I was extremely critical of Killzone 2 when I witnessed the live demo being showcased at E3 2007. After the CG rendered trailer, I was doubtful that Guerilla Games had the might and capacity to pull off game that would defy logic and sanity to build an immersive and enthralling experience.
The maximum applause I would render to them after watching countless videos online would go to the visuals which looked right out of a Spielberg movie. But in a generation where every second game touches upon the boundary of hyper realism its an arduous task to build up franchise that has seen disappointment in its first installment.
The notion of being in a world which borders pure adrenaline has been missing for quite a long time and Killzone 2, it seems, finally has the “glob” to transform the stale genre of pop and shoot into something that is fast-furious and an action packed title, which throws every planet in the galaxy of video games out of its axis.
The story of Killzone 2 represents a gloomy Helghan world being invaded by the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance, as a part of repayment for a contract they brought forward on the PlayStation 2, since much was lost after the original’s disappointing reception.
This installment brings together a completely new character called Sev who is pushed behind enemy lines on a planet that threatens to wipe all invaders from its own crust. The story may be lame and pretty clichéd from your regular Phillip Dick, but it is the portrayal of the action is the game is what needs to be marvel and gaped at over an over again.
The pre beta version of Killzone 2 has all what had been promised so far. The visuals in the game are seriously awe inspiring, each character model has been exquisitely detailed and marvelously crafted that his appearance looks like the real close friend next door.
Gone are the days when you could see a few missing textures here and there on your partners model or he looked jagged and a bit imperfect. Killzone 2 shows games how disfigured and “destroyed beauty” are truly defined, a few Brumaks crashing through glint edged mountains and a hornet of Reavers floating around do not necessarily create sense of destruction and desperation.
Killzone 2 pushed me straight into battle without wasting a single moment as I pushed in through incoming fire pushing in my Call of Duty run pattern. I was instructed to blow up a bridge using a rocket launcher that had been scattered somewhere in the midst of the chaos by one of my erstwhile squadmates.
I frantically hunted for the launcher popped it into my hands and blew up the bridge that was hindering the rest of the onslaught. This is where I noticed the first line of difference between Killzone 2 and other “pop-a-shoot” games, the former induced a minor sense of inaccuracy, even holding down R3 was not sufficient in making the experience a little wobbly thus adding a bit of excitement in the over all experience.
The next phase was rather simple, getting trapped in a warehouse and getting locked in an epic close quarters combat against the opponent, as wave after wave descended on my position. I silently cursed on my fate of being trapped in such a hostile situation and gasping for the exit, sans any sort of backup.
After a few minutes later, the area cleared and my partner gladly open the door (a la Call of Duty) and as we waltzed into the battlefield of death, a thing became pretty obvious to me, the game showed absolute no signs of slowing down. Killzone 2 started off with a bang and maintained the bang consistently without pausing to shower a bunch load of cutscenes or divulging into the psyche of the player.
Killzone 2 pushed me to the edge when the thundering noises and shrieks would not stop, as I passed out of the warehouse I was confronted with a battle that held me to a fixed machine gun. As rounds blazed on my foe who lay hidden in the rubble of a stormy building, the amount of destruction came into the fore.
Even though it was pretty obvious that the entire thing was a scripted attempt at creating a strong force of immersion, I was glad the game did not pull me out of the opera and watch a cutscene that had been seen numerous times with the genre of actions games till date.
I carried my graceful beauty into the next battlefield that showcasing the true meaning of chaos, the skies screamed with smoke and as gunfire raged between two fearsome opponents, one could not help wonder where such promised events had disappeared from other games in the genre.
I blew a few foes and sniped a couple of helmets to gloriously and pompously enter a field that required Sev to blow up a Helghan tank using another tank. As a horde of enemies flooded onto my screen, I ran up to the tank where I laboriously toiled to get a sense of the control of the giant beast. Finally after a few misfires, I blew up the opponent’s sky high, ending my run of the game.
There were however a few things I did notice about Killzone 2 that made me pause and wonder about the high level of maintenance of the game. First lay in the enemy AI, which was pretty weak even on medium difficulty, I think I died once in my entire 30 minute run of the game.
The second pause came in the repetitive nature of the game, the environments barely seemed to change throughout which may show assigns of monotony after a point of time for most players. The other gripe was a few loading issues and slowdown occasionally which occurred when the action within Killzone 2 was at its minimum best.
These experiences might not and better not hold true for the final version for this beast of a game. It beats a lot of shooters out there in the market right now including fanboy favorites. As we watch from the sidelines we pray and hope Killzone 2 turns out as massive as penned, planned and dictated or I shall once again sing a song that would make my heart and mind bleed for a first person shooter that would define an alternative experience for sometime to come.
- By Neelesh Mukherjee