The Game that Would Be King

Is 'Killzone 2' Prince or Pauper?

Ever since the days of Wolfenstein 3D, the American video gamer has been hurling molten shards of lead into everything from Nazis to alien zealots to more Nazis.  But whatever primal urge drives us to shoot any and everything from a first person perspective, there is little denying that in cutthroat world of gaming, the FPS rules unchallenged.  However, even within this ruling echelon, there is growing mound of bodies upon whom stands the latest vanquisher, crown askew and rocket launcher in hand.  For over a year the PS3 has been happy to play courtier in this violent arena, never seeking the high office of lord of the shooters.  Friends, countrymen, geeks of all ages and background, after years of playing it easy, Sony finally presents to you the game that would be King.

The Lore

It is fitting that developer Guerilla’s first foray into land of Cell Chips and HDMI should be as fraught with lore as would befit an attempt at the throne.  Killzone 2 is the successor to the moderately successfully Killzone for the PS2, one of many games designated a “Halo killer” only to then collapse under such expectations.  Apparently Guerilla learned very little about setting high expectations last time around, as at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, they unleashed a trailer for Killzone 2 which they claimed to be completely comprised of “in game footage,” swearing that none of it had been prerendered, and its implausible beauty was simply a testament to the then untested PS3.  Needless to say the footage was breathtaking, yet hard to swallow as legitimate gameplay. 

A year later at E3 2006, nary a word was spoken about Killzone 2, and the veil was seemingly lifted on the ruse played upon the gaming world.  For another year no one would mention the game’s existence, that is until 2007 when a new trailer was released for Killzone 2.  This time there was no one questioning that this was the real McCoy, after two years of development, it was apparent that the game had not aged well.  Another year and half passed, hecklers had their fun, and Xbox fanboys happily entertained FPS king after FPS king.  Now, nearly 4 years after Killzone 2 set a near impossible bar for itself, the game is out and breathing on its own, and I’ll tell you something, it’s good to set a high bar.  Really good.

The Majesty

The plot in Killzone 2 does "epic" well, but is ultimately inconsequential to your enjoyment of the game.  As someone who did not play the original, all you really need know is that you are striking back by invading the planet of the people who invaded your planet, and your job is to shoot any thing with glowing red eyes.  There is some odd narrative presentation whereby you jump around from first person cutscenes to third person cutscenes that may result in somewhat of an identity crisis for the first half of the game, but this is, again, all inconsequential.  Good, wonderful, on we go.

Guerilla must have felt like they had dug themselves into a hole when they promised the Mona Lisa of video game graphics, especially when their PS3 canvas was the notoriously difficult to develop on, and developers like Crytek were producing and releasing games designed for computers decades in the future.  However, that lofty goal served as sufficient motivator, because despite perhaps Crysis, Killzone 2 is the best looking game on the market.  Guerilla is clever lot and uses copious amounts of smoke, haze, fog, and dust to cover up some of the rougher edges, but the result is nothing short of spectacular and a yardstick which by all future console games will be measured.  The aesthetic is a dreary, storm covered world covered in a layer of soot which makes for a perfect battlefield and keeps the tone uneasy and edgy from start to finish.  When you think of your favorite space marine invasion scenes from cinema, this game will evoke and satisfy everyone one of them.

This game knows what it means to be “epic” and delivers where Gears of War 2 floundered hopelessly.  Killzone 2 mixes things up everyone once in while, but a vast majority of the game is spent hurling yourself against a ten-fold outnumbering foe, evoking a Call of Duty feel in many of its sequences.  Its final mission is both challenging and chaotic and will end the game on nearly a perfect note, despite its obligatory and slightly tiresome “boss battle.”  However, despite its Call of Duty style combat, it sometimes imitates that franchise in a less pleasant way with seemingly infinite respawning foes who continue to drain your ammo until you press forward.  And unlike Call of Duty where this becomes expected, Killzone 2 takes the position of “its true when its true, except when it isn’t” and will often have you throwing your self suicidally at your foes to move your ally troops forward, only to find out that your squad is still 100 yards behind and sticking to their cover, and so should you be.

The gunnery in the game is not incredibly varied, but still fun and effective, each gun doing a subtle variation on a theme of firing bullets with varying degrees of accuracy and varying degrees of ammo depletion.  There is the obligatory rocket launcher and flame thrower, which while fun diversions are almost always scripted to the needs of a various points in the level, and will not substitute in the long term for a solid rifle.  That is until without warning and with neither pomp nor circumstance, you randomly pickup the “lightning gun” which could be described as something between a Red Alert-ian tesla coil and God from the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  It’s an absolute blast for an entire level, that is until it magically disappears as unceremoniously as it had entered.  One wonders why it wasn't kept around for longer as it does play well into the games story arc, but its presence, except for its remarkable fun and obvious thought into its design, seems like a fortunate afterthought, and makes ever other gun you shoot afterwards seem pathetic by comparison.

The Heel

Those of you Kipling fans may know where this is going, but this is where Killzone 2’s glorious rise to the throne falters almost irreconcilably.  Killzone 2 has a very serious flaw, and one that is so deeply entrenched it is near impossible to extract.  What I’m about to say is said with all the impartiality that I can muster as a paid employee of the Microsoft Corporation, but the PS3 controller is quite possibly the worst controller ever forced upon the gaming populous, and I’m including the original Xbox’s “Duke” controller. Sure it’s just a rebranded PS2 controller, but that only means Sony has had that much longer to improve the damn thing.  Compounded with the fact that it is uncomfortable and places the left analog stick where the D-pad should be and visa versa (as anyone who has used a 360 controller can attest), the only useful control scheme I could bare to use in Killzone 2 required me to replace firing a gun with the controller’s trigger, like real guns have, like the 360 controller has, with firing a gun with a bloody shoulder button! 

As if this weren’t bad enough, it took me the entire course of the game to adjust the controls to the point where I could actually aim at things, and even then they were sluggish and laggy.  Having to fight the controls to shoot in a first person shooter is nearly a failure to launch offense, and I believe many will use this as a reason not the play this game.  In fact, were it not for the game's award worthy other aspects, I would have stopped the playing the game after the first hour.  Other minor glitches, like the lack of auto reload when you are zoomed, I can almost forgive, but this is like face planting on a triple axel at the beginning of an otherwise flawless routine.

The Judgement

So you can see, coming up with a verdict for this game is a real challenge.  On the one hand, I think the game lived up as much as anything could have to the expectations they so foolishly laid down in 2005.  On the other hand, Killzone 2 makes a near game-ending mistake by failing to first make their controls tight and crisp.  It is fortunate, therefore, that like a man who has lost an arm, we humans have a remarkable ability to adapt and compensate, and despite the game's horrific controls, it's worth the learning curve just to experience this groundbreaking feat and to pay your respects to a game which is, for the time being, the undisputed king of the hill.    

Verdict: A-, Excellent