Killzone 2 is a technical marvel. A massive step up from its predecessor. Releasing 5 years after the original game in 2009, it still looks great to this day. Yes, it has aged but for a PS3 title it achieved a level of visual quality no other game from the generation I have come across can match.
Starting with a lengthy opening cutscene, you begin to wonder the age-old question. "What does the game actually look like?" Something that during the seventh generation of games consoles was a common question. For a lot of games, there was a disconnect between the visual fidelity of their cutscenes and their true in-engine, gameplay graphics. But for Killzone 2, there is almost none. Cutscenes, do have slightly higher quality character models but the difference is negligible at best. Again, the game is a technically beautiful feat of game development of its era. Lighting objects cast realistic shadows well before ray tracing was possible for games. Even the muzzle of your guns is a lighting object when fired which casts its own shadows. The torch on the shotgun also casts shadows as it interacts with environmental objects. The way the devs approached the lighting in this game, which you can find out more about how they achieved this via Digital Foundry's retrospective on YouTube, gives it a great sense of visual depth.
While not the first game to introduce it, the game features destructible environments. Not quite to the level of the Battlefield games, being able to strip away elements of cover the enemy is using or strip off layers of concrete on buildings allowing you to see the enemies’ limbs, allows for a more tactical approach to combat that the first instalment couldn't hope to achieve.
Gunplay has been vastly improved upon with a COD like level of tightness in the aiming system. Most weapons in the game aren't completely useless now and there's more variety in the weapons you can use. However, gone are the 3 weapon slots of the original and now you only really have a single weapon slot. You do carry a primary and secondary weapon but it's only the primary weapon that can be swapped out, with the secondary being a locked slot filled with your revolver handgun which has infinite ammo.
So, does all of this make Killzone 2 an enjoyable gameplay experience? Yes and no.
While the introduction of a more standard shooter gameplay experience is welcome, with the introduction of aiming down sight (ADS) on basically all guns except the shotgun (which has a flashlight instead) and the LMG (which has a zoom much like the first game), the controls don't make for an easy time using it.
I don't mind that the game controls a little heavier than most other FPS games like COD and Battlefield as it lets the game stand apart from them. However, the control scheme is extremely awkward. The first game allowed for total customisation of the control layout but here, there are around 6 layouts to choose from. This may sound like a great degree of choice, that surely has at least one really good option. And the answer to that is unfortunately, no.
With the introduction of the cover system, a core mechanic of the game that is needed to survive the campaign, crouching has become a necessity. But there is no option to change crouching from a hold interaction to a toggle interaction. Meaning that no matter the control layout, you must hold down the crouch button in order to stay in cover. On most layouts, this is L1 or L2, that sounds fine right? ADS should be the L button that crouch isn't assigned to, right? No, bafflingly, ADS is assigned to R3 and is toggled (which unlike crouch you can change to a hold interaction.) If this were an early console shooter, an awkward control set up could be forgiven but they were well established at this point in time and the control scheme as well. This makes for a frustrating experience trying to utilise the game's cover system. Holding L2 to maintain cover, pressing R3 to aim down sight and then firing with R2 but as a semi-cover based shooter, you have to duck behind cover every so often to allow your health to regenerate. However, thanks to muscle memory of years of playing FPS games, rather than pressing R3 to stop aiming down sight, I consistently accidentally release my hold of L2 which means I end up standing up and taking more damage. Eventually, I used my adapter’s ability to remap any controller buttons to swap L2 and R3 but that didn't really solve the fact I still had to hold down R3 to maintain cover. No matter what button crouching is mapped to, I think the need to constantly hold it down makes for an extremely awkward experience. But eventually, once in to the swing of the game I accepted this was just how the game was.
The AI of the Helghast is very impressive, realistically reacting to your gunfire. Whether that's scrambling for cover or staggering around a bit after being shot. And while I appreciate the tacticalness that it brings to the moment to moment gameplay, the time to kill (TTK) on the Helghast does feel a bit long. At times, the Helghast feel like bullet sponges with expending more than half my mag to kill just one enemy. Sometimes, I think I've killed an enemy, only to have them get back up off the ground and continue shooting at me.
Once again, this brings a level of tactical thought that makes Killzone 2 stand apart from most other shooters but it can make some sections of the game far more frustrating than they have any need to be.
Finally, to wrap up the gameplay, let's talk about how the game performs. This was a major issue for the first game, so obviously it was a concern jumping into the sequel and when you see how graphically impressive it is, it becomes a worry that it might follow in the footsteps of it's older sibling. However, for the most part, Killzone 2 runs well. Being a seventh gen title, it only targets 30fps and while it does dip fairly often, it's not a large enough drop to effect gameplay. This really only happens during the more intense combat sections of the game as well. This next part, I'm not sure if there are varying factors to it such as, which version of the PS3 you have, whether you have the physical or digital version of the game. But when navigating each level and I entered a section that the game needed to load it, my game would freeze for a solid 5-10 seconds. Now, this would never occur during combat so it doesn't really have any impact on my enjoyment of the game. However, it was something that would interrupt the flow of the game just a little.
Now, what about the story? Well... it's... mostly forgettable.
Gone are the hilarious character dynamics of the first game and also, gone is half the cast of the first game. Rico is here and part of your squad, but his characterisation feels extremely off. For some reason, he's now a total loose cannon and while he was hot headed in the first game, his whole character arc revolved around him coming to trust Hahka. Which the Rico of this game would never get to do as I can't see him listening to Templar telling him to not kill him. Oh yeah, Templar's also here but it's pretty brief and I didn't even realise it was him until near the end of the game. Actually, given that the game does most of its story telling via the cutscenes, so we barely have any interaction with the other 3 members of our squad, I struggled to keep track of who was who and due to the previously mentioned characterisation of Rico, I also didn't realise he was from the first game until the second half of the campaign.
To sum it up, the game takes place 6 months after the first game. With Helghan weakened, the ISA grasp the opportunity to invade and wipe the Helghast threat out completely. They meet far more resistance than they expect and your split up from your squad with the first half of the story mainly being about regrouping and storming the main Helghast training building to take out an enemy commander. Then out of nowhere, the Helghast are looking for codes to some nukes they stole from the ISA. Which happened in the PSP game, Killzone Liberation. So, I was really confused when this plot thread just showed up in the third to last mission.
Finally, there's also music now. The first game completely lacked any music during the main gameplay sections but here, the game is fully kitted out with music. The score sounds like a mash of Star Wars, Halo and Sam Raimi's Spider Man scores but it gives the game a much greater impact during the moment-to-moment events and gameplay.
In summary, Killzone 2 is an impressive game for its time and holds up well today visually and sonically. However, awkward controls and leaning too much towards a sense of realism, the game can be frustrating to play. Which for a lacklustre story that has forgettable characters and lack of really great set pieces, may not entirely be worth the effort. It lands the game in the realm of being just okay. Being more concerned with technical achievement has held it back from being as tight an experience it could be and as enjoyable as it could be. To quote the show Chernobyl. "Not great, not terrible."
Starting with a lengthy opening cutscene, you begin to wonder the age-old question. "What does the game actually look like?" Something that during the seventh generation of games consoles was a common question. For a lot of games, there was a disconnect between the visual fidelity of their cutscenes and their true in-engine, gameplay graphics. But for Killzone 2, there is almost none. Cutscenes, do have slightly higher quality character models but the difference is negligible at best. Again, the game is a technically beautiful feat of game development of its era. Lighting objects cast realistic shadows well before ray tracing was possible for games. Even the muzzle of your guns is a lighting object when fired which casts its own shadows. The torch on the shotgun also casts shadows as it interacts with environmental objects. The way the devs approached the lighting in this game, which you can find out more about how they achieved this via Digital Foundry's retrospective on YouTube, gives it a great sense of visual depth.
While not the first game to introduce it, the game features destructible environments. Not quite to the level of the Battlefield games, being able to strip away elements of cover the enemy is using or strip off layers of concrete on buildings allowing you to see the enemies’ limbs, allows for a more tactical approach to combat that the first instalment couldn't hope to achieve.
Gunplay has been vastly improved upon with a COD like level of tightness in the aiming system. Most weapons in the game aren't completely useless now and there's more variety in the weapons you can use. However, gone are the 3 weapon slots of the original and now you only really have a single weapon slot. You do carry a primary and secondary weapon but it's only the primary weapon that can be swapped out, with the secondary being a locked slot filled with your revolver handgun which has infinite ammo.
So, does all of this make Killzone 2 an enjoyable gameplay experience? Yes and no.
While the introduction of a more standard shooter gameplay experience is welcome, with the introduction of aiming down sight (ADS) on basically all guns except the shotgun (which has a flashlight instead) and the LMG (which has a zoom much like the first game), the controls don't make for an easy time using it.
I don't mind that the game controls a little heavier than most other FPS games like COD and Battlefield as it lets the game stand apart from them. However, the control scheme is extremely awkward. The first game allowed for total customisation of the control layout but here, there are around 6 layouts to choose from. This may sound like a great degree of choice, that surely has at least one really good option. And the answer to that is unfortunately, no.
With the introduction of the cover system, a core mechanic of the game that is needed to survive the campaign, crouching has become a necessity. But there is no option to change crouching from a hold interaction to a toggle interaction. Meaning that no matter the control layout, you must hold down the crouch button in order to stay in cover. On most layouts, this is L1 or L2, that sounds fine right? ADS should be the L button that crouch isn't assigned to, right? No, bafflingly, ADS is assigned to R3 and is toggled (which unlike crouch you can change to a hold interaction.) If this were an early console shooter, an awkward control set up could be forgiven but they were well established at this point in time and the control scheme as well. This makes for a frustrating experience trying to utilise the game's cover system. Holding L2 to maintain cover, pressing R3 to aim down sight and then firing with R2 but as a semi-cover based shooter, you have to duck behind cover every so often to allow your health to regenerate. However, thanks to muscle memory of years of playing FPS games, rather than pressing R3 to stop aiming down sight, I consistently accidentally release my hold of L2 which means I end up standing up and taking more damage. Eventually, I used my adapter’s ability to remap any controller buttons to swap L2 and R3 but that didn't really solve the fact I still had to hold down R3 to maintain cover. No matter what button crouching is mapped to, I think the need to constantly hold it down makes for an extremely awkward experience. But eventually, once in to the swing of the game I accepted this was just how the game was.
The AI of the Helghast is very impressive, realistically reacting to your gunfire. Whether that's scrambling for cover or staggering around a bit after being shot. And while I appreciate the tacticalness that it brings to the moment to moment gameplay, the time to kill (TTK) on the Helghast does feel a bit long. At times, the Helghast feel like bullet sponges with expending more than half my mag to kill just one enemy. Sometimes, I think I've killed an enemy, only to have them get back up off the ground and continue shooting at me.
Once again, this brings a level of tactical thought that makes Killzone 2 stand apart from most other shooters but it can make some sections of the game far more frustrating than they have any need to be.
Finally, to wrap up the gameplay, let's talk about how the game performs. This was a major issue for the first game, so obviously it was a concern jumping into the sequel and when you see how graphically impressive it is, it becomes a worry that it might follow in the footsteps of it's older sibling. However, for the most part, Killzone 2 runs well. Being a seventh gen title, it only targets 30fps and while it does dip fairly often, it's not a large enough drop to effect gameplay. This really only happens during the more intense combat sections of the game as well. This next part, I'm not sure if there are varying factors to it such as, which version of the PS3 you have, whether you have the physical or digital version of the game. But when navigating each level and I entered a section that the game needed to load it, my game would freeze for a solid 5-10 seconds. Now, this would never occur during combat so it doesn't really have any impact on my enjoyment of the game. However, it was something that would interrupt the flow of the game just a little.
Now, what about the story? Well... it's... mostly forgettable.
Gone are the hilarious character dynamics of the first game and also, gone is half the cast of the first game. Rico is here and part of your squad, but his characterisation feels extremely off. For some reason, he's now a total loose cannon and while he was hot headed in the first game, his whole character arc revolved around him coming to trust Hahka. Which the Rico of this game would never get to do as I can't see him listening to Templar telling him to not kill him. Oh yeah, Templar's also here but it's pretty brief and I didn't even realise it was him until near the end of the game. Actually, given that the game does most of its story telling via the cutscenes, so we barely have any interaction with the other 3 members of our squad, I struggled to keep track of who was who and due to the previously mentioned characterisation of Rico, I also didn't realise he was from the first game until the second half of the campaign.
To sum it up, the game takes place 6 months after the first game. With Helghan weakened, the ISA grasp the opportunity to invade and wipe the Helghast threat out completely. They meet far more resistance than they expect and your split up from your squad with the first half of the story mainly being about regrouping and storming the main Helghast training building to take out an enemy commander. Then out of nowhere, the Helghast are looking for codes to some nukes they stole from the ISA. Which happened in the PSP game, Killzone Liberation. So, I was really confused when this plot thread just showed up in the third to last mission.
Finally, there's also music now. The first game completely lacked any music during the main gameplay sections but here, the game is fully kitted out with music. The score sounds like a mash of Star Wars, Halo and Sam Raimi's Spider Man scores but it gives the game a much greater impact during the moment-to-moment events and gameplay.
In summary, Killzone 2 is an impressive game for its time and holds up well today visually and sonically. However, awkward controls and leaning too much towards a sense of realism, the game can be frustrating to play. Which for a lacklustre story that has forgettable characters and lack of really great set pieces, may not entirely be worth the effort. It lands the game in the realm of being just okay. Being more concerned with technical achievement has held it back from being as tight an experience it could be and as enjoyable as it could be. To quote the show Chernobyl. "Not great, not terrible."