After undistinguished launch the PlayStation 3 and not very successful early years of the console exclusive shooter Killzone 2 is seen as a messiah. This is not just a great FPS - it's a lifesaver major hit for the PlayStation 3 in all more than two years of its existence. Our office at Sony sent ready, the final build of the game long before it appeared on the shelves. This review is devoted to a single piece of Killzone 2 - the one we have proceeded far and wide. And although we have a way to look at the multiplayer, now we see online only two or three foreign journalists. Fall if the server after launch, which exploits (or, more simply, loopholes) went out and brought gamers, as will be tournaments, what tactics will be massive and would it be interesting multiplayer campaign Killzone 2 - this will be discussed in another material, a few rooms later. Read in the current review: Earthlings land on Helgan, the Dutch make great games, translators are confused in the testimony, and Killzone 2 receives one of the highest estimates "MI".
The first part of Killzone was whether the experiment, whether the result of self-deception Sony Computer Entertainment. At one time the company believed seriously that the online service for the PlayStation 2 will be soon and not give up on the popularity of Xbox Live. In stores entered the network adapter for PS2 (later, in the slim-version of the connector, ethernet-cable has become part of the console itself), followed by an external hard drive, the game was released with support for these accessories. In 2004, exactly a week before the launch of Halo 2 was released Killzone, which is positioned as a response to Sony's online shooter Microsoft. It also showed the severity of the situation. Steels obvious that the pro-line for the PlayStation 2 still early, and great multiplayer console FPS well succeed only Bungie. Although Killzone had its own charm and gamers like to fight with alien invaders helgastami, network battles new disgraced. The engine was working too slow and unstable, the depth of draw was low, and online multiplayer, even if you managed to start it turned into a circus with horses: The winner is the one who knew more bugs and exploits. The situation did not save even the publication of patches (this is the time PS2!): All realized that the patient is easier to bury than to cure. Killzone failure marked the collapse of the online ambitions of the PlayStation 2 and Sony getting rid of illusions: more on this "iron" online games have tried to do.
 | |  | Detailing cards - incredible. Scary to even think how much work has gone on all these broken pipes, hastily sticky piece of iron and other signs of severe helganskogo life. And the game keeps the brand from first to last level | | Killzone 2 is trying to do the minimum number of HUD (ie, indicators on the screen). Huge amount of relevant information comes directly from the world.For example, the time before the timer counts out a grenade attack on the body: the more light bulbs is highlighted, the closer the detonation |
Battle of the elephant with a whale Although the attempted murder of Halo failed miserably, in a single Killzone was much more successful. The action took place on the planet colonized by people of vectors, which invade the huge red-eyed humanoids force helgastov. They say that helgasty descended from Earthlings, many centuries ago to establish a settlement on the rich but inhospitable planet Helgan. Creepy climate led to irreversible changes in the body of new owners of this world. The colonists became stronger, tougher, hardier, and hated his former colleagues. Helgasty so accustomed to their new homeland, which could not exist outside it. That is why the enemy soldiers wear masks: the military to protect eyes and face from an unusual atmosphere, as well as providing a breathing mixture similar to air Helgana. Red-heavy, powerful helgasty in the game look terrible and disgusting, and symbols, reminiscent of the Nazis, left no doubt: in front of us - the universal evil personified. Achieving Jan Templar, the protagonist of the first part, was modest: a blitzkrieg on vectors failed, but the war has just begun.
Meanwhile in the real world events have a familiar scenario. As in his time, Microsoft became the owner of Bungie and forced the studio to work only on Halo, so Sony introduced niderlandskuyu studio Guerrilla Games in terms of their internal teams. Dutch since then, too, are working with only one series. In 2006, the PlayStation Portable was released action Killzone: Liberation, where, as the name implies, Jan Templar finally managed to liberate the vector of forces helgastov. The game was a very decent - apparently, experience and resources of Sony studios went good. And finally, we have Killzone 2: people are landing on Helgan and begin the operation to enforce peace. Oh, this Killzone 2! Now it is no secret that the infamous video from E3 2005 did not have to do with the final product in any way. According to rumors, CG-graphics make a separate, special guest team. Reconsider movie now and see what suits, design engineering, the main protagonists - all very different. Yet the promised level of quality, no doubt, been reached. Rare modern game looks better than Killzone 2.
 | Controllers to battle! |
Killzone 2 supports the Dual Shock 3, which means that at the right time, the controller will vibrate in your hands. But the usual SixAxis not forgotten. When Sevchenko need to spin valve, the game asks you to take the controller and turn it into the air to the right. Then hold down the Shift follows (Sevchenko compresses the valve) and rotate the controller clockwise - and the valve on the screen will move followed the movements of the gamepad! Action must be repeated several times, until, until the valve will not open. Another similar case - setting bombs: to hold down the shift-knob and turn it first one way then another. Curiously made sniper rifle: if you yank the controller, twitches and sight. If you hold a gamepad smoothly and quietly - the bullet would go right on target. Excellent idea, and yet these three cases the use SixAxis and limited. Taking the old controller, you lose the vibration, without which the impression of fighting remain incomplete. Take the Dual Shock 3 - and you will work immediately and motors and gyroscopes.
 | |  | Comrade substitutes hands and waits for us to climb over the barrier. And we do not hurry, we estimate the design of military uniforms (not a fountain, a helgastov better) and details of the model (very bad) | | Flamethrower in the screenshots for some reason looks a lot better than the game. In fact, the damage radius is small, the flame quickly extinguished, the enemies die instantly (and also go out). I wonder what the use of these weapons will Kulibina of multiplayer |
Guest from the Future Thus, the spacecraft closer to Helganu earthlings. From the intro, we learn that Starfleet has no enemy resistance, Jan Templar is now commanding a starship, and a new hero - a native vector named Thomas Sevchenko - is side by side with friends from past games Sergeant Rico Velasquez. Our four soldiers belong to the order of "Alpha", which is prepared hard and difficult battle. Guys, along with other attack aircraft landed on a planet enemy. The player is given to the first, Novichkova orders: cover, help to fire. Nothing to do not want to. You're stunned at your hearing and vision falls avalanche strange experiences. Graphics - amazing. In an age when the number of polygons and the number of shader version no longer a show about the image quality, the authors of Killzone 2 have found a lot of other ways to make his work impressive and believable. This play of light in the rooms helganskih barracks and mud in the streets of a foreign capital, it is cumbersome, puffing enemy soldiers and viscous dark-red blood, this wave on the shore, waving the flag and the wind, driving across the steppe clouds of dust. The engine is perfectly stable, he holds the thirty frames per second in any trouble, and we, no matter how hard, for all the passage still has never faced the "brakes". Largely responsible for an immersive viewing experience amazing game "physics" - in quotes because it's not just about the usual laws of conservation of momentum and energy. The authors have recreated a rare and therefore more attractive sense of "Hollywood realism". Weapon not only looks like the present, but also convincingly thumps when firing, so even with a different sound depending on the number of patrons in the store. If you are the owner of acoustics 7.1, Lord help you: it becomes a real battle to tingling in the skin - you want is down in a chair and sit in a little corner on the first level, so as not to kill. When shooting at all, falls into the concrete, further firing pointless: to raise a cloud of dust hiding the target. Grenades hero throws a little rotating head, and because it can not accurately predict where the projectile hits. If a sharp yank the head, arms slightly away to the side and the image becomes blurred due to light blur effect. Sevchenko awkward and unhurried: it moves and rotates slowly, reluctantly jumps, awfully slow reloads his weapon, barely hiding in shelters - due to the slowness of this life you believe in what is happening. Excellent animation done: and helgasty and earthlings nervously looks out over the barricades, jumping on a grenade picturesque and beautiful, in cinematic emit a last gasp. Huge levels load quickly and permanently - until the next pause play forty minutes. You can not poke a finger in some of the achievements of Killzone 2 and say something like: "here is modeled by the rotation of a bullet in the rifle barrel, and this is precisely because of this it becomes a truly". None. Nothing is simulated. But it is clear that the authors of Killzone 2 have invested in the development of a huge amount of money and labor.For months they spent searching for a suitable mood to the intangible spirit, because of which an FPS like a film from Spielberg, and another - a game of soldiers. I do not know how they managed to achieve this. Moreover, it is possible that the authors themselves can not explain it. But the fact of not escape: Killzone 2 - cruel war of the future, in which you believe. The picture on the screen, the sound speakers and vibration in the controller play on your nerves. Minutes after the start of the first level, and you entirely on that side of the screen, in the trenches Helgana.
 | |  | The effect of expanding krovischi completely unrealistic, but beautiful, chertyaka, incredibly | | Sevchenko Try yourself in the position of the tank commander and later as a pilot of a powerful combat robot |
Apocalypse tomorrow Initial map showed a hundred times at shows and if you watched what was happening, then surely it will learn. Later, "Alpha" begins to advance deep into enemy territory. It turns out, is extremely rich Helgan Petrosyan ... that is to say, sorry, petrusitom, which operates a powerful weapon and villains. Ominous electrical towers, it is easy to destroy everything within reach, stop the advancement of the world's convoy. "Alpha" travels to the villages and factories Helgana to undermine the power of the enemy's war machine, so to speak, from the inside. And like last year's Final Call of Duty: World at War, except that our comrades are not storming the Reichstag, and the palace of the tyrant Scolari Vizara. Only in the game ten levels, and their passage takes about six to ten hours depending on the level of complexity (they are four). At the minimum can be worn on the level with a knife and shouting vile insults and making obscene gestures, to cut helgastov as pigs. At the maximum, events take a completely different turn. The enemies are deadly, and anything that looks sweep, it really is. Another achievement of the physical model of Killzone 2: a bullet you can drive through any hole. Metal grilles, loose-fitting steel plates, slits in the boarded-up windows - you or learn how to use them, or perish. The game is very difficult to find the "invisible wall", but not obvious loopholes - so full.
In single-player campaign allow the hero to dive for cover and attack the enemy while remaining relatively safe. Camera at the same time always shows what is happening in the first-person mode and you see the same thing and Sevchenko: the wall in front of his nose pressed to let her arms. In multiplayer, a feature absent on the grounds, apparently, balance, and single underlines the importance of shelter and no more. Familiar weapons: pistol, submachine guns, assault rifles, heavy machine guns, sniper rifle. From the exotic - bazooka and flamethrower is useless with a tiny radius of the attack. In single mode, we also discovered already mentioned, and brutally effective knife, which in the recent multiplayer beta for some reason was not. Measured during the campaign was suspended then travel on a tank, the level at the giant fighting robots, then battle with the boss. Spetsprotivniki not particularly strong and are usually improved versions of traditional enemies. They are easy to send to the light for two or three minutes of battle.
 | |  | The very special place in which the game demonstrates the capabilities of model destruction. To such a state can bring only a few buildings around the single | | Helgasty look just as vibrant. Try finding their models, sharp corners, sloppy textures or seams, which ranges converge. Once said: Nothing will come |
Local color The plot is rather long mired in a viscous, along and across the swamp footworn military style: protect the convoy, closing our reunited with his comrades, bear defense, take by storm ... The flywheel spins up to the second half of the game when it comes helgastsky Colonel Radek. Tragically killed key characters, major events occur that affect the course of the war. The latest splash Sevchenko sitting on the steps and think (read on the face): "Yes, who needs it, this war!" Across the entire single-player campaign is a harsh masculine theme of friendship, loyalty, duty, and his comrades. Obviously the influence of the series Gears of War - both here and there a few sullen men battling bloodthirsty aliens. If it comes to that, it is Gears of War more than any other shooter is similar in spirit to Killzone 2. In the Russian version of the game (and you can select it at the start of Killzone 2, among other European locations), characters describe the war blunt and courageous passages like: "This is not fucking study!" Or "Here master node. 'll Blow it - all fuck gaknetsya. Helgastov they called "Helga", but about the bosses think that those "who want to die will be, if only for their own ass is not taken." Localization excellent: when the battle begins, and from all sides is heard a ruckus in their native language, inevitably it seems that the game did countrymen. And subtitles, and voice are literate and well ... only in its own way. Obviously, they were engaged people who are not familiar with each other. Many cues are translated differently, there are also some important differences. For example, a spaceship in the credits - "New Sun" in ozvuchke - "Supernova". Flying automatic drone helgastov pronounced "BETI", written as "attacks." Funny embarrassment turned to the very end of the campaign, when one of the interpreters received, apparently, a classic Soviet-educated, calls the second floor «third floor, although in this case, and it is quite obvious, I mean the second floor. This is the only major translation error, otherwise it is correct and literate. And although Sony has taught her Russian translator but it did not seem to have learned that what is good and what is bad. The above example with "asshole" pretty harmless. When you start a serious dust-, the battlefield is fast becoming a battlefield. Bad-word "with" a continual echoes rolled through the ranks of fighters for liberation army, and the case could be heard shouting like: "- Your mother - your mother! - Fuck ... per foot! "
Turn this abuse can not. On the ugly Helgane, in heavy fighting, it looks appropriate, and yet we believe that Sony should not force players to listen to mate. If desired, the same ideas could be expressed much more biting expressions of the bounds of decency. Finally, if you leave too much strong language, think about the children! Militant parent hears this - and ban the approach to the console for the year ahead. So make at least a special button that would turn off obscene language.
 | |  | Helgastov easily calculated from any distance on a bright red eyes. Other sources, the characteristic glow of the planet is not | | It looks like the very first trailer? And how! If you have a big TV and good acoustics, Killzone 2 will be much more spectacular than any war film |
After the war Even after you have watched the latest screen saver, the game will always find what you take. After completion of the campaign Killzone 2 open access to all the checkpoints on all maps and all levels of complexity. Somewhere hidden away helgastov logo (must be destroyed) and intelligence (to be collected). Look for them all - will receive a trophy and a bonus. Pass all the levels without a single death - one more trophy to the maximum complexity - another. There are also more interesting tasks, such as a grenade to blow up himself and two helgastov or defeat the boss in less than a minute and a half. All statistics are tracked, you can even see how much interest you "passed" single. And get a coveted one hundred will be very difficult. Even when you're single, come along and across, are shooting with the bots on the network cards - complete emulation of the multiplayer, except that participants may be only 16, not 32. It is in these situations shows its ability artificial intelligence bots. Computer soldiers behave in a vital and believable, competently perform any tasks and effectively achieve mission objectives.
And what about multiplayer? That's what we recently wrote about the beta test: «Killzone 2 is envisaged as the main multiplayer shooter on the PlayStation 3, and we are ready to give her the title now. In the beta test, we saw a wonderful, unique graphics, stable and fast engine, thoughtful and ambitious multiplayer, competent support clans and tournaments. Games of this level on all the consoles can be counted on the fingers. " Now we do not yet know how to show yourself online mode of Killzone 2 after release, but no doubt: it will be a grand launch. Even the titles (listed developers) to make the original and rich, though the authors are telling us: look, we do not feel sorry to throw another ten-thousand dollars in credits - represent, as we have worked on the game? And indeed, Killzone 2 met our expectations and exceeded expectations. She - the best proof that Sony now makes the console shooters better than Microsoft, and the future of the PlayStation 3 can be very successful.
| Razed to the ground ... or not? |
System damage in Killzone 2 is more important than it might seem. In single-player campaign is even a special demonstration performance: Sevchenko sits at the machine gun, and opposite - a house of several storeys, and at every into the crowd helgastov. You open the heavy fire, and casualty building a few minutes in a row breaks off plaster and around the rising clouds of construction dust. Even concrete slabs do not stand up, and eventually converted the building to rubble. Such demonstration scenes in a single number, and all - very good. In other cases, in a normal game uses an impressive model of cosmetic damage.This means that many sites are deteriorating in appearance, but always by design. For example, the possible long column of fire, and bullets will leave traces facing down, shoot the piece of material ... but finally destroy the tower still did not succeed. We believe that cosmetic damage model for a shooter more than enough. When you start shooting in a small hall in the air flying dust, pieces of some dirt, concrete chips - creates a full illusion of this battle.
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