Ever since the Playstation 2 launch in 2001 there has been a serious lack of quality first person shooters. Various single player shooters like Unreal Tournament and the Time Splitters Series were good but offered only single player experiences. The SOCOM series gave us excellent 3rd person shooters but deep inside every PS2 gamer was the hope that PS2 would come out with its own dominant first person shooter.
Ladies and Gentleman! The wait is over...Killzone has been out for about three months now and I am happy to let everyone know that it offers simply everything that has been missing among PS2 first person shooters. It has a great story, excellent game play, breath taking graphics, powerful sounds and an awesome multiplayer component.
Early in the development of Killzone, the game was hailed as “the Halo Killer”. This was a very foolish marketing move that almost cost Killzone some of its rightfully earned popularity. I am not going to compare these two excellent games. Albeit in the same genre, the comparison is more like apples to oranges. This is primarily due to the fact that Killzone was created on an older system (PS2) with slightly inferior graphics capabilities and does not offer some of the game play (vehicular combat) that Halo offers. On top of that, Killzone is a fresh title while Halo 2 built itself based upon an already well established franchise.
What sets Killzone apart from other PS2 first person shooters? The story, while not particularly original, is interesting in its own right. Helghans are descendants of Human colonists that arrived on the planet Helghan long ago. Severe living conditions on the planet made the colonists’ bodies go through a heavy physical and mental metamorphosis. At the same time, the newly created race started losing their allegiance to Earth and its colonies. The Helghans grew more powerful over time, building the society based on a Nazi-like ideology. Their strength grew steadily based on their hatred of Humans and as a prelude to all-out war, the Helgan forces invaded the neighboring human inhibited planet, Vekta. The unstoppable march to Earth had begun.
The single player campaign, which includes 11 long missions, starts you as Capt. Templar – the local human militia (ISA) commander. The first few missions are spectacular as they show the overall chaos that met human forces with the arrival of the Helghans. The game takes you then on a very diverse set of missions that offer excellent gameplay in terms of being able to control an additional 3 ISA game characters. Their weapons and tactics differ drastically and their use in the game is non-linear.
The enemy artificial intelligence is slightly above average. I have witnessed some very good flanking maneuvers as well as smart usage of hand grenades against the player character. There are however times when enemy AI seems to be very basic. This is evident in the unnecessary utilization of static defenses as well as the hopeless frontal assault type a.k.a. rushing. I believe that the developer of Killzone, Guerilla, should have spent some more time tweaking the enemy AI to be more consistent throughout the game. The friendly AI was created to compliment the actions of the main character. It is more of a follower then a leader. Nonetheless, the overall AI will please many gamers as it does stand out on more than one occasion in mimicking human like fighting style and behavior.
The graphics are above anything that we have seen on PS2 to date in the FPS genre. The weapons look extremely detailed and sound very real. The scopes on the rifles look very natural in the way they reflect light. The textures are sharp and their use in maps conveys the overall atmosphere of the urban and rural environments. Character animation is smooth and natural. Smaller object-type animations are done very well and with very original touches. I especially liked the reloading animation of ISA assault rifles in which the operator uses two fused ammo clips and rotates them prior to inserting them. There are a few graphical glitches that I noticed while playing. On one occasion, I came across a “floater” – an object (metal crate in the game) floating above the surface. Another glitch that happened on more than one occasion was during the death sequence of both the main player and the enemy. In either case, characters’ dead legs would move rapidly. Besides these rough edges, the overall graphics presentation pushes the hardware capabilities of the now aging Playstation 2 system to its very limits.
The sound in the game varies and fits the gaming experience perfectly. The background melodies differ and follow the action logically. I was especially impressed with the deep and realistic sound effects used in Killzone. Guns sound fantastic and the use of controller vibrations adds to the overall experience immersion. There are however a few annoying uses of sound. This is mainly in the overuse of enemy attack orders which get to be repeated too often throughout the game.
The single player experience ends with a climactic ending which does leave open the possibility of a sequel. The sequel isn’t a confirmed fact at this time but most gamers will agree that just like Bungie, Guerilla will probably want to follow the same path of continuing the growth of its gaming franchise.
The multiplayer component of Killzone is focused around some well defined modes of multiplayer combat with a few completely new ideas. The multiplayer is only available for broadband users which, thankfully, eliminates the modem users and much dreaded lag that comes with their presence. (Nothing personal guys) The following multiplayer modes are available:
The game runs smooth over the Internet even with 16 players involved, and there's some decent variety in the maps. Even if you don't have online support, you can play against another local player in a split-screen mode that incorporates bots.
Killzone fuses both excellent single player experience and multi-player battle modes into a must have PS2 title. Add to that top notch graphics and superior sound and we have an instant classic that has accomplished the same cult status for the PS2 that Halo has done for the Xbox.
I have been addicted to gaming since I played Pong for the first time when I was six years old. In the meantime, I have played thousands of games (all possible genres) on various systems from Atari 7800 and ZX Spectrum to Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga 500, PCs (Intel 8086 to the latest Intel and AMD chipsets), all Nintendo systems, all Sony Playstation systems, all Sega systems and finally Microsoft's XBox. Aside from gaming, I love to read (sci-fi, military history, politics, mysteries, puzzles...) and love to play chess which I do on a daily basis...
