1) You don’t own a Playstation 2,
2) You live in cave, which is a mile away from civilisation.
Killzone is a squad-based first-person shooter from developers Guerrilla, and if you’ve been following any of the escalating hype from this Playstation 2 exclusive title then you would know it has been deemed the “Halo Killer”.
Killzone's storyline is set in the future. Humans have found a way to expand their territory outside Earth, and interplanetary colonization begins. With this new found territory humans are divided into two rival factions: the Helghast and the ISA. The Helghast are essentially the bad guys that must be stopped. The story starts with them invading an ISA controlled planet by the name of Vecta. You play as an elite ISA squad, ready to push back the advancing Helghast.
Killzone will consist of eleven missions, each broken into segments. It’s at the start of these segments you will choose which member ofyour squad to take into combat. Each of the four squad members has their own strength and weaknesses. Templar is your all round balanced tough guy, ready for any given situation. Rico plays the squads heavy weapons specialist who can dish out the pain, and take a beating himself. Hakka is a mysterious spy, who has crossed over from the Helghast to join the ISA allegiance. The fourth character, Luger, is a female assassin with stealth abilities.
The character you choose will decide how you play a certain segment, and what strategies you will use to complete it. Luger can use a sniper rifle with deadly efficiency and use her stealth capabilities to hide in the shadows, while Rico can take the more direct approach and mow down guards with heavy machine gun fire. This is a great system which not only gives the gamer more freedom to play the way they like, but also offers more reasons to replay the game once completed.
Beware the star-shape gunfire.
There is a remarkable 26 different weapons included in Killzone. Following Halo's implementation of only allowing two weapons to be carried at a time, Killzone permits your squad member to carry three guns which can be switched at any point. You will also be able to throw grenades without having to switch weapons, and just like in Halo; tossing grenades are done with their own button. Each character will specialize in different weapons, so expect Luger to be skillful with sniper rifles, while Templar with assault type weapons. The arsenal list is quite impressive and includes such weapons as the Helghast assault rifle, which fires fully automatic rounds, while the secondary fire releases a powerful shotgun blast, and Rico’s machine gun which fires rockets as its secondary fire function. Killzone also includes melee attacks and each weapon seems to have its own attack animation.
The graphics are definitely one of the stand out features of Killzone. Guerilla has done an amazing effort to produce some highly impressive visuals on an aging console. The shadow and darkness in the game contributes to a gritty world war atmosphere, whilst the environments reek of constant warfare. Details in character and weapon models must also be noted, which truly makes Killzone one of the best looking Playstation 2 games to date.
Don't mess with this guy.
Multiplayer is also included and will support twelve players online, or a two player split screen with bots on a single Playstation 2. Multiplayer modes will include standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, assault, defend and destroy, domination and supply drop, a unique game mode which has two teams on opposite sides of a map, scramble to pick up five dropped supplies to win.
While shaping up to be a solid first-person shooter, Killzone is not breaking any new ground in the genre at the moment. Will it be the Playstation’s Halo? An exclusive game where Playstation 2 owners can finally smirk at Halo fan boys? It has potential, but at this point we can only wait and see.
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