Killzone

Killzone has to be one of the finer first person shooter games of 2004. It is in my book. You start off as Templar, a Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) member, and later on in the game you gain a shadow marshal, an ISA regular, and a field operative, whose names are Luger, Rico, and Hakha. You can choose to play as any one of those four people. Your enemies are the nasty Helghasts. I must admit, the game does start off kind of slow, and I wanted to put the controller down because I thought it was boring, but I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. It gets so much better. The story mode is awesome, the graphics are excellent, and so is the gameplay. Or, if you just wanna kill for fun, you can do the multiplayer mode (offline or online). The offline mode lets you add up to 14 computer controlled bots. My ranking for this game? 9.5/10.

When I first read about this game over a year ago in OPS2 magazine I was excited...so more than excited...i was in awe. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the finished version of the supposed "Halo beater" for PS2. After that 1 little article about the size of a credit card I made sure I scanned every PS2 mag after that for any more news. And sure enough more came, and it seemed that like me the team behind OPS2 were getting very excited as well.

But then....it came out. I bought it on the very first day, got home...put it in and whilst watching the intro movie I was happily grinning. The intro movie kicks ass!...well and truly. But then I started playing....and things turned sour. The graphics were good, possibly one of the best looking games on PS2, but as the game progresses you get fed up of the atmosphere of the whole "grey, bleak and dull" look of war. The supposed rag-doll physics (in which if someone is killed or thrown away by a blast their body will react to it realistically)were such a problem, you killed someone and they're stick half in the ground, get stuck in walls...awful. The guns rule though!, they look beefy, sound great and take a while to reload...which although sounds horrible at first is actually a good thing if you're going for realism. This however does not include the sniper rifle...where it's impossible to aim, once you remove your thumb from the analogue stick, the cross-hairs go straight back to the middle...leaving you helpless for sharpshooting. There are a nice few features...such as a little timer on the grenades so you know exactly when to throw them, the "bash" manoeuvres are stylish and fun. After playing this game, and finding all these flaws (very quickly) I found myself beginning to make excuses for the game because I was so looking forward to it. There was no promised co-op story mode as promised, and the offline multi player is slow and hard. Imagine toggling around feeling like a penguin with a cannon for five minutes trying to find someone, then being blown up instantly by someone you didn't even get a glance at.

Overall...the game has its moments, but is overall a disappointment. 5/10...Oh and I saw the intro movie for Killzone 2...looks amazing but I'm being cautious this time...hopefully Guerilla (development) will have learnt from their mistakes....hopefully.

After I finished Killzone I was really surprised by low rating the game got in most gaming literature. But lets start from beginning.

Story sets in future where human race is in war with Helghasts - human descendants who colonized the planet Helghan many generations ago.The player takes control of Captain Jan Templar, fighting off the Helghast invasion - OK, nothing special but decent story for one FPS told in good directed animations with shaky camera - nice.

Controls are very natural and easy to learn but what is special is game's physique. When you begin to play you'll notice (or maybe even complain) that your character is too slow, shooting not accurate and when you sprint there is gauge that allows you 10 sec sprint - exactly how it is supposed to happen when you carry 60 lbs of military gear and not a superman or heavily doped when shooting. Perhaps it takes s little time to get used to it but it's definitely worth it - very unique gaming experience.

Other fabulous element of Killzone is game play and key word is cover. Forget mindless assaults - only way to breakthrough is taking cover and destroying enemies one by one.

AI is also on high level. Enemy takes cover, alerts and avoids your grenades and attacks in groups. Your comrades are actually helping you, nice refreshing after few games where they were more obstacle than help. Also, as story develops you can choose between more characters you can take control of (balanced Templar, sniper "elegance" Luger,heavy armored Rico and spy Hakha) - although it does not have big influence it's nice refreshment.

Graphic is very good, among best on PS2, but even more important game engine doesn't twitch and textures do not burst in distance. Level design is excellent - leading you from open battlefields where it's important to save your head to urban confrontations where you can break your way with sniper riffles. Dark-gray color dominates through game and creates good atmosphere.

Also, huge plus is duration of the game - it will take you about 35 hours to finish it. These days when average FPS single player lasts about 10 hours this means a lot.

There are few things that could be better, of course (e.g. more types of enemies)but are not significant. I also red that many didn't like online mode but since I didn't played it I can't be judge of that.

Killzone is, by my opinion, the best FPS for PS2, even would dare to say that it's one of the best ever. It's shame that Guerrilla Games didn't get deserved credit for their work. Hopefully, that will be changed with Killzone 2, everyone who played beta knows what I'm talking about. In meantime, if you'd like to know how it all started you know what to do.

Killzone is definitely must-play title.

Killzone was a game that many people were sorta back and forth about i didn't really hear about it until i heard about the trailer to its sequel so I'm guessing it got more popular from that.Killzone was a solid game the graphics were great really great and characters were detailed.Story wise though it wasn't as good as it could've been the characters weren't really developed that much and the story wasn't really flushed out i hope they fix that with the second Killzone.Gameplay was particularly good the firefights were fun there was a wide amount of weapons and they were fun to play with a few of them had cool second fire functions the controls were easy to learn and use also.People spased because there was no jump button but that was a stupid thing to complain about.Multiplayer was alright and good fun to play with friends.Soundwise it was alright not amazing but the sounds helped immerse you into the game play like all other games.Its not the best shooter but the best the ps2 has so this game is better than average.

very good but i don't think it warrants an "as good as halo 2" comment. i mean i haven't played halo 2 but i have played the first one and i enjoyed that a lot more than killzone. I'm not by any way degrading killzone in the slightest .... .... .... i just think that maybe it could have done with a little more to the characters movement and capability with guns. I do agree that the enemies were quite dull in the fact that they only said a few lines but I'm sure Sean pertwee made up for that...and the way your woman teammate always and in such a VERY English/new Zealand accent says....."Hellghast!" about 5 seconds after u have killed the hellghast enemy. its not really much use is it to be honest, so i thought this game deserved an 8/10 rating. definitely worth buying if you find it cheap anywhere. . . . despite all the little technical hitches along the way. i saw a demo of killzone on the ps3 that they were showing at the E3 show and it looks amazing. although it turned out just to be some fmv of what the designers wanted the game to look like. but nonetheless. if it did look like it did on the video then I'm sure that we will be in for one hell of a good ride with killzone on the ps3. Happy Gaming Guys 'n' Gals