GOONL!NE

Developer: Gurreilla Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Also on: N/A (PLAYSTATION 3 Exclusive)
Console Played on: PLAYSTATION 3
Release Date: Friday February 27th 2009
Rating: PEGI 18, BBFC 18

I am prepared to make a prediction right now.

Killzone 2 will be the GOTY of 2009.

Why?

Because it’s an achievement on 3 levels.

- On a Graphical Standpoint
- On a Gameplay Standpoint
- On a Technical Standpoint

Yeah, there is stuff like Heavy Rain, Halo 3: Recon, Resident Evil 5 and more but Killzone 2 won’t just live to the hype but by the looks of it, it will surpass it. GOONL!NE was invited into the multiplayer beta (sorry, no single player but expect some expect footage from the 2nd level of the game on our YouTube page this week) and we have to say, this is unlike any other first person shooter that has ever hit the consoles on a technical or graphical level.

When the game was first revealed back at E3 2005 under the guise of target footage, the crowd was wowed. We knew this game was gonna be special… only for it to be brought back down on it’s knees when it was revealed to be runnng as CGI. We knew the game was coming when we seen that trailer but does the real thing live up to the trailer shown at E3 nearly 3 and a half years ago and match it?

No.

It surpasses it… by a mile.

In the beta, you get the choice to play as either the ISA or Helghast and you’d get 3 maps. Blood Gracht, Salamun Market and Radec Academy with Warzone being the keymode in the multiplayer beta with all of the modes in the multiplayer of Killzone 2 including rolled into one big mode in Warzone including Assassination which see’s you try to kill one of the other side or one of the other side try to kill you or a teammate, Search and Destroy which see you trying to destroy a certain objective with Search and Defend beng the exact opposite of S&D, Bodycount which is pretty much Team Deathmatch and Search and Retrieve which sees you trying to capture a certain objective to bring back to your base.

As well as them gameplay elements, there are more to expect in the final retail verison of the game and they are big enough to accommodate the smallest lot of gamers from 8 players to 32 players and the amount of players you get with the multiplayer, the most being 32 players, you can expect an epic multiplayer experience when the game is released in Februrary 2009.

But Killzone ’s biggest talking point isn’t it’s multiplayer or it’s gamelay, it’s the graphics. And simply put, I am ready to make another prediction right now like I did at the start of this preview. Killzone 2 will be the best game this gen on a techincal and graphical scale on any console or PC. They simply look amazing amazing, even better looking then any game available on the consoles right now including Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 4, Assassins Creed, Gears of War 2 and even Crysis.

The game runs at a solid 30FPS but the game looks so incredible, it could easily run 60FPS if it wanted to so hopefully,you will have the option to turn 60FPS on like you could with Bioshock on the Xbox 360. The enviroments around you get more dilapidated in gunfire each time, dead bodies scatter the map, it’s a nitty gritty world out there for Killzone 2, you don’t get no tutorial with online or single player, you are thrown into the deep end straight away, no one there to hold your hand, just hope that your a fast learner and get your hands dirty right away because Killzone 2 isn’t a forgiving game.

Depending on skill, your either gonna get slaugherted or your gonna slaughter them, it’s a dog eat dog world out in Helghan so it;s best you get some training in you first. You can do that by using the offline multiplayer where you can use bots to play and up the difficulty to make you improve as a player. If you wanna be known as a legend in online, this is where you start so get to it soldier.

Overall Impressions: In just over 6 – 7 weeks time, all the talk, all the hype and all the trash talk on this game stops. Killzone 2 will be ready to prove that it’s ready and willing to take on the big multiplayer guns like Gears of War, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 and judging from our hands on time, it’s not just ready to go, it rearing to go like a dog desperate to hump something.

All them doubts from E3 2005 can now go away, Killzone 2 is gonna be one hell of a game, it’s gonna be the Apocalypse Now of games and that’s a very big tag to fall under.