Well I’ve had a chance to play the game a bit now and I must say in general I’m impressed. The graphics and gameplay are fantastic. Many people say that Killzone 2 isn’t ground breaking for storyline but really, what FPS have ground breaking stories these days? Not many I can tell you. The story in my opinion isn’t what makes a good FPS, I’m not really playing it to get to know the characters, I’m playing it to shoot and blow things up mainly. If it has a story then that’s an added bonus, and I think Killzone 2 does have a pretty reasonable story.
I am not impressed with the controls and aiming however. Sure in single player, the control system and aiming makes sense – the game isn’t about all guns blazing, you need to take your time a little and not rush in. The problem is that online I’m not sure they work well. I had read before getting the game that online, the aiming is different to Campaign mode, and I was happy about that after playing the demo, but it’s not at all different. Online is faster paced and in Call of Duty 4, I could hold my own again two or three other people, but I’m struggling one on one at the moment in KZ2. There seems to be a very fine line between little or no movement to the crosshair zooming all over the screen. I’m not at all bothered about the recoil the guns have, I personally don’t like shooters that have next to no recoil, but it’s just the aiming is horrible, and I don’t seem to be getting any better no matter how much I play.
The campaign has amazing visuals, and some of the set pieces are simply awesome. I can’t really describe how much effort the developers must have put into this game, you really have to play it to understand. Online has a lot of depth to it, with proper clan support (not just tagging yourself with a clan name like in other shooters). There are ribbons with eventually add up to medals giving you different abilities, and of course an XP system to unlock even more guns and classes. Online will have a huge following I’m sure.
I want to love this game, I really do – but in truth I just haven’t enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. I booked Friday off to play this game and I’ve ended up playing my other games equally as much this weekend.
8/10
