E3 2008: Killzone 2 Impressions

Last year, we first got a sample of Killzone 2. We remarked the game for its wonderful sense of scale, the immersion, and how stunning it looked and moved. This is Killzone 2's third E3 appearance (the first being the controversial trailer in 2005), and the game remains one of the busiest titles on the floor.

There are things we liked and didn't like about Killzone 2, but the overall package is definitely that of a winner. The animation, as many of you have seen from footage, is top notch stuff. Killzone 2 is one of the most fluid moving first-person shooters you'll ever lay your eyes on. Your allies and enemies move about realistically, and even properly react to being shot.

We noticed streaks of blood will be left on the floor if a dead enemy happens to slide across it. We also noticed how much on-screen action goes on all around you, it's practically never ending. The backgrounds are filled with a plethora of details, such as the aforementioned action, and structures placed all around you.

Which leads me to mention how diverse the environments are; you won't find yourself running through the same looking rooms and areas, like you would in other FPS games. Every section of a stage has a distinct design and layout. Moreover, the stages are huge, not just in scale, but also in length.

Shooting feels satisfying, but perhaps the game has too much recoil, making it very difficult to do run-and-gun movement. It's still somewhat difficult to even shoot when standing still, but less so than running. Additionally, perhaps this can be attributed to the E3 demo, but it takes too many shots to take down an enemy. I'd have preferred a maximum of three bullets to end a foe, as opposed to what seems like twice that amount.

Killzone 2 is shaping up extremely well, and judging by this E3 demo, it's a very tightly build first-person shooter. The game was presented in Sony's reel of 2008 games, so we can only assume that it's been pushed back up to a holiday 2008 release.

Related Game(s): Killzone 2

7/16/2008 Arnold Katayev