Finished Kill Zone 2. It was supposed to be my second game after Assassin’s Creed II but back then, I couldn’t find a copy at DataBlitz. I did find one copy at Brochiere but it was selling for P3800 or a similarly unreasonable price. So I didn’t get it. A few months later, I finally found a copy at Data Blitz for P1400 or so. Patience sure is rewarded.
Kill Zone 2 is a first-person shooter. In fact, it’s the flagship FPS for the PS3. After Bioshock, I thought I’ve had enough with FPSes but since I’ve always liked them during my PC gaming days (Doom, Quake, CounterStrike) so I figured I’ll still give it a go.
There’s no installation routine, as it’s meant to be, and I was playing right away. It’s a great atmospheric game helped by the dark gritty graphics. The action is fast and frenetic. The enemies are varied and generally use good tactical logic. You and your computer-controlled buddies are almost always on the verge of being overwhelmed by the seemingly technologically inferior enemies.
Early in the game, as in Bioshock, I died and died and died. It seems I can’t get the hang of using the PS3 controller. But unlike Bioshock, it’s not as frustrating because of the modern checkpointing system. After some time, I was playing tolerably well employing the wide arsenal of typical FPS weapons available. I was actually having a blast!
The problem is that on the whole, the single player mode felt too short, it felt like it’s just a sampler plate of what you can do in multiplayer mode: infantry, gun emplacement, vehicle, mech, turret, etc. On the other hand, the final battle felts so long. You just go fight swarms of enemies and a final boss who blatantly cheats but is otherwise nothing special. It was such a enraging letdown. I hated it.
They could have been more creative like in Metal Gear Solid 4 where the final battle is quite epic and involved mechs, shootouts, and a good old fashioned man-to-man brawl. Even Uncharted‘s final battle, as simple as it is, is more creative.
But hey, it’s done albeit much too quickly. And I can’t really say I didn’t enjoy it. Now on to Uncharted 2. Or should it be Red Dead Redemption? Hmmmm.
Rating: 4/5