After a few posts in a thread with a similar title,Killzone 2...your thoughts, I decided to boot up KZ2 again and see if I wasn't being overly critical of the game...
First a bit of history to give this piece context. Ive been a Xbox player since 2004 when I bought my first console, the original big black behemoth that was the Xbox. Once I got back to SA and the Xbox 360 was finally launched here I scraped some cash together and bought me one, that was around 2006 or 2007. Last year December I got a PS3 Slim for my Birthday and that means while I've been gaming on Xbox for 6 years Ive been gaming on PS3 for 4 months. Ive always been a FPS fan and as such The Chronicles of Riddick and Halo where 2 of my first games back on original xbox. I am also a shameless Halo fanboi, owning all 3 Halo games (Halo 3 Legendary Edition FTW :D), Halo ODST, Halo Wars and all 5 Halo Novels... oh yes and the Halo Graphic novel.... ok you get the idea.
Kill Zone 2 was one of the reasons I originally wanted to get a PS3, one of those exclusives that kept pulling me, much like Heavy Rain and God of War. It was the Second FPS I attempted to play on PS3, the first being Resistance 2 which I played for all of 30 min before deciding it would serve me better as a trade in.
Now i spent about 3 or so hours playing KillZone 2 and, after going back last night and booting it up again to see if it wasn't maybe the lack of an HD TV that ruined it for me, I am yet to be wowed by this title. The visuals which everybody heralded as "SO AWESOME" look painfully plain to me, its not especially crisp or sharp on my 32" Samsung. (Yes i am now going to compare it to Halo) In my Opinion Halo 3, which is an older game, looks better. Yes the color scheme used is completely different. Halo has always had a brighter color pallet that most other FPSs. But what got me is the crisp picture I got playing Halo on the same LCD tv. I guess you could say "KillZone is an attempt to create a believable Sci-Fi war zone as aposed to Halo's more childish Sci-fi war zone" In which case I guess you could be right.
Ok the controls... (Let it be known I'm not a huge fan of the PS3 control to begin with although Uncharted used what it had well) Im all for "realistic" cover mechanics but if your going to build a cover mechanic into a FPS do what Rainbow Six Vegas did, 3rd person while in cover and 1st person when firing from cover, because going KillZone 2's direction leads to the player never really knowing if they are in cover or not. You always put the Fire button as a trigger (R2 or L2), not a bumper (R1 or L1) and you put aiming down the sight on the opposite trigger to the Fire button. One thing I do like is the use of the PS3's Sixaxis to open valves or placing charges, this is one of the few implementation of the Sixaxis in a game where it felt natural.
What ever happened to being able to carry 2 weapons of your own choice? I mean even Modern Warfare 2 lets us do that, Modern Warfare 1 did also. So now in KillZone you have a pistol which never runs out of ammo (Realism just left the building) and a rifle. Should your rifle ammo start to dwindle, which it will, you need to swap to one of the dropped weapons, Shotgun, Helgast Rifle, RPG, but you have to leave your original gun behind. Why can't I just drop the freaking pistol I am never going to use.
My Final thing against KillZone is the plot. The 3 hours I was into it I was still in the Dark as to the bigger picture and what i did know was via Wikipedia. The problem with Franchises that trancend a console generation, such as Halo and Kill Zone, that if the player has not played the first title(s) the plot is never going to make all that much sense to them. I was one of the lucky south african's who played Halo 1 and 2 when it came out on its native platform (not the PC ports) so obviously the plot makes sense but to players who missed the first 2 installments its a bit of a cluster f@#*k. Likewise for me who missed KillZone 1 the plot seems a tad disjointed.
I restarted KillZone 2 in hope that the shiny new LCD tv with HDMI and some more experience with the PS3 remote would show me that my initial assessment was overly bias. However after a good hour of playing it again I am still waiting to be wowed...
In the end you could attribute everything I dislike about KillZone to the fact that I am a Halo fanboi and if you did I wouldn't blame you. Once i have a bit of free time (before May 3rd) I will do my best to finish KillZone 2 but I wont be going into it expecting to be blown away... Im reserving that for Halo Reach:p
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