It's hard to believe that Killzone 2 came out over eight years ago. Having just played through the campaign recently, I can say that this is up there with Horizon as Guerrilla Games' best work. In my opinion no other FPS campaign has captured the sci-fi warzone setting better than KZ2, and its audiovisual spectacle continues to impress even by today's standards. The game's visual presentation borders on CGI film-quality throughout most of its duration despite only rendering at 720p. It's nuts.
If Guerrilla ever does decide to return to the Killzone franchise, I wholeheartedly hope that they build on the successes of KZ2. As someone who has played the entire series now, I completely understand why KZ2 was not only the biggest critical success but also tends to be the fan-favorite alongside Guerrilla Cambridge's excellent Killzone: Mercenary on the Vita.
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
I agree. I really liked the first killzone on ps2 and was excited about the sequel, but its like they took out all the interesting ideas from the first gsme to make it as generic as possible, though admittedly a more polished game.
I remember the AI was really smart in that game. They would work at flanking you whenever you tried hunkering down and they would do it from opposite sides
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
It's hard to believe that Killzone 2 came out over eight years ago. Having just played through the campaign recently, I can say that this is up there with Horizon as Guerrilla Games' best work. In my opinion no other FPS campaign has captured the sci-fi warzone setting better than KZ2, and its audiovisual spectacle continues to impress even by today's standards. The game's visual presentation borders on CGI film-quality throughout most of its duration despite only rendering at 720p. It's nuts.
I popped this in to my PS3 for the first time ever yesterday just to see if I could play it (I'm not good enough with a controller to play an FPS that doesn't have some sort of aim assistance) and yeah - that's one fantastic intro. It really looks impressive and throws you right into the action, and I was genuinely surprised to see just how old it is. It looks beautiful, and I just wanted to play right then and there despite only having about 10 minutes to check things out.
It reminded me of the intro to Crysis (especially that bit with the sunrise as you approach the first enemy camp). If this is what they did to open Killzone 2 then I really want to see what Horizon Zero Dawn is like...
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
I sure remember how much I hated the final boss and that it pretty much ruined the entire game for me.
What I liked most about the game was my time playing the beta with GAF (for some reason I never spent much time on the actual multiplayer). It's not a great game, I think it got by thanks to amazing graphics, hype, and the miserable state of the PS3's library at the time.
The game got me into playing games at a harder difficulty. Elite was great, the ai was smart as well. Killing Radec on the hardest difficulties was really rewarding, almost like a shooter equivalent to a souls boss.
The MP was probably one of the best of that consoles generation. Sever browsers, make your own server, clan support, great maps and weapons. I managed to get the Platinum for the game even with that top 1% trophy.
Killzone 2's campaign would have been better if everything wasn't literally brown and grey and one of your sidekick NPCs didn't use the word "Fuck" 2-3 times in every sentence he spoke.
Killzone 2's campaign would have been better if everything wasn't literally brown and grey and one of your sidekick NPCs didn't use the word "Fuck" 2-3 times in every sentence he spoke.
I'm still sad they pushed technologically further into the Sci-Fi aspects ( GIANT MECHA ROBOTS out of nowhere, Sci-Fi laser guns, secret planet destroying doomsday weapon ) and generic 'we're the good guys' with Killzone 3. Shadow Fall was even worse, pushing the technology way too far ahead and having the story be about super secret badass agent man stopping a double-triple-cross conspiracy involving the comic book super-villain from Killzone 3.
Killzone 2 was about a war and it was gritty and ugly and grounded ( for a space shooter ). You are part of a war machine and I never felt like the actions of the squad were constructed as heroic. You are there because there is a war to fight, and in the end, there is just death and nothing is 'won'. It's not heroic, it's dirty and gritty and that's the point.
Killzone 3 was about stopping the comic-book super-villain from destroying Earth ( uh, why is Earth suddenly important at all? ) with a planet-destroying doomsday weapon. Also you fight enormous mecha robots that kind of appeared out of nowhere and fly around in a zippy space-ship and things. And you and your squad are now pretty much the most important thing in the story vs. part of a bigger war apparatus. And in the end you ' accidentally' blow up an entire planet.
In Killzone: Shadow Fall you're a super important super secret badass spy man on a secret mission to unravel a double-triple-cross conspiracy involving the comic-book super-villain from Killzone 3 ( who survived... somehow? ) in a futuristic city with your multi-mode laser-gun and personal high-tech combat drone.
If they ever revisit the Killzone frachise, they need to go back to what made Killzone 2 great; no super secret badass agent man, no super-villains out to destroy the world, no super-advanced weapons / technology aside from maybe one experimental weapon, no double-triple-cross conspiracy nosense, etc. Keep it gritty, grey, and grounded.
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
Yep, Resistance was always the better Sony shooter.
Now I don't love Horizon as much as some on this board but it's difficult to believe that it was made by the same team that made the Killzone games. Just so much better in every conceivable way.
The AI is up there among the best in the genre, IMO. It might even be THE best for me, personally. The Helghast display aggression, self-preservation, and effective group tactics throughout every engagement. It's really impressive and makes every firefight intense.
Probably my favorite shooter last gen, loved the gameplay and the whole atmosphere of the game, the BETA and first few months of the multiplayer were also some of the most fun I've had with a shooter online.
Great game, but the story was a shit-show. I don't think I will ever understand why they dumped Templar, Luger and Hakha in favor of some random guy and an obnoxious Rico.
It's a gorgeous looking game and I liked the gameplay but I don't see what makes the campaign that great to be honest.
Protagonists? Shit
Writing? Shit
Story? Shit
Level design? Mediocre
I can hardly even remember the level flow aside from the last mission which wasn't even that good. Could have had an amazing fight against Radec too...
That said, now that Guerrilla hired those Witcher and New Vegas ex-employees to work on Horizon, I can't wait to see what they do with the Killzone license.
Yeah I agree with this. I'll also add the ally AI was so bad that on higher difficulties I would shoot them or let them get shot down so they'd just stay out of the way.
The AI is up there among the best in the genre, IMO. It might even be THE best for me, personally. The Helghast display aggression, self-preservation, and effective group tactics throughout every engagement. It's really impressive and makes every firefight intense.
I have a weird love hate relationship with this franchise, Killzone 2's first half is one of the grittiest, immersive, atmospheric, haunting war shooters I've ever played, then the last half becomes your typical boring "stop the nukes" action fair.
The game was very competent in the first half of making you feel like another cog in a war machine, despite the somewhat average level design, the atmosphere and tense firefights especially when played on Elite difficulty with the hud and crosshair disabled was really enthralling. Its a shame they could never capture that moment throughout the entire series.
Well now that Horizon Zero Dawn is out I'd love to see them return to their roots with a DLC or something based on [Big HZD Spoilers]
humanities last stand against the Faro plague. They could even do it first person style from the eyes of the troops on the front line as they are basically fed into a meat grinder of unstoppable machines.
I mean other than being horribly unpleasant to look at I guess. I mean plenty of games were brown and gray, everything from WWII-era Call of Duty to Doom and Quake are like that. But Killzone was just very unpleasant to look at and play. I think the weird control lag and the perspective being from your gun which made it look like you were 3 feet tall also contributed to that generally unhappy play experience for me.
