Archive for February, 2009

I was thinking about skipping the demo so when I got the full game it would feel fresh. But I heard the demo was short so I thought I’d give it a try.

There are 2 main sections in the demo, the beach/bridge area and the warehouse. The controls take some getting used to, I tried other controller settings. But I went back to the default, it really is the best layout. I feel really at home with it now.

The AI in the game is very good. One point I was just biding my time behind cover for a bit and they threw a grenade to flush me out, and there teammates opened fire as I exited cover. The Helgast never sit in the open waiting to get shot either. They pop out to take some shots, but they return to cover. Sometimes they team up on me while others try to flank me from the side. So this is not a run and gun game.

When you enter the warehouse there are 2 Helgast soldiers just talking to each other. If you threw a grenade in the middle of them they scream “GRENADE!” and try to run away from it, lol.

The cover system is easy to use too. Just hold L2 to stick to cover, and press the left stick up to pop out of cover. When your out of ammo you automatically go back to cover to reload which is nice. If your in the open for very long you won’t last long either. I played the demo about 5 times so far, and each play though is a little different. I want to try it with no HUD (heads up display) next time.

Surround sound in this game is outstanding too, great way to show off your system. The gun fire is very intense when you have the sound blasted. The lighting is amazing, I spend a while looking at it after I finished off the Helgast. There is your standard exploding barrels. But there are also fuel tanks, when you shoot them a few times it begins to leak fuel and you see a stream of fire come from it and it flips around for a second then explodes. Very cool effect.

Sometimes the Helgast are hard to kill when they are hiding behind cover. You can pick them off with a well placed head shot. Or throw a grenade near them will force them to run from it to avoid death. Yes the demo is short, but the demo doesn’t time out so you take your time and explore. Try shooting the fully destructive environment. The demo is based on the review code, so it’s close to the final build.

I seem to have brought out the worst in a lot of people with my last post about what I thought of the Killzone 2 demo. So be it. If people are going to react that immaturely to my opinion on something, that’s up to them.

That said, I played the demo some more last night, and I have to say that the menu still annoys me!

The first time I played the demo, I went with the more CoD-ish control scheme, which I think is Alternate 2. It didn’t work so well. This time around, I went with their Standard scheme, and it works much better. (Duh, I guess.) It’ll take some getting used to, and I still miss crouch as a toggle (notwithstanding what people have said about it not really being a crouch). I also increased the turning speed a bit, and that helped too. My old brain is finally learning to adapt (I turn 40 today).

I spent some time in the warehouse just blowing stuff up. There are barrels and canisters that you can shoot. The barrels explode after just a few shots, but the canisters need more. Sometimes they get a puncture and spin around on the floor for a bit before busting their contents, which is a lot of fun. The explosive effects were great. Some cool flame and smoke effects are very satisfying to see.

There are little touches to the game that I enjoyed that I didn’t notice the first time around. While the melee attack is a bit slow to get into full swing, you can do several melees in a row pretty quickly, which is great. The grenades can be cooked, and you see little lights on the grenade that tell you how cooked they are before you let loose. I also like the yellow arc that shows the path of the grenade. Sometimes if you make a particularly good shot, your AI teammate will say “Great shot!”, which is fun.

This game is definitely slower paced than many other shooters. You have to take your time to find cover, shoot, duck (and heal), and repeat. I died a lot less this time around until I started playing with grenades and blowing things up. Then I died. I think that my friend Steve will adapt to this game a lot better than me, because I am more of a run-and-gun type player.

What I am really looking forward to is the multiplayer. The MP beta videos at Gamersyde have really wet my appetite for some squad-based action. Medic? Saboteur? Tactician? I don’t know yet which class I’ll go for, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be Scout. I’m terrible at sniping. Take a look at the videos at Gamersyde and tell me which character classes interest you the most!