Being touted by more than a few over zealous magazines and campaigns as the next “Halo killer”, Killzone has probably come closer than any game out there to earn that tile so far, but sadly it does fall shy of the big hit. The story of the game follows four main soldiers in a war against the invading army of Helghan, lovingly referred to as the Helghast army. This nazi-esque military force has arrived to take over the planet but the real reason for the war becomes apparent throughout the duration of the game and all is not as it once seemed to be. As the game starts, you take the reigns of a soldier named Templar and need to make your way to your headquarters. As you reach the base, you find the Helghast have taken it over and you are forced out to fend for yourself. From this point on you will meet up with more members of the ISA, your military branch, and will form a quartet, as well as be given the choice of using their character profiles in future missions in substitution of Templar.
The four characters have their own abilities, each with their strengths and weaknesses. The tough brute Rico can take more damage and has the big guns, but cannot climb ladders nor climb over barricades. Luger, the stealthy assassin, can crawl and sneak around missions, but has very limited health and cannot take direct combat well. Both Templar and the half Helghan, Hakha, round out the middle ground of the group of characters. Picking a character at the beginning of each mission will determine how you will handle each mission, but unfortunately, unless you are using the stealthy assassin, the route is pretty much a linear run and gun and kill everything in your path. The controls are handled much like any other FPS games on the market with a few draw backs. The main gripe being the scope found on the sniper rifle. When you zoom in on the enemy, the cross hair will automatically return to the center of the screen when you release the control stick forcing you to hold the stick in position as you wait for the target to cross your sights.
Other issues being the lack of a cross hair for tossing grenades and the agonizingly slow reload animations. This can be overcome by switching weapons but not something that should have to be done. Although on the other side of the coin, player movements such as climbing ladders and vaulting over obstacles are done very well and actually give the feel of performing the action from a realistic first person view that is not often found. The battles found throughout the game are gritty and hard-hitting and even on the easiest settings the Helghast aren’t to be trifled with. When there is one, there are many and you know you are in trouble when you hear their battle cries. When you do hear them yell, you will get unnerved, but after the fifth or so time, you will be ready to throw your controller through your TV (I found myself yelling at them to shut up). The Helghast all sound the same and they all have this incredibly annoying low toned voice they yell in. Not only does tone make your skin crawl, but they repeat the same things over and over in much too short of a time frame.
During the missions, the atmosphere of each environment is reflected superbly of what they were meant to recreate. Whether it was in the park with trees that blew wind willows past you as you unloaded a round of ammo into an encampment of soldiers, or the shuttle base located in a snowy mountain top fortress, each and every mission gave you a sense of realism and immersed you into the battle. There were times however that pieces of the landscape, both far in the distance and right under your feet, would disappear into thin air, leaving you walking on nothingness for a few seconds. Although the glitch wouldn’t last long and was only found in one mission, it was enough to distract from the game and have the level lose its charisma.
In addition to the eleven white knuckled single player missions, there are more than a few offline and online play modes to get you worked over on. The modes include the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch as well as adding a few more modes in the form of Domination, Supply drop, Assault and Defend and Destroy. Killzone may have not lived up to the title of “Halo Killer”, but the great gameplay and in-depth story line of the single player campaign as well as the multiple modes of online play should keep even the most disparaging gamer happy for quite some time.
