The Fantastic Four (Kill Zone (PS2))

Member Name: I Like Blue

Product:	Kill Zone (PS2)
Date:	17/11/05 (672 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive mindless and harmless killing FPS

Disadvantages: Lost it's way during development.

I like playing games on the PS2 and in particular I often like playing first-person style games. Killzone by (the aptly named) Guerrilla is a first-person shooter or FPS for short, and after enjoying other such FPS games like the 'Medal of Honor' series I was looking forward to playing Killzone.

I say 'looking forward' but it was really by chance I got to play this game. Originally my son borrowed it from a friend but because he had played it so much the disc was quite badly scratched and often failed to load. Obviously getting frustrated by this I decided we should buy our own copy.

The game is described as a sci-fi adventure and the story goes something like this. In a time some way off into the future there lives on a planet a race of beings called the Helghast and the planet's name is Helghan. The Helghast used to be human but after years of perceived ill-treatment, persecution and generally feeling ostracised from the rest of humanity they decided to flee to another planet (Helghan). However, due to the harsh atmosphere of that planet they bizarrely evolved into a kind of 'superhuman' race. In that time there rose to power a leader who rallied his people and persuaded them that now was the time to end the exile and take back what they believed was rightly theirs starting with the nearest inhabited planet, Vekta. Now trained and equipped for war the Helghast armies began their invasion and as a member of the ISA it is your, my, our (whoever loads and plays the game) job to repel the invasion force, that and work out how the Helghast Invasion Force got through the orbital defence system in the first place.

The basic Killzone game has 2 modes; Campaign and Battlefield. Campaign is single-player only and there are over 45 levels within 11 different environments to get through (or Killzones) to complete the game. In Battlefield mode there are 6 single level scenarios to play over numerous environments to do battle in where you can either play in 1 or 2 player mode and can either be ISA or Helghast. There is also an option to play 'online' through the PS2, however I've never tried it although within the accompanying instruction booklet there are instructions how to do this.

Talking of the instruction booklet it's done quite cleverly (but not original) in the style of a newspaper, and in amongst the pictures and news stories are the basic guidelines on how to play the game, in particular the controls; moving, running shooting, reloading etc. However when you start the game and particularly on the first level or so there are also on-screen hints/tutorials on which button does what.

Right, enough of that and on to the game itself.

Oh my, where do I start? Killzone can be very good and very bad. Let's get the Battlefield Mode out the way first. Here, the 6 scenarios are basically CQB (Close Quarter Battle) training areas where there are 1 or 2 player options so you can play against the computer (um, PS2) or for more fun you can drag another real person to the console and play as a team with them or against them. Battlefield Mode though is little more than a good way to hone your shooting, tactical and strategy skills.

Now to the main game. After selecting the level of difficulty between either easy, normal or hard (the main difference being that the harder the level the bigger the health loss when you're hit) you only have 1 character to assume the role of to start with and that is Captain Jan Templar, an ISA soldier, jack of all trades, or weapons, but master of none. As the game progresses you eventually build up allies meaning that quite soon there are 4 characters to choose from with the other 3 being Luger (a british female assassin), Rico (a yank grunt who has probably the best default weapon of the lot) and Hakha (a spy who is half human and half Helghast). When you have all 4 then no matter who you choose there will always be a team of 4, each and every level you play. The thing is whatever character you choose to be you, obviously, after enough hits can die and will have to restart (or retry if you have reached a level checkpoint) whereas the other 3 members are invincible.

At first the game looks to have real depth. The attention to detail, animated or otherwise, is quite stunning but after a while it's noticeable that the backgrounds etc are quite bland and quite colourless. The AI can be frustratingly difficult to beat yet at other times can be really stupid. For instance when it's really good the Helghast enemy can be tactically and strategically astute and their aim can more often than not be quite deadly yet other times you can stand right next to one and they either don't see you or shoot everywhere but at you.

Whilst the scenery can be quite bland it does have a sense of realism about it and the environments are really like war zones; bombed out buildings, vehicles ablaze etc. However apart from you and the enemy there is nobody else around, save the occasional small group of friendly forces who usually appear at the start of each level then abandon you leaving you to get on with the mission on your own. Another thing about the scenery being bland means sometimes everything looks the same and that can be confusing. An example of this is in one level you have to negotiate a swamp and it's quite easy to lose your bearings because of the blandness and can leave you thinking 'where the hell am I supposed to go now?!?'. Luckily, after you've stumbled about a bit you know you're on the right path, and often this is the only way you know you are going in the right direction, when you hear from your enemy "Here they come!", "Watch and shoot" or "Kill them!" and these are probably the only things the Helghast army ever say throughout the entire game.

The story itself is pretty one dimensional. At the very start of the game there is a rather good cinematic introduction where we see the Helghast leader Scolar Visari give his Hitler like speech to his people. Here, I'm thinking this looks like the game is going to be really good especially if the makers have gone to the expense of enlisting film star Brian Cox as the voice of Visari. My Hitler reference is because that is how this opening sequence looks like especially as the Helghast emblem is not too dissimilar to the Nazi swastika.

Other problems with the story is that there is no real depth to the characters apart from hints at a former 'romantic' liaison between Templar and Luger and the regular spats between Rico, a born Helghast hater, and the spy, Hakha. There are no sub-plots to speak of nor even really any plot twists and the one there is you uncover pretty much near the start of the game. There aren't even any real challenges along the way either apart from pushing some fairly obvious buttons for you and your team to progress.

So, from the start I'm thinking this is a really good game but after a while it becomes rather repetitive in that all I and my team need to do is shoot our way through hordes of Helghast soldiers to reach the end of a level. There isn't even any real variation with the Helghast troops either with the majority of the ones you come across are your basic grunt and occasionally a few Helghast Elite Forces. As far as 'superhuman' goes then that doesn't mean the Helghast are more intelligent, no, it just means it takes a few more rounds of ammunition than you'd normally expect to kill them.

On the plus side you do get quite a few weapons to 'play' with including automatic rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, a shot gun and grenades. However, by far the most useless weapon included is a pistol! Now, when faced with the supposed 'superhuman' Helghast troops the pistol is totally ineffective, you'd probably do more damage by throwing cotton wool at your enemy, but for some reason that is one of the default weapons you start with! There is one weapon I haven't mentioned and I'm not going to save to say it is awesome! Sadly though you only really get to use it for one level and you have very limited 'ammunition' to use with it but it is extremely effective.

There are plenty of cinematic movie scenes in between levels which lets you see the 'bigger picture' in how the story is unfolding and this can be useful. Here the animated characters are quite believable as is the interaction with body movement etc looking quite professionally done. In fact overall the graphics are of a good standard and scenery etc moves and blends pretty smoothly.

Like many other games the ending, whilst I'm obviously not going to give it away completely, left me thinking "Is that it?!". I was expecting a better 'reward' for my efforts.

There are a number of known glitches with the game and a couple I found included that in some levels, where you can choose to be a different character, then there are some minor differences in how the level is played out and in one such level I elected to be Rico but I soon found I couldn't do certain things that meant I couldn't progress in that level so had to restart it with a character I knew could do them. Another, quite funny, glitch occurred when, after blowing up a bridge, I was temporarily separated from the rest of my team and when I looked round to find out where they were I spotted Hakha crouch walking above me in mid-air!

Overall then, despite my gripes, Killzone is a good game and quite addictive, but, gameplay and longevity are on the poor side. Once completed, apart from trying out slightly different level progress with different characters, it's highly unlikely that you'll want to start all over again unless you want the challenge of improving your hits to kills percentage. As to the gameplay well it's fine but the controls can be somewhat frustrating. Most actions are fine and fairly easy to master but probably the biggest annoyance is with a sniper rifle you sometimes get to use and that is frustratingly hard to control in 'scope' mode. The other annoyance is the amount of time it takes to reload your weapons which is frustrating to say the least if you are in the middle of nowhere with no cover and in the thick of a particularly fierce battle. You see there is no auto reload option which means you have to do it manually by pressing the triangle button and whilst you do this the screen defaults so that it takes your 'eyesight' off your enemy/target and fixes on the weapon you're reloading.

Killzone is rated 16+ and that is probably because of the 'gore' factor, but saying that there isn't really any. There's no gore say like that in 'Manhunt' and what there is, is limited to blood 'spray'. When I say 'spray' I mean when you fire and hit an enemy soldier a small spray of blood appears but this effect is purely an indicator that you've hit your target. There are also very few moments where there is some mildish swearing too which is pretty much limited to the odd 'sh*t' and 'f*ck'. The only other thing of note is 1 or 2 very mild sexual references between Luger and Templar.

To finally close this review my last thoughts are that I feel that the game had massive potential that got lost somewhere. That is either because when the game was initially being developed it was excellent but somewhere along the way the makers either got fed up, there was a change in the developers or they ran out of money or a combination of all three. This is quite evident when you play the game which is a shame because this could have been the best game in its genre. I'd still recommend it especially as you can now buy it for around £15 now it has been re-released under the Platinum series. There is a slightly funny personal story there though. When I bought my copy a few weeks ago I did so from our local Tesco Extra. They had both the original and Platinum version but whilst the Platinum version was about £16 the original version, which I obviously bought, was a shade under £14!

If you want it really cheap though try PC World who currently have it on offer for £4.99 (£8.98 in total as there is a delivery charge of £3.99).

One thing that I've never been able to find out yet though is what ISA stands for. I mean imagine it "Hi, I'm Captain Jan Templar of the Individual Saving Accounts, at your service". Doesn't sound quite right does it? Would have helped if that was explained, eh?

Summary: A good FPS let down by poor story with lack of depth and challenges.