Sony's Killzone 2: Here come the Helghast

By Joe Dwyer     3/12/09 7:00pm

Sony's first killer app of 2009 is finally here, and while the gameplay takes some getting used to, fun and frantic multiplayer modes along with PlayStation 3's most beautiful graphics to date make Killzone 2 a solid entry in any gamer's library.Killzone 2 picks up where the PS2's Killzone and the PSP's Killzone: Liberation left off. Interplanetary Strategic Alliance forces are invading the planet Helghan in an attempt to capture Scolar Visari, leader of the Helghast forces, and put an end to the ongoing war. Obviously, things do not go as planned: Stuff explodes, people die all over the place and players find themselves trying to survive on the hostile surface of Helghan as Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, member of the elite Alpha Team.

True to the genre conventions of any sci-fi shooter, your squadmates are a bunch of overmuscled, shotgun-toting, foul-mouthed space marines who are wearing way too much gear. And while you will never get too attached to any of them, Killzone 2 does a great job of making you feel like a smaller component of a larger conflict. Players will never find themselves lone-wolfing it out on the battlefield, single-handedly beating back the Helghast hordes with just a machine gun and belt full of grenades.

Instead, players will work with their squad and other soldiers on the battlefield to advance a few yards at a time. Both allied and enemy AI is actually pretty good: Teammates will take cover intelligently and shoot at enemies, and the Helghast will do their best to flank your position or chuck grenades to smoke you out of hiding.

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And that's the other thing that makes Killzone 2 different from most other first-person shooter titles out right now: the cover system. By holding the shoulder button, Sev will hug the nearest wall or crate and then peek over or around it to fire at the enemy. Ninety-nine percent of the time this works like a charm, but the other nagging one percent of the time will have people breaking controllers as Sev stubbornly refuses to lean out and shoot at the approaching enemies. But when it works in the heat of battle, ducking and sliding in and out of cover and firing as you advance is probably the coolest thing that no other shooter can replicate.

On top of a solid 10-or-so hour campaign, Killzone 2 also features a robust online team-based multiplayer mode. All the standard modes of team deathmatch, assassination, capture the flag and sabotage are there, and the game does an outstanding job of tracking each player's stats and progress online. Now, stat whores can agonize over their current rank and kill/death ratio while they are not even playing. There is also support for clan creation and squad creation, so you and your buddies can join up and play together online.

I had just as much, if not more, fun playing online than I did the main campaign of the game, which reminded me a lot of Halo. Most people do not buy Halo for its gripping story; they buy it so they can smack-talk their homies while playing swords-only on Xbox LIVE. I think the case will be the same for Killzone 2.

Overall, Killzone 2 boasts the best visuals PS3 has ever produced. They are not quite as good as those shown in the now-infamous E3 2005 trailer, but they're still jaw-droppingly beautiful. The war-torn landscape of Helghan and its crumbling cities and factories almost leap off the screen, and the cinematic lighting and cutscenes give players a truly movie-like experience.

Unfortunately the story is a little on the weak and predictable side, and the controls are not as tight as Call of Duty or Far Cry 2. But once players spend a few hours with the game, the controls will eventually become second nature and they will be addicted to the online modes. Throw in over 50 trophies to collect and upcoming content in PlayStation Home and you have a winner.

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