"This is an excellent game"
The story, while not being completely interesting, is pretty good. The voice acting is exceptional, as well. Some of the conversations between the characters are very well acted, some being funny, while others being serious. However, the voices of the Helghast soldiers are all exactly the same, and hearing the same phrases uttered over and over again by the same voice can get quite annoying. Same thing with your squad mates, except they actually have different sayings for each character. The gunfire and reloading noises are pretty cool and realistic as well, though there can sometimes be a delay in the sound FX.
The graphics, for the most part, are fairly impressive. The character designs are very smooth and well-textured. There is an annoying glitch in character designs occasionally, where when you walk up to one, all of their features are blurry and unrecognizable until they eventually fix themselves. Nothing serious on that part. From distance, the environments are well done, but upon closer inspection, some of the textures can be quite bland. Also, the game's more open environments don't show until you're about 100 yards away, and they slowly fade in as you approach them. Other than that, I have no major complaints.
The gameplay is quite excellent, although hard to get used to at first. Some of the controls seem stiff and awkward, because they aren't the norml FPS controls, but after the first couple levels, you should have them nearly mastered. One function I find intersting that others may hate, is the L3 Run funtcion; when you press and hold L3, you will sprint for a short amount of time for however long you hold in the button. It allows for more strategic movement across the battlefield. Use it only when necessary when in a big firefight; it could save your life. It adds a nice little relasitc touch to the game. Seriously, how long could you run the fast carrying all of that equipment. Another things that factors into the realism is the ability to only hold 3 weapons at a time, which I also find refreshing, as I often get tired of having to choose from 12 different ways of how I wan't to kill an enemy in games like this. Not enough games do this. You will eventually get 4 different characters to choose from between missions. Depending on who you choose, you may get different objectives to omplete than if you were someone else. It's not really too expansive on that part, but does offer some good variety.
The length of the game, much like this review, is pretty long for it's genre. First time around, it should take a little less 9 hours or so, depending on how good you are, to complete. After that, much less than 9 hours. There are 11 missions in all, and only 2 or 3 of them would be considered "short." The others are fairly lengthy and require a good 30 to 50 minutes to complete, sometimes more. Even upon completion, you may find yourself coming back to the campaign mode to start anew. I'll admit, it's addictive to say the least. The difficulty level could have been increased, though. If you think yourself to be good at FPS, then I suggest Hard mode right from the start. It actually isn't too hard, while not being easy either. It's a good mix of both.
Killzone's multiplayer can be summed up in 2 words: Bad AI. The levels are great, the weapon useage is great, but the fact that the AI is either way to easy or insanely hard ruins the entire multiplayer mode, almost. I suggest playing on normal to get the most fair outcome of the game. You can still have some good fun with it. The online multiplayer is beyond words. And I mean that in a bad way. But it's not entirely the game's fault. Yes, the numerous glitches and bugs play a major role in it, but the fact that many of the online players feel the need to cheat brings the value of online play down drastically. Steer clear of Killzone online, unless you want to spend money on new controllers to replace the ones you threw at the wall due to extreme frustration. If you insist on playing online, host a game of people you can trust to play fair, then you will have a lot of fun.
Finally, I must mention that Killzone has more technical and graphical glitches than I've seen in most recent titles, some of which have already been mentioned. Others include things like a dead body's legs spazing and flailing all over the place and bodies falling through walls. Although these don't necessarily ruin the game, they are very distracting, but can offer up some good laughs every now and then.
In conclusion, I will say that Killzone is one of the most fun, addictive, and solid FPS to come out in a long time. Yes, it has flaws, but this is still quite an amazing shooter. It is one of my personal favorites. Give it a chance and go kill some Helghast!