Back in the Day: Killzone 2 Multiplayer

Killzone 2 fans will recognise the interior of the New Sun

Killzone 2 is at time of writing, the second biggest selling PlayStation 3 title of 2009, and whilst much deserved fuss has been made of its stunning, dense graphics and the weighty first-person gameplay, we want to take this opportunity to share a little about  the real meat on it's violent, blackened bones: the great multiplayer experience, Warzone. It's here where the events of the game's singleplayer narrative come alive as you battle it out as either the red-eyed Helghast ( a sci-fi version of the Nazi's) or the true-blue ISA (Robert Heinlein-influenced Space Marines).



 First off, the multiplayer retains the game's amazing presentation and attention to detail in the environments, physics and animation. There just isn't another game that looks like this. Guerrrilla Games drew inspiratio from the Dutch masters for the games beautiful lighting, but have lavished attention on the environmental details too: lightning rips across the broiling sulphurous sky, shots can be heard from far away as they echo across some of the vast maps, torrents of rain bounce off concrete bunkers, dust billows across the landscape pushing flames and smoke with it, burning bodies cartwheel back dynamically as bullets and grenades whizz by your ears... you get the idea.

Unlike most FPS's online, rather than use a single-objective, each customisable game features rolling objectives, and the flow of one from the other can create some really dynamic online play. One moment you're trying to stop the team detonating a strategic point, but five minutes later your whole team is belting it back to base to protect an assassination target... it keeps every match interesting, and they rarely play out the same.

Warzone uses a class system, not dissimilar to  Team Fortress 2. You start as a grunt with basic selection of rifles, and you will also be equipped with a few grenades. As you gain mission points, you earn ribbons for performing certain feats within each round, e.g. disarming or arming 2 of the bomb timers in Search & Destroy, gaining 10% of the kills in Bodycount etc. Collecting 8 of each ribbon will give you access to new abilities or increased points for kills or mission objectives.
As you level up, new classes become available with each rank, of which there are seven-basic soldier, medic, engineer, tactician, scout, saboteur and assault, each with their own unique secondary traits to unloc. Using these abilities effectively reaps rewards, allowing you to combine those traits with other classes, so if you want to be a heavy assault trooper who deals out health packs to his teammates, you can. Levelling up and unlocking everything takes a LOT of grinding, and this is my only real beef with the experience.

Online gameplay in Killzone 2 is generally a lot of very chaotic, very violent fun-especially when the smaller maps get full. Although at first it might seem everyone is just shooting each other in the face, there is a tactical layer to proceedings-well placed spawn grenades and sentry bots, choice of weapon, and balancing the classes in a given faction can shift the tide of battle very quickly. You can also create 4-man squads which allow you to spawn on your leader and have their own private voice channel. I cannot overstate how a good team really matters in KZ matches-even if you're amazing, if your team mates aren't focussed and looking out for each other, and the other team is, you will lose.

The maps themselves are very-well designed, some tall as they are wide, and stunning to look at; this is a game that  forces you to take into the details, and every now and again I find myself pausing to take in the amount of insanely detailed chaos Guerrila's engine is running. Some maps are full of tight corridors and bottlenecks which create ferocious bloodbaths where you really have to work to get a hold on enemy territory, others vast open expanses which lend themselves to snipers and well-placed head shots. The most recent maps have added stunning weather effects, thermonuclear blasts that periodically raze across the game, and new weapons that can change the game in favour of any faction very quickly. All maps support a multi-path approaches to any objective, adding to the layer of strategy amongst all the frenetic grenades, rpg's and gunfire, and are designed in such a way that you never feel safe; there is no place you can hide. The only real problem, retrospectively, is that the tight corridors and fixed spawn points lead to some of the worst spawn-camping you'll find anywhere online, with the entire opposing faction decimating the defending team at the gates for the entirety of the match.

Connections are lag-free, apart from some tell-tale micro-second delays when you or another player scores a kill. Only once have I ever seen the frame rate drop, and even that was only for a moment.

Overall, though, this is a fantastic extension of the singleplayer campaign, where you ARE the squads of men fighting alongside (or against) Sev in his battle to overthrow Scolar Visari's throne. The graphics and sound are wonderfully immersive, and the map and class design have been very carefully thought out, despite the considerable work you need to put in to take full advantage of Guerilla's achievemen t.