first ever review!.... KILLZONE 2 part 1

i'm attempting to write my very first game review as i feel it gives me something productive to do! i spend most of my spare time playing my ps3 and get nearly every major game released, so i thought i would share my honest opinion of them. hopefully reading this will be not only informative but enjoyable too! just remember this is my attempt so it could suck, constructive criticism welcome!

right, now to get on with the blog! being an avid gamer i experience all different sorts of games, from first person shooters (fps) to racing games and everything in between. i'm not a big rpg (roll playing game) fan though, i find alot of them rather slow paced. i much prefer to be in the heat of the action, i play alot of fps as they tend to at least have an element of intensity about them! which brings me nicely the the point of this blog, killzone 2, easily the best fps i have played any format! it just has a feel about it that alot of other games try to achieve but never seem to quite get right.

killzone 2 follows on from the previous killzone (ps2) and killzone liberation (psp), but it isn't 100% necessary to have played them to understand the story. basically, it takes place in a few hundred years and us humans ave seeked out new homes other than our beloved earth. two colonies of humans, vectans (from the planet vecta) and the helghast (from the planet helghan), are at war. you play as a vectan soldier as the vectans invade the helghasts home planet of helghan. here i'll break it down for you, telling you what i feel about each element of the game.

the first thing you notice when you put the disk in the mouth of your beloved ps3 (i said disk!) is that it has no install, this made me a happy bunny as i only have the 40 gig hard drive and its pretty packed! it then starts a pre rendered cinematic showing scolar visari (the leader of the helghast) giving a warning speech to anyone who dare invade helghan. it then shows some pretty impressive scenes of the vectans launching the invasion. now this is pre rendered so i wont comment on the nice looking graphics till i talk about the in game visuals. one of the first things i did notice about the cinematic however was, no one in the game has any eye lashes! i thought at first when it was just visari that being completely balled (as all the helghast seem to be) that he had some form of alopecia, then i noticed he has eye brows! it then panned out to show rico and sev (you will learn more about them later) and they too were missing eye lashes, everyone is, maybe something went wrong when the left earth! anyway, wasn't i writing a review? i got side tracked.

once you start a single player campaign you begin to see what all the fuss was about, the visuals are stunning. its the most visually impressive game i have ever laid my eyes upon, and that was its main selling point for me. the attention to detail is amazing, its all the little things that alot of games leave out, like what would happen if you shoot at a plastic container compared to a metal one. each little object reacts as you would expect and breaks up as it should as well. i spent alot of time just looking at things and shooting them to see how they react, i do that with most games, i'm sad like that! also the smoke and particle effects of the explosions are great, especially when its your grenade blowing up next to a few of gas canisters and a couple of unsuspecting helghast! all you hear is "oh shit!" BOOM! and you are momentarily left in awe, until you notice their buddies jumping over the fence to the left, time to get back in cover. oh, did i just mention cover?

yes, yes i did. the cover system in killzone 2 works perfectly, its the kind of wall hugging action you get in almost every tps action game but is not... its fps... its genius! the gameplay really ads to the intensity of the battle, the guns have a certain weight to them and it feels more solid than some other fps i have played. you also get the chance to try out a couple of vehicles, one being a tank that obliterates any helghast that dare stand against it, the other is a little more special. its a mech suit, a big walking machine that, once your in, makes you a force to be reckoned with. just watch out for those rpgs, they can deal some damage! there is also lots of hidden intel for you to find and pick up, along with hlgan symbols to shoot, which is a nice wee gameplay element that many games incorporate. the good thing about this in killzone 2 however is that when you collect these it unlocks bonus content at www.killzone.com (there will be more about the site later on) along with the great gameplay there is a great sound track. well not really a sound track, just atmospheric music, but you get my drift! the noise of the weapons seems good too, i'm not exactly an expert on guns! it all ads up for a really immersive story. oh, did i just...

now to tell you a little bit about the story, without giving you any major spoilers so you need not worry about reading on if you haven't finished the game yet! as i previously mentioned, the game takes place about 350 years in the future, humans have expanded upon the universe and colonised a few extra planets. two of these planets, vecta and helghan, are now at war with after the helghast invaded vecta in the original killzone game for the ps2. the isa (interplanetary strategic alliance) managed to fight off the helghast assult, but not before they got their hands on a set of vectas nuclear warheads. now the isa plan to invade helghan, a harsh and hostile world, to get rid of the helghast leader, scolar visari. you play the role of sargent tomas sevchenko a.k.a sev. sev part of special forces alpha team along with natko, garza and of course rico, who appeared in the first game. you and your team are sent straight into the battle, not fully knowing what is waiting ahead! the road is bumpy and there is plenty of twists and turns that are bound to keep you enthralled. there is plenty of times in the game where you feel over whelmed and wonder if your going to make it out alive or not. there are also plenty of opportunities to kick the crap out of the helghast troops and there's a great variety of ways to get the blood a spattering!

my overall opinion if the game is very high. it is, and may be for quite some time, one of my favourite games. i really captures the feeling of war and fits it into about 9 hours of truley awesome gameplay! if you haven't got it yet and you own a ps3, buy it. if you don't own a ps3, i strongly recommend buying one!

graphics: 10/10
sound: 8/10
gameplay: 9/10
story: 9/10

overall: 9/10


keep an eye peeled for "second ever review!.... KILLZONE 2 part 2" where i will give my opinion on the fantastic multiplayer!