|
2005 was a great year. Charles and
Camilla got married, people weren't saying "credit crunch" all the time and Jade Goody wasn't dead. Better times all round, then. There was also a lot of talk about this fancy new PS3 console that was on the horizon, and one of the most mouth-watering games from the first batch of tech demos was
Killzone 2.
As you are probably aware by now, it's finally here. And it comes with an awful lot of hype to live up to. The story is... well, irrelevant really.
Killzone 2 isn't going to be remembered for a gripping, edge-of-seat narrative, but I don't think that's what the focus of this game is on (if it is, sorry, fail). There's some kind of war going on - the goodies versus the baddies. All you need to know is that you're a good guy, and you're fighting with your friends
- who do a lot of swears. More games should have swears in
them - on the bad guys' home turf.
When those first in-game footage demos were shown to the public, there was a lot of doubt towards whether they could actually be achieved in real-time on the PS3. It looked to be a case of all mouth and no trouser. There is certainly some trouser there, quite big trousers really, but not as big as I expected. Maybe that's just because my trouser appreciation threshold has changed since the first time
I saw that footage many, many years ago. It's good, anyway, and I'll stick my neck out and say the cut scenes are the best thing I have seen the PS3 produce to date. The kind of thing that makes you turn to your friend and nod your heads in agreement whilst saying
"hmmmm!"
|
"Straight-forward,
no-frills gun action" |
With all the recent hype surrounding the visuals, it's no surprise that
Killzone 2 looks great, but how does it play? Well, like any other
shooter. There are no surprises here. It's very much the FPS-player's FPS:
straight-forward, no-frills gun action, and this put me off during the first few goes. There's nothing to keep your attention erect in the single-player campaign, and there's certainly nothing you haven't seen before. Well, apart from a few little touches courtesy of the Sixaxis. Some actions, for instance planting bombs or twisting wheely-things to open doors, require a combination of button presses and movements using the Sixaxis control to simulate performing the task in real life (you can also use the Sixaxis to slightly tilt the angle of the loading
screen - possibly the most pointless addition to any game, ever). It's a novel idea at first, but you soon wish that a simple press of the circle button would perform the same task with less effort.
Getting rid of the enemy proves to be quite satisfying, as they do take a bit of a pounding before they finally fluff it, even if they act a little erratically and stupidly sometimes. It gives you a sense of achievement that some shooters just don't have. One thing that's
slightly disappointing is the fact that most of the enemies look exactly the same. Its the same old red-eye (as they are nicknamed throughout the game) time and time again which, coupled with the fact that the scenery also seems to look a little samey, makes things
appear somewhat repetitive.
And that was it. After initially feeling not too impressed by the game, I kind of warmed to it, but felt it didn't live up to the hype. It's not a bad game, and I can't really punish it for not being groundbreaking: it does exactly what it says on the tin and does it well. Hardcore FPS fans will love it, everyone else will
just think it's pretty good. It's still up there
as one of the most solid console shooters to date, but I
expected something different. I wanted this game to take
me out for dinner at the fanciest restaurant I have ever
seen, and lay in front of me a massive feast, featuring
flavours I have never even tasted before. Then, after
dinner, to take me back to its place, and make love to
me for several hours. What it actually did was take me
to a really impressive steakhouse, that tasted amazing
with lots of attention to detail, then took me behind
the car park and wanked me off. Which is fine - I love
steak and I love being wanked off, so maybe I shouldn't
be complaining so much. (Pete! - Ed.)
"Multiplayer
keeps you
hooked" |
But hold on one second. There's also the multiplayer mode. And it's the multiplayer that lifts
Killzone 2 from being quite good to being quite brilliant. It just seems to do everything right. In some ways, it has a bit of a Valve-ish feel to it, and in my
book that's a very good thing indeed. Using the familiar system of experience points to unlock more content, it keeps you hooked by dangling the carrot of extra classes in front of your face, leading to a very strong
'just one more go before bed time' effect.
One particularly excellent feature is the ability to
play all five game modes in one 25 minute session, so
you don't have to quit out of your current server if you
fancy a bit of a change. Instead, it gives you five
minutes play in each mode, one after the other on the
same map. The maps themselves are well thought-out and none of them feel stupidly big or insanely small. It all just works. Very well. And it could well give this title a long and fruitful lifespan.
Does this outstanding multiplayer make Killzone 2
a modern classic? Perhaps. It's certainly one of the top
console shooters around. It gives the PS3 a chance to
flex its visual muscles and the combat system works
beautifully, giving you a big sense of gratification
when you're ploughing down the hordes of enemies. But it
doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The solo
campaign does all the things a shooter should do, but
nothing more. But increasingly these days, it's the
multiplayer that keeps a game alive once the campaign
modes have been exhausted, and in this case Killzone
2 does the job superbly, making it a very strong
rival for the Call Of Duty series. If Guerilla
put a little more thought into the creative design of Killzone
3, maybe I'll get my dream dinner date after all.
91%
Reasonable
single-player; amazing, addictive online play.
About
our scores...
|
