Product Description

Killzone is a squad-based first-person shooter, set in the near future during a period of planetary colonization. An invading separatist faction called the Helghast is trying to destroy your colony and take over the planet. Command an elite squad as they stand between the Helghast and their destruction of the colony. Drawing inspiration from classical military conflicts of the 20th century, Killzone is an all-around military experience that will blow you away.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1527 in Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Model: 711719740223
• Released on: 2006-06-15
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50 pounds

Features

• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Action

Customer Reviews

A LOT OF BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
Yeah, sometimes the AI is stupid and sometimes the game doesn't move as fast as some people would like. But to me, KILLZONE is FPS (first person shooter) GOLD. It reminds me of the first TENCHU game. People said it was rough and unpolished, but it turned out to be one of the most amazing gameplay experiences I've ever had. The TENCHU series went downhill from there with analog controls and never lived up to the original. So don't wait for the second KILLZONE hoping there will be big improvements. You may be missing out. Don't listen to professional or jaded Amazon critics. People are just too picky. There are too many game geeks who don't like certain games because they don't live up to the expectations of some other game. Be fair. I don't care if KILLZONE is a HALO killer. IT'S NOT. And I don't care if this game pushes the PS2 to the limits of the hardware. IT DOES. To me, it's all about the gameplay. And I haven't been this immersed in a FPS since playing MEDAL OF HONOR FRONTLINE. THIS GAME SMOKES AND IT LOOKS HEAVY METAL PSYCHO!! BUT BE PREPARED TO DIE A FEW TIMES.

I still play FRONTLINE so it took me a little time to get a handle on the controls. All movement for KILLZONE, like RED FACTION, is done via both analog sticks including side-to-side movement, which is actually more intuitive than the shoulder buttons utilized by FRONTLINE. After some practice with the controls all hell broke loose and those Helghast troops were dropping like flies. Occasionally I throw a grenade when I mean to sidestep enemy fire. Oops. One of the BEST features is the SENSITIVITY SETTING for X and Y axis, or up-and-down and side-to-side movement, which can be adjusted ingame in the ADVANCED SETTINGS during PAUSE. When I first started playing I had to set the SENSITIVITY very low, but as my learning curve improved I continued to raise the SENSITIVITY during gameplay. VERY NICE. ADVANCED SETTINGS are not in the MAIN MENU and are not fully explained in the MANUAL. For example: I turned ON the AUTO-CENTER feature in the ADVANCED SETTINGS and I assumed it was for auto-targeting. If it is, it doesn't work as I didn't notice any difference when it was turned OFF. Maybe another reviewer can enlighten me about this feature.

Some complained about the reloading and grenade tossing animations being too slow and wrong for the game. It's realistic and part of the strategy. And it looks awesome. There's even a counter on grenades for when you're cooking one up. The AUTO-RELOAD feature can be turned OFF and reloading should be done while you are running or in a defilade position. And, if you take a lot of enemy fire your HEALTH BAR respawns after time.

Some complained about the SNIPER RIFLE being too hard to aim. Again, it's realistic and requires a steady hand. Don't forget, like I did, to use the upward directional button after pressing R3 to FULLY ZOOM in on your target. It makes it much easier to get that KILLSHOT. Some of the STANDARD weapons also have a ZOOM feature with a press of the R3 button. It can be a little disorienting switching between ZOOM and NORMAL VIEW, but once you get used to it, it's a welcome feature.

SOME SINGLE PLAYERS MAY WORRY about the ONLINE feature eating up a big portion of the gameplay. NEVER FEAR. KILLZONE GIVES YOU A LOT OF BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. The single player CAMPAIGN contains 11 HUGE levels that you can revisit at anytime after completion. (However, you'll lose your game in progress on a level if you go back.) The multiplayer BATTLEFIELDS contain 6 TEAM ARENAS that can be played ONLINE or OFFLINE, alone or with a friend. If you don't have a friend to play with or you have a friend who spends every waking hour playing and continually frags your sorry behind, every ARENA can be adjusted and played solo with AI bots, spawning, time limits, and more, depending on your skill level. You can also play as ISA goodguys or HELGHAN badboys. Nice, because the different factions use different weapons. So, you can pick-up, sample, and use them all. Even if you don't play ONLINE. (However, you can't play as Helghast in the CAMPAIGN mode.) PERFECT FOR THE CASUAL OR HARDCORE GAMER. Perfect for me, because I'm an older gamer and most of my friends are married with children and don't play video games. Suckers!! THANKS, GUERRILLA. I WAS WORRIED THERE FOR A MINUTE. GROWN MEN SHOULDN'T BE HAVING THIS MUCH FUN. (One of my older friends came by to check out the game and we ended up playing for 6 straight hours.)

THE GRAPHICS ARE AMAZING. While answering a phone call, after just starting this game, I was watching the DEMOS on the MAIN MENU (I never pause my 41" SONY XBR TV ingame for long periods of time for fear of phosphor burn on my tube), and sat there slack-jawed. The graphics almost looked CELL-SHADED. INCREDIBLE. LIKE A HEAVY METAL OR ANIME CARTOON.

Also includes a WIDESCREEN SETTING, DTS PRO LOGIC, and full CONTROLLER CUSTOMIZATION. SWEET.


MOST PARENTS DON'T CARE, BUT HERE'S A WARNING: KILLZONE IS LOADED WITH FOUL LANGUAGE, ALTHOUGH THE VIOLENCE IS NOT GRAPHIC. THE BLOOD IS VERY SUBDUED. NO EXPLODING HEADS OR DISMEMBERED LIMBS. SO ACT ACCORDINGLY. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE THAT SORT OF THING: BUMMER. MAYBE NEXT TIME.

IF YOU LOVE FPS's, THIS IS A MUST HAVE. I DON'T HAVE BROADBAND, SO BE SURE AND READ OTHER REVIEWS FOR ONLINE PLAY. KILLZONE WILL MAKE A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT FOR THAT HARD-TO-BUY-FOR KILLER ON YOUR LIST. ENJOY.

Reviewed from the beta test
I along with probably 10 thousand others are beta testing this game right now, and I'm here to tell you it kicks butt. It's been dubbed the "Halo-Killer", but that name doesn't do it justice. It's simply not comparable to Halo. Killzone is a FPS, which I'm sure you already know the storyline so I won't get into that. The weapons range from regular handguns to machine guns to missle launchers. When you fire off any of these there's this realism to it, the sound, the kick of the gun, it's just brilliant. This game is very gritty. The colors aren't bright and obnoxious, they actually make you feel like you're in a possible warzone. The control is tight, comparable to other FPS.

The one thing me and many others have commented about already is how severly addictive this game is. Get online, join an ISA team or Helghast team and just try to put the controller down. Wether you're in a deathmatch or another form of play, you simply can't stop playing. So good. I'll definitely pick this up when it comes for PS2, and I advise you do the same if your a FPS gamer.

Not your average FPS
Having seen the average reviews in the various game magazines (both on-line and in print), I was not expecting too much, though I felt compelled to check it out because of the incredible art design that was evident in the demo. I was led to believe that this game occasionally looked pretty good, but the game-play was pretty standard as far as FPS's go. I'm in my mid-thirties, and started playing FPS's when Castle Wolfenstein came out so many years ago. Having only played a little of both Halo and Halo 2 (both of which do not particularly interest me), I can't make a fair comparison, so I won't bother. I only played the game on "Hard", and I recommend turning off "auto-reload" in your options. I did not play Killzone long enough on-line to make a fair assessment, so I'll only cover the single-player game.

To begin, the art design is simply incredible, and is easily among the best that I've ever seen in a game. The level of detail is simply astounding, and the rich environments really create a sense of time and place. It seems that an awful lot of effort was put into thinking about how everything in the environment has a logical place in this virtual universe. On the downside, the presentation of this environment is marred by an unsteady frame-rate (10-15 fps as a guess in some cases) and plenty of fogging- neither of which significantly affect the game-play.

I found the game-play to be rather innovative precisely because of two things: long reload times and the ability to sprint for short periods of time. You cannot fire or reload while sprinting, so this ability is used primarily for running out in the open while you are trying to reach some cover. This can make for some incredibly intense moments as you make a mad dash to get out of range of grenades and machine guns. Enemies will advance on you without suppressive fire, and they also hide behind cover, so they may not be easy to hit. In fact, you may not even know where they are at times. Getting close to enemies usually results in quick death, so you are "encouraged" to neutralize enemies at range. This forces the player to slow down somewhat and think about how to eliminate threats. I much prefer this to mindless running around and blasting everything in sight, and repeating this until you get the pattern down for any particular level. Almost every time I played through a section, I found myself approaching the problem slightly differently. As has been stated elsewhere, level structure is fairly linear (think Medal of Honor) , with some variation available by playing a different character (there are four). The game-play described above prevent this from being a repetitive annoyance, so the linear aspect is not a downside.

What is a downside however is the so-called "glass walls" that you will occasionally run into and the knee-high obstacles that you cannot climb over. Additionally, some levels do not look as good (I'm thinking of the jungle) as the rest of the game. The enemy animations often look awkward, though I think they took the correct approach by using rag-doll physics- they just didn't have the time to refine these things before the holiday rush. These are minor complaints, and along with the presence of a few annoying bugs suggest that Guerrilla needed a few more months to iron everything out.

Overall a very enjoyable experience, certainly something that is worth having as part of your game library. The inclusion of on-line play adds a lot of value to this title.