Killzone 2

"Seen it before"

It was with great anticipation that I sat down to finally play Killzone 2, a game which has been widely hailed as the greatest FPS ever. And is it? In short, no. It is a game with nice graphics and a solid FPS heart, but contains nothing original or exceptional and is let down by gameplay problems and poor controls.

So lets start with the good. The quality of the graphics are unquestionably outstanding and show off the power of the PS3, however you never really get to appreciate them as you will be mostly looking at grey\brown ruined buildings and rubble. The environments are very dull and the levels all look very similar with no real individuality. This leads to a feeling of monotony as you feel you've just fought in the same area twenty minutes before.

The entire game just seems to be designed by taking common ideas that appear in other games without adding anything distinctive of its own. Unless you have played very few FPS games before then there is very little which will surprise you, The level objectives\characters\plot\weapons\level design all seem to have been taken from the Big Book of Standard FPS Game Ideas.

The plot and characters are also poor, whilst the cutscenes are incredibly impressive the characters are all paper thin and non-distinctive, the plot is not very interesting and again seems very familiar to lots of other games.

However, as I said above it is quite a solid FPS even if there is nothing new and would be worth of a 7\10, which I rate as good, but nothing great. But there was one major issue. The controls. They are dreadful. I have played lots of FPS games on both consoles and the handling on this game just feels wrong, like driving a car which over steers. It is very difficult to line up shots quickly and fine aiming to get headshots is a pain, it is without a doubt the worst handling on any console FPS game I have ever played. If you are in the habit of turning 90 degrees and quickly being able to pinpoint a headshot then prepare to be frustrated by this game. The button layout is also quite uncomfortable, no matter what layout I had it in the various combinations of zoom\fire\stick to cover always felt wrong.

Overall, not bad if you can manage to overcome poor controls, but nothing impressive or original.

Rent it, but don't buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/09

Game Release: Killzone 2 (EU, 02/27/09)