Killzone 2

The story mode is fairly generic, but it is engaging enough to keep you from skipping straight to the multiplayer portion of the game. There are some boss fights, but it won’t remind you of the epic battles you had in Shadows of Colossus or God of War. The campaign will take you around 6-10 hours to complete depending on your personal pace. Beating the game on the hard difficulty will also on unlock the very challenging elite difficulty, which has already claimed the spirits of even the most seasoned gamers. The singleplayer mode of the game has a cover system that you can use to avoid damage, similar to the Gears of War series, but this feature cannot be found in the multiplayer.

The style of this game’s multiplayer can be described as a mix between the ultra popular Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2 (available on Orange Box). There are seven classes in Killzone 2. You can play whatever class suits your style such as a medic, engineer, sniper, and you can even combine the skills of two classes for further customization. There is also a ranking system that allows you to unlock different guns and perks to keep you coming back for more. Killzone 2 has its own version of all your classic multiplayer game modes, such as team deathmatch, capture the flag, assassination and more. You can play all these modes during the same match, as the modes alternate after certain objectives are met or you can join servers with the more traditional approach where the match runs the same mode throughout. Call of Duty 4 put first person shooters on the console map, and set the standard for all other shooters after it.

The aiming in Killzone 2 is sluggish compared to other shooters, but it is not a deal breaker. Guerilla Games has even released a patch to smooth out the aiming, however it will still take some adaptation on your part. Strafe aiming works well in this game. The default controller scheme is different than the Call of Duty 4 layout, but the alternative layout is almost identical. It is a lot more effective to fire from the hip and not the sights in close to medium range in Killzone 2 than in Call of Duty 4.

The graphics of Killzone 2 are some of the best this console generation has to offer. The character models and settings are very detailed. Killzone 2 manages to capture the feeling of battle, because there are so many things happening on your screen at once. The audio is equally engaging and the gunshots flying by, explosions at your feet, and squad mates yelling at you really draws you into the experience. I even get disoriented sometimes because there is so much going on; that’s how intense the game can be at times. The graphics of the multiplayer mode are not any competent than the singleplayer mode, unlike in games such as Resistance 2 where there is a noticeable drop in graphical quality. Killzone 2 is a unique experience and deserves to be played if you are interested in the first person shooter genre.

Killzone 2 scores a 85/100 in my book.

Guest Blogger: Oliver K.