Killzone 2 (PS3)

...of their own guns. Alas, Killzone 2's despot-in-chief displays a similar lack of ambition to do things differently, and it's a theme that's echoed throughout the game.


Despite all the plaudits it's been showered with by quality-starved PS3 owners, the real fart resonating through Killzone 2's fanfare is a lack of imagination. Don't get me wrong, it's the hugely impressive technical achievement you'd expect from a title four ...
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Killzone actually employs the peek-a-boo dynamic pretty well though, yet with nothing like the success of Gears of War's third person grace. Designated cover points have less traction, and it's not always abundantly clear what you can stick to and what you can't, often resulting in undesired emergence into the open. In fact the default controls are generally pretty cumbersome, and I never found instinct usurping conscious thought ... more

Crate Expectations

If I was a videogame baddie I would, without shadow of a doubt, be king of the f***ing world. Despite the lessons of history suggesting that stuffing Evil HQ with high explosives and handy crates full of ammunition is a patently bad idea, successive evildoers have steadfastly refused to deviate from these dubious tactics. It's as if the real aim for all this evilness is fulfilling some kind of kinky fetish for having a group of barrel-necked marines kick down their office doors and lay manly waste to them with the butt of their own guns. Alas, Killzone 2's despot-in-chief displays a similar lack of ambition to do things differently, and it's a theme that's echoed throughout the game.

Despite all the plaudits it's been showered with by quality-starved PS3 owners, the real fart resonating through Killzone 2's fanfare is a lack of imagination. Don't get me wrong, it's the hugely impressive technical achievement you'd expect from a title four years in the making, but not once did I feel that this was even approaching new territory for the FPS genre. There are a few inspired moments which exhibit genuine invention, such as a section aboard a speeding train where air resistance slows forward momentum and prevents you from using grenades effectively, but the prevailing set-piece/lull/set-piece/turret dynamic has been implemented and executed well by a dozen 'AAA' shooters in the past ten years, and this game wades through these clichés like it's crossing them out on a checklist.

Cockney Fascists

You'll have to forgive my ignorance of the first title, but from what I absorbed before the shutters went down, the story runs like this: Generic Evil Army vs. Mankind - Mankind sends in the big boys to sort them out. There's probably a deeper element to this tale, but as ever it's mired in the same depths of testosterone and sweat and the narrative delivered via the same cement mixer larynxes as 90% of titles in this genre. So in short, the plot engenders a scenario where you're faced with an army of identikit futuristic Nazi storm trooper types, who rather bizarrely enunciate like extras who've wandered out of Albert Square... via the Star Wars costume department. Seemingly not satisfied with stuffing his front room full of explosives, Mr. Nasty has kitted his cockney fascist legions out with masks sporting glowing red eyes, just to offer that extra invitation to shoot them in the face. And that's really the essence of the gameplay; find a cover spot, locate the conspicuous red dots, burst fire, hide, rinse repeat.

Killzone actually employs the peek-a-boo dynamic pretty well though, yet with nothing like the success of Gears of War's third person grace. Designated cover points have less traction, and it's not always abundantly clear what you can stick to and what you can't, often resulting in undesired emergence into the open. In fact the default controls are generally pretty cumbersome, and I never found instinct usurping conscious thought to allow my mind to focus on tactics, which meant Killzone continually broke the flow in a way that Gears & Halo for example didn't. Maybe the somewhat 'floaty' Sixaxis PS3 analogue pad made a contribution to my feeling of detachment from the controls, but I never really felt 100% in command, and consequently didn't get that adrenaline rush of pulling off instinctive escapes from certain death situations that punctuate other previously mentioned shooters.

Stiff

Two things Killzone does get right though: difficulty and tension. It's a toughie alright. So far as providing brutal oppressiveness goes, this is right up there with the best in class. It's here where developer Guerrilla triumphantly slams all its Aces down on the table: their game really does bully you. As Master Chief or Marcus Fenix you felt like the hunter - a Kevlar-chinned assassin - here you are certainly not intimidating anyone. Every corridor, warehouse and open expanse is an excuse for Killzone to unload more misery upon you, and on the harder difficulties your feeling of vulnerability makes for a heart-pounding ten hours of dashes for cover under a hail of well aimed bullets. You will invariably be investing a fair proportion of those ten hours exploiting the now en vogue recuperating health system, squatting behind some precariously flimsy scenery praying you recover before you're shot in the arse again. This is perhaps the saving grace, as coupled with some pretty good AI it's going to provide a stiff challenge to all but the most hardened FPS veterans.

While we're in a positive vein, let's mention the visuals and audio. It's a tour de force for console FPS titles. Aesthetically grim it may be, some would say lacking in depth and variety, but it's an inescapable truth that Killzone's software has wrung more out of the PS3 than any other game. I'd have liked to have seen less crumbling architecture and samey walkways, but what is included is exceedingly detailed and animated, with the frame rate hardly breaking stride. There are some rather dodgy load time pauses however, which can extinguish the atmosphere a little, but if this really bothers you put down the pad and get some sun.

Arse Brain

Now we're done with the nice stuff, there's some final scorn for the single player campaign: NPC's, or as I like to call them, 'brain-in-arse hindrances'. There's a fair few of these numpties unwittingly impeding your chances of success at every turn, but I'm going to pick on Rico here, since he is, without question, the most intensely irritating and blindly hypocritical NPC that ever ruined a campaign mode. Every time you're within a kilometre of enemy fire (this happens a lot) he'll bellow in an almost pantomime manly growl: Sev, find some cover!!! before completely contradicting this sage advice and charging indiscriminately to his own demise. Not content with insulting your intelligence and inviting questions of his own, he then insists on being healed; whining on about bleeding to death while you're stuck, rather ironically, taking cover from the people he should have been shooting at. One particularly frustrating episode springs to mind on the aforementioned train level, where he barked at me to take cover/blow up the man in the turret etc. etc. before bolting around the corner into a group of six enemies and dying immediately. This happened eight times in a row before I slammed my controller down and switched off my PS3, declaring him a 'mindless tw*t' and 'less use than a G-string in the Antarctic'. At this juncture I realised Killzone 2 wasn't getting top marks. I don't expect NPC's to complete the game for me, but just some covering fire would be nice. Don't make them tell me what to do every third step, and don't make them s**t. Ta.

Salvage

In terms of saving graces, the online multiplayer swoops down to salvage some innovative credibility. It's the standard online fare for the most part, yet the decision to allow games to segue from objective gametypes to deathmatch and back without stopping the action is an inspired one. Couple this with in-depth rewards structures, statistics analyses to keep you hooked (and remind you of your inadequacies), and the most extensive Clan functionality I've seen on console and Killzone 2 online is well on the way to cloaking the campaign's shortcomings. What could have been a class leading experience is smited by two factors. First and most obvious is the lack of party play - which kind of defeats the object of a friends list - second is the suitability of Killzone's control schemes and gameplay dynamic to the inevitable run-and-gun fest most games descend into. In many mid-distance encounters shooting from the hip is more effective than iron sight or scoped, which is a nonsense.

This may seem a curmudgeonly and pompous write up of what is, on the surface at least, a highly competent effort for the genre, but Killzone 2 has stirred sentiments I grew tired of some time ago. Maybe it's the trite sci-fi premise. Maybe it's the cringeworthy macho vernacular which peppers almost every sentence emanating from the one-dimensional and unlikeable cast of generic army meatheads. Maybe it's the lines so embarrassing they could be mistaken for none too subtle parody, such as the hilarious pre-death corker: "Don't you quit on me now!" immediately followed by: "Medic! I need a medic!!!". It's just plain lazy in areas fundamental to atmosphere and personality, to the point where even games like Gears of War manage to outstrip it in terms of storytelling and personal involvement. I didn't care what war I was fighting or why, and that's sending you as a player into areas where all the fancy graphics in the world can't undo the damage. Admittedly, the genre has never been a literary hotbed, but ten years after Half-Life we're still holding out for another story driven shooter franchise which delivers stronger dramatic impact with its action than clumsy am-dram death scenes and college football team bravado and bluster.

Multiplayer scores a four; campaign a three.

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