A Gun Made of Lightning!

I'll admit, after a few levels of Killzone 2 I was pretty bored - not the first couple of levels, those are great, but the level after the fight on the bridge, where the bomb is stolen by the Helgast; the level that has you go to a desert in search of an electrical mineral source I believe. Its drab, and brown and has no real climax or remotely exciting moment, worst of all its the longest of all the games segment. When it finally ends you are thrown onto a moving train that isn't not as exciting as it sounds as the background is the same tunnel, crane, tunnel, crane, tunnel, etc. This is where I gave up and stopped playing for four months, it was just so boring - but the other day I decided to give it another go and it was a good decision. Right after you get off the train you enter what maybe the best level in the game: its a simple factory but you get what is quiet possibly the best gun in any game, ever - the lightning gun.

It has an official name, like arc canon or arc gun, but it really is a lightning gun; it fires lightning and has unlimited ammo (though a long reload time as it must recharge by, what appears to be, absorbing the electricity out of the air) it fries you're enemies and makes you pretty much invincible. This is also the level where the story picks back up after getting bogged down in the previous level and has some genuinely engaging scenes. After this the game moves quickly towards its somewhat disappointing ending (its just a set up for a third title so depending on your feelings on set ups you may really enjoy the finale). The journey to the ending though, it great with a mech segment that is a great amount of fun and a final level that is everything an action fan could hope for in a final battle (not the final boss fight, but the courtyard section, though the fight was fun).

The first few levels are also good but are plagued by some terrible dialog from your teammates, who are just obnoxious - again, after the desert and train levels this seems to just disappear. Its the reason why I put "annoying audio" in the cons and "awesome audio" in the pros, its somewhat contradictory I know, but the audio in the level and from the gun fire, and just the overall sound effects are fantastic but the voices from your squad are so distracting that it detracts from the overall feel of the game. Visually, obviously, KZ2 is stunning, great lighting and effects, but in game cutscenes aren't so good, the characters (except for Garza and Sev - the player) are all really, really, REALLY ugly and poorly animated resulting in some cringe worthy moments when they just look like total sh*t. It leads me to wonder why they chose to do it in-game and not alter it a little (a la RE5) in order to make it look more real, especially when in other scenes these things look perfect. Its a minor nitpick though, and arguably more personal than a real criticism, I'm sure many wouldn't even notice.

Finally the multiplayer, it was something I couldn't get into (more because of my ear destroying Sony Blue Tooth headset and lack of friends playing than anything else), what I did play however was solid and really entertaining. The on the fly mission structure and tactical but fast paced feel was something I really enjoyed but without any communication (seriously that headset that comes with Socom, and is the official Sony headset feels like its sodomizing my ear, sorry for the vulgarity) I felt lost and couldn't get backup when I was going to complete an objective or coordinate a proper defense during an assassination so I stopped playing. What I did play though was great, awesome level design and a real feeling of war, good stuff.

Overall a great FPS that slips up a little in the middle but picks back up for just a fantastic final act (though its ending feels like more of a tease than a real conclusion...) and has great multiplayer and a gun made of lighting! What more could you want?