Single player has dramatic changes from really good to really bad. Multiplayer is hardcore.
The game's six-player Ad Hoc multiplayer is competitive, with several gametypes for players to fight head-to-head. Luckily, if you've only got one friend with you, rather than suffering through boring 1-on-1 fights, you can do a co-operative mode of the entire single player game.
Players can now download an extra chapter and an online mode. The online mode adds two new levels (neither of which are taken from the new chapter, disappointingly) and allows for eight players rather than six. It's extremely fun, and comes with headset compatability and a scoring system.
Though the game boasts new features over the first game, like vehicles and new weapons, it really doesn't matter because the gameplay is completely different, so new content doesn't feel any more new than the old content.
Killzone: Liberation has no bots for multiplayer, whether the player is alone or in Ad Hoc. It's weird that they'd make this decision, as the first game sported seven bots per team for one- and two-player offline multiplayer.
Luckily, if a wireless router is nearby that you can connect to, you can play eight-player multiplayer on a number of gametypes that work on all six levels (eight if you downloade the new chapter).
The game is isometrical. That means, rather than being a FPS like the PS2 game, it's a top-down game.
The video is perfect. Models look great, with nice-looking textures. The terrain looks just as good, with high attention to detail, and special effects like fog, dust storms and great-looking water. Though your view is limited to top-down, your camera can sometimes catch something like a great-looking waterfall in the background.
The audio is just as good. Characters have a lot of dialogue, whether it be scripted or dynamic. When Helghasts talk, it sounds great, unlike the PS2 version where you could hear a Helghast's repetitive dialogue from twenty meters away as if he was standing right next to you. Gunshots and other combat sound effects can be heard from across the level, so if a battle is going on, you'll know it.
The controls can take some getting used to, and you have to be quick to be most effective in a fight. Most basic actions boil down to pressing X. Trying to do a melee attack is suicidal. When your enemy gets up after falling down, he can hit you with his fist before you can hit him with yours, which knocks you down in return.
Falling down, which happens upon being shot several times, is extremely easy and happens all the time. It doesn't seem so terrible in multiplayer or whenever it happens to the player himself, but it comes off as extremely stupid in single player. The AI will fall down and often stay down for much too long. It looks ridiculous, and the game probably would've benefited from not including it.
When I was watching my enemies, I would often forget which way my character was facing, so I would fire in the wrong direction and get shot in the back. It can be really difficult to tell if you're aiming at an enemy. A health bar appears directly above their head, so if they're a little off-screen, you might be aiming at them and you might not. This can be especially confusing with multiple enemies.
You can't change targets manually, so if a powerful enemy is approaching you, and there's a weak, harmless enemy somewhere behind him, you'll of course want to kill the powerful enemy that's closing in, but the game will almost always aim you at the weaker, further-away enemy, forcing you to get a shotgun to the face by the more powerful enemy. They should've made some sort of priority system.
Because enemies can be at any height, but the game is top-down, it can be hard to tell whether you're far away enough from a wall to hit an enemy on top of the wall.
There's no way to actually keep a strong lock on an enemy. If an enemy is in the direction your character is facing, then he'll automatically aim at that enemy, but won't lock on. Also, because of the game's top-down view, it can be hard to tell whether you should be able to hit an enemy behind cover or not. If you want to face an enemy, you must move your joystick in their direction, which requires your character to stand up and move, exposing him to enemy fire, since you can't move while crouched, and there's no button allowing you to simply switch targets.
Because you can't lock onto enemies, you can't do anything that would be REALLY useful in combat, like circling around your enemy. You pretty much have to directly face your enemy and either run at him or away from him to be able to hit him. If you try to strafe out of the way of bullets or a grenade, your character will lose his aim on any enemies he was just aiming at.
Some enemies can hit you even if your character refuses to aim at them, or thinks that he can't hit them.
None of these aiming problems seem so apparent in multiplayer, probably because everyone suffers from the same thing.
Throwing grenades can sometimes be annoying, because of all of the above reasons in terms of movement and which direction you're supposed to be facing, but the game will automatically aim your "grenade destination line" at any enemies the grenade could hit, and the line shows you whether the grenade will go over a wall or smack right into it.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Combat isn't nearly as efficient as it could have been, but despite ALL OF THE ANNOYING FLAWS, it's really not that bad. It's rarely frustrating, which is pretty surprising, as I still NOTICE the problems. Like I said, these problems don't seem nearly as bad in multiplayer.
Killzone: Liberation is one of the few PSP games to use ragdoll corpses- corpses that dynamically adjust to the environment, rather than falling in a specific animation, which can cause animated corpses to hang off of ledges or stick through walls. Ragdolls would instead lean against the wall, or fall off the ledge.
So, when you shoot an enemy that's in a tower, on a wall or near a ledge, there's a good chance that he'll go falling off over the edge, but not in an over-dramatic way like in games with animated corpse. Some reason, it's fun to watch enemies fall limp into nearby bodies of water. When you hit enemies with explosives, they'll go flying through the air and, like any game with ragdolls, it's REALLY satisfying to watch.
Well, that was fun. Now I'll cover the single player.
The game doesn't tell what happened at the end of the first game. Liberation just supposedly starts where the first game left off. I own the first game, but I never beat it. Liberation led me to believe that Hakha, a character from the first game, had died at the end of the first game, because he NEVER appears in Liberation or says anything, unlike Rico and Luger.
Turns out, he's just Player 2 when playing in co-operative mode, so you won't see or hear anything from him if you're playing alone. I thought that was a weird design choice. Would've been better if he was with the player at all times in single player.
The game's plot isn't exactly deep, but the general idea of it is conveyed well enough through fun little cutscenes giving you close-ups of the great-looking character models and showing you what the game would look like if it was third- or first-person, rather than top-down. It'd look great. The voice acting sounds terrific, though like the first game, subtitles sometimes won't appear, even for vital dialogue, or the timing will be off. At least the subtitles aren't loaded with grammatical errors like in the first game. Whoever's doing the subtitles finally improved a little after two years.
The single player campaign consists of four "chapters" (five if you download the extra chapter), with four levels each. Each level is pretty lengthy, with weapons-unlocking cash bonuses for you to find to encourage exploring or, if you missed some cash, replaying a level.
The enemy AI is smarter than I'd first assumed, doing clever things like firing at explosives near the player, which really surprised (and killed) me the first time it happened. They're able to use cover, but sometimes they won't advance on the player, and it boils down to the player standing up and ducking really fast so the enemy stands up, then the player pops up and shoots them and gets a few hits on them before they fire at him or duck again. The only enemies that throw grenades are enemies that only use grenades as a weapon (grenadiers, basically), and it might've been a little more fun and dynamic if basic enemies would've thrown grenades on rare occasion to scare the player out of hiding.
One thing I love about grenades is, if you throw a grenade directly at an enemy that isn't moving, or is only moving a little, there's a nearly 100% chance of success, so a grenade is rarely ever wasted.
Throughout levels, you can find crates that carry ammo for specific weapons, limited counts of instant-and-full-healing health kits, and certain explosives. Note that those are just possible categories, and that not every crate will contain certain items of a certain category, though most crates contain health kits (and ally-healing syringes, though I'll cover that later). If there are explosives, they're usually grenades, though there are context-sensitive items like landmines for defensive situations and C4 for blowing up specific, pre-defined spots.
The driveable vehicles in Killzone: Liberation are interesting, indeed, but make little impact on the gameplay and are easily destroyed. The turrets on the vehicles can automatically lock onto an enemy, and STAY locked on much better than the player can on foot. The tank and the hover craft both have a machine gun and missile launcher attached, though the hover craft's turret holds the machine gun, rather than the missile launcher. The fifth chapter contains a buggy that has two machine guns attached, and much like the tank and the hover craft, it makes a very brief appearance.
You'll hardly ever come across vehicles. Throughout the entire game, you only get one tank, one hovercraft and one buggy. They don't last very long, either. The vehicles aren't necessary at all, they just make killing enemies a thousand times easier.
As a side note, the single player contains "spider mines", which are little robot spiders that, once activated, either by being hit or by having the player move near them, they stand up and walk towards the closest living thing, exploding after they get close enough to their target, or are unable to follow it.
The most fun thing about spider mines is that they'll go for ANYONE, not just the player. So, if a Helghast draws near, you can shoot the spider mine to activate it, and it will go directly towards the Helghast in an attempt to eliminate him. Unless the Helghast can run away fast enough (never happens), has reinforcements to help him shoot at the spider mine, or the spider mine can't get to him, that Helghast is toast. It makes me feel clever when I can set off a fun-to-watch trap like that.
When you beat a chapter, you'll unlock six different challenges for each chapter. Each chapter has the same six challenges, but they get more complicated and difficult after each chapter. These challenges take place in environments from their respective chapter. Challenges can often be so frustratingly difficult for me that they're not really worth it.
The challenges consist of defending a base from C4-placing Helghasts (three out of five give you a teammate), trapping spider mines within crates (takes quickness and planning), running a timed race while shooting targets to increase the time limit (takes a few tries), simply shooting targets that appear nearby before they disappear (not too hard, but you can't hit green targets), running through enemy-infested territory to get cash within a time limit (REALLY hard), or running through enemy-infested territory to place C4 in various spots within a time limit (not as hard).
So, I've covered the general gameplay and graphics, but there's one last thing I REALLY want to stress... Teammates.
There aren't enough of them. The only person you can play as is Templar, unlike the first game which let you play as Templar, Rico, Luger and Hakha as you unlocked them. You're almost always alone. VERY rarely, you'll find ISA soldiers standing around that are often seen fighting Helghasts and will sometimes follow the player, though they can't be ordered around and aren't very helpful. The ISA soldiers have been redesigned so they look more like they're wearing actual uniforums, not the stupid crap they were wearing in the first game.
On one level in each chapter, the player gets Rico (and on Chapter 4 he gets Luger) to help him out. Not only does Rico hardly ever show up, but as a part of the plot, he'll ditch you or be seperated from you for no good reason. Like, "I have to seperate from you because I have to dock this useless boat at a destination that I'll just ditch the boat and meet you later at!" What I'm saying is, he could've just ditched the boat and travelled with the player, rather than ditching the player and driving the boat somewhere without getting anything done like he does in the game. I mean, when you meet up with him, he's standing next to the boat. He had no reason to seperate from the player. No reason at all! It's annoying. Templar himself decides to ditch Luger because he's a complete idiot. There's an awful lot of buddy-ditching, and makes me want to go back to the good-old days where the whole four-man gang would move as a team at almost all times. But that requires me to sit in my house and suffer through the frustrating PS2 game.
It's WAY more fun to have Rico (or any other buddy, but let's just say Rico because he's the most common) alongside you than it is to be alone. You can quickly and easily tell him what to do and where to go (moving to a pre-defined spot, attacking a visible target, following you or performing a context-sensitive action), and you can get really tactical with him, like having him take one side of an enemy while you take the other. However, Rico is mortal, and once he loses all of his health, you have to revive him within twenty seconds or it's Game Over.
Because of this, he can often feel like more of a liability than an asset. If you tell him to go too far away from you, he'll usually get the crap beat out of him quite quickly, and you have to risk your own life to immediately rescue him. That, and you can only revive him with syringes, which you might not always have on you or in a nearby supply box, spelling a twenty-second inevitable defeat.
You never get more than one ally to command (which isn't all that bad), and a few of the buddies you get don't even carry weapons. The only time the player gets more than one teammate is when an ISA soldier follows him, which pretty much never happens. This is one of those games where they pretend it's a war game, but you fight the war all by yourself and you either find dead ISA soldiers, or the ISA army will come in at the last minute after you've already killed everyone. It's like the old Medal of Honor games where they would send one high-ranking soldier to do all kinds of impossible crap all by himself because they were too lazy and stupid to put in teammates at every opportunity.
So, you can only play as Templar and you rarely get any teammates. The first game was MUCH better in the respect of teamwork, as you could play as any of the four main characters, none of which could die (unless the player was playing as them), and they would almost always be together throughout entire levels. The thing is, they couldn't die, but they also couldn't be ordered around.
I was astonished by how much teamwork had been lost in the sequel. The first game was loaded with it throughout. The solo parts were rare, not the teammate parts.
Not having teammates can be boring compared to when you do have them. It's fun to watch AI fight other AI, but everyone only shoots at you whenever you don't have any teammates around. Rico, as a commandable teammate, adds a level of strategy to the game. Having allies just FEELS more fun to me, some reason, the way they can give me back up or rush into an area while I give them cover. Like, when I have a teammate, I wish the level would last forever, but when I'm alone, the level just feels like an annoying, unwanted obstacle in the way of the next teamwork level, or the end of the game, and I want to beat it as quick as possible. I try my hardest to find all of the cash hidden in every level, just so I don't have to revisit all of the crappy solo levels. I don't know. They're just really boring.
SO
The video and sound quality? Perfection. Explosions look great and the environments sometimes contain some amazing visuals, even in the game's top-down view. Sound effects like gunshots can be heard from a distance, adding a cool effect to the environment and letting the player know when a battle is taking place that he can't see.
The multiplayer? I don't know. A lack of bots sounds like a huge downer. Co-op is really cool, because both of the players get to play through every level of the single player campaign with everything intact- even the AI-controlled buddies remain in the game, under the command of Player 1.
The combat? Dramatically inconvenient in a hundred ways, yet not frustrating. It can be really hard to pull off maneuvers that should've been designed to be easier.
The single player? REALLY boring when you're alone, REALLY fun when you have a teammate. Needless to say, more boring than fun.
Maybe I'm just too much of a teammate addict, but when everyone in the game wants me dead, it's nice to have an AI buddy, and Killzone: Liberation just doesn't provide in that department anywhere near like the first game did. The gameplay is still pretty good for a top-down game, though there should've been an ability to lock onto enemies and change targets.
The online mode is the real winner for me. The battles are exciting and awesome. Though bots would be nice for Ad Hoc, they're not at all necessary for the infrastructure mode because it's not at all difficult to get a game filled up. The only real disappointment for me is that, in Team Deathmatch, teams only spawn in one area, unlike in Call of Duty/Medal of Honor games where they would respawn randomly around a map, as close to teammates as possible. There are also lag issues, like players being able to kill others with grenades that miss by a longshot just because the player who threw the grenade is laggy. There's hardly any cheating or glitch-exploiting, so the game remains pretty fair overall.
Not every character model from the single player is used in multiplayer, disappointingly enough. These cool-looking evil ISA guys from Chapter 5 are only on one level and aren't playable in multiplayer, even though the ISA could've used a second generic soldier.
Despite its boring teammate-less-ness, the single player is enjoyable to an extent. It has characters, scripted events, spoken dialogue and all of that good stuff. The co-op mode is great, though it requires a friend, two Liberation discs and two PSPs.
The online mode and Chapter 5, which were made available many months after the release of the game, are up for free download. Chapter 5, though mostly dull like the rest of the game, adds an awesome level with Rico where Helghast are constantly on the attack and the player is under pressure to blow up the manholes they crawl through to stem their reinforcements. I think I've made it clear that the online mode is absolutely amazing, perhaps even better than Fireteam Bravo, depending on how you look at it.