Killzone 2 is not revolutionary. Killzone 2 is not perfect and Killzone 2 is not frustration free. Killzone 2 is, however, a beautiful, excellently executed first-person shooter, full of satisfying gunfights, explosions and swearing – basically the gaming world’s equivalent of a blockbuster action movie. Just like a top-notch action movie, what lies within is polished to an amazing sheen.

Also like a top-notch action movie, though, certain tropes and problems from previous efforts in the genre are carried forward, with no solution except to blind the audience with the light shining from the polished elements, hoping that no-one notices the wrinkles.

Killzone 2 tells the tale of the inhabitants of colony planet Vekta mounting a retaliatory invasion on colony planet Helghan, home of the series’ bad guys, the Helghast. You play as one Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko, as you lead a squad of elite soldiers on an initial assault on the planet, with the aim of capturing the Helghast leader, Scolar Visari, and bringing the interplanetary war to an end.

Familiar faces from previous games show up to help take the planet, but the invading Vektans soon discover that the Helghast have readily adapted to the hostile conditions on Helghan, also taking full advantage of a special resource beneath the planet’s surface, which, once harnessed, gives the home side a distinct upper hand.

The story is told through a combination of cinematics, cut-scenes and first-person scripted events as you travel first from your invading ship and then down to Helghan’s surface, during which time you will run through a variety of industrial complexes, shanty towns, sewer tunnels, an abandoned desert village, a mining facility and more – Killzone 2 has quite a bit of diversity in the types of areas you’ll visit, but not really in terms of colour palette, as most everything is grimy, or rusted, or grimy and rusted. This is never truly a problem, and while reflective of the current situation of wartime, a bit of greenery or colour vibrancy may have eased the feeling of visual heaviness throughout the campaign.

As for the visuals in general, we can talk about the overall graphics quality in the game, the main offender when it comes to distracting diversions – Killzone 2 is an amazing looking game. As mentioned in our first impressions with Killzone 2, everything on the screen at any one time contributes to the overall visual fidelity. Debris and smoke realistically float through the air to add density to the environment, light filters through grates to add dramatic illumination, character animations are smooth and convincing, shooting animations and reload actions are weighty and forceful, texture work is consistently great, models are detailed… it all adds up to a game that easily provides one of the best looking experiences yet realised on any platform.

Gunplay is similarly impressive, using those self-same smooth and convincing animations to good effect, making weapon fire meaty and enemy take-downs satisfying, with reload and grenade throw animations in-between all the fighting adding real physicality to your in-game persona. Adding even further to the visceral atmosphere of combat are the multitude of shouts and barks your allies and enemies will let out during any given firefight, confirming kills, relating their dismay regarding a current skirmish or expressing relief that the fight is over. The language used is definitely of a blue nature, but it does help to convey how badly the situation has decayed at any given moment.

To ably hide your in-game persona from in-game bullets aiming to tear your body apart, while you’re not aiming down your sights at an enemy, Killzone 2 uses a cover system similar to current third-person shooters that effectively ‘locks’ you into position, either behind conveniently placed waste-high walls and debris, or up against the corner of walls to peek around the edge, popping a few rounds off before ducking back into safety. The cover system works well most of the time, but some surfaces that you would like to use as cover in the way the game intends (locking yourself into position) don’t work the way you want, quickly leading to enemy fire finding its way into your skull. Still, it works admirably throughout the campaign and you will rarely ever die because of it.

Killzone 2 uses the tried and tested weapon slot system, in that you are only given a set number of weapon slots (two) with which to fill with your weapons of choice, picking and choosing from weapons strewn across the floor or at one of the many weapon caches found in the world. The problem is that you can only use one slot for a handgun-type weapon and the other slot for a heavier weapon – anything from rifles to flamethrowers to rocket-launchers to grenade launchers.

Given that the handgun is hardly ever used (very rarely, in a pinch), you effectively only have one weapon slot to fill up with a heavy weapon, which exacerbates the problem of having to choose the correct weapon for the situation and situations to come – it would have been nice, for example, to have a sniper rifle and a closer range rifle at once, rather than having to choose between one or the other when you’re given the chance to pick them up, with no knowledge of what awaits you around the corner. A strange decision indeed.

Other elements of Killzone 2 that add negatively and positively to the gunplay include the need to use burst fire and crouch while firing, as not doing so will result in your weapon’s accuracy being reducing to nothing in no time. Realistic as it may be, it would have been great to occasionally waltz into a room and simply hose the enemies while barrelling towards them, which is another big no-no in Killzone 2. You are actively encouraged to use cover and move slowly through a level full of enemies, otherwise you’re bound to get cut to ribbons with their seemingly endless barrage of bullets.

Enemies use this tactic of cowering behind cover as well, sometimes to frustrating degrees. They’ll pop out of cover to head to the next cover point, or run if they see a grenade casually tossed their way, but generally they tend to stick to their position, while you wait for the first opportunity to hit them between the eyes. Sometimes this adds to the tension of battle, but the waiting game can get irritating.

Gameplay contributions from enemy and ally artificial intelligence, meanwhile, ranges from seemingly smart to obviously silly. Enemies will consistently try to flush you out of your position with grenades and outflank you, trying to gain an upper hand. Allies, meanwhile, will see nothing wrong with shooting at walls, floors and ceilings in the hopes of hitting their target… a target that is separated from them by those walls, floors and ceilings. Sometimes this can actually help, as allies tip you off to an enemy’s presence with their wasteful blind fire, but most of the time, it just looks plain stupid as one of your squad mates furiously sprays his ammunition at a wall with no enemy in plain sight.

With all of the whiz-bang surrounding you in terms of blockbuster production values and actual explosions and gunfire, you may overlook a few things that developers Guerrilla and publishers Sony may have wanted to try and tackle. There is no need for Killzone 2 to be revolutionary to be a good game, but some of the attention paid to the graphics and gameplay mechanics could have benefited other areas where the experience settles into a familiar groove - a groove formed by countless shooters that have come before. Grooves such as endless enemy spawning and waves of enemies, systematic ‘boss’ fights, the sheer linearity of areas and the overt reliance on you, the player, to be the hero at all times, from taking the turret and mowing down enemies, to pushing buttons, laying charges and turning valves, because no-one can call an elevator like you can.

Obviously, players need to be made the centre of attention in a game, and allies are autonomous enough to get stuff done, but it is a little tiring to be constantly told what to do, when someone else could have done it in the time it took to be told what must be done.

Other niggles with the Killzone 2 experience are as the word implies, but can be distracting when they all add up to a feeling of being fitted with blinders during the times when you most need to see as much as possible. For example, when reloading, your gun is placed on either side of your vision, effectively blindsiding you and decreasing your awareness of activity to that side. When you get shot, and are shot multiple times in succession, your view is spattered with blood and all colour drains from the screen, again narrowing your vision at a time when you need to know exactly where your enemies are, so you can run in the opposite direction.

Final contributors to this ‘blinder’ phenomenon are the strange darkened corners around the edges of the screen as well as a feeling that your field of view has been zoomed in a little too far, eliminating any ‘peripheral vision’ you may enjoy in other shooters. Again, these are niggles (and very specific niggles) but they can get distracting if you notice them… oops.

One last component of Killzone 2 that needs to be mentioned, but can’t necessarily be fleshed out here, is that of multiplayer. Players are afforded two ways to hone their online skills, either with Warzone in real, online servers, shooting it out against humans, or in the Skirmish mode, fighting against intelligent bots. Both modes allow you to play in team-based matches of up to sixteen players (eight versus eight) in a range of maps, as you progress through multiple mission modes in a single map, mixing up the variety of actions experienced in the same map, while also keeping the pace of each mode pleasantly short (five minutes or less). There is also a deep ‘job’ system, where you will be able to upgrade your abilities the more you play, making you a more effective killing machine in the process.

While it’s too early to tell how well Killzone 2’s multiplayer will be adopted, if online discussion is anything to go by the PlayStation 3 has found its online shooter of choice. With PS3 fans largely starved for an excellent, competitive online arena, Killzone 2 should serve players very well, now and in the future.

Killzone 2 is not revolutionary. Killzone 2 is not perfect and Killzone 2 is not frustration free. Killzone 2 is, however, a game that shooter fans dare not overlook, not simply because of the sheer spectacle of the graphics quality or the excellently paced and well conceived set piece firefights, but to experience these things firsthand. Despite its niggles and blemishes, and the fact that the developers could have found solutions to old game problems, Killzone 2 is an excellent shooter, from beginning to end, never letting the cracks show through the polish.

There are times when Killzone 2 approaches a brilliance that no other game has yet reached and, for these moments alone, the game is justified. With the fully featured and basically future-proof multiplayer component ready to pick up the slack when the singleplayer campaign is finished and drained, Killzone 2 is easy to recommend to shooter fans looking for a wonderfully visceral and excellently executed experience.

Pros: Visually amazing; satisfying gunplay mechanics; good use of the cover mechanic; fully featured multiplayer component; feeling of weight and presence; great sound effects and orchestral score/background music; cool mech section

Cons: Can feel like a deadly game of whack-a-mole; no solutions to old action game problems; strange weapon allotment system; can get visually confusing (blinders, and visual effects associated with health loss); use of SixAxis controls seem tacked on and unnecessary; doesn’t mention the repercussions of breathing in acidic Helghast air; lazy reliance on a navigation marker button

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