In the Line of Fire
Killzone 2 is (almost) here. Find out what we thought inside.
Published: February 3, 2009
Most of it is in a combination of little things: it takes bullets a beat to actually go from your gun to the target (and you're rewarded with some seriously awesome bullet puncture sound effects a half-second later); bits of cloth on the wind-blasted surface of the planet billow and flip, struggling valiantly to hang on with the last stitches of fabric; the glow of every Helghast troop's eyes (at least until you use a bullet to pop it off and see their Vader-grey skin underneath); the motion-captured animations happening constantly; the way bullets find their target and then affect that target, causing them to flail around with the impacts; the almost coating-like layer of ever-moving dust that sweeps over the barren ground (though at certain angles, this is obviously another polygonal layer, and it looks a little cheap); plugging a shot into a tank of explosive gas tank and watching it spin around as the pressure builds until the inevitable explosion happens; the level of destruction that results from cooking a grenade and letting it fly near a wall covered in marble in the opulent palaces Visari has constructed for himself; the ramshackle nature of how the Helghast have settled the planet contrasted with the towering, almost antiseptic nature of Visari's own buildings.
Helghan is at once wild and foreboding, yet partially conquered and obviously quite settled. There's an obvious wedge driven between the leaders of the planet and the people that they're supposed to be leading. And everywhere there are little touches of propaganda and, amazingly, no one side seems entirely in the right in this war, which is actually rather rare. Yes, there are "good" and "bad" guys, but the intentions of both sides are both clear and understandable, even believable. You know why this war is going down, but just because you're the bright, shiny force trying to repel the dirty, grubby people that originally invaded your world, you're still (or were, at least) the same people. It's damned impressive that all this comes through -- and most of it just told with the visuals -- in the midst of bombs, both f- and explosive-based.
The story, as such, isn't really much to speak of. Yes, there is a narrative thread, and it's almost always rattled off as you transition from one big fight to another. Only the opening of the game offers any real sense of respite, and that's done merely to take you from passively observing the chaos happening down below to being in the thick of it. The characters, as a rule, are pretty much one-dimensional. Major characters will die, but because so little time is spent actually making them likeable, the deaths feel a little hollow and don't provide the kind of "aw heyall naw!" surge of adrenaline that they could. Oh, and Rico is a horrible, horrible character, and unfortunately isn't one of the ones that meets his end even though it's easily the most deserving of it. Seriously, there's zero reason why he should be leading anything, and his impulsive, dickish actions funnel the game down toward one conclusion -- one that will probably satisfy few and anger quite a lot more.
The star of the show here, though, is the action, and it's delivered pitch-perfect. The pacing of the game is such that there's almost never an appreciable lull; you simply go and go and go and shoot and kill and die and seek cover and revive your squadmates (though they can't do the same for you, which is a little lame -- kinda like the actual beam you shoot to shock them back to life) and push forward and fall back and let loose with explosions and man turrets and drive tanks and hop into cannons and stomp around in mechs... this is a game that grabs you by the balls, demands that you scream in the most guttural, rage-filled voice and empty every last bullet you have in your clip into the nearest thing with glowing eyes. And it's effective as hell at doing it.
You'll run across the odd bit of immersion-stripping goofiness, though. That original "review" build that we had was clearly unoptimized to the point where level transitions were seconds at a time. The "final" review build I played through eliminated most of these problems, but a few little niggling issues persisted. Whole bits of geometry would pop in, textures and all. At times the ragdoll physics would wig out a little. Limbs would clip through solid walls. None of these things kill the presentation, but they do subtly tap you on the shoulder and remind you that this is a game. Seeing things like funky shadows flicking away in what would otherwise be near-CG-quality cutscenes is distracting.
So if the game is a big, dumb action flight that at times actually makes you think a little, that's what the single-player campaign offers. Were it the only part of Killzone 2, I'll be completely honest: it wouldn't be all that amazing. Oh, it would be a technical showpiece to be sure, but little stuff like only having specific spots where you and a partner can pair up to climb something or seeing occasionally retarded AI stand around next to units that will flank you, flush you out, and provide covering fire or literally being able to run through the first few levels with just the knife on the default difficulty level prove this is a fairly by-the-numbers shooter. It's a pretty by-the-numbers shooter (and no, a couple little SIXAXIS gimmicks don't really do it for me -- not until planting that bomb is a little more responsive anyway), and absolutely, positively delivers on providing a sense of scale and immersion that few games can come close to matching, but it's still just a shooter.
And then you get online.
