Title: Killzone 2
Maker: Guerrilla Games
Publisher: Sony
System: PS3
Cost: $10
If you love Bus Simulators, you’re going to love Killzone 2.
The first thing you’ll notice, or fail to notice, is the story. It’s ra-ra chest bumping, and poorly timed uses of the word ‘fuck’. To watch it and have any type of emotional connection is impossible. Honestly, I challenge someone to try, I want to know if it’s possible. But so what, it’s a terrible proxy cold-war style struggle (with the Helghast being the Soviets naturally), but not all shooters need deep stories.
So how is the gameplay? As mentioned above, your character is a hybrid bus-person, that looks like a normal human idiot in cut scenes, but come game-time you’re behind the driver’s seat of a Winnebago motor home. The game can’t make up it’s mind if it’s a cover shooter, or a run and gun, so it takes a seat uncomfortably in between. The guns almost always feel out of your control, as if a 14 year old boy is trying to shoot a machine gun (but perhaps they were going for life-like gamer simulation, in which case I suck in war, much as I expected).
There are positives. Save points are generous. The game came out in 2009, and the graphics must have blown skulls, especially the environments. They’ve held up well, and it’s still a nice looking game by 2012 standards. Helghan is an intriguing world, and by the end you’ll probably find yourself identifying more with the red-eyed Helghast than your buddies (a cool trick, if only it had been intentional). The story, while bland for 90% picks up in the last 5 minutes, which if you’re going to have a good 5 minutes, that’s the place to put it.
Review: 2 Stars (Out of 5)
Memory: Brain Cox (think Bourne Supremacy) is the first thing you hear when you turn the game on.
