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So. Killzone. Been reading all about how KZ2 will be the mother of all FPS's on PS3 and thought I better check out the first one. I found it for A$20 at JB's so I snaffled it. And if you can't be bothered reading the rest it was worth $20 but probably no more.
So I start playing this game, and it's ok. The manual is short but excellent, with a nice news paper feel that adds some immersion to the game, and provides some cool background information. The voice acting is a bit wooden, the unskippable tutorial first level is a bit boring, and the palate is uninspired to say the least, but it had good basics. Gun sounds were nice I thought, and the weapons themselves may be archetypal but they are done well. The philosophical differences between the Humans and Helghast carry through to their weapons which is nice.
The characters are pretty one dimensional but inoffensive. There is the requisite love complication, the angry heavy weapons guy, and the team bonding you expect in these things. The 4 characters all had some slightly different abilities, but I found myself playing exclusively as Hakha as soon as he was available. He was just a good all rounder. The AI is very simplistic, and some of the elite troops are just cheap bullet sponges. Templar is the main character and he is about as generic a character as you will find. Only a golden facemask would make him more forgettable. Angry heavy weapons is an angry heavy weapons guy. Luger is a slightly more interesting character, a special ops sniper/assassin who seems to have an interesting backstory but it is never really developed. Her primary weapon is a bit underpowered as well. Hakha is a Helghast/Human hybrid which also could provide some great tension in the team but it comes off as more clichés.
The level design was initially interesting, but quickly devolved into a corridor shooter with large corridors. Invisible walls were a bit problematic in the later levels, and the jungle/swamp levels were just a pain. It became walking... AMBUSH! over and over again. The park level was great though, and the docks were well laid out. There are some clipping and rendering issues in the later levels as well, and I sometimes became stuck on stairs. There was also some freaky sparkle from edges in the later levels. So it was alright in it's raw gameplay elements. About what I expected since I had heard it was rushed a bit.
But my god the story is atrocious. I really wanted to like this game. Truly. I wanted to be all keyed up like everyone else for KZ2. But the lame predictable story. It is set in utterly black and white terms. There is no suspense. I think they may have been trying the anti red herring strategy of not having any plot twists even when they seem to be leading up to them. It fails. Miserably. I would have liked some more development of the Helghast instead of the one dimensional treatment they are given here. Hakha helped somewhat in that sense but it was a pretty token effort. It was very much a good vs evil story, but with no real justification for it. The intention was probably to keep a soldiers eye view of it, and not have politics interfere, but the story involves the team directly in the larger outcome of the war so this seems a bit ridiculous.
So in summary it was a solid game I would not have wanted to pay full price for, but nothing very interesting apart from the cool factor of the Helghast design.
Right. That's me done then. It is all just my opinion, feel free to disagree.
So. Killzone. Been reading all about how KZ2 will be the mother of all FPS's on PS3 and thought I better check out the first one. I found it for A$20 at JB's so I snaffled it. And if you can't be bothered reading the rest it was worth $20 but probably no more.
So I start playing this game, and it's ok. The manual is short but excellent, with a nice news paper feel that adds some immersion to the game, and provides some cool background information. The voice acting is a bit wooden, the unskippable tutorial first level is a bit boring, and the palate is uninspired to say the least, but it had good basics. Gun sounds were nice I thought, and the weapons themselves may be archetypal but they are done well. The philosophical differences between the Humans and Helghast carry through to their weapons which is nice.
The characters are pretty one dimensional but inoffensive. There is the requisite love complication, the angry heavy weapons guy, and the team bonding you expect in these things. The 4 characters all had some slightly different abilities, but I found myself playing exclusively as Hakha as soon as he was available. He was just a good all rounder. The AI is very simplistic, and some of the elite troops are just cheap bullet sponges. Templar is the main character and he is about as generic a character as you will find. Only a golden facemask would make him more forgettable. Angry heavy weapons is an angry heavy weapons guy. Luger is a slightly more interesting character, a special ops sniper/assassin who seems to have an interesting backstory but it is never really developed. Her primary weapon is a bit underpowered as well. Hakha is a Helghast/Human hybrid which also could provide some great tension in the team but it comes off as more clichés.
The level design was initially interesting, but quickly devolved into a corridor shooter with large corridors. Invisible walls were a bit problematic in the later levels, and the jungle/swamp levels were just a pain. It became walking... AMBUSH! over and over again. The park level was great though, and the docks were well laid out. There are some clipping and rendering issues in the later levels as well, and I sometimes became stuck on stairs. There was also some freaky sparkle from edges in the later levels. So it was alright in it's raw gameplay elements. About what I expected since I had heard it was rushed a bit.
But my god the story is atrocious. I really wanted to like this game. Truly. I wanted to be all keyed up like everyone else for KZ2. But the lame predictable story. It is set in utterly black and white terms. There is no suspense. I think they may have been trying the anti red herring strategy of not having any plot twists even when they seem to be leading up to them. It fails. Miserably. I would have liked some more development of the Helghast instead of the one dimensional treatment they are given here. Hakha helped somewhat in that sense but it was a pretty token effort. It was very much a good vs evil story, but with no real justification for it. The intention was probably to keep a soldiers eye view of it, and not have politics interfere, but the story involves the team directly in the larger outcome of the war so this seems a bit ridiculous.
So in summary it was a solid game I would not have wanted to pay full price for, but nothing very interesting apart from the cool factor of the Helghast design.
Right. That's me done then. It is all just my opinion, feel free to disagree.
Much more than a solid game I assure you. Is seriously awesome.