Busta Rhymes always headlines the Killzone news, WOO-HAH!!
There are crumbs on my chest. Specifically, from Bugles and hard sourdough pretzels. The desk next to me is filled with empty soda cans, and a few which used to be energy drinks. Outside a window in the room, sun is coming up. I have put my life on hold for the last three days. And as I empty the brains from another bleary, red-eyed foe's now helmetless head, it becomes clear to me that Killzone 2 has had a profound effect on the way I respond to a well-made game entering my life. This is no longer a war of politics, system sales, or even the best-looking game on the board. It's about a jaded culture, and from the perspective of one of it's long and recently unimpressed members, the feeling of Christmas morning all over again is being had. I can only thank God that spring break is just around the corner and that I won't pay dearly for my time spent serving the ISA. It's easy to forget childhood memories, where a game not only sucks you in but gives back an experience you know you'll cherish on reflection. This is the feeling I think I remember calling '"satisfaction."
I can't go too far into what, or how things take place in Killzone 2's story. I usually don't anyways, when writing up a game. At least, not within the past year or so. All I can say is that this was my premiere entry into the series' tale, and while I had initially no interest at all in the plot of the game, I couldn't help but find myself becoming invested in Sev's perspective of the Helghan assault. The only thing tearing me back into my warm seat in front of the TV was what felt like an honest-yet-unsuccessful attempt at lip-synching. On any other day, had this been spot-on, the story would have had me refilling my bowl of popcorn just about every hour. It's not the best, and especially not on this generation's A-list, but in its execution it keeps you in your seat, interested in how exactly things will play out. Friends will die. Enemies will win. And war is still unrelenting.
Unfortunately, the storytelling suffers from a new trend. The trend of a fad is nothing new, but this particular characterization of ragtag soldiers on a mission, where supplementary dialog tends to side closer to that of a football team making gay jokes at each other, has been rearing its ugly head in more than just Gears of War 2. Soldiers aren't meatheads, and I'm waiting for developers to grow their characters up so that they don't come off as such. If any critique I have is met with objection, I'm sure that will be it. Let's move on.
Console shooters to me have always been a mainstay. I've like to have a good one on at least each console I own. Exclusives make it all the better. It's all about the optimization, man. The problem is getting them just right. Try too hard and you overshoot, souring up the gameplay or creating a challenge that borders on frustration due to controls that aren't accessible enough, or go too easy on yourself and lose out to lazy handling or a game that walks you through itself. Not only did Killzone 2 get it right, but it did something that made a huge difference in gameplay. I found my new frontier in a few simple changes in the game's options screen.
This began after playing Killzone 2 for a few hours on normal, when I began to feel that it was pretty average-- not more of the same, per say, but not living up to its hype either. Pretty, yes. Gunplay, good. Enemy AI, competent. Feeling bored at this point, I thought I'd have fun with it and started a new campaign on hard-- as well as having turned off all HUD elements, down to the reticule. Here is where things got interesting for me, and i know results will vary. After pushing the game to shove me back and eliminating all traditional means of assistance, I began to play an FPS differently. I know this isn't the first case of a game where it's possible to disable HUD components, but Killzone 2 handles the transition beautifully. The gameplay excelled in its challenge, and still managed to guide players through just in the presentation alone. It's almost as if Guerrilla had designed the campaign with this in mind. It's not until you turn these off that you realize how many titles within the whole history of videogames have actually been holding your hand at points where you didn't suspect it at first. It immerses you, asking you to pay attention to your teammates, and how you allocate your ammo. Everything in-game is suddenly of utmost importance because it's all you have-- there are no stats to check up on at any given second. Your eyes open up to the world you're supposed to have stepped into, and everything begins to mean something more than just a target to point and shoot at.
It's easy to call the gameplay a masterpiece, so I won't. I've always liked things to be harder than they should, which is why I didn't mind sacrificing a speedy turnaround on Killzone 2 in return for a campaign to be as hard as I could make it on an initial play through. Every weapon has weight to it. Like any game, it takes a few minutes to get the hang of, but afterwards it's just like riding a bike. Like one that's really, really big and sometimes you have a magnum in your right hand to shoot at the neighbor's dog while drinking cognac from a Gatorade-branded water bottle. I was even a little impressed that Guerrilla managed to tackle a not only compliant cover system, but one that works just as well for the computer-controlled enemies as it does for you. You'll definitely find firefights on harder difficulties which not only change the pace of a traditional FPS battlefield, but have you juggling tactics more often than you anticipated. Unfortunately, it's only in harder modes where you'll be so pressed to utilize every action available to your virtual alter-ego, so don't feel so disappointed if these maneuvers don't seem to come in handy on easier difficulties-they won't.
The first-person view even has a sense of inertia that many FPS titles somehow fail to include, and all of this is trucked along in compliment by the game's gloomy and dark appearance. It's not gritty so much as it is heavy. So much that when you finally eject the disc, it feels heavier than other BD-ROM's. Actually that's just an exaggeration. Still, the force behind almost every action and reaction pulls together the Helghan world which you'll gladly rip apart for the nearly dozen hours the main game manages to last.
Eventually, the tone of this conversation will gravitate towards the game's look, and it has one. The art direction is nothing short of halting in its appearance. Where initially it may seem like a mono-toned grayscale representation of something two blocks from Call of Duty 4, you need only wait a second or two for the red gleam of your enemy's eyes across the battlefield. Heck, you'll find a few moments where there's just a sea of haunting red dots bearing closer and closer, clouded with bombastic gunfire and explosions in their midst. The one bragging factor this game has above others is in its stylization of light refraction, with rainbow-tailed lens flare and explosions dazzling traditional highlights, the dim backdrop suddenly has a purpose: to show off a hazy beauty in automated violence. I won't get into the volumetric smoke, or the procedural response it gives based on the game's wind-or how the same goes for cloth, or the fact that the blood even has body to it, and that the freakin' water takes your breath away when you catch it from the corner of your eye. That's all momentary compared to the constant artifact-inspired streaking of color that spills in and out of each light source. Even more so than the flame thrower's heat wave, or the fact that the guns do indeed look good for the whole game. So good.
As I spill my guts on the floor over how good the single player component of Killzone 2 is, it's easy to forget that there's a multiplayer aspect. Not only multiplayer, mind you, but one with just as much thought put into it as the main game's thoroughness displays. Players can enter the Warzone, where goal-based objectives define the skirmishes you'll involve yourself with, and change throughout the session as well-rather than hop back into a lobby in order to switch up rules. Unfortunately for anyone with an addictive personality, the class system is ranked and opens up new fighting ground as you level up, and includes clan and tournament style incentives to keep you around, as well. Supports up to 32 players, NoDoze pills not included.
On top of this is the inclusion of bots to fill in the gap, which is helpful for just about anyone's first foray into the wild west of Killzone 2's multiplayer aspect These, in the game's other Skirmish mode, tend to be a good substitution for not having as many players in a game as someone would like. Oh, and welcome to playing your own music in matches as well. There's nothing else like moving a propaganda speaker around a map while blasting fools with your magnum to the sounds of Busta Rhymes' "WOO HA!! Got You All In Check"
My only real complaints with Killzone 2 are that although the game plays well, looks great, and offers a fantastic challenge [aside from one very unfair final boss], is that the level design tends to feel a little restrained. There are a few changes of pace, but for the most part each level played in the traditional FPS style tends to feel like it's the same blocks to hide behind but with a different shade of paint on it. This is only saved by the fact that the level design in Killzone 2 is fairly well put together in the first place, but as far as I was concerned, it could have benefitted from a little variation. Just a little, guys.
Other than some minor gripes with the characterization of squad mates and the somewhat repetitive nature of the level design, Killzone 2 wipes most shooters off the map. I'm not brave enough to go out on a limb and call it the best of the generation, and definitely not the best of the gaming world, but it swiftly met it's highly held expectations which most of its audience were firmly standing for. Even in the audio field, which usually gets the short end of the stick in games, of all media. The soundtrack in this game is complimentary as well, carrying along the atmosphere and bringing it up to a higher level due to its tailored nature. And once more, please do play it in 5.1 to appreciate what the audio crew has done to the warzone.
It's time for bed soon. Or time for more Killzone 2. I've been confusing the two an awful lot, lately. Don't blame me; I'd rather point a finger at the guilty party responsible for developing such a refreshing game in an ironically bleak and unclear world of big-budget games. At least this time it didn't turn out to be just like the rest; Killzone 2 got a lucky break and a part of me would like to think that all the help Sony ended up lending to Guerrilla in its development and distribution had a lot to do with not only saving the project, but bringing it to a state where it wouldn't be a mistake to think that it really is deserving of the mention that this is a game that will move consoles.
