Killzone 2's technical achievement is amazing, too bad the story sucks
So, I'm finally getting myself a PS3 and as a shooter fan, I bought 2009 Killzone 2 as my first game on PS3. Just as I thought, Killzone 2 is a great FPS. It's an awesome technical achievement for PS3. Intense battle, epic graphics, and terrific sound design make this game looks almost perfect on presentation and gameplay aspects. Too bad Guerrilla took too many times on pushing the technical aspects on Killzone 2, they forgot the other crucial element that made a great game become a masterpiece.
The Story, let me start with the weakest point on Killzone 2. The game continues the story of previous 2 Killzone game on PS2 and PSP as ISA invade the home planet of Helghast. You play as Sgt. Tomas Sevchenko , part of the Alpha team (a bunch of ugly son of a b!tch knows nothing but to shoot) that deployed behind enemy line to assist the main invasion force. To tell you the truth, there is not much story on this game. Of course the Helghast have their own secret weapon on their own home, of course Helghast had collect a stolen ISA's nuclear warheads, and of course you will do whatever it takes to capture the leader of Helghast and destroy the secret weapon. You'll get bits and pieces of the story from few cutscenes and several dialogues which are awfully written. The characters are rubbish, I'm personally hate the Alpha team, if you want to make a badass squad loaded with badass battle-hardened veterans, please don't copy the Alpha team of ISA. I know it's not important to put personality on shooter game's character but at least make them look tough and professional (example, tier one operator on Medal of Honor). The Alpha team loaded with ugly looking soldiers with awful voices. It's hard not to get annoy with Rico trying to sound badass with stupid curses and Natko…well, he's pretty much the same like Rico and other ISA forces on the game. At least the single player campaign is pretty lengthly, it last for about 8 hours.
The Gameplay, fortunately, the gameplay of Killzone 2 can cover up its awful story and characters. The features of this game are pretty much the same with other FPS, but I really like the cover, peak and lean feature. It's almost like cover system on Rainbow Six but in first person perspective. It gives you a nice sensation of reality, too bad there is some inconsistency on this feature. Sometimes you can't cover even behind a large wall. The shooting feels satisfying due to awesome hit detection and responses. Although the Dualshock 3 is less fun for FPS genre, Killzone 2 still has a pretty good control. The enemy A.I. is pretty good. They won't stay on one cover, they will always find a way to flank you, and they are pretty quick, so it might be hard to shoot them while they are moving. Killzone 2 doesn't equip with large arsenals but most of them are fun to shoot. There are standard assault rifle, smg, shotgun, sniper rifle, rifle, light machine gun, flamethrower, and rocket launcher, but if you want some sci-fi weapon, try the bolt gun and the electricity gun (best weapon on this game!!!). Like other military shooter, you will also operate heavily armed vehicles like tank and exo mech which is a very fun experience. There are 2 complaints from me, first, the friendly A.I. is awfully stupid, they won't help you, but they will whine for help from you (off course with their 'badass' voice). Second annoying thing, we can only carry 2 weapons and one of them is an unlimited ammo revolver. This sidearm is pretty much useless and thank's to it, I can't always carry my trusty M82-G assault rifle.
The Graphics, now this is where Killzone 2's really shine. The graphics of Killzone 2 is amazingly epic. Guerilla really pushes themselves to make a great engine that can create the gritty, dark atmosphere of planet Helgan. The lightning effect is staggering, the environment is heavily detailed and rich with textures. The explosion, dust, water, smoke, and fire effects are great. The game runs in pretty steady framerate. The character animation is not pretty smooth, Guerrilla need to learn from Infinity Ward to make more believing animation from well-trained soldier. The facial animation is quite nice, the characters are pretty detailed too. Too bad there are too many in-game loading process in each level. It won't bother you but it's quite questionable because the map is not too large, I mean, there are many games out there with much,much larger environment and they didn't even have loading screen. Still, even after almost 2 years, the game still can compete with more recent game like Dead Space 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and even the latest installment of Killzone and console version of Crysis 2.
The Sound, Killzone 2 has amazing sound design, I love the loud and clear sound effects. The scores are grand and epic. Too bad the voice of the characters is lame.
So, Killzone 2 definitely show what PS3 can do, its technical achievements is without no doubt, amazing. Despite the standard story, undesirable characters, and awful dialogues, this is still a highly recommended game!