Game rating: Killzone 2

[mmosu]

Game title
Killzone 2

Category            Rating            Comments Story line 5 Nothing special or unexpected.  You're a grunt thrown into a crappy situation by a largely incompetent chain of command, and you quickly find yourself in over your head and without much support.  Standard FPS stuff, I don't think any awards are going to be handed out for writing.  There is a cool moment late in the game though, where Helghast dictator Scolar Visari demonstrates just how much he is willing to sacrifice for victory with a less than judicious use of WMD's. Graphics 8 This game looks GOOD!!!  Graphics are sharp and well rendered. Depth of field effects cause the right parts of what you're looking at to always be either in and out of focus without being a nuisance.  Particle effects fill the screen with dust, smoke, sparks, and chunks of concrete.  The rag-doll animations are entertaining and fairly realistic without being so over the top that they become distracting.  Lighting effects are dramatic and well placed and all the little details are present that we miss in some other games (for instance, you cast a shadow).  Sound 8 This rating comes with some qualifiers.  First, some of the cut-scene voice acting of the main characters falls flat at times, and some of the banter feels forced, so a few points are lost here.  That's where the bad ends though.  The sound effects themselves are great (explosions and gunfire mostly), but what stood out to me most was the voice acting for the Helghast troops.  Their bass-heavy, enraged voices are enough to make the hair on your neck stand up at times, and hearing a Helghast heavy soldier tell me how he'll soon be "scraping my guts off of his boots" while his chain gun barks and saws at the column I'm hiding behind is superb.  You can almost hear the pure hatred in these lines, and without seeing their faces you can imagine that they are literally foaming at the mouth to kill you.    Game play 5 Controls feel a little unresponsive at times, and the control layout itself is not completely my cup of tea.  While this was done intentionally by the devs to give the player a sense of carrying heavy equipment and physical exertion, it sometimes just feels like you can't make it do what you want.  Replay value 5 It's a linear FPS, so unless you want to do multiple playthroughs to snag all of the easter eggs, then the main source of replay value will be found in the extensive multiplayer mode.  In this regard, it's a mixed bag.  Rent it if you're not in to online play, buy if you are.  Final thoughts While some of my ratings may not indicate it, as a total package this game just works for me and I love it.  As a fan of the original Killzone, I was drawn in by fighting the Fascist-like Helghast in what plays like a futuristic, alternate World War II.  The game is fast-paced, brutal, and chaotic.  If you don't overthink it and just let yourself get lost in the experience, then it is a fun (albeit, short) shot of adrenaline that you could easily finish in a weekend.

[PZ]

Nice, mmosu  :-X

One of the boards that I'm typically excited to read is game reviews.  In particular, because there are so many games available, not many that I plan to purchase, but always open to the possibility.

[Art Blade]

sweet review, mmosu :)  :-X

[mmosu]

Cheers guys  :-X