The long awaited Halo-killer has arrived and is packing quite the punch by bringing a lot to the FPS round-table.
Killzone 2 starts you off as Tomas Sevchanko, AKA "Sev", sergeant of Alpha Squad for the ISA. Accompanying you is your other members, Garza, Rico, and Natko, each with their own personality and characteristics to bring to the group. Your mission is to help aid the counter-attack on the Helghast by invading their planet of Helghan and taking down their leader Visari. You start off on the ship "New Sun" and are immediately informed that you are to be dropped off in a city located on Helghan with your comrades. Throughout the game you will explore different levels/areas of Helghan, leading up to you ultimate goal of trying to cripple the Helghast forces.
I purposely did not look up information on the original Killzone's plot. I played the first Killzone but, like many other, I played it a long time ago. Knowing that this sequel is long overdue, I wanted to see if Killzone 2 would explain what happened in Killzone. Needless to say, it did a decent job. Many characters from Killzone appear in Killzone 2 but the plots don't necessarily tie into one another as deeply as expected. All you need to know is explained to you.
As soon as the first cut-scene starts you should sense a feeling of nostalgia from the resemblance to the trailer famous from it's E3 showings. The graphics will be the first thing you notice. They are beyond stunning, proving to be everything that everyone speculated to be CGI or not. The environments are lush, in a dark way, and the gameplay visuals are almost equal to the CGI cut-scenes. I found myself simply reloading on purpose just to watch the detail in the gun and the fluidity of the movement. The character textures are realistic and fluid, as well as their movement. The overall visuals of this game are just beautiful and the cut-scene-to-gameplay transitions are smooth. You will be feeling as if the cut-scene never ended and that you are just playing inside of one at some points. As with most games on the PS3, the game automatically saves itself periodically throughout the game to the HDD. This was my main problem. During the saving/ loading sequence the game would temporarily lock up and freeze. The blinking "saving" icon would blink in the top left corner, but the game itself would stop. Since the game auto-saves multiple times in a level, it became a nuisance very quickly. The frame-rate would alter in severeness. Some points the frame rate would stutter for a second, where on some points I actually got up from sitting down to walk over to my PS3 thinking my game froze. This problem doesn't constantly occur with each save, but the few times it does happen are enough to take you out of the ambiance of the game and agitate you for a brief second.
The controls are essentially the same as any other FPS. Thus, if you've played FPS before then you will get the hang of the controls within seconds. There are also parts which you will need to hit the circle button then incorporate the SIXAXIS controller to place charges or open levers. I thought this was neat because it didn't seemed forced in like other games, it felt right. The weapons vary from close range shotguns, to long range snipers, to a melee, lethal knife, with variations between each factions versions of one another. There will be different occasions in which you will be able to control turrets, tanks, and mechs to destroy and create mayhem in Helghan. This offers of variety and a sense of indestructible enjoyment. There are Helghast symbols and Intel hidden around each level that you can pick up. They serve no real purpose except to earn the trophy for collecting them all, but provide challenge and give you a reason to explore the beautiful environment. These are also the only real replay value this game has aside from the Elite mode. Some discrepancies with the combat mechanics, or more the weapon system, was that the weapons had no secondary fire. You are able to switch between primary guns and secondary guns. The only problem with this is that the primary gun can be anything whereas the secondary gun is only a revolver. The revolver is slow, not powerful, and only holds six rounds. Needless to say it's not very useful, but you can only replace it with a much improved handgun that can only be found about two times the entire game. No big deal, just aggravating. Another problem is that there are certain areas where a constant wave after wave of Helghast will attack you until you move to a very specific, and I mean specific, location in that area. Without knowing this, I found myself fighting for several minutes until I would accidentally move close enough to the enemies side initiating an event to stop the flow of enemies. In general, the gameplay and combat are fluid and easy to learn.
Although there is no co-op mode, there is online multiplayer and skirmishes against computers for that massive battle experience. The online mode is just as fun as the game itself. The graphics are not watered down in any way, with each character being as detailed as the next. You can play as different classes ranging from the healing medic, to the tactician calling upon air strikes. Matches are set up normally as 15 ISA's vs. 15 Helgahst. The maps are all similar to the single player levels and there never seems to be any lag or slow-down on the servers. The only major problem with multiplayer is that you initially start off with nothing. The online mode has a ranking system and, of course, when you first start off you are the lowest possible. In order to unlock different classes and weapons you need to gain ranks. Some ranks unlock classes and some unlock weapons. To gain ranks you simply need to gain the most points in a round by doing certain tasks or killing a certain amount of people. Leveling up your rank start to become tedious after a while unless you play games that last hours at a time in order to rack up many points. The fun classes, i.e. sniper etc., are only unlocked after several hours/ points and seem unreachable at times.
All together Killzone 2 is a magnificent game. Minor flaws such as frame rates and lack of replay value, do not damage the credibility of this game. It's downright fun and the graphics are the best I've seen on the PS3 to date. I would suggest every PS3 owner rent this game and play it at least once. The only reason I would suggest not to buy it is because it is short. I beat this game in about 8-10 hours. The online is fun, but not enough to hold it's own. All-in-all Killzone 2 is ranked up there with the best FPS and the best, in my opinion, for the PS3. If you play this game you'll love it, hands down.