Two years after the Helghast assault on Vekta, the ISA is bringing the fight to the enemy’s home world of Helghan. Killzone 2 has amazing visuals, an intense campaign, and extraordinary online play that will keep you coming back for more easily making it a must-have for PS3 owners.
GenreFirst-Person Shooters
Platforms ps3
DEVELOPER Guerrilla Games | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Killzone 2 Reviews ps3
thesixthaxis.com review
Killzone 2 everything it’s meant to be? Does it live up to the hype? Of course it does, and thus it absolutely warrants a 5/5 score. It has its frustrating moments, it has its fair share of dull, lifeless blasting and, yes, it would have benefitted from a co-op option, but the problems are few and far between and stand out more because we so desperately wanted this to be flawless. For the most part Killzone 2 is utterly, mesmerisingly brilliant and polished to perfection: the gunplay is solid, the controls, once tuned to your liking are superbly weighted and intuitive and the action, when good, is relentless. Time will tell whether or not the single player campaign will be held in as high regard as we’d all want it to be, but right here, right now, this is as good as it gets.
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ps3bloggen.se review
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eurogamer.pt review
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pgnx.net review
Visually, Killzone 2 is almost on a league of its own. The environments have tons of extremely detailed objects, complex architecture, and amazing textures all brought to life by a stellar lighting engine. The weapons have fantastic models and enemies respond to being shot with lifelike animations that show that they really felt pain. There are small touches, too, like the way your shield cracks or the way fire reacts to wind push Kilzone 2 into a league of its own.
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kombo.com review
The other problem is the story is incredibly straight forward. Space operas like this usually throw twists and turns with some undercurrents of intrigue until the end but Killzone 2 is your balls-to-the-wall gunfest. You don’t play a complex or conflicted character; you are a badass looking to kick some ass in the name of good. There are pivotal moments but Killzone 2 keeps it simple and safe for the story.
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g4tv.com review
The Killzone franchise has a checkered past. The first installment rode a wave of hype (not unlike the wave this game is riding) right into a wall of disappointment. Some hated the game’s loose controls. Some hated the moronic AI. Some hated the glitches and slow-down that the game suffered from. A good soundtrack and interesting ideas won’t carry a game though, and the original Killzone not only didn’t meet the unreasonable expectations that the hype-wave had created. It didn’t even meet the reasonable expectations held by those who just wanted a quality shooter for their PlayStation.
giantbomb.com review
The campaign takes you through a great-looking variety of messed up environments as you hunt down stolen nukes and attempt to seize the enemy’s stronghold. The game’s effects really help sell the Helghast homeworld as a total hellhole, with just about everything that resembles nice, civilian architecture already reduced to some form of rubble. High winds circle and swirl dust and smoke in the air, giving the entire game a hazy look that helps convey the feeling of being on the battlefield. That haze makes distant enemies a little tough to see at times, which makes for a great, dreadful atmosphere. Even when you’re marching straight across a bridge, you’re never quite sure where the enemy is going to be coming from next. Once you’ve spotted the enemy, they’re never too tough to deal with as long as you’re a straight shooter. The AI isn’t fantastic, but it makes up for that with quantity, and–if you’re playing on a harder difficulty setting–accuracy and resiliency, as well.
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gaming-age.com review
This began after playing Killzone 2 for a few hours on normal, when I began to feel that it was pretty average– not more of the same, per say, but not living up to its hype either. Pretty, yes. Gunplay, good. Enemy AI, competent. Feeling bored at this point, I thought I’d have fun with it and started a new campaign on hard– as well as having turned off all HUD elements, down to the reticule.
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gameshark.com review
Scale has a role in creating this epic appeal, yet it comes about more from the masterful way that Killzone 2 invokes atmosphere. Stunning visual craftsmanship lends an oppressive air to Helghan and its people. Fighting in the shanties of Pyrrhus City provides a sense of the hardship behind the masks of the enemy. The Helghast share an indescribable quality with history’s most hated villains, the Nazis, both characterized by a sense of maniacal grandeur in their slow marches to destruction. Graphically, this is an amazing game; however, it’s extraordinary not because of the high definition detail but rather in the way in which that visual palette is used to infer meaning and characterize the Helghast. Frankly, much of the game is shrouded in darkness, reducing the amount of visible detail. That does more to heighten the visual impact of the game than if every glossy texture were lighted up for display.
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1up.com review
Guerilla clearly spent a lot of time on the multiplayer portion of Killzone 2, as few other games offer the same amount of depth in character customization. You can equip up to two different badges, and every badge offers different abilities to suit your style (read Sam’s preview for a breakdown of how this class system works). And as discussed in the 1UP Show Killzone 2 segment, the game cleverly handles matches; instead of having you play a search and destroy match, get taken out of the game, and then switch to another match for assassination, all gameplay variants occur spontaneously. This creates a thrilling sense of momentary confusion as you switch between game types, mimicking the chaos you experience on the single-player battlefield. Depending on which game types are included in each game, matches generally take around 20 minutes to finish.
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gamingnexus.com review
The audio matches the visual as there are distinct weapons for each gun. As I got towards the end of the game I could tell which type of Helghan troops I was fighting by the sound of their weapons. From the rapid fire vipping of the heavy machine gun to the whooshing sound of an incoming rocket help bring the battlefield to life. Some of the voice over work is spotty but Brian Cox delivers a solid performance as Scolar Vissari . Some of the dialog in the game is a bit on the generic side but it’s not as bad as the forced machismo of Gears of War 2. The soundtrack of the game is also strong and provides the right tone to the game. I’m not saying we’re at the John Williams soundtrack level but the music does add a bit to the game.
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gamepro.com review
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gamerstemple.com review
My last objection isn’t much of an objection at all, just an annoyance. As you play through the game, you’ll start to notice that there are points in each level where the game auto saves and sets up a checkpoint for you, just in case you die in the fights ahead. How is that a problem? It isn’t, but the key word in that sentence is “notice.” At every check/save point, Killzone 2 freezes for about .5 seconds to save, load or whatever. It doesn’t affect anything when it comes to the gameplay, but the pause is very noticeable. In a game where the cutscenes and the game flow together so flawlessly, this seems like a problem that could and should have been addressed before the game was released.
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play.tm review
The jaw-dropping visuals are wonderfully offset by richly layered sound effects and atmospheric accents that create such a tangible texture of in-game audio that suspension of disbelief is all-but guaranteed throughout. Whether it’s the pleasing resonance of gunfire and jarring explosions, or the throaty death rattles of agonised Helghan and the disturbing howl of airborne ATAC drones, the sheer wall of sound perfectly compliments Killzone 2’s graphical prowess without the two ever struggling for superiority. And, as if that weren’t enough, a massive orchestral score matches the incessant all-action gameplay at every turn thanks to a procession of rousing battle themes that will effortlessly justify the excessive spending of anyone who recently invested in an upper tier surround-sound system.
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gamefocus.ca review
Another thing it’s the average storyline. It’s obvious that the developers spent more time working on the technical part of the game rather than taking care of the script and the story which is probably the most important thing in a videogame and especially in a game like Killzone 2, a game set to emerge as a reference for future first person shooters. Don’t get me wrong, is not that the storyline is bad…is just that I expected a more emotionally and grabbing storyline rather than a simplistic good guy/bad guy thing, which can easily explain why the game’s campaign is relatively short (between five and eight hours no matter which difficulty you’re playing except “Eliteâ€). Sure a second play through at the hardest difficulty could give you some kind of challenge but seriously, those who like a really good storyline will feel a bit left out. Add the fact that the A.I isn’t always at its best; its inconsistency can drive you mad at times, especially during the big fights. Sometimes the Helghast will use different flanking tactics; sometimes it will kill itself after shooting at an explosive tank. You’re A.I partners will take a defensive position to counter-attack the enemies’ offensive maneuvers, other times they will stay in front of you while you’re shooting or they will expose themselves after a terribly wrong usage of cover. The lack of a co-op mode would have helped this whole thing a lot better but in the end, the inconsistency can be experienced by only those who play lots of first person shooters. The masses won’t notice it that much.
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3djuegos.com review
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vandal.net review
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game-over.com review
The gripe some people will have with Killzone 2 revolves around its default control scheme, which is a little sluggish. It does offer other button mapping layouts and when the game’s action ramps up, some players might seek that added responsiveness. However moving your character at breakneck speed wasn’t something that the developers were going for. Almost all first-person shooters move at some crazy speed. It’s fair to say Killzone 2 makes you feel this is the speed you would be moving if you were lugging around a large gun like that.
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worthplaying.com review
Luckily, you are almost always accompanied by at least one of your squadmates, all of whom act as more than the typical FPS bullet sponge. For the most, part your allies will play it smart, taking up sound tactical decisions and covering your back while you separate a few Helghast from their conscious existence. However, there are times when your buddies will prove that AI has only come so far, and once in a while, they’ll rush right out into the middle of an assault or charge a machine gun nest for no reason other than the next objective marker is beyond the enemy line. While these moments are fairly rare, it’s still a pain to have to clean up their mess and revive them as their whiny asses slowly crawl around the battlefield, bellyaching about how much they’re bleeding.
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destructoid.com review
It’s a shame that Killzone 2 can’t simply stand on its own and shirk the responsibility that die-hard Sony fans have unfairly heaped upon it, because this is definitely a game that deserves to be taken on its own merits, free from fanboy rage.
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ign.com review
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gamespot.com review
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ag.ru review
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gamecritics.com review
The lack of story telling combined with worn-out and tedious gameplay left me with the impression that Killzone 2 tries to assume the identity of its competitors but fails to come anywhere close. Every moment I spent in the campaign was met with nothing but boredom and frustration, but at least it has a superb multiplayer.
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teletext.co.uk review
To be specific its relatively slow movement, realistic damaging modelling (i.e. one or two shots and you’re dead) and an emphasis on cover is most reminiscent of Black or F.E.A.R.
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gamestyle.com review
The context of nuclear weapons and needing the launch codes is thrown in, but Gamestyle never played too much attention, with both races being extremely advanced, it seemed ridiculous that the Helghast couldnt call upon such weaponry themselves. The storyline is threadbare and sees you taking the role of Alpha team member, Sergeant Tomas Sev Sevchenko, an elite squad thrown into the main thrust of the invasion.
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