I'd like to note that to anyone who's read my reviews in the past, the two of them that is, this is a little bit different. In this review I'll be outlining a lot of features, so some parts aren't really about how good the game is, but its sheer depth and detail. I'd like to recommend that those of you who don't want to take in all this information skip straight to the final section, which you can find by looking for the text FINAL CONCLUSION in big bold letters. Edit: This game was developed by Guerrilla Games, just so that's clear. I hope you all enjoy it, and without further ado: Hours upon hours of my hard work Killzone 2 is probably the deepest, most satisfying shooter that I can think of in recent memory. Its plethora of features and insane attention to detail make it an absolute wonder to play. In this review, I'll explain some of the features and sum up with why you should buy this game... that is, if you haven't yet. OVERALL GAME ...doesn't look too chipper does he? .:resentation::. Guerrilla really hit the nail on the head here. I'm just going to, for this section, list some fancy things about the presentation: -All the loading screens have 3d elements and can be tilted using the SIXAXIS technology of Playstation 3 Controllers -All the menus and loading screens flow into each other, and jumping in and out of gameplay solicits a fade effect -The Online score menus are really well sorted -The Personal Statistics menu is neatly put together -The Menus bounce and shake as you move about and select items, and not in an annoying or obstructive way -The Heads Up Display can be taken away as well as the cross hair, and looks extremely sleek yet not distracting -On the fly Squad invites are handled with simple button presses -Watching little green Ally dots run into little red Enemy dots on the online map is by far the most engaging thing I've ever seen -Navigating Spawn and Class Menus is done with ease -Lots more stuff that I'll mention later! .::Gameplay::. Controls The Gameplay in Killzone 2 is pretty straight forward. You move around with the left stick, aim with the right stick, fire your guns with R1 and bludgeon people with them using L1. The D-pad is used for switching to the Knife or grenades and, depending on whether or not you have them, switching to support items while cracking skulls online. R2 Throws grenades, which can be cooked much like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. However, Killzone takes cooking a step further with a nice little LED bar on the grenade showing you how close you are to roasting your own turkey. L2 is for crouching, or taking cover in single player. Circle does your actions and heals your single player AI pals, Square Reloads your gun manually, triangle switches weapons, and the Ex (X) button lets you jump. Select and start are for bringing up menus with various tidbits of information depending on the mode you're playing. Clicking down the Left Stick, or "L3" for all you controller wizards, makes your character sprint which, unlike in Gears of War, actually makes you a lot faster. Clicking down the Right Stick brings your gun up to you face for "Iron sights" or "Aiming down the Barrel." *The Lingo for this stuff depends on what game you play, honestly Flow Flow is really important in games today. Flow can basically be defined as how well your character transitions from one action to the next, and in Killzone 2 your character is constantly making these transitions. Jumping for instance, flows really well into all of the other actions of the game. You can really leave the ground sprinting and then start again right as you hit the ground. Reloading can be done whilst in cover and whilst sprinting, and the melee attacks are really well strung into the rest of the controls. This game feel a lot like the previously mentioned Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in terms of flow, but in this game the jumping feels a lot more realistic and integrated. Kickback and Melee Guns kickback extremely realistically in this game. Most of the time, it's easier to just burst fire your guns because if you're firing and assault rifle for more than 2 seconds, your bullets aren't going to hit a target more than half an inch away. While most guns have a pretty basic kickback, guns like the shotgun have to slowly come back up into position before you can fire again, and one of the Light Machine guns has a really really high kickback unless you're using Iron Sight. Iron Sight, or Aiming down the Barrel, is extremely useful in this game. It really detracts from the amount of kickback you get which make hitting targets from far away a breeze as long as you can slow down for a moment to pop a couple rounds off. Melee attacks make life a lot easier in this game. Sure, they take a second to get started, but you can basically spam them online when you have to reload and one of your adversaries is standing in front of you with a big ol' shotty aimed in your face. All jokes aside, they aren't necessarily as helpful as they were in Gears, but they aren't worthless. The thing is that in single player, you'll find your beatdowns often do send enemies reeling backward, whilst in online mode the baddy will just grunt at you and then continue to fill you with Pb (Which is lead for all you chem-dropouts) More about jumping You know what? Buy this game and just start jumping everywhere instead of walking, it's incredible. .::Graphics::. Summary Personally, I think JK Rowling could take lessons from Guerrilla Games on detail. Killzone 2 looks almost real about 90% of the time it's being displayed on your television screen. The guns all look incredibly smooth, there's a lot of motion blur, fire looks incredible and intimidating (save for the flamethrower >:[ ) and the smoke looks so thick and fluffy you probably couldn't cut it with a tree saw. All the environments, and the objects within them, look really dreary but still different. Although gray is a really popular color in Killzone 2, you'll also see a lot of yellow-ish light and all the enemies have funny red-glowing face masks. Speaking of the enemies, the Helghast are just incredibly detailed little guys. They really are sort of frightening up close, under the right conditions. The Lights that emanate from their masks make them nice and easy to see against the deep colored backdrops, and the all their actions look really smooth. Also, the gore in this game is extremely satisfying. Oh I could lie all day and tell you I don't love the blood spraying all over my screen but the truth is, I do. It's just amazing what the color crimson can do to heighten the experience. There are a few graphical issues though, like how taking cover can lead to some weird wall clipping and things like that. Sometimes the game also feels like it slows down, this might just be me though so don't take my word for it. Muzzle Flash and Lighting in General Killzone 2's lighting is absolutely phenomenal. The muzzle flashes really make for a scene in the online world. I can't tell you how many times I've looked down on battles of a bunch of players just shooting each other and throwing grenades, it's just so appealing aesthetically. The muzzle flash is also practical due to how it brightens up dark areas. In a lot of instances, I'll be fighting in a dark area when suddenly I smile because my enemies face lightens up (pun intended) and his bodily fluids spray all over my visor. Another personal instance of seeing really cool lighting is just yesterday, when I watched the window-scope of my friends gun transit from green to a filter yellow when walking under a bright amber light. There are dynamic shadows and such for all the objects and characters, and the sky is really beautiful to stare at. More about Environment The surroundings in Killzone 2 are simply amazing. Most of the objects that are really good cover in single player are destructible, there are lots of shiny red explosive barrels with fire hazard symbols on them, and the dust and ash that flows around the areas constantly gives the appearance of a war zone. In the first level, you have the chance to (Spoiler?) take down a gigantic building from across the street. The vehicles that ride up alongside and over the battles cast shadows over everything and are really menacing. Things go flying everywhere when hit by grenades or rockets (<<<Gameplay too I guess) Anyway, yes The game's real purty. .::Sound::. Summary/ Massive props A book could be published simply complimenting the soundwork of this game. Every shot, every reload, every cry from the Helghast soldiers, every explosion and almost all the lines of dialogue are simply amazing. I don't want to bias this review, but I will tell you that I have not yet found a single tiny problem with the sound in this game. When you jump into a Multiplayer match and you can hear the guns rat-tat-tatting in the distance it's just amazing. Microphone-spamming is a problem but that's true in any game, and you can mute the kids anyway so who cares. There's even a nice little sound that plays whenever you finally kill someone online, so you get a visual and audio confirmation that it's time to get away from the scene of the crime. Honestly though, you really have to hear this game in action, I could probably enjoy it with my eyes closed. Although, I will admit... Rico's swearing at the door about 3-4 checkpoints into the third level is by far the FUNNIEST voice acting EVER. : .::Lasting Appeal::. I'll detail this later. SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN Your Man Sev, standing with all his little buddies... He's a little ugly, but you only have to see him a couple times XD Starting, Saving, Loading... Killzone 2's load system is absolutely incredible. All the levels in campaign mode take far less than a minute to start up, which is really impresive considering the scope of each level. However, after each short checkpoint zone, the player will be nudged by a graphical chug lasting about a second or so in which the game freezes to load the next area. The whole affair is really seamless and doesn't detract from the experience at all. Loading up old missions is so well put together because you can reload any checkpoint section of any level on any difficulty once you've played it through or gotten to the beginning of it. It's just awesome because you can also go back and shorten your best time and death count for each part of the game, which adds to the Lasting Appeal that I failed to detail earlier. Cover System The cover system in this game is quite good. Holding L2 down when facing some form of cover during single player will place you in that cover. You can use almost any object in the world, and your character will stay snapped to the object, with strafing left and right of course, until you let go of L2. This means you can look behind you and fire off a couple rounds whilst staying attached to cover. To peek out of cover, simply hold the direction to peek with the Left Stick. Whilst peeking you can go into Iron Sight mode which helps with accuracy in a lot of instances. Also, you can reload in cover and you can throw grenades whilst in cover. However, there is no blind fire in Killzone 2, which might tiff off a couple of Gears or Army of Two Fans. Regardless, this is personally the first time I've ever seen a cover system this good in a First Person Shooter period. Little Touches, Fun Stuff The game has a lot of subtle things that make single player exciting. I haven't played through the entire campaign, I'll admit that to you right now. However, I've so far seen so many things that just make me really love this game. I won't spoil any story for you, but if you don't want to know anything from the campaign you might want to skip to the next section of the review. So far, I've toppled a building with a turret, knifed quite a few soldiers, driven a tank, watched a full scale war, seen a couple really pretty cinematics, popped helmets off of bad guys, and thoroughly enjoyed beating my enemies into a bloody pulp with a constant stream of bullets. This game's campaign is just extremely engrossing, really detailed, and at times pretty intense, so I'd recommend you get this game even if you don't have the online portion. Plus, you can play Multiplayer against bots. MULTIPLAYER Because, it contrasts the Single Player image quite nicely Summary This is where you're going to have the majority of your hours on this game. It brings a lot of great features to the table, and in this section I'll detail some of those features as well as describe what makes it better than the competition. Let's start with the basics... Starting up the online mode This is relatively easy. On your first run of online play, you'll have to agree to the terms of service as well as choose a time zone and a location. Then you've basically got your essentials screen, with options for looking up games, changing the first run items, and looking at your online statistics screens, which are quite nice and really detailed in terms of information. You can also join clans, but I'm not super sure about the specifics on that. Clans Clans are groups of a whole boatload of players that wage valor points on clan wars. It's a really interesting system I'm sure, so hop on a clan and get crackin'! Beginning a game After joining a game, the player is presented with a pregame spawn screen where multiple things can be done. You can watch a video of your teammates spawing in your base at your spawn point, mess with the spawn point you are going to materialize at, mess with your class and look at the scores. This screen is presented every time you die, so you'll see it a lot. Along with that video I mentioned, there's a large scale picture of the map on which you can watch the green and red dots battle for territory. Pretty epic stuff, but you might want to actually play the game eventually. Classes, Weapons, Customization, Abilities, etc. The Class screen, while it may be rather small, is actually a prime hub for making your online persona. Here you can choose from different badges that you've earned, which give you abilities like healing and cloaking, as well as building turrets. (Team Fortress anyone?) You can also root through the weapons that you've earned by ranking up and acquiring medals, as well as pick your side arm which you'll probably never have to worry about since there are only two. The are also various abilities that you can gain, like placing C4's and calling in Air Strikes, by simply playing the game, killing lots of people, overall doing a good job and pumping up your ranking points. The cool thing is, Guerrilla Games really payed attention to the balancing on this game. You start with the two most basic guns which, put in the correct hands, can dish out a ton of pain anyway. These guns are really common in campaign mode, so it's really easy to fit in online if you've played that campaign enough before. Anyway, the customization ends with the choice of guns, badges, abilities, and side arm, but it's still pretty comprehensive when you look at all the different combinations you can make. Rank Up and Medals Ranking up is done by getting mission points, which are acquired by getting kills and completing mini-missions during online matches. These points lead to getting fancy new icons next to your name, while on the other hand, just like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, you can complete smaller challenges to gain medals. What sets this game apart though, is that you actually get a bunch of ribbons and through acquiring so many ribbons you get medals. This gives a more down to earth and constant stream of small successes and goals, which is really nice for those of us that don't want to play for 5 hours just to get a new gun or an EXP boost. Plus, in Call of Duty, these challenges only ranked you up, whilst in Killzone 2 they actually earn you new abilities like the previously mentioned C4 and Air Strikes. You can also get other things from them like new guns, increased ammo count, med kits, and all kinds of fun stuff. This system is really set up to give players a nice flow of goals to have, instead of just setting one a couple thousand kills away. The Game You just lost. Anyway, for those of us not familiar with that joke, let's move on. Killzone 2 has the most exhilarating multiplayer Gameplay I've ever witnessed. The sheer pace of it is insane, at any given time there will be at least an 8 on 8 battle somewhere on the map, and that's only half of the games full capacity of players. All the maps have tons of flank points, all the weapons are so balanced, all the gunplay is so intense and when you get shot up you'll be running for cover like you're actually about to die. Remember kids, it's just a video game. The culmination of the sounds, the muzzle flashes, the grenades and the strategy really bring this game above any I've yet played. I'll be honest with you, I think this may very well beat out Call of Duty 4 in terms of fun. I just really have a good time playing this game, then again it's not without its problems... I've witnessed a lot of the time I'll shoot some guy and then as he shoots me and I'm dying, he'll recoil backwards and die himself from my gun. Awfully strange when there's a gap of over a second or two between when my guy hits the grounds and his goes flying back into the wall. Also, it's bound to happen eventually in Killzone 2 even though I wish it wouldn't: Grenade Spam. With the medals I mentioned earlier, you can also earn more grenades, which makes people less cautious about flailing them all over the map. Also, melee is somewhat strange in this game, you can kill someone with it, sure, but the only way you are really going to is if you run circles around them and slam down the L1 button until the game finally pings, signifying their defeat. We could really sit here all day and argue what weapons and what items in this and that game are cheap, but Killzone 2 is honestly really balanced. If you've had trouble getting into games for balancing issues, please don't be afraid to buy Killzone 2, there is room for everyone. Honestly, this mode is what will keep you coming back to this game for a long, long time. FINAL CONCLUSION It all comes down to this. This is where I'll drop all my heavy bags and just lay out the facts for you avid readers who don't have time to chug through a hundred paragraphs. Also, I'll throw out my outta' fiddy' score for y'all to suck on. HERE WE GO! Presentation: Killzone 2 manages to bring together a lot of smooth and slick transitions with pretty short load times and a plethora of neat little features like interactive load screens and shaky menus. 10/10 Graphics: This game has so much attention to detail that it really does show the sheer power of the Playstation 3 in all its high speed glory. However there are a couple little things that detract from the experience like slow downs (Still might just be my imagination) and strange clipping whilst in cover, also if you find a video of the flamethrower in action... it's really depressing. 9/10 Sound: I can't possibly say anything negative about this game's sound, it's just incredibly engaging and really makes you feel as if you're there on the battle field. 10/10 Gameplay: The game plays really well for the most part, but some cheap grenade tossing enemies in campaign can really be a pain, also some online abilities feel unbalanced for new players, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try! 9/10 Lasting Appeal: This game will last you half a lifetime with all its features. Completely re-playable campaign and extremely deep online challenges will keep you coming back for more. 10/10 And so, I'd like to apologize to anyone who hates that I do this so often.. but this games score is an astounding: 48/50 Maybe I like games too much XD Anyway, this is probably the best shooter on the market to date, and in terms of Playstation 3 games in general, it trumps 'em all by a long shot. If you own a PS3, please buy this game for your own good, you'll really enjoy it, promise :3 If you don't... it might really be time to come on over. I'd like to not that I am not a fan boy for any console ever, I have all three consoles of this generation and play them all quite often, this game is just a gem and I have rated and reviewed it as such. Feel free to chew me out on my mistakes, I don't have any excuses this time, it's 10 PM sure, but that's no reason to be bad at English. Thanks for your time Romulation users, hope you liked it!
Ehhhhh, no. Killzone 2 is just another very good shooter that brings nothing new to the table. Although it's fun. I think the Half-Life series or Deus Ex or something like that takes the cake for being the best FPS ever for bringing something new to the table and being fun despite years or their release. Not your imagination, it's definitely there, especially in Multiplayer.
Best FPS game EVER: Urban Terror, PC, free download, cross platform compatible, epic. I never really liked FPS on consoles though, so I'd be horrible biased if I was to review this.
Best KZ review I've ever seen ! And a solid score ,not too much (+2 points = 50 ) nor less. Thank you
50/50, just because it's DUTCH! As a finishing touch, God created the Dutch. Dutch made Killzone 2 Killzone 2 = One hell of a game The Netherlands = One hell of a country 8)
Awesome Quote XD Also, thanks for your opinions everyone. I know I might have gone a bit far saying it's the best shooter ever, but it's certainly not a same-old same-old shooter. Personally, I just like it a lot because it's Multiplayer is really fun for me, then again this review does reflect my experience with the game, so it's really your own personal choice on whether or not this game rocks the pants off of the other FPS Gods. And by the way Natewlie, I really do like Half Life, but just plain old Half Life 2 is the only one in the series that really stood out for me. Again, just my opinion, no flames please. XD *I've never played Deus Ex but I'd like to someday. Thanks for remembering me Winterreise!
First Person + guns + RPG elements and abilities classifies as some sort of FPS hybrid. Meh Killzone 2 offers nothing new but the greatest graphics for a console game so far and a game mode that isn't really a game mode by itself but is several other game modes combined. It's just another really good shooter. Once a new one comes out it's going to have similar features, I guarentee it. Meanwhile I'll play the multiplayer and enjoy it thoroughly. Ranking up is slow and tedious though. :\
"KZ2 is tha best game made since relase of Ps3". Maybe ?? I give 9.9/10 becouse no game is perfect! (except "imagine" series ,they are totally wonderful!)
This is an excellent review. Very professional. BTW: I effing love Killzone 2. Can't wait to play it in HD.
Well guys Im on the last mission now (I got the game ) and Its really hard... I decided not to lay on Elite difficulty, but Veteran (I think thats what Normal is called) and its really cool! Great review!
