Killzone

Finally!  Finally the release of Killzone is soon upon us.  There has been so much made of Killzone even before it was ever shown to anyone within the press.  For gamers that have been tracking the history of the game know there hasn’t been a shortage of adjectives to describe how good Killzone will be.  GameZone has been fortunate enough to play an early copy of the game and provide you with some impressions of the game.  Does a preview copy of Killzone live up to the tremendous hype that has surrounded it?  Read on and find out.

The first attention grabber everyone should know is Killzone is not Halo.  It isn’t Unreal Tournament, Quake or Doom.  In fact the closest game I would compare Killzone to is the Medal of Honor series.  This isn’t to say that Killzone is a Medal of Honor clone but it will probably remind players of MoH.  The game is a squad based first person shooter that is still a single player game.  But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me take a few steps back.

The game is based in a futuristic setting where humans have colonized several planets.  The humans living on the different planets have established an alliance called the ISA.  However a separatist group called the Helghast was formed and have been plotting to scale war against the ISA.  The preview version of Killzone starts out with the initial Helghast invasion on the planet of Vecta.  You play an ISA soldier, Templar, who has to help stop the Helghast invasion and make sure the ISA defense forces hold. 

The first aspect of the game that grabbed my attention was the graphics.  The stage graphics are very impressive with a ton of detail.  You see bullet holes all over the place and I noticed the small details all over the different stages.  From burn marks, bullet holes, cracks in the ground and craters created by the bombs, the stages are littered with a ton of detail.  This isn’t a shiny or bright FPS either; this is a dark and gritty game that tries to put you into a war atmosphere.  The cinema display that starts off the game were also amazing with incredible looking character models, excellent sound and great voice acting. 

The game plays out similar to other FPS's but with more of a scripted feel ala Medal of Honor (as mentioned earlier).  As I started the game off as Templar, during the cinema display you meet another solider called Sanchez.  After the cinema display is over I was standing next to Sanchez while a Helghast unit is closing in upon our position.  This is where the game will show you how to control Templar.  A controller icon appeared in the upper right hand side of the screen.  But after a few seconds of messing with the controller the in game instructions weren’t necessary.  Some of the weapons you pick up have two modes of fire, a primary and secondary mode.  For example the primary mode might offer you a quick burst of bullets while the secondary mode will fire off a strong blast, similar to a shotgun.  You can also crouch in the game and throw grenades, with all of these functions being controlled by the L1, L2, R1 and R2 buttons. 

The game is a mission/objective based FPS that provides squad based support.  I mention squad based support because you don’t have control over any of the other members in your squad.  The best game to accurately describe how this works is this: watch out for number 1.  What I mean by this is that you never really have to worry about the other members of the squad that you’re fighting along side with.  If you take care of yourself and survive the next mission or objective will open up for you. 

Now for the scripted event style gameplay I’ve mentioned earlier, this is something that might disappoint some gamers.  This type of gameplay isn’t new and it’s been done before in FPS, but this isn’t a free form, do anything you want type of game.   During the first stage the game started off behind a small hill where Templar and the other ISA soldiers were standing.  The Helghast were seen moving in and I had to take them out.  Once the initial rush of Helghast were defeated, the next mission/objective was available, which was to help some other ISA soldiers make it back to their unit.  So I held ground taking out some more Helghast.  But our unit wasn’t strong enough and the next mission was to fallback to a bunker. 

Once inside the bunker the ISA unit (including me) was to hold off the next Helghast assault.  This is where I was using the crouch and zoom command to take out the Helghast.  Inside the bunker you’re offered some protection from enemy fire, as long as you stand behind cover.  So I held up inside a make shift window in the bunker and fired at the Helghast and then ducked to reload.  The other ISA soldiers were off in another section of the bunker shooting at the other Helghast. 

Once this event was over the next mission was available which showed off another feature of the game, hand to hand combat.  There was still a Helghast solider in the bunker and when I walked up to him a hand icon appeared on the screen.  When I pressed the “X” button, Templar then hit the Helghast soldier a couple of times with his gun and knocked him out.   After knocking out the Helghast soldier, I moved further down the bunker and found an artillery gun.  Sanchez shouted out to me to use the gun and the in game tutorial popped up again to let me know to press the “X” button to use the gun.  When I was in front of the gun the hand icon appeared again with a press of the “X” button I was mowing down Helghast left and right with the heavy gun. 

Once I took out the oncoming Helghast the next mission/objective was opened up and Sanchez told me to keep going and the rest of the ISA would hold their position.  So I progressed further into the bunker to find another ISA soldier that told me a Helghast solider was hiding inside one of the rooms inside the bunker.  So I tossed a grenade in and took him out.  As I moved on the rest of the ISA soldiers were soon following me.  As we moved on we found a couple more Helghast hiding in another room and this time when I threw a grenade in one of the Helghast came rushing out and opened fire upon us.  Once he was disposed of the next event that happened was an attempted ambush by a couple of Helghast soldiers.  As I came around a corner there were two Helghast sitting up on a ledge that opened fire on me as soon as I turned the corner.

Once I took out these two Helghast, I then discovered three more hiding out in another room.  With another quick grenade, I moved on to the next section.  I then ran into another group of Helghast on another ledge but this time some ISA soldiers were helping me dispose of them.  This was the end of the first stage and was enough to leave me very impressed with the game.  But this isn’t everything that was available in the preview.  The next area I had to use a sniper rifle to take out some Helghast snipers.  In another section of the game I was using a Rocket Launcher to take out some enemy tanks.  Just the first stage was enough to make me very satisfied with Killzone.

What I’ve included in this write up is only a small portion of the game that will be released later this year.  The game will include over 25 different weapons and up to 11 different stages as well.  The preview copy also contained a sample of what will be the online version of the game (but in an offline format) called Battlefields.  The Battlefield mode is the offline multiplayer mode available that will allow up to two players or wage war against each other.  There are six different modes available within the Battlefield mode: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Supply Drop, Assault and Defend and Destroy.  These modes will be covered in more depth with a preview of the online mode in another article. 

There are a couple of issues that I want to bring up, the speed of the game and the graphics.  As I mentioned earlier this isn’t Unreal, Quake or Doom and it wouldn’t be fair to compare Killzone to those games.  But the game is not a quick or fast FPS shooter.  It moves at a slower pace but after a couple minutes of the game this doesn’t become an issue.  But Killzone doesn’t play out in the breakneck speeds such as Unreal Tournament or Quake III.  The last issue would be the graphics.  Since this was a preview version there were a few instances were the graphics for the character models would appear to change dramatically.  I noticed this when an ISA solider was dead on the ground, the character model would seem to change from a smooth, detail character to a block character as I moved closer or farther away. 

To say Killzone is worth the wait and worth the hype is something that I would say is true.  There really isn’t another PS2 First Person Shooter that will compare with Killzone for the rest of the year.  Now is it the Holy Grail of shooters?  It’s too early to say since this is only a preview version.  PS2 owners shouldn’t be disappointed when Killzone is finally released later this year.  It’s an interesting year for shooters but that just means it’s a great year for gamers.