Killzone 2 (PS3)
The Helghast are back in a sequel that I've dubbed Return of the Red-Eye. Because the Helghast all have red eyes. Get it? You see what I did there? Clever, right?
2/4/2009 10:43 AM | 74 Comments | Page 1 of 3
What's Hot: Terrific production values; Protagonist is an Average Joe; A couple of truly awesome FPS set pieces
What's Not: Standard-issue FPS action; Lack of imagination and innovation; Style trumps substance (example: the Helghast's cool-looking but terribly impractical red eyes)
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
There are certain things that I can expect to do in first-person shooters these days. I can expect to set a C4 charge. I can expect to drive some variation of tank/Warthog-like jeep/armored mech-thing.
I can expect to turn a circular valve. I can expect to ride in an elevator with my "squad." I can expect to find a stray sniper rifle at the exact moment that I need a sniper rifle. And I can expect to find a rocket launcher -- coupled with a bottomless cache of rockets -- conveniently placed near a level-ending boss.
Like an accountant doing your taxes,
Killzone 2, developed by Guerilla Games, dutifully meets these criteria. Valves were turned. Charges were planted. Mech-things were driven. And despite the fact that all these things are done with great enthusiasm, high production values and lots of terrific-looking explosions, yawns were still yawned.
The Helghast's flight of choice: the red-eye.
The game tells the story of Sergeant Tomas Sevchenko, aka "Sev." Sev is an Average Joe. He's not the best-looking guy. He has a very average-sized neck for a videogame hero. (Compare/contrast Sev's neck with Marcus Fenix's neck.) Sev is pale and gaunt. He is also extremely short. In cut scenes he appears to be as tall as everyone else, but once gameplay kicks in, he miraculously shrinks to the size of Owen Meany. Every non-playable character in the game is noticeably taller than Sev. He seems to come up to everyone's chest.
I don't mind being an Average Joe in a game. I prefer it to the cliché one-man-army type usually found in shooters. But, man, it annoyed me to always be so much shorter than everyone else. It was psychologically debilitating for me. I felt less like a battle-hardened soldier who's been in "The Shit" and more like an eighth grader looking for directions to the nearest Pinkberry.
Sev's task, of course, is to C4-plant, valve-turn, and elevator-ride his way through the Helghast army -- worst bad-guys name ever, by the way -- and eventually locate their ranting, maniacal leader, Emperor Scolar Visari (voiced by the always terrific Brian Cox) and put a stop to his reign of terror.
The Helghast come in three sizes: Small, Medium and Depressed.
The Helghast must have dog-eared copies of "Mein Kampf" tucked into their knapsacks. They dress like Nazis. They walk like Nazis. They spout Nazi-esque rhetoric. To drive the point home even further, Sev's squadmates, aka "the good guys," are of mixed ethnicities. There's Corporal Dante Garza and Sergeant Rico Velasquez. Indeed, the squad is a veritable rainbow of colors -- every race, color and creed is represented, except for Asians (sorry, Asians) -- while the Helghast predominantly consist of bald-headed white guys.
I know they're bald because I can shoot off their helmets. I love this moment so much, I can't even tell you. A well-placed bullet and
ting, there goes the helmet. Maybe I'm imagining this, but enemies always seem to be chagrinned by the loss of their helmets. They hide for a moment. They reach up and touch their exposed heads. They seem to curse under their breaths. My only wish was that Guerrilla had carried this exchange one step further, and had the enemies actually chase after their missing helmets, and attempt to return them to their bare pates.
