Killzone 2

Disappointed by the original Killzone? Prepare to forget all about it. Guerrilla Games gets things right second time.

	Version PS3	Developer Guerilla	Publisher SCE	Genre FPS

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Taken together, Killzone 2's somewhat limited field of vision and under-cooked plot threaten to force the verdict down to an incendiary 8.5/10. Fortunately for my personal safety, it also packs a fantastic team-based multiplayer mode. There are six character classes to flip between mid-game: Assault, Medic, Engineer, Saboteur, Scout and Tactician (plus the generic Rifleman class). Each has a primary and secondary ability, or 'badge' - the first available as soon as that class is unlocked, the second obtained by repeating certain actions in battle to win 'ribbons'. Experience points dribble into your online profile at a glacial rate, allowing you a couple of hours to master each class or ability before the next comes into view.

Casual players may be turned off by the time investment required to scale the heights of the character development tree, but they can take some consolation in the fact that no player, however equipped, is above Killzone 2's remorseless combat realism. Whether you're a fledgling Private or a grizzled Colonel armed with cloaking technology and portable machine gun turrets, you're just as likely to eat tarmac if you're caught unawares.

The eight maps are as intricate and polished as the single player levels they're based on, and there are five match types - playable one after the other in a single bout, if you so choose - to coax out the many nuances. In a brilliantly simple touch, games can be configured to let hosts switch match types on the fly: if you're halfway through a spot of Bodycount (deathmatch) and a large number of players quit out, you might change to the self-explanatory Capture and Hold, drawing players together and thus keeping the action tight. Beyond the arena there's clan support, with the option to bet Valor points (an entirely virtual but, we're sure, soon-to-be coveted online currency) on the outcome of tournaments, and enough in the way of player percentages and ratios to keep those statistical willy-wavers happy.

It's here, in the company of up to thirty-one players at once, that you'll discover the tactical depth the campaign somewhat struggles to realise. The same taut principles of taking cover and peek-shooting apply, but if that's all you bring to the party they'll soon be sponging you out of the carpet. More able (and longer lived) players will try to compensate for limited health and sluggish turning rates by joining four-strong squads, equipped with their own private voice channel, and switch classes to suit the broad strokes of team strategy.

If it isn't the War To End All Wars some have prophesised, Killzone 2 is definitely the exclusive FPS your PS3 has been waiting for. While the intensity of the spotlight Guerrilla brings to bear on how you go about shooting stuff occasionally leaves its scenarios in the dark, those intimidating good looks, chiselled hide-and-seek engagements and savage online modes are plentiful compensation. After almost five years of infamy, the franchise has taken revenge on its critics.

Killzone 2 Coverage Center
•   Killzone 2: Exclusive Guerrilla Interview 1: Steven Ter Heide (Producer) & Mathijs De Jonge (Director)
(Sep 7, 2007)
•   Killzone 2: Multiplayer Beta Hands-On Preview: Extensive playtest of the latest multiplayer build (13 Nov, 2008)
•   Killzone 2: Singleplayer Hands-On (Dec 9, 2008)
•   Exclusive Guerilla Interview 2: Eric Boltjes and Angie Smets (Online Multiplayer Producers) (Dec 22, 2008)
•   10 Ways to Not Get Owned in Killzone 2 (Jan 23, 2009)
•   Discussion: Killzone 2 Surpasses Target Renders (Jan, 2009)
•   Killzone 2: The $545 Press Kit Exposed! (Jan 23, 2009)
•   Killzone 2: The Review (Feb 2, 2009)
•   Feature: Killzone 2 Successor (Feb 27, 2009)

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