Having played first person shooters for quite sometime, I've grown tired of this over-saturated genre.  For some background, my favorite console fps at a time was perfect dark. An option filled 4 player split screen extravaganza of a console shooter. It had the same great controls of Goldeneye yet added so many weapons, levels, modes, bots, and options that put it over the top of all the others. YEARS later came Call of Duty 4, a console shooter that FELT perfect. Prior to COD4, there hadn't been a shooter that controlled as flawlessly as this. It was immersive, looked fantastic, and most importantly, FUN. I became very competitive, and to put it quite frankly, obsessed with it.

      Killzone 2 is the next Perfect Dark and Call of Duty 4. I've had the privledge of spending a few hours watching and playing this god of a shooter, and I'm blown away. First and foremost its a looker. Gorgeous lighting, particle effects, explosions, and shells are abound. It's quite cinematic looking without being a cinematic. What else does a game that has great graphics need? A lot actually, and Killzone2 nails it again with its completely immersive gameplay. Right off the bat, the game feels as fluid and fast paced as my previous love Call of Duty4. The sprinting is just right, the aiming is tight, the melee is quick, the grenade tossing is strategic with its ricochet, and the crouching is a useful mechanic.  There is no laying prone, and there isn't a cover system, though the single player will apparently feature the later. But the basic run and shoot mechanics are dead on.  The weight of your character and the power of the weapons you're wielding feel fantastic as well. I suppose its a physics thing but not many other shooters "get" this. It's as if they're on ice or their guns are shooting BBs as opposed to bullets. Killzone2 FEELS like war. Speaking of which, the 32 player battles make it feel this way even more so. There are battles EVERYWHERE, especially on the smaller map of the 3 available for the beta. Bodies writhing in pain waiting for a medics help, shrapnel flaying through the air, and explosions overhead as well as below. It's quite a battle field.

      There's of course a standard team death match mode, but there are others as well. An assassinate the other teams random and unlucky member, a destroy the base type mode, capture the "flag/item", and maybe even others that get added into the final version. There's even a mode that mixes it all together where the objectives keep changing to keep things fresh. When creating a game you have the option of setting the time frame, and when each mode comes up. Options baby!!! I hear there will be bots as well for your shooting needs. So besides being fun and beautiful as heck, whats going to keep ya playing? Well awesome stat tracking and leveling up your rank of course! With experience you gain from killing the other team and completing objectives, you unlock more options to customize your soldier as you go. More weapons, more ammo, and most importantly new classes that have completely different functions. Very similar to the great PC shooter Team Fortress, these classes differentiate you from everyone else and set Killzone 2 apart from the standard multiplayer FPS. Having not unlocked any of em yet, I won't go into great detail, but having played against them I can say they are all badasses. There's the engineer that sets turrets, the medic that does you know what, the sniper(called scout) that cloaks, the tactician that sets spawn points, and another two or so that I can't wait to try out myself. You must gain A LOT of experience to acquire the classes but that wont be a problem seeing how you wont want to put the game down. Play as the classes enough and you get to mix and match the different perks of each. Think of a medic that can build turrets, what a support class! Or how bout a cloaking shotgun wielder, PWNED! Its always a good thing when game can allow the gamer to play their own style yet remain balanced and fun. Killzone2 does it. 

      So what's this game lacking when the fundamentals of graphics and gameplay are so damn good? It cant be perfect can it? No game is after all. Killzone2 is in need of a custom control set up as EVERY GAME COULD USE!!! What if I want to shoot with R1 and not R2? What if I want melee on a face button and not a shoulder button? What if I want to aim down the iron sights with a shoulder button and not click in an analog stick? There are controller presets but those never matter if I could simply change what button does what. Developers, don't make us relearn your FPS games controls when its just a damn FPS. Yeah, its a minor gripe but I feel it's an important one. Another potential problem with the game is an interesting one. I wont know till I've played hours upon hours, but I think there may be a steep learning curve for newbies against the high ranked players there will inevitably be. You unlock SO many new weapons and class options that new players might be turned off from getting rocket launched or cloak sniped. It may frustrate them that they can't have any of this cool stuff right off the bat. It may turn them away from an awesome game. That, is a bit worrisome. After all, gamers these days like their games spoon fed to them, and if they have to try and put some effort into the game, they'll just give it up. Although... this could be a blessing in disguise, maybe the community of Killzone2 will consist of only the true gamers. The players that didn't give up the fight, and people that you WANT to play with. I can dream can't I? That's enough of this for now, but I also wanted to throw in the fact that the game runs fantastically on a FREE online network. We'll see when the final release hits store shelves in February if the droves of blood thirsty gamers don't crash the servers, but as far as the beta goes its smooth as butter.

      In short, this is an un-freaking-believable game. I doubted developer Guerrilla when they released that  CG trailer years ago, but they man'd up and delivered. I can't wait to play some more.