Killzone 2 - Single Player embargo lifted, new SP impressions and video

[Turtle]

The NDA/embargo on the Killzone 2 beta has lifted so expect a lot more info coming out.  According to Joystiq, the embargo on the full game review/preview copies ends in December.

Some impressions from a player, not that much new info:
http://www.gamer20.com/gamehub/killzone-2-ps3/previews/1076

HD video (there's an SD version) of the multiplayer gameplay.  However, what makes this video special is look around the 0:45 second mark.  Notice a familiar name around these parts pop up under the crosshairs?  Not sure if that's our Graham though, could be from Game Trailers.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42801.html

Another HD video, this time you can see the shotgun in use, which has a really satisfying feel to it, along with some special class abilities that you can unlock.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42799.html

Bombing mode:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42701.html

Assassination:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42699.html

A dark map:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42697.html

I love the lighting effects, the video shows a bunch of firefights in dark areas and you see everything via gunfire flashes.

Also notice that while the game is action paced, you take a good more hits from the standard assault rifles before you go down.  There's a lot of feedback effects, just things like dust clouds where you shoot, it's a lot like FEAR where after an intense firefight the whole area can get choked with dust and debris.

Grenades have a slight delay before throwing, but is still a button of its own, which I like as it helps cut down on grenade spam.  They're slightly lit, and they beep, which isn't realistic but makes them excellent for flushing enemies out of cover.

The main multiplayer mode has players competing over a variety of objectives that change up as objectives are completed, it's similar to Resistance 2's skirmish mode, but you aren't required to join a squad.

There is some weirdness with the death animations as it's not finished yet so everyone is doing the same 3 wildly flailing death animation before going ragdoll.

Testers also report spawn camping issues, but that's the sort of thing beta tests are for.

[Canuck]

I actually looked at some of those trailers before, but if they really want to show of their game they need to film someone who is actually decent at playing.  A movie showing some noob camping in a dark corner for 45 seconds and then running out and getting killed does not make me more inclined to buy it.

[Graham]

Well, I can confirm that I am the one getting shot and then blown up in that video.  My user name is GrahamGT on PSN.  The funny thing is that I wasn't online for all that long.  I was at home alone and then my wife came home so I needed to turn it off.

I will say this, the level I played was really, REALLY dark and I had really hard time seeing anything.  Looks like I need to up the gamma correction or something.

I will agree with the spawn issues.  Sometimes you really get in too close to the enemy.

Also, when I was entering a game I was randomly put into a side, I believe Helghast, but then I saw the rest of the people and 75% was on the other side.  I didn't join that game since I wasn't going to go into something so blatantly lopsided and get frustrated.

[Canuck]

lol which video are you in? I want to check it out again.  thats funny.

[Graham]

This one here:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42801.html

As Turtle said, it's about the :45 mark.

[Canuck]

Oooh Graham you got fragged! lol.  You weren't the noob I was referring to though.  I was talking about one of the user movies.  GTRich on the other hand seems like a pretty decent player.  A question and an observation.  First, is there any possibility of using the keyboard/mouse?  I really don't get why Sony even bothered to include it if no game developers are ever going to bother supporting it.  Next, I observed that the screens seems really cluttered-way too much GUI (or whatever it's called).  Is this annoying in any way?

If they include mouse/kb support then I'm in on day one.  If they don't I'll wait until I can grab it used for $20

[denoginizer]

It looks OK to me.  Nothing spectuacular so far.  The level they are playing on looks boring as hell.  I'd like to see some videos of the outdoor levels.

[Graham]

Oooh Graham you got fragged! lol.  You weren't the noob I was referring to though.  I was talking about one of the user movies.  GTRich on the other hand seems like a pretty decent player.  A question and an observation.  First, is there any possibility of using the keyboard/mouse?  I really don't get why Sony even bothered to include it if no game developers are ever going to bother supporting it.  Next, I observed that the screens seems really cluttered-way too much GUI (or whatever it's called).  Is this annoying in any way?

If they include mouse/kb support then I'm in on day one.  If they don't I'll wait until I can grab it used for $20

Don't know about mouse/kb support, but I'll hook up an old keyboard and let you know.

To be honest, the GUI looked much brighter in the video than when I was playing it.  Seriously, it was so dark I couldn't see anything, but I don't know if it was my TV.  I'll check out the options.

I had seriously just gotten online when that was shot.  I do wish it was more than an MP demo since that's what I'd be more interested in.

[Turtle]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/04/hands-on-with-killzone-2s-single-player-campaign/

New impressions of the single player campaign via Joystiq, other places should have their write-ups soon as the single player embargo is up today.

Gametrailers should have a ton of Killzone 2 videos up today as well:
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/1668.html

Over on CAG someone posted a bunch of comparison screenshots:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5198364&postcount=424

[Kevin Grey]

Despite being a real technical mess I rather enjoyed the first Killzone.  Since it sounds like this one will in no way suffer from the tech issues that plagued the first game, I'm really looking forward to Killzone 2. 

[Knightshade Dragon]

Yea, I'm running a few days behind on this but I'm going to remedy that this weekend.  Look for my Killzone 2 writeup on Monday.

[denoginizer]

There was a preview of the single player campaign on XPlay last night.  I though it looked pretty good.  I was also a fan of the 1st game and Liberation on the PSP.  I have heard on various podcasts that the controls are different than other console based FPS's and take some getting used too.  But I am looking forward to the game.  My main concern so far is that like the first Killzone, all of the enemies look the same except for the color of their eyes.  I'd like to see more variety in enemy types than I have seen so far.

[Turtle]

There's actually quite a bit of variation, but it's not as extreme as in other games.  Besides variants in the amount of eyes, there's also different helmet types and different bodies like the scout, commando, heavy weapons, etc...

The sniper usually has 3 eyes in a triangle.  The elite guard look to have four eyes and sleeker armor and facemasks.  There's versions without the gasmask hoses in front.  The desert troopers have a kind of veil, etc...  These different types have different tactics and weapons.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there'll be co-op.  Kotaku ran a rumor/story that a dev had confirmed co-op as a free DLC expansion, but no co-op on release makes me .

[leo8877]

Please let this be better than the disaster that is Resistance 2.

[Dante Rising]

Please let this be better than the disaster that is Resistance 2.

It definitely won't be better than Killzone:Liberation.

[Daehawk]

Couple new cool videos..one may be the intro.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/44351/Killzone-2-Cinematic-Intro-Video-Review

[kathode]

Reviews so far:

Eurogamer: 9/10
IGN USA: 9.4
IGN UK: 9.4
IGN AU: 9.0
Gamereactor (swedish): 10/10
Meristation: 9.5
Eurogamer.pt 10/10
Eurogamer.es 10/10
Gameplayer: 9.5
Empire: 4/5
Vandal 9.6

[Teggy]

I can't believe this game is still a month away.

[Chaz]

I suspect Sony is really pushing to get a "must-have" game out there, and wanting to build up the hype machine early.  I bet they've still got scores below a 9 embargoed.  I think they're getting the scores out there too early though.  They should probably have waited until a week or two prior to launch than this nearly a month out review release.  The casual, impulse buyers are going to have forgotten about it by then.

[Graham]

I suspect Sony is really pushing to get a "must-have" game out there, and wanting to build up the hype machine early.  I bet they've still got scores below a 9 embargoed.  I think they're getting the scores out there too early though.  They should probably have waited until a week or two prior to launch than this nearly a month out review release.  The casual, impulse buyers are going to have forgotten about it by then.

Yeah, but this gives them plenty of time to put on the "5 out of 5 stars -- Maxim" stickers on the front cover.  (Y'know, because Maxim is such a credible site when talking about video games.)

[Turtle]

If I recall, Maxim gave KZ2 a worse score than 50 Cent. 

Anyway, embargo or not, it's hard to deny that this game is looking really good, and that a vast majority of reviewers really like the game.  On podcasts I listen to there's even more talk about how good KZ2 is.

I suspect there'll be plenty reviews in the high 8s or so, knocking them down for things missing like split-screen or a co-op mode, which is perfectly understandable.  Those are features that I really enjoy too, they're also pretty standard for FPS games these days.

Also note that it was primarily the Euro embargo that was dropped, not the US, so the majority of US reviews still need to come in.

However, I like how all reviews are mentioning that the AI is interesting and fun to fight against, there's a lot of talk about that on podcasts too.  They're not super smart, but sounds like they are a bit like FEAR1's AI, which is a good thing.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Can't....break....embargo....score...in....90s....

I've said too much already.

[depward]

Really excited about KZ2 but I really don't like seeing reviews A MONTH AWAY from the release date.  To me, it's almost like a little slap in the face... it's like hey, the game is finished, but we're not going to release it for a month so we can try to HYPE THE SHIT out of it!

But really, releasing reviews A MONTH BEFORE the release date is dumb.  Why?  Cos the impulse purchaser (I think) would rather pick up a game that they JUST read a review for.  Read a review, hey, this game seems fun... it releases this week?  Cool!

Really dumb move IMHO.

[madpeon]

I guess I'm in the minority but so far all the video reviews and such that I've watched have been pretty *meh*. Everything looks so 'marines in space fighting aliens' generic.

I'm way more pumped for Uncharted 2!

[Bullwinkle]

Really excited about KZ2 but I really don't like seeing reviews A MONTH AWAY from the release date.  To me, it's almost like a little slap in the face... it's like hey, the game is finished, but we're not going to release it for a month so we can try to HYPE THE SHIT out of it!

But really, releasing reviews A MONTH BEFORE the release date is dumb.  Why?  Cos the impulse purchaser (I think) would rather pick up a game that they JUST read a review for.  Read a review, hey, this game seems fun... it releases this week?  Cool!

Really dumb move IMHO.

The whole thing seems odd to me, too.

I guess I'm in the minority but so far all the video reviews and such that I've watched have been pretty *meh*. Everything looks so 'marines in space fighting aliens' generic.

I'm way more pumped for Uncharted 2!

I hate to bite here, but, honest to G, I haven't seen a single review that wasn't bubbling over with praise.

[Turtle]

Eh yeah, but I think what he meant was he preferred more unique games like Uncharted 2.  I have to agree, but the thing is, Uncharted 2 won't come out until holiday 2009 at the earliest, most likely early 2010.

Killzone is less than a month away, but I'm still excited for both.

I think what they're trying to do is build up early hype to try and generate the same kind of massive release day sales that Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 got.  Sony FPS games just don't get enough positive talk to build the kind of early buzz that sells games like MS does.  Personally, I don't think it's the right timing either.  1-2 weeks before release, sure, but a month.  Well, at least we know it's the same dumbass Sony marketing team.

[Kevin Grey]

Sony  did the same "month early reviews" thing for God of War 2 and that seemed to work well for them so I'm not suprised to see something similar here. 

[Daehawk]

Makes me want a PS3.

[Chaz]

Sony FPS games don't get the same amount of hype because generally they aren't as popular as MS's FPS games are.  Like them or not, the Halo series and Gears of War had/have a massive following.  Their sequels had massive hype and launch day sales because of that popularity, and the popularity largely came because they are both good to excellent games.  The Sony FPS (really, Killzone and Resistance) weren't nearly as well-received.  Killzone only got middling to halfway decent reviews, and was poorly received by gamers.  Resistance fared better, but in hindsight (at least on these boards), a lot of people seem to think it was mediocre, and it's possible that it was popular at the time simply for lack of anything better on the console.

I can understand what they're trying to do, but I don't think releasing reviews a month early is going to do it.  Strong word of mouth is the only thing that's going to sell this thing.  The problem is that given the price of the console, the current economy, and the lack of strong exclusives in the FPS genre, I don't know who that word of mouth is going to convince.

[Daehawk]

I think the biggest thing they have to get around is the big hoohaa over the first games NON ingame videos that sprang up at the shows for KZ1.

[ATB]

I am seriously considering getting this day one so i can play with you fools. I know nothing about KZ at all.

[Kevin Grey]

I think the biggest thing they have to get around is the big hoohaa over the first games NON ingame videos that sprang up at the shows for KZ1.

That was actually Killzone 2. 

[Daehawk]

New video

This page says it can turn webpages into co-op Killzone 2 shooting galleries.

HERE

[Purge]

It needs to be said:

Knightshade Dragon's review is up, and Killzone 2's review score is divisible by three 31 times.


(who said math wasn't involved? )

[Turtle]

Good review, I actually would have docked it a few more points for lack of co-op and split screen.

[CeeKay]

so, the ship date for this is Friday?  a Saturday release seems to be kind of odd.

[TiLT]

Europe got the game first this time!

I bought it on my way home today, and have played up through the first part (where you get your first story trophy). Feels like a solid FPS with fun enemies. The framerate is a little on the low side, but I'll get used to it. Graphics are really good.

[Bullwinkle]

so, the ship date for this is Friday?  a Saturday release seems to be kind of odd.

For a big release like this, I think there's been a pre-ship and it will be available on Friday.  Also, Best Buy is showing availability on Friday.

[CeeKay]

I guess I won't see a Gamefly copy until next week then, unless they ship early. Oh well, I guess I can fill my weekend some other way.

[depward]

Stat tracking looks pretty comprehensive:

http://killzone.com/kz/mykillzone.psml?kz_user_id=depward

And also a REALLY cool "after battle" report that is a top-down real-time look at how the match played out:

http://killzone.com/kz/tour_round_history.psml?kz_match_id=9197&kz_file_id=15084