Killzone Impressions

KILLZONE IMPRESSIONS:

Oh boy, there’s so much to discuss that I don’t know where to start. I think we have all gotten past the fact that Killzone is definitely not the Halo killer. So the question thus becomes, what does Killzone kill? Based off my impressions so far, not much.

Lets get the story out of the way.

You start the game as the incredibly generic soldier, Templar. You are a member of the ISA, and your job is simple, protect Earth. But that is as deep as the rabbit hole goes since I haven’t seen the whole story yet. Now about Templar himself. . . Beyond being a member of your eventually four-man crew, there’s nothing memorable about him. Later on you can unlock three more characters. Thus far I’ve unlocked Lugar and Rico, and much like Templar, all of them forgettable.

In a way the characters in Killzone are much like the characters in Brute Force – boring. Not to say they don’t have any personality what so ever, but nothing about them sticks out. There’s little to no character development. Your teammates are often silent on the field, and what they do say isn’t all that important. I was playing as Lugar and I can’t count the number of times I heard Templar say, “Stay out of sight.” Killzone isn’t like Full Spectrum Warrior where you see their personalities shine through in their speech. And frankly, there isn’t enough dialogue in the game period. You hear the same phrases so much you become sick of it.

And another aspect of Killzone that is really bothersome to me is Killzone’s like of time. You seem to randomly jump from location to location throughout Killzone with almost no reason why. Sure you have “missions” to accomplish in each level, and they usually consist of going from location A to location B. But I remember in one level I had to retrieve a key, but I couldn’t understand why I had to get this key. And then when I got the key I didn’t even get to see why it was so important. Nothing changed. There’s no cut scene where soldiers jump in joy at their victory, nothing to show just the smallest spark of hope. On the park level I had to rescue the captain, but I couldn’t remember when he got captured, and when I went to rescue him there wasn’t a huge Helghast defense out there ready to stop me. Heck, I just walked inside a room because I wanted to check for ammo and BAM there he was. Mission accomplished. Mission over.

Sadly, the story does a very poor job of bringing you along. If you’re looking for a good story, or solid character development, prepare to be disappointed. It’s weird, but both Killzone’s gameplay and story can be summed up by saying it lacks big moments. Like in X-Men 2 where Nightcrawler wrecks shop in the opening sequence, you’re just like “Holy sh!t.” And Killzone thus far lacks those holy sh!t moments. No battle is big enough, and no story element is fleshed out enough to care.


So what about the game?!?

Those looking to purchase Killzone are probably wondering, “is the AI as bad as reviewers say?” Sadly, yes. I’m currently four levels deep into Killzone, and the extent of the enemy AI seems to be to shoot, and hide. And those are the only two good aspects of the AI worth talking about. If you’re planting bullet after bullet into a Helghast they will run for cover. Normally you wouldn’t consider AI looking for cover to be anything amazing, but when you factor in all the AI problems Killzone has, their ability to seek cover is freakin’ amazing! However, that isn’t always the case.

Going back to the park level, you have to make you way down a flight of stairs. Below you are two Helghasts protecting the balcony. I was playing as Lugar so I decided to simply snipe one and full the other with lead. I snipe the first soldier, look over to the second, and he doesn’t move. He’s still looking over the balcony protecting his spot. So I snipe that chump too. I admit, I took some joy in taking them out. Regardless, the second soldier should have did something.

After that I make my way down the first flight of stairs. A gang of Helghast soldiers starts to make their way up from the bottom. I take cover behind the railing of the stairs. One soldiers appears at the bottom of the steps, I take him out. Before I even get a chance to look for the next soldier, another Helghast chump is there. I shoot him. I try to move but another soldier walks right on top of his dead friends. So I shoot that little bugger down too. Without even adjusting my aim I was able to plow through three enemies. Mind you, I was playing as Lugar, the STEALTH character. So it’s clear the AI doesn’t have a very good knowledge of their surroundings. At times the AI seems pretty good, but you’ll frequently run into situations where a soldier won’t fire at you when you’re right in his face, they can’t find the target, or they don’t react to their friends getting killed.

Again, it’s cool the AI can run for cover, but the good is severely drowned out by the bad.

Two more problems I had were with Lugar and the Helghasts themselves. Lugar is supposed to be an “assassin” and you think her weapons would be suited for assassination – they are. Too bad the aim is off. I was trying to snipe with Lugar’s standard weapon (which is superior to the sniper rifle in some aspects) and I noticed that even though I had the reticle perfect the bullet still went sharp left. Nothing that distracted me too much, but a noticeable flaw.

My second beef are with the Helghasts. Frankly, I’m tired of shooting them. NOTHING varies from one Helghast to the next. It’s the same sense of glorification no matter what I do, and that leads to the game feeling very repetitive. Not only that, but the Helghast take way too many bullets to take out. Sure you can get headshots, and the shotgun can be deadly at close range, but there appears to be a severe lack of options when it comes to taking the enemy out. There isn’t enough variety in the weaponry. Often your choices are mow down the Helghast faster, or mow them down faster. With Killzone’s futuristic settings you’d expect better weaponry (or at least something cool), but such is not to be found.

I also want to touch on this slowdown problem reviewers have been talking about. Honestly I haven’t seen any slowdown yet. Maybe it’s because I don’t rush into the action and prefer to take enemies out from a distance. Maybe it’s because my PSTwo is just that damn good. Nevertheless, I have yet to experience any slowdown. Then again, I’m only four levels deep too.

While on the subject of graphics, let me talk about them for a second. There are times when the graphics in Killzone are amazing! I remember there’s a spot in a level called New Allies where I walked outside and I think I heard a testicle pop. It was freakin’ beautiful. Then the next level I’m at the park, and it is quite possible the worst looking level I’ve ever seen in my life.

For starters the draw distance is horrible. Trees that are only mere feet away look like gray, blurry, shadows. At one point I was advancing to the next part of the level and the freakin’ ground texture didn’t load. All the textures switched right on the fly and looked something born on the N64. When I was playing with a friend the face texture of one of the soldiers didn’t load, and by god was that ugly. He also told me on the phone later he found a spot where the game was actually cycling through faces before it found the right one. WTF! And sometimes when Helghasts are running towards you their textures don’t fully load and sometimes I even mistake them for fellow soldiers. Add to that visible seams on the walls and you got one highly inconsistent graphic engine. It’s even more inconsistent than Riddick. You think at first that the fog effects apparent in every outdoor level is for atmosphere, but really it’s to cover up all the graphical flaws in the game. In the park level there’s a spot where I looked up and there were these strange looking blurry walls leading up to the sky. I have no clue why they were there, but they were.

Overall the graphics in Killzone are a mixed bag. A REALLY mixed bag.

But tell me how you really feel

Eek! Three pages worth of text and I’m only supposed to be giving my impressions. Some are wondering, “was Killzone worth the fifty?!?” Quite honestly, with seven more levels to go I can’t say for sure. My opinion of the game can either go up or down. But right now I’m leaning towards a 7/10 for Killzone. Yeah, sometimes the game is fun, but there are also undeniable problems throughout. I hated playing as Templar, but had more fun with Lugar because I could get easier headshots. Maybe the fun factor will increase dramatically between now and the end, but Killzone isn’t giving me any reasons to believe so.