Daily Archives: May 11, 2009

Killzone 2: Multiplayer

I didn’t really get into Killzone 2’s multiplayer until recently.

As befitting a game titled “Killzone 2” you are invariably and unregrettably placed into a zone where you are then encouraged to kill people.  It’s true, the title hides no secrets.  One can also deduce that it’s a sequel, if you scour the text carefully.

As a sequel, the game is definitely in that rare category where it excels in every way from its predecessor.  It is a remarkably polished title.  Even the loading screens are innovative, using the sixaxis controls to just barely tilt the image, so that you can see that it is a three dimensional diorama.  Killzone 2 has jumped a console generation in its journey.  It benefits from both better hardware and better design choices.

Visually, I was most impressed by the little details.  Other players would kick up dust as they run in some of the desert levels.  If there were enough people, I could not see through it until the wind blew it away or I waited for a moment for it to settle.  You can shoot nearly everything and see some form of damage on it.

Multiplayer matches are 32 player, well, let’s see.  You’re placing 32 people into a confined area, dividing them into teams and giving them firearms.  I think you can see how this pans out.  Initially,  this many players sounds overwhelming, but very quickly, I saw that they had designed the game with this in mind.

The way that Killzone 2 handles these large groups is with squads.  Joining a squad provides many benefits.  The most primary of which is the capability of spawning on top of the squad leader.  If you’re working with a decent squad leader, that person will generally wait for their squad and move as a unit to perform their objectives.  If they run into unexpected resistance they’ll try to stay alive as long as possible and wait for the squad members to spawn back in.  Additionally, squads get their own channel, at least on the radar, my squad members were clearly marked so I knew where they were.

Overall, it’s a fun distraction from the single player portion of the game, which I have simply walked away from.  I really disliked one of the characters and I really just lost interest since he was there for so long.

But at least the multiplayer is good, for now.  Unlocking additional classes and abilities will probably keep me coming back, at least for the next couple of weeks or so on the weekends.