Reviews
Killzone 2 has established its place among the pantheon of top-tier console shooters.
With 2008 still in the rear view mirror, the first candidate for 2009's "Game of the Year" has arrived. Killzone 2 is a visual powerhouse that offers a grounded and "realistic" take on futuristic warfare. From fighting your way through shantytowns while lightning storms rage overhead to avoiding sniper fire during vicious dust storms, brutality has never been this beautiful.
Killzone 2's story is a simple one: Humanity has decided to strike back at the Helghast by invading their home planet Helghan. But that's just the backdrop for a stunning mixture of intense combat and jaw-dropping visuals that will last for 8-12 hours in single-player. Joining you in battle are the other members of Alpha squad. It would have been nice to play co-op with friends (they are strictly A.I. controlled), and your squad mates are walking stereotypes (hotheaded heavy machine gunner, easygoing tech guy, etc.), but their playful and delightfully vulgar banter serves as a respite from the dark urban environments early in the game.
Click the image above to check out all Killzone 2 screens.
Once you get out of the main city, things really take off as you find yourself moving from one fantastically designed set piece to another. One of my favorite sequences takes you through a gigantic factory, where you have to hitch a ride on the machinery while wielding the most powerful weapon in the game, the lightning gun. It's incredibly satisfying to watch the lightning arc from one enemy to the next รก la God's wrath from the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Another level has you taking the reins of a mech, and tearing your way through hordes of unsuspecting Helghast soldiers. Managing the mech is simple as the controls are identical to those in the on-foot sequences, and avoiding incoming missile fire while dealing out massive damage is a thrill. Tiny details like cracks appearing in the glass after taking damage highlight the details that Guerilla placed in the world.
Beyond its good looks, Killzone 2 is a game of strategy that rewards tactical decisions and careful aim. Playing it as a run-and-gun shooter is a quick way to get killed; correct use of cover grenades is necessary as the Helghast are constantly trying to flank and bring overwhelming firepower to bear on you and your fellow soldiers. The friendly A.I. is usually competent, but squad mates will sometimes blindly run past Helghast squads on their way to checkpoints, leaving yours truly to clean up the mess. However, this is the exception rather than the rule, and if you think before shooting, it's an incredibly fun ride.
Multiplayer Thus Far
As is often the case with game reviews, there isn't always enough time to play online multiplayer before the text is written. Because of this, I didn't get a chance to level up many of the character classes. And since this is such an integral part of the multiplayer experience I don't feel comfortable "reviewing" this part of the game yet -- but I can say for certain that I've played enough to know that my overall grade will not change based on more play. So with that in mind, here are at least my impressions from my time playing in the beta and with the review build so far:
Click the image above to check out all Killzone 2 screens.
Guerilla clearly spent a lot of time on the multiplayer portion of Killzone 2, as few other games offer the same amount of depth in character customization. You can equip up to two different badges, and every badge offers different abilities to suit your style (read Sam's preview for a breakdown of how this class system works). And as discussed in the 1UP Show Killzone 2 segment, the game cleverly handles matches; instead of having you play a search and destroy match, get taken out of the game, and then switch to another match for assassination, all gameplay variants occur spontaneously. This creates a thrilling sense of momentary confusion as you switch between game types, mimicking the chaos you experience on the single-player battlefield. Depending on which game types are included in each game, matches generally take around 20 minutes to finish.
My favorite inclusion to multiplayer is bot support -- hopefully this will become an online console shooter standard. Although bots don't replace the challenge of a real-life opponent, they allow everyone to learn the basic mechanics of the game and even get a few kills in. After the game launches, I'll be posting a blog to give some more in-depth thoughts on multiplayer after spending significant time with real opponents, but again, what I've played so far has been really, really good.
What This Means
Shooters have replaced fighting games as the most over-saturated genre in gaming today, and it's increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. However, with its unparalleled graphics, incredibly well-paced single-player campaign and in-depth multiplayer offerings, Killzone 2 has established its place among top-tier console shooters. Expectations on Killzone 2 had reached ridiculous proportions; here's one of those cases where the game actually lived up to them.
Rating A
by 
