So Killzone 2 came out about a year and a half ago and of course if you knew what Killzone 2 was back then, you were also aware of the hype, flamewars and just all around chaos that came with Killzone 2’s launch.

I was skeptical of Killzone 2.  The first Killzone was dubbed pre launch as a “Halo Killer.”  While to this day, Sony claims they had nothing to do with and strongly disapproved of the moniker, it still made a rather bold statement.  A statement that the game utterly failed to live up to at launch.  Buggy, glitchy and even worse online, the original Killzone needed a couple of patches to become playable to the mass audience, and by that time it was too late for it to achieve any real significance.

Add to that the fact that I’d never really been a fan of First Person Shooters, and as the hype machine rumbled across gaming community like an earthquake in the Carribean, I wasn’t really thinking that Killzone 2 was going to be worth my time.

Anyway, suffice to say a friend talked me into buying it and the rest is fucking history.  Now I’ll preface this brief re review by saying that there will be spoilers.  The game came out a year and a half ago…if you haven’t played it by now then you don’t get to be pissed when I tell you that Rico fucks up and kills Visari in the end as he’s monologuing.

…bee tee dub…was it too soon for the “earthquake in the Carribean” reference?  Fuck it.  Like I care.

Anyways, this game is the fucking sickness.  Sure, it’s got its quirks…which start immediately as you begin gameplay by WALKING TO YOUR FUCKING DROPSHIP.  Dude…I’ve been turned off by Heavy Rain because I understand you have to play through the banality of brushing your teeth and rummaging through the refrigerator.  Could’ve done without the whole walking to the dropship thing…a cutscene would’ve done fine.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it??  Killzone 2 isn’t much for cutscenes.  There aren’t many of them, they’re not particularly lengthy or insightful and the only ones that come close to advancing any plot are the cutscene shown before the Start Menu comes up and the very last one, which is more of a setup for Killzone 3 than a resolution of Killzone 2.

Sure, there’s that scene where Visari sets off a nuclear bomb in his own capital city…but honestly that just comes off as some random act of assholery.  Funny thing is that while the Helghast have mastered interstellar space travel, they had to steal that nuke from the Vetkans in Killzone Liberation because they somehow lacked the ability to make one for themselves.

You may think I’m just looking for holes in the plot to point out, but in all honesty the story and gameplay is a more realistic presentation of modern warfare than the game that’s actually named “Modern Warfare” does.  I may have just given Infinity Ward reason to sue me, but honestly all you need to scare those bitches into pre emptive submission are a few shares of stock in Activision.

Back to the game:  You’re Sergeant Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko.  You are the strong, silent type (like most of the space marines that inhabit roughly 33% of all games released in the last 2 years), you have an awesome mohawk, and you’re a member of Alpha Unit which is a smaller portion of the second wave of the ISA’s invasion of Helghan.  BTW…that’s the whole plot, in case anyone just really needed to know.

Talking about this game, the first thing that needs to be mentioned are the graphics.  Killzone 2’s graphics are ri-fucking-dicu-goddamn-lous.  Absolutely ridiculous.  I won’t compare it to specific games being that someone is bound to get butthurt because their favorite game isn’t nearly as good looking as Killzone 2, but let’s just say that it makes most games out there look bad.  And by “most games,” I mean all but one or two.  Yes, it looks that fucking good.

Gameplay is frenetic, but not like Modern Warfare 2 or anything.  You’re not running at Superman speeds around a map with an 1887 shotgun in each hand, you’re slogging your way through teems of Helghast who don’t conform themselves to any one type of behavior.

The enemy AI is probably still the best in gaming at this point and the Helghast will not only take cover and move effectively from cover to cover, but they function well as a team in covering each other and they will flank and subsequently kill you if you try to sit around and be Mr. Camps-A-Lot.

As the game progresses, you flip flop between working with the main invasion force as they push toward Dictator Visari’s stronghold and ancillary missions designed to free up the convoy as it moves forward.  Most of the time, this involves you and typically one other AI NPC sneaking up on rat’s nests of Helghast and blasting your way out of the scrum.

Hate the Favela level on Modern Warfare 2??  Killzone 2 has several levels that are just as whiplash inducing.  The thing is however that the game doesn’t use infinite enemy spawns in these Head On A Swivel Or Die areas, and if you make sure your 6 is covered, you can clear most areas without having to die fifteen times just to find out where the enemy shooters are coming from.

Honestly that approach wouldn’t work with Killzone 2 anyways as the AI typically doesn’t have the enemy shooters doing the same thing or going to the same spots over and over again.  The AI seems to find a different way to approach each scenario…even if you’re playing the scenario for the fourth or fifth time.

At its heart, Killzone 2 is really just a small part of a larger tale of two warring humanoid factions in the distant future.  The Helghast were clearly made in the image of the Nazis, and while one looks at the tired World War II genre that’s been beaten into the ground over the last seven or eight years with disdain…you could say that Killzone 2 is merely a futuristic interpolation of said tired, browbeaten genre.

Then there’s the loading screens.  Killzone 2 has 2 kinds of loading screens:  First are the screens that come in between the 10 main mission sections of the game.  Typically a still will be shown and you can use your Sixaxis or Dualshock 3 to move the picture around and expose some 3 D elements, and while those screens aren’t “bad” per se, they are…lengthy.

Not Bioshock installation lengthy, but lengthy enough all the same.

The second kind of load screen comes as you’re playing and it manifests itself in a brief pause in the gameplay while the next area loads.  At first, it’s a one or three second delay as you’re moving down a corridor or something like that.  However as the game progresses, you’ll find that the delays get longer, and max out around 20 to 25 seconds.

There were honestly times when I’d thought the game froze up on me.  I guess it’s okay that it didn’t, but maybe next time Guerilla Games could take an extra line of code or two and try to trim those moments down so I don’t have 20 or 30 mini heart attacks, thinking that my PS3 has just bitten the dust.

And while we’re talking about things that could be adjusted or completely changed for Killzone 3, how about we talk about the glaring absence of any splitscreen and/or co-op option.  Given the quality of the AI in this game, one would think that it’d be a perfect game for nerds to have someone over to play some co-op with…but that option just isn’t fucking there.

Splitscreen Multiplayer was omitted, but you can play single player “multiplayer” with up to 15 bots??  Yeah, not really getting the point of that one.  It’d be nice if Killzone 3 has splitscreen and co-op options, and honestly I’m still trying to figure out why they weren’t included in Killzone 2 from the get-go.

At the end of the day, despite its flaws and shortcomings, Killzone 2 is most likely the best First Person Shooter available, or at least it is for my money, anyways.  To avoid the wrath of the butthurt, I won’t be using specific names of games but while it lacks co-op and splitscreen, it’s got an actually believable sci fi story that doesn’t have some 8 foot armored cyborg spewing random 80s cliches as he carelessly and easily plows through three different kinds of evil alien all the while shaking the ankle biting midgets off of his  heels.

It also isn’t a semi preachy, “present day” military shooter with half of an actual single player campaign and millions of drooling sheep running around online like a crackhead who has graduated to meth, knifing and ‘nading everyone because they’re too crappy at the game to actually pull out a firearm and try to use bullets to kill people.

And while Killzone 2’s multiplayer experience lacks co-op, unlockables that should really be available from the start, a recording feature and/or the ability to make a game that has airborne marbles rolling on ramps…what it does have is unadulteratedly awesome and completely consuming.

Some online games (which shall remain nameless) cap out at 10 minutes per match online.  Because all of Killzone 2’s games (ranked or otherwise) are user created, you could be in a single match that takes 10 minutes or an entire hour to play through.  Sure, there’s no “Party System” per se, but there is this screen that is titled “FRIENDS” in big capital letters so that you can join your buddies when they’re playing online.

A lot of people lament this however because if there’s too great a disparity in player rank, Killzone 2 will not allow you to play in a match where it’s 31 Generals of the Army in a room with one Private First Class.  At first you may look at that and call “bullshit,” but in all honesty when the only loadout available to you is “Grunt With Assault Rifle,” you don’t want to play with a room full of Generals.

Of course the belligerent and delusional among you may claim to…until those snot nosed bitches suddenly get shot between the eyes from across the map by a sniper using a cloaking device.  That’s when the “GET OUT OF THE n00b ROOM” smack talk first surfaces.

Unlike other MP games, Killzone 2 actually allows different game modes to be integrated into a single match…so one game can have Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Bombing and Base missions…or it can just be Team Deathmatch.  Again all rooms, ranked or otherwise, are user created…so you can choose to make games as fast or slow as you want.

All in all, this game is fucking unreal.  The single player campaign doesn’t pretend to make some kind of poigniant statement about the state of the human condition or some other touchy feely gay shit, it doesn’t suddenly end where the middle of the campaign would normally be and online is subtle and low key by MW2 standards, but insanely addiciting/satisfying nonetheless.

That said, the game isn’t without faults and while they are for the most part forgivable, they’re not so minute as they don’t take away from the experience in places.  Luckily enough, the game is badass to the extent that none of the faults and/or shortcomings of the game truly affect its awesomeness.  Killzone 2 will grab you by the scruff of your neck and kick your ass.

Killzone 2 gets a 9 out of 10.  If I’d given it that rating a year and a half ago, all the Sony fanboys would’ve wanted to kill me while all the M$ fanboys probably would’ve built a statue in my honor and declared my birthday a national holiday.  Regardless of how monumentally stupid fanboys are, 9 out of 10 is not a bad score, it’s not an average score, and it’s not even a good score.

9 out of 10 is a superior score and indicates that a game is pretty much a must buy if you have the hardware to run it.  Killzone 2 is all of that.  Sure, some forums might continually declare Killzone 2 dead, but those posters are just bitter little bitches who can’t see past their noses…usually on account of their noses being firmly stuck up a developer or hardware maker’s ass.

A year and a half after its launch, despite recent superhyped releases such as MAG, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3 ODST, Killzone 2 still has a large, active and fun online community.

That combined with a taut and compelling single player experience make Killzone 2 my selection for best FPS around.