You can virtually feel the weight of the weapon in your hands, and the future of mankind on your shoulders as you wade through Killzone. Just as the ISA have their hopes and dreams pinned upon you to help save them from the evil Helghast, Sony have their hopes and dreams pinned on Killzone taking the gaming world by storm-they may not have a Halo beater, but they certainly have produced the best FPS to appear yet on their machine, at least from what we've seen so far.
The game starts by landing you in the middle of trenches ripping open the red-eyed menace with your ISA standard assault rifle. Accurate and deadly you can almost feel the bullets tug at the armoured enemy storming towards you and your men. You hardly get a break from the first wave when more pour out of the fog, ducking and dodging from you and your men's rounds.
The first thing you will notice when you play Killzone is how realistic it all feels. Gone is the smooth feel of Halo, gone is the angular grass of Medal of Honor replaced by a grimy world torn apart by war. It feels like it could be set only years from now. The developers said they studied a lot of history to give the game the right feel and they managed it. The Helghast's outfits look similar to the SS uniforms of World War 2 and the overall feel of the game could be any urban battle from the past 100 years.
The Helghast were human . . . once. Now they are bent on taking over the ISA and all their worlds, including the homeworld Vecta. The orbital defence system fails to kick in when the Helghast begin their attack and now it's up to you to save your people and your world.
However, you start trapped by the enemy who landed all around you. You're in a Killzone, and the only way out is to leave a trail of bullet-riddled enemies. There are 12 levels which you have to fight your way through with each feeling different-especially the close confines of urban combat. You feel trapped within buildings knowing that you don't have a lot of room to move, or hide. Helghast come out of offices, from beneath stairwells and wait in ambush for you and your men.
To be honest I wasn't expecting much of this game. I heard the hype, saw the shots and figured it would be another non-event first-person shooter, but I'm glad to say that my expectations have been surpassed like you wouldn't believe. I was very pleased with the way the game looks and feels. The cut-scenes are very realistic and possibly the best I've seen on Sony's console and the attention to detail has earned developers Guerilla a lot of respect from myself.
The drawbacks of the game are the usual fogging which occurs on the machine. It's annoying watching the enemy run out of the fog only forty or fifty metres from your position, and using the sniper rifle doesn't seem worthwhile sometimes as it's range is limited to the machine itself. Sniper rifles are designed for long-distance kills, but that doesn't seem to be possible with the fog in the game.
The AI of the enemy is good, but limited. They weave, dodge and stay away from you while you are blowing the hell out of the wall next to them, but other times they just charge towards you firing their weapons at any and everything.
There are around 20 different weapons to carry, and more dotted around in emplacements which you can use to rip open the Helghast, or your own men should you feel the urge. Because the Helghast grew up in a very inhospitable world and are (relatively) super-human they do soak up enemy bullets well so be careful where you aim. Unless, that is, you get the shotgun, in which case I would say just run towards them and pump 12 gauge goodness into their stomachs.
Network play is fun and myself and three others had an enjoyable night of running around and killing one another. There are eight multi-player maps with the usual suspects of options such as deathmatch available to play.
From what I've seen, it's not the best multi-player but it is fun and you can't ask for more than that. So far, Killzone is shaping up to be the best first-person shooter I have played on the PS2. It may not be end up being the best FPS, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't in the top five. Oh, and I've found it to be a lot better than Doom 3-which although an enjoyable game got boring in one-player mode. If you only have a Playstation 2 then this and San Andreas (as long as you are old enough of course) should be the games on Santa's list this year.
