When I first got my PS3 it seemed like every game I played was a gritty shooter (i.e. the Resistance games, Call of Duty 4, and so on). I tend to enjoy shooters, so that wasn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but I did get burnt out on them for a while… so when the PS3 exclusive Killzone 2 came out, I passed on it while moving on to other types of games. Sony recently added it to it’s list of Greatest Hits, which means it was now pretty cheap, so I figured I’d check it out. It’s a decent game, but I’m glad that I didn’t pay full price when it came out.
Killzone 2 is basically a competent FPS game with high production values and no real innovation. Depending on your temperament, this could be a good thing. There’s something to be said for a game that does what it does really well, even if there’s nothing really new there. Unfortunately, I’m not sure Killzone 2 really reached that level for me. It’s got a lot of components of successful games, some of which I like, some of which I don’t. For instance, they’ve adopted the 2 weapon limitation (which is something that I dislike more and more in FPS games – yeah, it’s more realistic, but it’s also less fun), the lack of a health bar (which is a convention I actually do like a lot), a cover mechanic (which can be good, but which kinda sucks in this game), and so on.
The single player campaign has lots of splashy sequences and the cutscenes are filled with stereotypical tough-guy bravado, cliched dialogue, and the typical brown/grey/blue color scheme of these types of games. But then, you don’t play games like this for their story (which makes me wonder why they bother even having one). What you end up with is a series of killboxes, and the progression through them is more difficult than I’m accustomed to with FPS games. One thing I didn’t like was the infinitely respawning enemies, which basically forces you to always be moving forward. This makes for a more chaotic game and I found myself dying often. This is something COD games sometimes do, but those games seem to be much better balanced than this one. Maybe it’s just because I stink, but during a few standout sequences, I found myself dying so often that the game ceased being any fun at all.
Part of the trouble I had was that I never really had a good feel for my surroundings or where incoming fire was coming from. I would be progressing through an area and suddenly find myself dead because an enemy started shooting at me and I couldn’t figure out where they were. This isn’t something I had trouble with in any other PS3 shooters, so I’m not exactly sure what the issue was. The blurred vision effect when you’re hurt may have something to do with it, as sometimes I could tell where the damage was coming from, other times I couldn’t.
The controls of the game are also a bit unusual, especially given they way it plunders other games for various concepts. In particular, the way they use the R3 button to bring up the targeting mode seems awkward (and the fact that it snaps to that mode seems kinda strange). Also, the melee attacks seem ridiculously overpowered (in single player, a single melee attack with the butt of your gun or with the knife will kill most enemies – or you, if you get to close), but this is a common enough feature in FPS games. I think the best illustration of the wonky and unpolished control scheme is this hilarious photo-tutorial on how to use the sniper rifle.
Speaking of the weaponry, what we get here is mostly a series of machine guns. There isn’t really a ton of differentiation between them, but they do feel good when you’re using them. There are some nice other weapons, like the shotgun or the grenade launcher, but the limitation of only being able to carry 1 main weapon at a time usually discourages playing around with some of those other weapons (though I think the shotgun works pretty well). The one notable exception to all this is the Electricity Gun, which is incredibly fun to play with and imparts an amazing sense of power to the player (unfortunately, that weapon is only available to be used during one relatively short sequence in the game).
Visually the game is gorgeous, and despite the typical color scheme of this type of game, the production design is very well done. The Helghast have these great helmets with glowing red eyes, which I found to be a pleasing design (and it kinda helped in picking them out of the landscapes – evidence that no military in their right mind would ever use such a thing). And I have to admit that the orchestral music is really fantastic for this game. The single player campaign is something that grew on me once I got used to the controls. I managed to have fun with it, even though I occasionally got stuck at a section where I kept dying. Again, I’m not sure if that’s just because I’m bad at this kind of shooter or if it’s really a balance issue, but I don’t find that sort of difficulty to be fun.
Interestingly, I’ve found myself much more impressed with the multiplayer mode than the single player campaign. This is unusual, since I generally dislike online multiplayer games and never really got into COD4 or Resistance, etc… (though I did enjoy Resistance 2‘s online co-op) Of course, I’ve only played a few hours, but there are a bunch of things I really like about the way it works.
From what I can tell, the multiplayer mode is extremely deep and customizable. There are several character classes and the weaponry seems better suited to this type of play too. But what I think is really interesting is that for the first time ever in a multiplayer shooter, I’ve found myself doing reasonably well right from the start. There are a few big reasons for this, all of which have to do with the way the game is structured. When you start the multiplayer, you only have one character class to choose from: infantryman. As you score points, you move up in military rank and get more choices for weaponry and some additional abilites. Since the game’s default matchmaking pits you against other players of similar rank, you end up with a reasonably well balanced match.
Then there’s the way the various multiplayer modes are packaged together into matches. There are several types of multiplayer game: there’s a free-for-all type mode, a capture the flag type mode, a defend the base mode, an attack the base mode, and there’s the assassination mode. Whenever you play multiplayer, you play a match that consists of 4-7 of these modes and whichever team wins the most wins the match. The thing I like about this is that I can actually get comfortable with the level designs. In COD4, for example, I found myself constantly being thrown from one map to another and I never got too familiar with any one map. With Killzone 2, by the end of a match, I found myself in pretty good shape. I knew the important locations and the alternate routes to get there, etc…
Now, this isn’t to say that the multiplayer mode is perfect, just that I was able to get up to speed reasonably quickly and am actually looking forward to playing the game some more (which, again, is somewhat unprecedented for me). I’m only at Sergeant First Class, so it’s quite possible the game will fall apart later, but I’m having fun. Of course, it does seem like the various upgrades and whatnot will come pretty slow. I’ll probably have to play another 3-5 hours to even get the ability to play as another class (the medic). This is one thing I think COD does better, which is to impart the feeling that you’re constantly achieving something new. I guess we’ll see, but I feel like being slowly introduced to the new character classes will allow me to play the game without being overwhelmed (which I sometimes got when playing COD4 online).
In the end, I have some mixed feelings about this game. There are a bunch of things I don’t like about it, but it did grow on me a bit as I played it, and I’m rather surprised at my response to the multiplayer. I will probably continue to play the multiplayer and will hopefully not be overwhelmed by the progression of complexity.