Killzone 2

Killzone 2 is a first-person-shooter game developed by Guerrilla Games for the PlayStation 3. Much like the preceding Killzone; the game takes place in the 24th century, and depicts a war between Humanity, and a race known as the Helghast; a race of mutated humans with pale skin, and increased stamina, strength, height, and intelligence! The first Killzone and Liberation tell the tale of the war between the two races, as the Helghast invade a human planet. This time around though; the story revolves around humanity’s retaliation, and their invasion of the Helghast home planet of Helghan.

Killzone 2 was one of the first games I bought for the PS3 (along with Far Cry 2). I sort of had some knowledge of the game from shows such as Gamer.TV and Playr; but had no other knowledge about it other than it was an FPS. But I gave it a go, and really enjoyed it!

Killzone 2’s setting is a pretty cool and well-designed grim, and dark world with a very industrial look, designed to make the world look as militaristic as possible. The first mission has some light in it; and helps you to see how large the maps are. The missions were nice and long too; with plenty of them, and plenty of stuff to achieve in them. The first mission was nice and light; but then they became very dark.

The missions varied in content, but were mostly dark lit; with lots of people to kill; but it is called Killzone Afterall. The game would try to vary each mission, with content including using the PS3’s Sixaxis controller for some sections. But at the end of the day it came down to kill or be killed. The game came with a selection of weapons to play around with; but the best rifle was used by the ISA forces, and there was so little ammo around, so you were forced into constantly picking up Helghast equipment just to get through the mission.

It was though slightly more creative in the way of its boss battles; by not having all that many. Most of the time the player would just have to face high powered enemies; that had easy to spot weaknesses, and quite a lot of the time, player’s had ‘help’ from the NPC’s. Come to think of it there were really only about two and a half boss battles in the whole game, with the only major two being Colonel Radec at the end; and one with the high powered gunship/drone/ATAC at the mid-way point.

The strange thing about Killzone though, as that as it was such a well-designed game; it means that the gameplay isn’t the thing I best remember about it. It’s the story and, most of all; the acting (as well as the game’s main title theme too of course)! The story is pretty simple to follow as it follows the ISA forces invading the Helghan capital, and their many interactions with forces lead by Colonel Radec. This then leads to a section in the Helghan desert, followed by an attack on the Emperor’s palace. It’s pretty simple, but it’s very well accompanied by great cutscenes, which show both sides of the story.

But, the real taste of the story comes from the performances of one character. The rather charismatic Scolar Visari; who is voiced by Brian Cox (not the physicist). He introduces the game during the opening credits, and delivers a very powerful speech. He is then heard from very little, as the game’s main antagonist is really Colonel Radec. But, when Visari appears later on in the game; he once again just commands the screen, and you simply can’t get enough of him. It makes you want to go back to Killzone 1, and then forward to Killzone 3 to hear some more from him. He is one of video gaming’s greatest villains; one you just can’t get enough of!

Looking back on Killzone 2 is an interesting experience; as it just highlights how a well-designed video game, can draw your attention to other things of interest. From the perspective of its story and acting; the gameplay element of the game, just seems like an added bonus, and not its core reason to play it. It’s just so very weird, as right now I can barely remember having fun (which I did) playing the actual game; as the thing I loved above all else, was the scenes involving Scolar Visari. It’s just so very weird!