Game : Killzone 2

Game Info :
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by: Guerrilla Games
Release Date: February 2009
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Summary :

Two years after the Helghast assault on Vekta, the ISA is bringing the fight to the enemy’s home world of Helghan. Taking the role of Sev, the battle-hardened veteran of the special forces unit known as the Legion, players will embark upon a mission to the planet Helghan to capture the Helghast leader, Emperor Visari, and bring the enemy’s war machine to a halt. For Sev and his squad, the invasion of Helghan is just the beginning. Tasked with securing Pyrrhus, the Capital City, the team quickly discovers that the Helghast are a formidable enemy on their home planet. Not only have they adjusted to the planet’s hostile conditions, they have also harnessed a source of power from the environment that can be used against the ISA. Sev and his team soon discover the fight is greater than simply addressing the enemy forces; the Legion must also learn how to handle the effects of the fierce enemy planet.



Game Review :

Killzone 2: The Good, the Bad and the Pretty
There's nothing ugly about this game. IGN AU's take.
by Cam Shea, IGN AU

Australia, July 30, 2008 - Killzone 2 is surely one of the most anticipated titles on the horizon for PS3, but the question is – can the team deliver on the hype? We spent some time with the game a couple of days ago to see how it's shaping up. Rather than hit you with another straight-up preview, however, we've broken the experience down into a few points that we think are worth discussing, both good and bad. Take it away, points!

Shades of Grey

The visual tone of Killzone 2 is very muted. This isn't a game with lush tropical jungles or fairy kingdoms with rainbow highways (well, not that we know of) – it's a bad-ass war sim that takes place in gutted environments and through grim concrete bunkers. As a result, this is a game that can come across as a little on the grey side at first. While that may not be to everybody's taste, we love the realistic colour palette. Not only does it create an oppressive mood, it's allowed the development team to very effectively utilise the colour that is in the game.



When you see the red eyes of a Helghast soldier as he takes cover, or the red blaze from an incoming rocket, for instance, they really stand out. Colour in this world is very much symbolic, so if you see a tank with blue lights, you know that it's on your side. The muted approach to the visual design also allows for excellent use of contrast. That rocket we mentioned, for instance, may be blazing red at the tip, but it leaves a thick, jet black smoke trail that really stands out in the environment… all of which leads us nicely into our next point…

Art Direction

Killzone 2's visual design is definitely one of its strongest elements. The Helghast helmets, with their striking red goggles, are nothing short of iconic, as are the infantry transport vehicles. The environments have quite distinctive architecture; full of imposing concrete bunkers and industrial warehouses that reflect the military focus of the world, while the effects of war are also clearly visible in the destruction of the player's surroundings.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the game's tech is pretty special, but even so, the way it's been implemented in most areas is excellent. The explosions and smoke trails in this game, for instance, have real character, so when there's a pitched battle being fought and rockets are flying around and explosions are going off, the jet black trails of smoke crisscrossing the area and spikes of smoke blasted out from explosions just look cool, plain and simple.



Special mention also needs to go to the cutscenes, as they're pretty special. Delivered using the in-game engine, the transition from gameplay to cutscene is really smooth, and they're used sparingly enough (from what we've seen) to retain punch. The demo's opening cutscene, in particular, recalls the original announcement 'target footage', with a number of infantry transport craft bringing troops into battle under heavy AA fire. Explosions rock the air all around as the player's craft swoops in, taking out a nearby shuttle, and almost taking out yours, which ends up skidding off the water as it comes in to land. The camera switches to a first person bumpy cam as the soldiers hold on for dear life while it bounces across the ground. Moments like those make the conflict feel huge and dynamic. We like.


Destructible Environments… Sometimes

Killzone 2 can do some pretty nifty destructible terrain when it wants to. One section we played (and which you can see in the LiveWire Demo from E3) was essentially a Helghast shooting gallery. You hop behind a gun emplacement facing a building that's had the front wall sheared away to reveal the floors inside. Helghast run out on multiple storeys to try and take you down, but they're no match for the awesome power of your heavy weaponry. Not only do you mow the Helghast down, you mow the barricades they try to hide behind, you chunk out cement from the walls, and eventually you bring huge sections of the structure to the ground. It's awesome, but sadly not reflective of the wider game, where most structures are impenetrable.



Now for the gameplay... Do you remember what it felt like to first play Call of Duty, with bullets flying everywhere and feeling like safety or even pause was nowhere to be found? That's Killzone 2 in a nutshell. The bullets only stopped when a hallway was cleared and you haven't gotten to the next corner yet. And that didn't happen very often.

Taking place in the streets of the city, inside its alley-flanking buildings, on second- and third-story balconies and on a rooftop or two, there were always Helghast about and bullets were always in the air. One theme is clear - you'll never stay put. The demo-er rarely stopped moving, and when he did it was only to take out a single soldier. As soon as that one was dead, he was on the move again.



A cover system looks to be in place in some fashion, though it's a little unclear as to how "deep" it is. You're able to lean around the sides of cover or corners to take out enemies, and you can blind fire around and over it (with your soldier holding his weapon sideways as it kicks bullets into uncertain territory). It didn't kick you out to a third-person view ala Rainbow Six: Vegas however, so we're not sure how much you're intended to rely on it.

Speaking of not switching views, there were only two points in the demo where the view was not in first-person. One was at the very end of the level to show off a nice explosion, and another when the level's mini-boss appeared. When the player approached one of the alleyways, the camera pulled away and zoomed in on a massive, chaingun-wielding Helghast soldier, replete with nearly a tanks-worth of armor. He took down a number of AI soldiers before the Guerilla rep was able to stun him with some bullets to the face and then take him out by shooting some energy packs on his back. We expect the rest of the game to play out in a similar manner where most cutscenes leave you in a first-person view, while specific scenes or characters of importance are highlighted.



The big explosion at the end that we referred to has to do with the destruction of an electrical canon, the end-goal of the level. Throughout the mission, the sky lit up repeatedly with lightning that lit up the environment. We originally thought this was solely the work of mother nature and unrelated to the battle, but once we finally got a view of the city from a few stories up we saw that some of the electricity was coming from something man-made, or Helghast-made, to be precise.

The Helghast are capable of utilizing, and perhaps even controlling, the weather. This level has you seek out an electrical canon that first absorbs lightning, and then re-use the energy as an offensive weapon. We're not sure how much weather will play out in the rest of the game, but at the end of the demo Guerilla noted that weather will indeed play a part in actual gameplay, and that the Helghast will certainly make use of it.



Aside from the very nice use of lighting and polygons, Killzone 2 has a few more tricks up its proverbial sleeve. The animation system looks to be blend of pre-canned and ragdoll animation. Helghast would fly back up against a wall, roll down stairs and the like, but we also witnessed one dying soldier crawl on his hands and knees for a bit while breathing his last breath, and another seemingly attempt to catch himself with his arms as the rest of his body went limp. The animation system was mind-blowing in any way, but it also fit nicely into the world.

Physics on objects look to be what you'd expect these days. Chairs and boxes kicked, moved and would spin as you would expect, but they don't dent or deform or anything of that nature. There are destructible segments of the environment, though they look predefined and not dynamic. Planks of wood, a number of which were nicely placed for effects-value, would break and splinter when shot, but they look set up to do so. Pillars and other solid but breakable objects were similar. You can chip away at them, but don't expect to write your name in the rubble.



Though the demo was so action-packed that it was hard to pick up on a number of details, we did notice a few more subtleties. For one, the health system works like what you'll find in a number of shooters these days - that is, there is no finite health meter, but rather if you take enough fire over a short period of time you'll perish, while taking cover and waiting it out for a bit will bring you back up to speed. Also, at one point during the demo we noticed that you're able to sprint. It's unclear how far or often you can, though your weapon is lowered and moved to your side, so we're assuming that the inability to fire is your reason for not sprinting constantly.

The demo we lasted was the extent of an entire level and lasted over 15 minutes in length by our count, but remember that it was played by a Guerilla rep and that it'll take a newcomer a good bit longer to get through. Though there were a few pauses for loading at certain spots, Guerilla says that it'll have its streaming tech implemented by ship time and that you won't see any loads mid-level. When you see just how much stuff is here, you'll understand why this may not be an easy task.

If you would like a number to go with that, try 2GB. That's how big the single level was on disc, to which the Guerilla rep noted that the game's level of detail would not have been possible without Blu-ray.

As for multiplayer, the only details that we saw were part of a short PowerPoint presentation at the end, but Guerilla promises an "extensive multiplayer component", one that will make use of Home in some fashion. Sounds good to us.

Want to see the game for yourself? Head to the PlayStation Network at 3pm PST on Wednesday and you'll find a brand-spanking-new trailer waiting there for you. But for now, check out a Killzone Q&A right here.

Taken From : http://www.ign.com/

NEW Killzone 2 PS3 Gameplay