Killzone 2

[Streeteh]

Gotta hand it to the Dutch, they pumped out what is widely regarded as one of the biggest let-downs on the PS2 (which is a big claim) and yet still managed to keep Sony eating out of their hands. They must have fed those CEOs some damn good super-skunk; the result of this bribery comes to us as Killzone 2

I know this is a generally 360-centric forum but i figured i'd post for those that do own a PS3 or are just frankly interested in what is released for the black monolith. So, here we go...

The release date for this hefty title is officially February 27th, however rumours are bubbling that the Dutch handed out some extra wacky backy and managed to persuade the big wigs to give Europe a couple of days head start, so you may get it as early as the 25th. A demo is already present on the Euro PSN which is well worth a look.

Reviews are positive, scoring at present an average of 93% on metacritic from several sources. The general opinion is that it is one of the best looking console games to date with great pacing, above average AI and an in depth multiplayer component which has taken inspiration from both Team Fortress 2 and Resistance 2. Criticisms that stand are poor voice acting and unresponsive controls, having played the demo i do agree with the former, but i feel the latter is more to do with the fact that the game has completely disposed of aim-assist, opting instead for easy-to-kill enemies that are hard to hit due to the difficult aiming system. Being a rare occurrence to find a game that'll even let you disable aim assist i think many are a bit shocked at how difficult aiming with a pad without a little extra help can be, especially for moving targets, i know i was.

My own first impressions from the demo are very positive; i can't think of a single FPS that has stood up to the standards of the original Halo on the playstation consoles, perhaps this is finally it. I'll reserve judgement until i get my hands on the full game.

Any thoughts BDers?

[NokkonWud]

There are actually quite a lot of PS3 owners on this forum. It's a shame that Inoshishi and msmalls don't post more often, they would get stuff really moving on here.

[loki]

I have it on pre order and it will most definately be making it's way to a screen near me very soon. I am warming to single player shooters on the console. Still feels a bit like jumping into bed with your sister in law but yes I think I will enjoy this.

[loki]

Finally it looks like PS3 has something that can go toe to toe with Gears.

[Joe 90]

i've just got this demo and the res evil 5 demo. just installing then will have a quick blast before bed :)
might even make it back here to share a comment or two.

[Joe 90]

So, awesome game. wouldn't quite agree that its the best looking game ever, looks nice though. gameplay was damn cool, love the combat. felt the right stick to be a bit slow (not to do with aiming, just generally) i tried to tweak the sensitivity but couldn't quite get it to feel right.
great game though.

[Psymonkee]

oooo a game to play on the PS3! :D

Do you need to have played the first? :(

[loki]

oooo a game to play on the PS3! :D

Do you need to have played the first? :(

I havent played the 1st but I think you can get enough info off the net about the back story for it not to spoil this experience. I think the feel of the combat system is really good and stands upto a lot of top games out there on PS3 and X360

Agree with show it isn't the best looking game. It's very good indeed but not amazing. It doesn't give you that WoW on par with Resi Evil 5 for eye candy

[NokkonWud]

So, awesome game. wouldn't quite agree that its the best looking game ever, looks nice though. gameplay was damn cool, love the combat. felt the right stick to be a bit slow (not to do with aiming, just generally) i tried to tweak the sensitivity but couldn't quite get it to feel right.
great game though.

That's a problem I've had with all FPS games on PS3, the sticks, aside from feeling like they're in the wrong position the movement on them just doesn't feel good. The pad on PS3 is the single most important reason for my dislike of FPS/3PS games on the format. However with games like Uncharted I just had to get used to it and if the game is good I do force myself to like it.

[Joe 90]

oh yeah... also i forgot to mention last night.

when i was squeezing L2 to duck/take cover as well as aiming, firing and moving i felt the controller was being squeezed out of my hands - not cool. never had any issues with the shape of L2/R2 before, but here it does indeed look like the xbox controller would be prefered.

oh, and the Res Evil 5 demo is pretty cool. i still don't like the over the shoulder view or the single stick movement, but its a good game - probably worth more than the 5mins i gave it last night.

[Streeteh]

Do you need to have played the first? :(

No, but if it pleases you a small summation of the original game follows:

An oppressed, formerly wealthy colony, the occupants of which are called nazi... oh sorry i mean Helghasts invade a wealthy and powerful planet in order to regain their former status. You play a dude who is defending said planet, you manage to kick their asses and kill one of their leaders and then they flee back to their home planet.

In Killzone 2 you take the fight to them and invade their planet.

All pretty simple tbh :D

[NokkonWud]

So it makes you no better than them then?

[Streeteh]

So it makes you no better than them then?

Pretty much yeah, in fact i would say the people you play as are actually worse. See the Helghast were originally a company called Helgan that legitimately bought planets from the government when humans began colonizing other solar systems. The govt was broke and needed the cash to get more exploration ships out there and find more mineral rich planets and this deal would give them the funds they needed.

The Helgan company then began to flourish on the two planets it had bought, one of which had a harsh climate but shed loads of minerals and was ideally placed to be a trading post; something Helgans rightly charged people for the privilege to use. The second planet was much nicer and is where the majority of the Helgans actually lived while reaping the beneifits of the harsher planet.

However, the govt, still suffering to some extent became jealous of the Helgans successes, invaded and stole the nice planet, siezed all their wealth and then stuck them all on the harsh planet. Over thousands of years the Helgans evolved to adapt to the harsh climate of their now-home planet. After a while, a guy was born who eventually became their leader, united the people and brought them together under one banner. To leave their past behind he renamed their race the Helghast and set about reclaiming the planet which was once theirs. As stated however, they failed and now their only home planet is being invaded by the very people that forced them to live there.

Pretty decent back story for a shooter imo. Would be interesting to see a sequel where you actually played as the Helghast, god knows both sides are as bad as the other.

[Streeteh]

Just a quick post, mainly for Nokkon. Guerilla Games released a patch yesterday that applied the multiplayer control 'feel' into the single player game. The multiplayer controls are much faster and more responsive, having played the single player a bit with these new controls (trying to find all the intel) it is much easier to aim accurately.

Rather annoying really as i completed the game on the hardest difficulty only an hour before this patch was released. Would have been a bit easier had i waited.

It is rumoured a patch will be released for the demo too to demonstrate the modified control scheme to those who were deterred originally.

[NokkonWud]

That's good. Honestly makes me wonder who they get to games test these things!