title for Gears, but honestly the more I play Killzone the harder it's getting to resist. Allow me to explain to you why
I feel this way.
Single Player
Gameplay -
Gameplay is top notch. At first I wasn't a fan of the controls, but after looking through the other controller schemes I
was able to find one that was almost where I want them to be (I use alternate 1), and since then they have become natural,
the only time they seem a bit cumbersome is when im trying to duck and aim at the same time because I have the option to
have to hold the button to crouch turned on.
The game is very fast paced, and they did an amazing job of relaying a feeling of being smack in the middle of a fucked up
war gone terribly wrong. As soon as you clear that street of enemies, suddenly a tank busts through the wall and drops
out another 10 of them, and then a big dude with a crazy flamethrower is coming up behind you.
The AI of the enemies is pretty good, and the difficulty is up there. I started out trying to play on veteran (second
highest difficulty) and I ended up starting over and playing through my first time on normal, cause I was stuck 20 minutes
into the game.
I can't say exactly how long the game is yet, but it seems like it will at least be the standard length. I have probably
played it for 2-3 hours and I've finished the first 3 missions (I think).
Story -
I did not play the PSP Killzone game, so I can't set up the whole backstory for you, but basically the ISA (good guys)
have decided to invade the Helghast (bad guys) home planet to hopefully finish them off. They had everything planned and
it was supposed to be a swift victory, but they couldn't have been more wrong. From what I have seen so far, the story is
good.
Sound -
The sound in this game is very polished. The environmental sounds like the windstorms that riddle the planet, etc are
very good. So are the sounds of guns, etc. They do a very good job of helping you hear where shots are coming from by
the sound, even if you don't have a surround sound system to aid you. The voice acting is good as well, and while some
might comment on the Gears of War-esque comments that are made, I would argue that those would be the types of comments
you'd hear from marines on a battleground, and I welcome them.
Graphics -
Best graphics of any game out on any console hands down. There is so much polish to this game that it's hard for me to
even pick where to start. The environment on the planet seems to be windy everywhere, and lots of dust and dirt is kicked
up in this wind, and it looks kick ass on the screen. It's not just a constant stream of the same density of sand or
anything, suddenly a cloud of dust will kick up and your visibility will drop and that might be the time someone closes in
on you!
There is a ton of detail in the environments as well, you can see things going on far off in the area that you are in that
don't even relate to the immediate conflict in front of you. At higher up points in the city you might see rockets
getting shot constantly at incoming ships and things like that, all while you have a crazy firefight going on right in
front of you, and chunks of the wall are flying all over the place.
The character models look great, the same amount of detail has been put into them. The Hellghan guys look really cool
The cutscenes are also really good, which after everything else I've said is to be expected.
Multiplayer -
The multiplayer aspect of this game is frickin amazing, and I'm 100% addicted!
Graphics -
I know in a lot of games the graphics in the multiplayer are a little toned down from the single player, but that is most
certainly not the case here. Everything I talked about is above is still totally the case for the multiplayer. I have
been in the middle of some seriously big fights with players and turrets and flying things all over and never had so much
as a hiccup.
Gameplay -
Holy shit this is bad ass. First off, the matches are very customizable. I haven't actually created a match yet, but
just seeing the difference in the ones I've joined I've got a feel for it. There are a half dozen or so game types, and
you can do any combination of them in a multiplayer game. So what I mean by that is this, you can create a game with all
six match types, and as soon as one team wins the first type of match, the next one starts with no loading or waiting, you
just keep going until you get a update as to what the next gametype is and what you need to do. This is such a cool
feature, and it's a shame this is the first time I've seen it in a game.
The maps are HUGE! There is no where near as much of the usual rushing to one spot for this reason, and also due to the
fact that there are no weapon spawns really in the game, you unlock weapons as you rank up (more on this below), and at
that point every time a match starts, or every time you die you can change what weapon you are using.
I've also observed that the players playing this game as opposed to most other shooters I've played (and I've pretty much
played them all) seem to be a bit more mature and will team up.
Speaking of team up, once the game starts you can form squads, which gives you a dedicated voice channel for your squad,
but it also allows you to spawn wherever your squad leader is as opposed to the default spawn point.
Ranks/Customization -
There is a ton of depth to the customization here, it's like they took the best parts of all the rank aspects from Call of
Duty and Team Fortress, plus some, and made what Killzone 2 has to offer.
You start off with only one "class" playable, and only one weapon loadout to use. So at this point the only way you are
going to get a weapon besides the default assault rifle (which isn't half bad) is to pick them up off of corpses (which
there are always plenty of!
).Basically it works like this: Kills/capturing objectives, etc all earns you exp, which goes towards your rank. If your
team wins the whole match, whatever exp you have earned is multiplied by 1.5. As you rank up, other classes, abilities
and weapons become available to you.
The classes (and their respective abilities) are as follows:
Rifleman:
The default multiplayer character is assigned when no primary badge is selected. A secondary badge may still be added. Riflemen can start with most weapons, except for the specialized ones.
Engineer:
Primary badge ability: Sets up an automated turret which targets the enemy.
Secondary badge ability: Repairs ammunition dispensers, mounted guns, and automated turrets.
Medic:
Primary badge ability: Revives downed team mates.
Secondary badge ability: Throws a health pack, which can be picked up by other players.
Scout:
Primary badge ability: Uses a cloaking suit to become near-invisible.
Secondary badge ability: Tags all on-screen enemy players with a hidden marker, which broadcasts their coordinates to team mates.
Assault:
Primary badge ability: Dons heavy armour twice as strong as normal.
Secondary badge ability: Temporarily boosts running speed.
Tactician:
Primary badge ability: Throws a coloured smoke grenade, which serves as a spawn point.
Secondary badge ability: Requests air support from a sentry bot which targets the enemy.
Saboteur:
Primary badge ability: Assumes the disguise of a randomly selected enemy player.
Secondary badge ability: Throws a sticky, proximity-activated C-4 charge.
The best part about these classes is that once you have unlocked them, you can mix and match their abilities to create your own custom class. Some of the classes will take quite a lot of game time to unlock, scout being the last one you unlock at the highest rank (General).
Clans -
I have a feeling that once I dig into the clan stuff, that it's going to be the best part of the game. You can have up to 64 players in a clan. You can set up tournaments and matches with other clans, and you gain "valor points" by winning. There is a tab in game where all clan related info can be viewed. I am excited to get with a good group of people and explore this in more detail!
One other thing that I've read in multiple places is that vehicles are intended to be part of the multiplayer, but are not there now, and will be patched in later.
Overall this game is definitely a 10/10, and if you have a PS3 and don't have this game, you need to go buy it after work today. If you have been thinking about getting a PS3 and have been looking for another reason, Killzone 2 is all the reason you will ever need.
I want to get the platinum trophy for this game pretty bad, and just in case you didn't know (lol) I'm stubborn as hell, so once I've got that idea in my head it's nearly impossible to stop me.
