but the severe lack of story and originality make for a lackluster and underwhelming experience.
Playing online, you can join battles with up to 32 players and can choose your own set of guns or select a class, such as medic, scout etc. Cover is not allowed in online and adds to the flow of the game but the unusually aiming and the large amount of bullets needed to kill an opponent still remains. There are a handful of maps, but they lack a certain polish, making for a pretty ordinary online mode.
With the many stunning screen shots and videos that were shown pre-release, it looked as though Killzone 2 would be one of the best shooters this gen. However, with no originality whatsoever, frustrating aiming and a poor story, Killzone 2 turned out to be, despite its wonderful visuals, a very bland and ordinary first person shooter.