Killzone 2

[Spunky]

Just a little review of the game that is hailed as "The Xbox beater".

For those who aren't familar with the Killzone story:

The game is set in an era of space colonization where the Helghast Empire has recovered from its defeat in the First Helghan War and launched a blitzkrieg against the outer Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (I.S.A.) colony planet Vekta. Vekta's orbital Strategic Defense (S.D.) platforms failed during the initial assault, allowing the Helghast to land swarms of soldiers onto the surface and making it all the more difficult for the outnumbered I.S.A. forces.

In the game, the Helghast are a faction of human descendants who colonized the planet Helghan many generations ago. The planet's harsh environment forced the Helghast to adapt and mutate so much that they can no longer be considered human. They are stronger, faster and more resilient than their human cousins, and possess a burning hatred for humanity. Except for a small number of half-breed Helghast and trained troopers, they require a gas mask and air processing tank that creates air similar to that found on the planet Helghan.

The player takes control of I.S.A. Captain Jan Templar, fighting off the Helghast invasion. Templar and his squad are called back to the base for reassignment, and are promptly sent to find the I.S.A. operative Hakha and the key in his possession. During the course of the game, the player also takes control of several other characters, such as Shadow Marshal Luger (a female special operations assassin), a heavy weapons specialist Sergeant Rico Velasquez (a Helghast-hating soldier with an itchy trigger finger), and Colonel Hakha, a half-Helghast, half-Human spy.

The Main character's of the game.

Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko is the main character of Killzone 2, and part of the ISA Special Forces Alpha Team. He is a withdrawn and unusually contemplative man. At age 25 he's already been in several successful campaigns, but they've also exacted a toll on him. He's an imperfect soldier in a perfect army.

Corporal Dante Garza is a member of the ISA Special Forces Alpha Team. Smart-mouthed and young, Garza is a loyal, optimistic and trusty soldier who has earned his elite status. A close companion of Sev, the pair have served together in several campaigns before being picked for Alpha.

Sergeant Rico Velasquez is a veteran of the ISA. He is a human tank who prefers to shoot first and ask questions later, if at all. He's all attitude but despite this he has a good heart. Rico prefers an up-front fight and is a character of extremes; he can get agitated very quickly and doesn't hold back on anything. During the orbital defense platform crisis, Rico was left stranded by a brutal Helghast attack and consequently befriended Templar, Luger and Hakha. Later, he became embedded with Alpha Team to spearhead the invasion on Helghan’s capital, Pyrrhus.

Corporal Shawn Natko is the demolitions expert for the ISA Special Forces Alpha Team. An experience soldier of the same generation as Rico, Natko made a steady rise through ISA ranks before joining Alpha Squad.


Colonel Jan Templar is the commander of the ISA fleet and the cruiser 'New Sun'. Protagonist of Killzone, he leads the invasion of Helghan from the sky, without actually being in the field.

Scolar Visari is the leader of Helghast forces and ruler of Helghan planet. He is responsible for the re-militarization of the Helghan troops after their defeat following the First Helghan War. He has succeeded in launching an invasion of one of ISA colonial planets, Vekta, to avenge what he sees as the abandonment and abuse of the Helghast.

Colonel Mael Radec is the commander of the Helghast Imperial Guard- Visari's personal guard and defends planet Helghan, he is shown to have a desire for killing and prefers action rather than planning. Determined and ruthless, he is called the hound of Visari.

The plot:

Killzone 2 follows the events of Killzone and Killzone: Liberation, and entirely takes place on the planet Helghan, the home-world of the Helghast, who invaded an Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) colony. Two years after the Helghast assault on Vekta, the ISA has launched an assault on the enemy's homeworld of Helghan. The ISA goal is to capture the Helghast leader, Scolar Visari, and bring the Helghast war machine to a halt. Players assume the role of Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, a battle-hardened veteran of the special forces unit Alpha Team, who go on a mission to take out the Helghast threat.

During the invasion of Helghan, Sev's unit is deployed behind enemy lines to assist the main invasion force. Tasked with securing the enemy capital of Pyrrhus, the team quickly discovers that the Helghast are a more formidable enemy on their home planet. Not only have they adjusted to Helghan's hostile conditions, they have also harnessed the power of the freakish lightning storms that always occur on Helghan which they can now use against the ISA. A cold, barren, unforgiving world, Helghan provides a ready defense with thick, acidic air, dust clouds, and violent surgical lightning storms. Sev discovers his squad is not just fighting enemy forces – their fiercest opponent may be the planet itself.

Spunky's take:

Visually, The game is at the very least on par with Metal gear solid 4 (hailed as the best graphical game ever), The game isn't dogged with frame rate issuses, Unlike the first installment, Which mean's the game run's very smooth, The only interupption's in gameplay is for saving, And for level completion.

The control's are very fiddly, If like me, you are used to the Call of Duty control layout, But they are surprisingly easy to get used to, Or you can just change them easily via the option's menu. The only real issue with the control's is the swing of the crosshair's axis, I've not gotten used to it yet, You can move the stick, And the screen will turn VERY slowly, Until you want to stop it, Then it kind of speed's up, So it can be hard to line up a precision shot at time's, But overall it's good in this department.

As for the gameplay? It's possibly the best AI i've come accross in a FPS game, The soldier's (depending on their weaponary), Will either stay back, And try to pick you off, which is very hard to defend against. They will try to pick you off as they push forward, Which is alot easier as they tend to expose themself's alot, Or they will try to rush you with a SMG, It can be hard to defend against, Only if they are in number's, As a quick gun butt, And a couple of shot's will kill them off.

The best feature of the game by far is the "peek and cover" system, Which to my knowledge, Hasn't been done to great effect in a before, Is a great feature, Because instead of turning back to to find cover (like alot of game's), You can just nip behind ledge's, Barriers, And random crap sitting in the field of battle, Great as well if you get caught short, And need to reload.

So, Would Spunky recommend a punt of this game? Yes he would.

19 out of 20.

 

[brahma62]

I hear all the time how Halo is the greatest FPS ever made, and i beg to differ. Sure its a really great game, but for those who have played Killzone 2 (or as it is sometimes called Killzone 3 since it actually is the 3rd installment in the Killzone franchise) you know what an amazing game it is, and how it destroys halo in every way possible. For this argument ill refer to the latest Killzone game as Killzone 2.

The Campaign:
The knock on all the Halo games is that the Campaign is a little underwhelming. Having played every Halo game, i didn't think that was the case as i enjoyed them all, except i think the 3rd one was a little short. Killzone 2's campaign is amazing. It's intense the whole way through, and the shootouts are non-stop, and they have you fighting with your squadmates most of the time, because if not you would be annihalated because of how huge the shootouts are. Halo 3 at times seems slow to develop, but that may just be me. Not to mention the cover system in Killzone is THE best i've ever seens. Instead of turning your back against the wall, you just simply hug the wall, still in cover, and the flick of the analog stick pops you up for you to shoot.

I will give Master Cheif the edge on the main character of Killzone 2 (Sev) because master cheif is much more a memorable main character. In terms of overall campaign experience, Killzone 2 dominates in every fashion, and i will get more into it if anyone responds to this thread.

The Weapons:
The weapons in the Halo are pretty good, with the Rifle, Pistol, the basics. The you have your Plasma pistol and Plasma rifle, followed by the Brute Launcher, as well as some other guns that slip my mind at the moment.

Killzone has good amount of guns. You have your standard Rifle and Pistol on both sides (ISA and Helghast). You have your machine guns which are real powerful but not as accurate, you know the basics still. Rocket Launchers, grenade launchers, shotguns, the works. But 2 weapons stick out in my mind in Killzone that sets it apart. There is a nail gun which is insane. You may be thinking that it's the same as the needler in Halo. Not even close. The needler takes a bunch of needles to kill your opponent. The nail gun in Killzone 2 is a one shot kill, not to mention it impales them into the wall. The next gun is the Electricity gun. It locks on automatically to any target in the viscinity, and cooks them. Plus, infinite ammo, you just have to charge it. Not to mention a Flamethrower.

Online Play:
Everyone says that Halo's online play is the best, i never really saw the appeal of it though. Now i've only played Halo online a couple times so im only going off of what i have played.

Anyone who has played Call Of Duty 4 online knows that it is arguably one of the better online experiences. Well Killzone 2, in my honest opinion, is better than Halo AND COD4.

The matches are much bigger, It gives you 5 different games to play at the moment, more will be released too. It's all team based games, which i think is a great thing. The classes are awesome, they consist of the Assault class, the medic class which can heal fallen team members, the engineer class which can install turrents in map, the Saboteur class which can mimmick the other teams appearance and trick them into believing you are in their team, providing some strategy along with that, and then you have the sniper class, which instead of wearing some camo clothes or anything, you are invisible in the map, but not completely invisible, you can see swirls in your armor so you are still able to be seen, and that is only when you are completely still. There are more classes but those are the main ones. The clan system is better with clan tournaments, clan challenges, the works.

I really think that Killzone 2 is better than any Halo game made, but like i said that is my opinion, would love to hear your opinion as well.

 

[Spunky]

Oh my god! Who the fuck changed the thread title?

Anyway, The online mode (now i've finally played it) is like crack, So addictive. I love every game mode mode, And I love how you can play every game mode in the same round, Which last for around 25 minute's each. I love the fact that you can only use certain weapon's with certain classes, Like the medic class, You can only use the assault rifle's.

My favourite weapon on the game is by far the shotgun, There are "cross over" point's on every map, Where the team's seem to go to get leverage on the other team, if you are proficient with the shotgun, You can get a great score.

Prolly my favourite online game at the minute.

 

[Slyfox696]

Oh my god! Who the fuck changed the thread title?

Your thread was merged with another thread on the topic, so they changed the thread to represent both threads and what the thread is about.

Anyway, The online mode (now i've finally played it) is like crack, So addictive. I love every game mode mode, And I love how you can play every game mode in the same round, Which last for around 25 minute's each. I love the fact that you can only use certain weapon's with certain classes, Like the medic class, You can only use the assault rifle's.

The online mode is the ONLY online mode I have ever played and enjoyed. While I wish you were given at least 1 option for each class (besides the Saboteur class), I agree with you. It keeps each class having it's advantages and disadvantages.

My favourite weapon on the game is by far the shotgun, There are "cross over" point's on every map, Where the team's seem to go to get leverage on the other team, if you are proficient with the shotgun, You can get a great score.

The shotgun is good. But, it depends on the level you are playing. Levels like Pyruhus Rise (sp?) isn't very good for the shotgun, it's much better to have an automatic or the sniper rifle. Close quarter fighting like Visari's Hammer is GREAT for the shotgun. The Sta-14 is a great weapon for those levels where you might have close combat fighting, but also good distance fighting as well. And the rocket launcher...well, there's never a GOOD level for it...but then again, there's never really a bad one either.

 

[Spunky]

Your thread was merged with another thread on the topic, so they changed the thread to represent both threads and what the thread is about.

Fair enough lol.

The online mode is the ONLY online mode I have ever played and enjoyed.

I've alway's loved the Call of Duty series, As well as Resistance 1, And 2, But i've forgotten about them since I brought the game.

While I wish you were given at least 1 option for each class (besides the Saboteur class), I agree with you. It keeps each class having it's advantages and disadvantages.

It definitely level's the game out, Which mean's you won't have everyone on one team with the same weapon, And that brought together with how team based the game is, Make's for some great firefight's.

My only gripe is that you don't get alot of ammo.

The shotgun is good. But, it depends on the level you are playing. Levels like Pyruhus Rise (sp?) isn't very good for the shotgun, it's much better to have an automatic or the sniper rifle. Close quarter fighting like Visari's Hammer is GREAT for the shotgun. The Sta-14 is a great weapon for those levels where you might have close combat fighting, but also good distance fighting as well. And the rocket launcher...well, there's never a GOOD level for it...but then again, there's never really a bad one either

There is only one level that I can't use the shotgun to good effect, And that is the map with the red ground (Sorry, I'm shit with map names) On that map I use the standard rifle with the green sight's. I can't really comment on any of the other weapon's, As i'm only half-way to getting the first LMG, But I do enjoy using the SMG, But it tend's to use alot of ammo.