What’s this? [Update!]

Because we here at CL are all about the strange acquisition of things that no one else gets their hands on (see the latest Random Select for our SF4 stylings)

This post WILL be updated later this afternoon with my thoughts.

[Update!]

Oh my, I thought upon booting the game up.

“Is this really from the same group of people who released Killzone 5 years ago?”

Guerilla is on to something.

The demo takes you through what looks like the initial raid of the Helghast world that looks suspiciously like the E3 2006 video, then quickly descends into utter chaos that basically has you fighting your way to, into, and through one of their bases. Slightly like storming the beach on D-Day, but with hovercraft.

..and less Nazis.

There is a certain way you present all out war, with a level of intensity and immediacy that makes you feel NOT like Rambo, but as a small cog in an overall great chain of death. It’s not easy to pull off, and more often than not, a game falls off the deep end and presents you as a supersoldier surrounded by a group of idiot cannon fodder. Infinity Ward (Call of Duty 2, 4) , Ubisoft (G.R.A.W., Rainbow Six: Vegas) know this balance and have been getting it right since this gen started. I’m more than pleased to add Guerilla to that list, because my god, they nailed it to a tee. There’s always something going on. If something isn’t exploding, there’s gunfire, if there aren’t a group of soldiers running nearby (who very much come off as capable and as vulnerable as you are), there are Helghast attempting to pin you down. There wasn’t one point in the demo where I felt like I should stand still and I have to commend Guerilla for actually CAPTURING war in its essence.

If there were any doubt in my mind that this game was going to rock the gaming landscape upon its release, it’s been successfully squashed by this demo.

From the absolutely superb visual presentation, showcasing effects, textures, motion blur in a way I’ve never seen (I spent time trying to find egregious graphical flaws while being shot at to no avail), to the absolutely superb and intuitive cover mechanic (Epic nailed it in 3rd person, Guerilla HAS got it in 1st), Killzone 2 is not only a showcase of what the PS3 can do when a developer puts its face to the metal, but it’s also an excellent shooter as well.

Screenshots do not do it justice. Seeing the game in action is telling. The animations , from the realistic and disorienting head movement of your character, to the way your teammates and opponents stumble around in a heated firefight, are well done. The actual in-game graphics and texture work are phenomenal. The lighting is excellent, and the subtle details like clouds of smoke being affected by wind and movement, to motion blur are pulled off with nary a hitch. The game simply looks right, is quite poossibly the best looking game I’ve ever seen, and that’s the highest credit I can give without feeling like I’m repeating myself.

Controls are also nice. While there is an inexplicable lack of secondary fire (wha?), the layout is slightly confusing, but easy to get into. Though it’s a bit slower paced than other FPS games, it feels tight enough that aiming never feels off, nor your movement sluggish.

The cover system also deserves special mention, because while it is something that has been done before in other games, it hasn’t been done quite like this. Rainbow Six Vegas introduced a cover system, but it was one that forced a third person view of your character, effectively taking you out of their shoes and into avatar viewing mode. In Killzone 2, holding the L2 button sticks you into cover, and gives you limited viewing space over the object you’re behind (not staring directly into a grey texture and playing guessing games as to where the enemy is located), and the ability to pop in and out at will. You can shoot from the hip, cook grenades, even mantle towards other objects, all in first person. It’s slick, intuitive, and kudos to them for keeping it in first person, as it ups the immersion considerably.

Sound wise, it falters in only one area — the voice acting. Teammates range from sounding urgent and serious to “YEE HAW” redneck, to high school teenager within moments. It randomly changes from battle epic to Xbox Live at times, and is the only thing marring an otherwise stellar audio presentation (one of few games that pushes my receiver into DTS mode) with meaty sounding weapons and a rocking orchestral score.

There isn’t much else I can say, given that this was literally a 20 minute demo and not an entire game , but what I will say is this:

Killzone 2 is excellent, and the 25th cannot come sooner.