Killzone

[rogerbee]

Hi guys!

Killzone hits the shops on Friday and I will then own it!! Keep it right here for everything Killzone. Join me for day to day(ish) updates as I play the game through from start to finish. Experience the highs, the lows (hopefully not many) and whatever else the game brings . Day one may not necessarily be Friday, but whatever, I will keep you informed as often as I can.

WAR IS COMING!!​

 

[rogerbee]

Hi there!!

Well, it's here! I have Killzone!!

First off I just have to tell you how much I paid for it. New PS2 games cost £39.99 over here. My local store accepts older games as trade-ins plus the odd bit of hardware if you're lucky. I traded in Shellshock Nam 67, TOCA Race Driver 2 and my Xploder cheat system. They also have a reward card which works on a points system ie the more you buy the more points you get. Having combined my points with the trade-ins, Killzone ended up costing me......49p!!!!! How cool was that!?

But what is this fricking Killzone he's been going on about!?

Killzone is a futuristic first person shooter developed exclusively for PS2 by Guerrilla and is the only game of its kind to make full use of the PS2's power. It has a campaign mode and a multiplayer mode incorporating online play. There is also a feature called War Scenes which are demos made by Guerrilla to show off the impressive AI. Demos they maybe, but, thanks to the use of the AI engine, you will never see the same thing twice!

Visually it is by far the best looking game on PS2 what with it's rich environments and very clever use of textures. Remember the old FPS's where things turned into pixels at close range, well, in Killzone the detail increases at close range thus enhancing the realism.

What about the gameplay!? Give me a chance! I have mucked about a bit in Deathmatch, which you can play on your own offline, much like in Quake 3, just to familiarize myself with everything and to see if there are any changes to make with the options. That is as far as I have got today. I will however start playing for real over the weekend and will let you know how I got on on Monday.

SEE YOU THEN!!

 

[rogerbee]

Hi

I finally managed to get into Killzone proper yesterday. The game is set on the planet Vekta which has been invaded by the Helghast (Futuristic Nazis) and it is up to you and your crack team of troops to rid Vekta of this menace.

Campaign mode starts with just you as Captain Jan Templar of the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (herein known as the ISA), you first find yourself in the trenches on the outskirts of Vekta City where you help your squad fight their way out. In terms of atmosphere think WW1 and you're getting there, it's well cool. Then it's onwards into the industrial region and things start to get tough. You're out in the open with an APC trying to cut you down along with squads of Helghast, be prepared to die, alot! When you're stood in the foundations of a ruined building staring at that APC across the street you start to forget that this is just a game. The graphics and sounds are so good you really do feel immersed in it all (A 5.1 system is essential!). I'm currently running round ruined offices and getting my ass solidly kicked by Helghast. Even on Normal these guys are badasses!

As I've not played any of the other FPS's that this keeps getting compared to, to me, Killzone as a game in it's own right is nothing short of superb. If you haven't played any FPS games before then this is a must!

As soon as I can get out of those offices I'll get back to you!

BYEE FOR NOW!!

 

[rogerbee]

Not a great deal to report today, but there is one quibble...

When playing in deathmatch, you can't use a melee attack. In normal play if you get up close and personal with a Helghast, you can deck them with your rifle butt, but for some strange reason, in deathmatch, the Helghast just stands there and shoots you point blank with a shotgun blast, OUCH!

Just thought, I don't know what the release date outside Europe is, but once some of you buy Killzone, I'll be very interested to hear your views.

I'll do some more campaign tomorrow, promise!

SEE YA!

 

[rogerbee]

Killzone was getting boring today, too many interiors and corridors. Never mind though I did get to meet the second member of Templar's crack squad. Her name is Luger and she's a stealth assassin type, rather like the guy in Splinter Cell. I'm hoping to go outside tomorrow, I know there's a level in a park. It'll certainly be a change from all those damned corridors!

SEE YA!!

 

[rogerbee]

Hurrah!! I finally got out into daylight! Then I got my butt soundly kicked by several squads of Helghast! The level may have been in a park, but it certainly wasn't a walk in one. I did briefly get to kick back courtesy of a fuckoff AA gun I found in the park, that was excellent.

Having completed the park level the game then introduces you to member 3 of your squad. Sgt Rico Valasquez is the heavy weapons guy and his standard armament is, well, basically, it's the smart gun from Aliens with a dirty great rocket launcher mounted underneath it. I chose to play the next level as Rico as I'd played it on the demo and knew that he was the one I with whom I could complete the level in the quickest time. You're in the slums (Think any bad part of town, and multiply it!) and have to fight your way through, Rico's gun just LOVES Helghast, you just open up and mow 'em down!

Next up is a shopping mall, think Dawn of the Dead with the zombies packing heat!

See you on the other side!

 

[rogerbee]

Hi!

You're probably wondering why I'm doing this Killzone article, well, I always get the impression that reviewers never play the games all the way through. They just pick up on the good and bad bits of the levels that they play. Also, review copies of games are often unfinished code, so any bugs and glitches are usually cleaned up for the release version.

Over here, Killzone has been over hyped and unfavourably compared to Halo 2. Multi format mags always champion Halo 2 and slag Killzone. This is unfair! Stick with me and I will give you a hype and bias free look at the game in its entirety. Note also that apart from introducing characters I don't reveal any plot points, they are there for you to discover if and when you buy the game.

Currently, as if you haven't already guessed, I really like Killzone, but who knows, once I've finished it I may hate it! I got this far through Mace Griffin, as near a distant relative of Killzone as I've found, and discovered it was a pile of shit. I bought that because it was hyped as a rival for Halo, since then, I've been very wary of hype and so should you be!

Check back on Monday by which point I should have more gameplay to report....

BYEEE!!

 

[rogerbee]

Here I am again!

Well, I cleared out the mall and the slums and was rewarded with the final member of the team. He is Colonel Hahka, a Helghast double agent, voiced by Brit actor Sean Pertwee. In case I haven't mentioned it before, the other members of Templar's team (Rico, Luger and Hahka) are all playable characters and each mission you play is different depending on the character you pick. Templar and Hahka are quite similar in that they are all-rounders and can handle most of the weapons with equal skill. As Hahka is a Helghast, certain elements with regard to enemy gear are different but as I've not played him yet I don't know what they are.

Anyway, I continued as Rico and things got incredibly tough once we got to the docks. Here I found myself outnumbered, with low health and next to no ammo. Going back to where I did have ammo would have taken too much backtracking, so, I'm afraid I cheated. I used my Action Replay Max to get Infinite Health and Infinite Ammo, and things really picked up after that!

I really started to enjoy myself going in no holds barred, so much so that I haven't stopped cheating since! I fought my way up a river, through a swamp and on into the hills. It was here that I had to take out a Helghast camp and with unlimited rockets it was a total blast, literally. Remember when Christopher Walken lets rip with that grenade launcher in Dogs of War, or Jesse Ventura with Ol' Painless in Predator!? Well, an unlimited Rico is that times 10! Yeehah!! If you're getting frustrated and you've died too many times, cheat, you won't regret it. Entertainment is what these games are there for, so, if cheating makes them fun again then do it!

Currently Templar and co are about to enter a shuttle base. Looks as though the finale is gonna be in space, so...

Watch this one and "I'll be back."

SEE YA!!

 

[rogerbee]

I'm ba-aack!

Yup the crew did indeed enter a shuttle base which took them and me up to a space platform. Remember Reagan's Star Wars programme, well, the platform in Killzone is a bloody huge version of one of his orbiting weapons platforms. It's up here that.... we reach the finale!!

Basically you fight your way through, pressing the odd switch here and there and then, you fight off more Helghast until.... oh come on, I think even you can guess what happens next. Yup, the classic Big Bad Guy number! I know, all that build up and they go for the biggest cliche of all, the bloody Bond ending!

Ho hum, it's the same with all shooters though, the end is never as good as the journey you take to reach it. However, don't let that put you off, oh no, Killzone is still the best FPS the PS2 has ever had. The Deathmatch is what really clinches it, this is so much fun and the AI is so good you'll always come back for more. Sure you can go back to campaign mode and see what the other characters do, but the ending is still going to be an anti climax.

Please and I can't stress this enough, please DON'T see the ending as a reason not to
buy Killzone, it really is a brilliant game. Even the best Bond films are predictable but that never stops us watching them. Even if you're not an FPS fan, I can still thouroughly recommend buying Killzone.

In conclusion, no, it didn't live up to the hype, but nothing ever does! It is NOT a Halo killer, nor was it ever meant to be. And never compare it with anything else, treat it as a PS2 game in its own right, a high calibre, futuristic military FPS and I guarantee you will enjoy it. If you're lucky enough to be able to go online with it you'll have an absolute blast!

If anybody buys Killzone, please feel free to post your views etc on this thread.

CHEERS GUYS!!

Rogerbee.

PS (When GT4 eventually surfaces I may do a similar thread on that.)

 

[rogerbee]

Anybody got it yet, come on, I'm eager to hear your views.

 

[madbomber31]

it sucked.

 

[BadboyAl]

LOL at Blitz99, after all thoses logs 1 reply is it sucks.

Hey I appreciate your effort for detail. Letting us know how the game is..

I must admit it doesnt seem like my type of game but it does look good.

Socoom II still the shit, no matter what I do I keep going back to it

 

[Synpax]

Nice work.

The commercials look good but how good can a PS2 game be? Maybe I can introduce you to Halo 2.

 

[rogerbee]

Halo 2!?

If I liked Halo2 why would I go into so much detail about Killzone!? Halo2 is shit!

Killzone rocks while you're playing it, it just slips up when you get to the end! Deathmatch is still fun and will prolong things for a while. Appreciate Killzone for what it is, the last great PS2 game.

And where the fuck is MGS3 we ask!?

 

[rogerbee]

Hi Guys!!

For those of you that have bought Killzone and were wondering what Luger would look like out of that uniform, here she is....

http://www.robbscelebs.co.uk/noops312/micky_hoogendijk0002.jpg

I kid you not, she is the actress that Guerrilla scanned to provide the face and whatever else for Luger, check the credits if you don't believe me. And you all thought she was modelled on Sandra Bullock!

(Note to mods, this is tied into the main thread so please don't move it to the Pictures of Women forum.)

CHEERS!!

PS (Merry Christmas by the way!)