A great transition from a FPS genre to Tactical Shooter. Should not disapoint the Killzone fans.
So states, quite briefly, the resume on the back of the box. Usually, the resume is long enough for me to simply give it to you so you have a decent overview of what the game is about all while I avoid spoiling the plot too much. This time around, I'll need to go into the details myself.
Yes, Captain Templar is back in action with you behind the controller (or shall I say the PSP) to direct him what to do. Of course, in the previous title "Killzone" for PS2, we had succeeded in bringing the earth back under the ISA control. Although we might tend to believe everything is in fact under control, the war is far from over. The Helghast's leader, Emperor Visari, has given General Armin Metrac the command of the remaining ground forces. Thus begins a new war, as one of the ISA base is currently under attack.
This was only to put it simple. The cast of characters from the precedent game makes a return for some PSP action. It is preferable to have played the first title in order to follow a bit of the story, but however, it isn't overly needed. It will only serve you as some background information throughout the time spent having war against and again, the powerful Helghasts.
The first thing I will talk about and the most important as a first impression to me was how they managed to make the transition from a first-person shooter game on PS2 to a top view, tactical shooter on PSP. To some, it might sound like a bad idea, to others, it couldn't have been better. I personally find most FPS on PSP (Medal of Honor) to be really bothersome when it comes to moving around, aiming, looking around and what not. Therefore, I see this as a very good step by the creators of the game and they also did it flawlessly. The game is far from suffering from that change and fits the portable system better than if they would have made it first-person.
Within the game, the first time you go through each missions, several tips will pop up on screen to help you learn the mechanics. This is a very good thing. Everything you need to learn in the game will be given to you through tips while playing. You can also turn them off if you find them rather annoying, which I admit sometimes they can be, but hardly plays against the game since as I said, they can be turned off. My main worry was about aiming. We all know, from older games way back then, that aiming from a top view isn't the most pleasant experience we ca have. Luckily for us, assuming you are facing the right side, you will automatically lock onto the enemy nearest to your laser sight when holding the L button and since you can simply change target by moving or turning towards another enemy, it never does get in the way. You can also lock onto objects such as fuel barrels by holding the L and R buttons, which they call the Object Aim Mode. Never did I find the controls to be clumsy or bothersome. It always did what I wanted, did it smoothly and accordingly. Bad controls on the PSP seems to be a trendy subject of conversations, but I can't say it applies to this game. Overall, they did a great job by NOT making this game a FPS.
You can crouch, walk, run, strafe, dodge roll, command team mates, throw grenades, duck and take cover, mount gun turrets, drive vehicles, you even, at some point, have a jet pack to cross from one side to another of the terrain. There are many more things also, which are left for you to discover. All of this will come in useful as you wander from one place to another throughout the different areas to accomplish your goal.
Some new and old weapons are into the game, although some of them needs to be unlocked first by collecting Vektan money scattered throughout the different missions, but I'll come to this later. Within these weapons, you can have the good ol' M82-G Assault Rifle and it's near equivalent Helghast's weapon as well. You also have access to other powerful guns such as a Sniper Rifle, an Automatic Shotgun (my personal favorite), and even a Crossbow, and others for you to discover. Each weapon as their own advantages and vice-verse, depending on the situation and/or mission you take on. Which weapon is best suited for what mission will depend entirely and yourself alone. Some will carry less ammo but will be more powerful, some are less accurate than others and some are just way overpowered but hard to use in certain circumstances.
Every now and then, team mates will join you in your battle. They will act on their own, although you can also command them by pressing the D-Pad Up and selecting different choices. Be it to command them to take cover, attack a specific enemy, plant C4 and whole other choices. They bear their own health meter, which you can carry syringes to heal them before they die, so you better think twice as to what you will carry into a mission. Worry if you didn't bring the right stuff though, as several supple depots are scattered throughout the area which contains different weapons, health items or explosives, so you can always find one to help you proceed further.
The music and sound effects are well rendered and fits with the general atmosphere of Killzone: Liberation. As always, I ain't got much to say about the music and sounds other than they play an important part in a game. This time around, they do their job pretty well, that is assuming you even notice it while you are entirely caught up in action.
You have different gameplay modes avaible: Campaign, Co-Op Campaign, Challenges, Online Mode. You can play online either by ad-hoc or infrastructure (assuming you download the patch for it). The campaign mode consist of 4 chapters, each separated in 4 missions. This makes the game in general pretty short, but each chapters you clear unlocks challenges for it and you can also download a fifth chapter if you have wireless access with your PSP, which adds a bit to the overall gameplay and length of the game. What truely pumps up the replay value is the unlockables and the online play. You can unlock different weapons by collection Vektan money as described above and you can also unlock different abilities and stock items via the challenges. On top of this, each challenge can award you either a bronze, silver or gold medal. Of course, your goal would be to get gold medals for each of them, which might take a while, raising a bit the replay value. On top of all this, completing each mission under different difficulties (easy, normal and hard) will eventually unlock different bonuses. A lot of the unlockables can be used only if you have access to internet though, which if you are reading this review, it means you do have access to it. Completing Co-Op Campaign also unlocks different things such as additional characters for online play, though and sadly, Co-Op can only be played via ad-hoc.
I played Online a couple of times and can say I was very pleased with it apart from the occasional hackers showing up. Online play consists of either a Death Match, Team Death Match, Assault and Capture The Flag.Death Match and Team Death Match are obvious as to what they are. Assault consist of a ISA team defending a key objective from the Helghast team. Capture the flag is your usual, capture the flag game. Nonetheless, I found the online play to be very amusing and near flawless.
Now, for what I didn't like about the game. The length is my major complaint. Put aside the unlockables and the replay value, the game itself is very short. At times, even on easy, the game will be ridiculously hard and other times, ridiculously easy. It just wasn't balanced pretty well on the overall difficulty. That's pretty much why the score gets lowered. Else, I don't have any other complaint about the game in general.
If you liked the first Killzone for PS2, you will definitely love the PSP game. If you did not like the PS2 title, try to rent Liberation since it is so much different from it's counterpart, yet retains the same atmosphere, so it is surely worth a shot. If you dislike tactical shooters in overall, then this isn't for you.