as far as sci-fi shooters go, killzone is a pretty odd one. it has all the elements of sci-fi; it is set in the far future, in the age of colonized space, and doesnt even take place on earth, but somehow it just teems with elements that seem more valid in a WW1 or WW2 shooter - and strangely, it just works so well: trenches and broken cityscapes, reminiscent of those seen in wartorn europe during the fateful days of the two world wars, form the backdrop of this game. and littered across this well-known palette are enemy spaceships, floating hover-tanks and futuristic apparel. later environments will also remind you of more recent conflicts such as vietnam or bosnia. one of killzones greatest strengths is its ability to offer a visually diverse environment while still maintaining a solid coherency and sense of atmosphere. this is partly achieved through some excellent design work, and partly through the great sense of reality, that sound and graphics create: you can FEEL the bullets tearing through enemies, FEEL the rifle wiggle in your hands as you hold the trigger down - and you can feel the stagnant water of the swamp youre fighting in slowly starting to fill your boots. in short - youre there.
the story is not as non-existant as in most other shooters, but ultimately it takes a backseat to the action. it is a tale of a militaristic colony of fanatics (think nazis in space) turning their weapons against their fellow man - in this case the population of the peaceful tourist-resort-planet vekta. these fanatic soldiers (known as the helghast) were apparently exiled from earth, and now - theyre pretty pissed. if this sounds strangely appealing, thats because it is, the helghast are really cool with their orange goggles and gas masks and field gear. i must say, that i have great respect for the designers of this title. but if you are more into stuff like halo or timesplitters you probably wont like it - visually, its stylish, but not colourful.
gameplay-wise, its a pretty standard affair: you get a selection of weapons, you start at one end of a level and then work your way to the other, wading through scripted encounters with hordes of enemies as you go along. theres nothing original about this - but its solid. its those intense little firefights - between you and the guy on the other side of the wall - that keep the gameplay running. killzone is a linear game, it has scripted events and almost no interactivity (ive only found ONE door in the entire game, that could be opened by walking up to it). sometimes it feels like youre in one of those rides with stickers that say: "keep your arms inside the car at all times", and sometimes it feels like being in a shooting gallery, where the targets present themselves in the middle of your crosshairs and you just have to pull the trigger. it can make you feel terribly restricted, and youll keep thinking "why cant i do that?". in other words, killzone doesnt do much. but what it DOES do, it does BRILLIANTLY.
it rewards you for playing wisely (ducking into cover, reloading, then squeezing off a few, precise bullets), and somehow it makes you want to keep going - i guess you just get addicted to the adrenaline of it all. the AI isnt impressive, but its not bad either, and on the hard setting, youll get the tough fight youre looking for (although i wouldve liked a "very hard" setting for the multiplayer bots).
the main single player game mode contains eleven visually distinct and very different levels, and at the start of each youll be able to choose between four different characters, who become available along the way: a sniper (who can make stealth kills and pick the enemies off from afar), a heavy support trooper (who can attack head-on into the action), an enemy agent (who can infiltrate enemy positions) and a more standard rifleman (who also acts as a kind of protagonist) for when you just want to keep it simple. as an extra gimmick, these characters each have slightly different paths through the levels, and though this gives some added replay value, its actually pretty straightforward, and you wont get those "wow i found a hidden way through!"-moments.
the single player campaign should keep you busy for about twelve hours, and then youll probably want to play it on the hard setting to check out the much better AI and try choosing some other characters for the same levels. there is also a multiplayer-mode available, and this is also pretty standard. it offers six classic game modes on eight different maps, which are all well designed in their own right. theres network play for up to sixteen players, and there are bots to practice against.
of course, like many other games, killzone has some issues which we'll have to inspect. most of these are minor bugs, and could probably be ignored - but there are just so many of them! a lot of them are graphical glitches (textures and polygons popping up too close to the player, flickering, nullspace-lines in dark areas, framerate problems) and can be attributed to the limitations of the hardware. this is the reason why killzone looks spectacular in screenshots - its less impressive when moving, and this may disappoint some, although id have to say its still one of the best looking ps2 games ever. the sacrifices made to have hi-res textures and beautifully modelled characters in the game are just a little too big. in addition to these there are also quite a few programming errors, and these are harder to forgive: weapons reloading forever or refusing to fire, clipping errors, flawed ragdoll, sound effects disappearing - all of these are not uncommon. and the list goes on.
fortunately, the other aspects of the game are generally so endearing, that youll probably still like it, and it has the kind of addictive gameplay, that will make you come back again and again. although killzone could have benefitted from a few more weeks in the bug elimination department, the design, atmosphere and, ultimately, solid gameplay, makes it a good choice on the videogame store shelf.
gameplay : 08/10
graphics : 07/10
realism : 07/10
sound : 08/10
story : 07/10
Create an Account
Member Login
