Review: Killzone 2 - The Demo

I'm not sure how many of you guys own a ps3, or were fortunate enough to hack a demo (what's with all the good **** going overseas these days), but the KZ2 demo came out today for those with a gamestop preorder (or if you did that stupid thing on their site...but whatever lol). I was pretty excited about it, after sweeny bashing it so much, I thought man I really want to play it.

Controls:

As with EVERY ps3 shooter, it's a bit awkward. Controls don't seem fluid enough. I had to frig with the sensitivity, and still couldn't garner a feeling of Cod, or Halo. I wanted my shoot on trigger, but the trigger button the PS3 is just bad. The control sticks also making aiming annoying. It's nothing unbearable, and anyone more home on the sony console than I would feel it perfectly fine. Everything else about the controls is rather normal. Buttons are in fine position, and you can customize your shoot, grenade, and aim. I dislike that the zoom feels so separate from non-zoom, similar to Resistance, where it completely switches screens. Think of CoD, where as you press the trigger, you pull the gun up and zoom, and as you let go you lower it. That's how I feel the aim should be, but it's too separate feeling. Not as bad as Resistance, so it isn't a major issue either. All in all, the controls fit the standard FPS, nothing groundbreaking like Halo or CoD, but perfectly acceptable.

Gameplay:

I enjoyed it. To say the least, it was fun. On par with the level of enjoyment I garner from Resistance. The demo was very short, and without multiplayer, it's really hard to get a feel for how long fun gameplay lasts, but so far it's fairly interesting. Some of my above issues cross over into gameplay, but free aiming (without zoom) feels great. Burst firing my guns allows me to retain pretty decent accuracy, and free movement, thus I feel it's very competitive based. Grenade throwing takes some time (realistically), and aren't unavoidable, thus I feel the grenades are great. The RPG is actually not insanely accurate, so for once, a Rocket does take skill nub. The assault weapons feel diverse at this point. One is more aimed a closer combat, spray and pray autofire, one is slightly longer distance with a more adapt zoom. You default pistol, which is undroppable, has infinite ammo, which was something I disliked. I felt it took away from the skill required to survive.

The difficulty was surprising, the only option available is medium, and you do die quite quickly. I imagine the two higher difficulties will provide great challenge. Your character moves at a reasonable speed while not running, and you can easily be caught out of fire and over-run. Though the running seems slightly too fast, and provides a decently easy way to cover, or to avoid a grenade, unless some object blocks your path. The jump isn't a very huge help, so I wouldn't play Halo style if you want to survive. The AI is pretty decent on medium, though they are sometimes slow to propel down walls, and end up having their heads popped. All in all a solid campaign.

Graphics:

****ing beautiful. Beautiful. This game actually has me somewhat convinced the PS3 can provide the best graphics. Environments are so defined. Every single character model is flawless. The helghast are amazingly detailed, their masks very define, the eyes burn multiple shades of red's, oranges and yellows. The whole scene is very gritty, but not too much emphasis on darks, thus allowing for you to see and move more easily. My only issue, and this is an issue with PS3 on the whole. The graphics are slightly surreal, to the point where they are almost overdone. They feel a bit too much. Otherwise, beautiful.

Atmosphere:

Atmosphere is what completely makes me appreciate this game. From the realistic graphics, to the war torn zones, the game feels like you are honestly there, in this warzone. The light bounces realistically and in perfection from multiple surfaces. You pass through dust floating in the air. The ground is composed of multiple broken "things" and not just texture bumps and lumps of pixels. The atmosphere is ruined by one thing:

Your dumbass teammates. They all have ridiculously stupid accents, curse way too much and spit out constant stupid lines. None of them seem even slightly intelligent, and way too gung-ho.

BUT: This is all saved by the EPIC music score. This game has one of the best music scores out of any I have played. It completely sets you in a different element, I plays off the background setting so well, yet it contrasts it. It has a starwars meets WWII feeling to it. It's simply amazing, it's one of the reason I enjoyed playing, or just sitting at the menu listening to it. It feels very unique to me.


Well the multiplayer was lacking (not there), so I can't judge this game in it's fullest yet. But I would honestly say it's worth picking up, especially if your PS3 is collecting some dust. If you want a bullshit rating:

8.1/10

 

betas done

 

lol I gave it an 8.7 and Tz complained at me. The gameplay is mediocre. Besides, this is the demo, my point being: they didn't give me too much to go on in the demo. I'm not really rating KZ, but just how shitty of a demo they put out lol.

 

I'm not saying that, graphics and atmosphere is awesome, but your dumbass teammates, and the fairly easy gameplay kinda disappointed me.

 

No their vocab pissed me off, not what they actually did in game.

I guess I must just be more skilled, because I found it extremely easy. Maybe I was just playing the right way..