In the Line of Fire
Killzone 2 is (almost) here. Find out what we thought inside.
Published: February 3, 2009
The issue is that there's no in-between: either the controls are too slow to properly spin around and acquire a target, or they're way too twitchy to make fine adjustments, and it's aggravating to the point of almost spoiling things. If only the dead zone on the sticks had been tweaked or things were made more... analog (I can't think of a better way to describe it, but small adjustments just don't feel small, they feel like I'm tapping on the d-pad) or some acceleration was provided, it would have made the game damn near perfect for me. It's that much of a detractor.
Fortunately, just about everything else of what Killzone 2 presents as you attempt to bum rush the Helghans on their own planet and secure their despotic, Machiavellian leader, Scolar Visari, is done with aplomb. If ever there was a time I wished we had a massive video team to properly capture some of the scenes that are presented in a game, this is it. Words fail me as to how to describe just how the carnage of any one of the game's many, many shootouts actually feels when pumping through a 7.1 audio system. Screams on both sides are near-constant. The sound of bullets tearing first through body armor, then skin, then flesh, and the resultant yelps of pain, combined with the din and commotion of constant explosions, orders being barked and, of course, your own kills in the game are nothing short of riveting. I remember when I first got a 5.1 audio system, I would bust out Saving Private Ryan and let people listen to the opening beach storming scene.
Killzone 2 has replaced it (to say nothing of a handful of Blu-rays, but that's beside the point) and it is now my aural showpiece, and it exists throughout the entire game.
It's the stuff that you do while trotting through Helghan as Sev, usually with a partner in tow, that makes the game feel so alive, though. Gun down a Helghast grunt and listen to him wail until you either put the poor sap out of his misery or run out of earshot. Either way, it sticks with you, and when you finally come across the napalm-barfing might of the flame thrower, the screams of people literally cooking alive in their armor is... well, it's terrifying. You killed these people, and now you have to listen to them die right in front of you.
The Helghast are just as capable of delivering a pervasive sense of fear. Commenting almost constantly about all the delightfully gruesome ways they're going to stop your scummy ISA ass from ever invading their planet. They're delivered with what can only be described as the aural equivalent of a sneer, warped and twisted by the fact that it's all being uttered through a protective facemask that lets them survive the planet's brutally harsh air. The audio -- and this most certainly includes the bombastic score, which was recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus -- is absolutely superlative. Even the expletive-laced comments from your fellow teammates, Garza, Rico and Natko are pulled off in such a way that it all feels like a big, bombastic action flick, and though the cussing is excessive to a fault (it sounds like a bunch of 10 year-olds that suddenly learned that "shit" and "fuck" are no-no words), it really does fit the tone of the game.
And then there are the visuals. Whether playing though the story campaign (which I'm fighting hard to not spoil, though I'd love to talk about ______ and _____ or when you run through ______ but instead I'll just let you experience that stuff rather than learning about it second-hand) or online, the game is, quite simply, one of the most impressive displays of visual wizardry I've ever seen. I'm not going to comment on the CG trailer -- plenty of people will probably lead their reviews with that reference -- instead I'll simply mention that in most places, Guerrilla actually surpassed that entirely pre-rendered showcase. Stuff like smoke and some textures can't possibly compare, but everything else is flat-out stunning. The game runs beautifully despite all the chaos happening at all times, and I could probably fill another page just by gushing about all the effects. Hmmm, a whole other page...
