Killzone 2

(Page 1 of 2)

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) on Friday held a hands-on pre-E3 media day in the penthouse suite of L.A.'s posh Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.

A persistent swarm of journos hovered around the two 40-inch HDTVs showing Killzone 2, the third in Guerrilla Games' futuristic 3-D shooter series and the first to make an appearance on the PlayStation 3. Not to conflict with other first-party shooters, namely the next SOCOM and Resistance titles, both due out in November, Killzone 2 is slated for a February '09 launch.

We wanted to see if the gameplay lived up to its purty graphics, so we tackled the intense 20-minute demo, taken from the second level in the game (which will take about 45 minutes to complete in total).

The game takes place a few hundred years into the future on the planet of Helghan, the home of the nasty Helghast race. You play as Sev, a new character with the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA), who crash-lands on the planet in a flying Intruder vehicle. Your goal is to work with other ISA convoys to preemptively strike the Helghast and capture its emperor, Visari. Naturally, this isn't going to be a cakewalk.

Similar to Killzone and Killzone: Liberation, as well as other first-person military shooters like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, the action in Killzone 2 is frantic, complete with soldiers running past you and screaming for cover (including some bodies on fire), bullets whizzing past your head, and deafening detonations going off, lighting up the sky with fiery explosions and thick black plumes of smoke. You'll start this level assisting other ISA troops, activating switches and turning wheels to open floodgates, crossing canals and securing a warehouse -- all the while fighting off resistance with weapons of mass destruction including machine guns, hand pistols, grenades and such.

Speaking of weapons, we encountered a scenario where you can use your gun to pick off Helghasts on a bridge firing at you behind stationary gun turrets, but new Helghast enemies will simply take their place, get behind the trigger and continue shooting at you. (Sometimes you can pick off their helmets first, which is fun). In order to cease their attacks, however, you need to find a nearby rocket launcher to take down the entire bridge barricade.

Visually, the game looks great thanks to its high-definition and detailed soldier models, special effects and huge environments. Even subtle touches stand out, including the reloading animations, sunlight pouring into a dusty warehouse, water dripping from the ceiling, and bits of blood splattering on the "camera" as if you were watching documentary of a war zone.

Fans of the original might see familiar faces from previous games, such as Sergeant Rico, but you won't step foot on Vekta, the homeland of the ISA and where you spent your time in the first couple of Killzone games. If this level is any indication, the color palette remains dominated by dark and earthy tones, mixed with lots of silver. A blur effect helps keep the action dramatic while you run past a heated exchange between the ISA and Helghast. The frame rate was a bit choppy at times, including a couple of video stutters and the odd crash, but the developer has plenty of time to fix these bugs and optimize performance.