Our latest chance to play Killzone 2 had us starting with the third mission in the game, coming just after the training sections. It’s the first mission proper against the Helghast and sees Sev and his Alpha team attacking the coastal town of Corinth to secure its resources. The opening is a rush of tracer fire, explosions and shrieking that mimics the classic opener from Medal of Honor: Frontlines. The objective is to overrun the entrenched Helghast positions and secure the beach for the main force to land as they zoom in on flying sleds.
We moved off the beach and through a warehouse full of Helghast (reinforcements crashed through the roof in startling fashion) and eventually made it to the Sixaxis-controlled switch. Holding L1 and R1, you ‘grab’ the wheel and turn it by going through the motions of turning a wheel – neat. This is the moment where everything got turned up to eleven. Once past the checkpoint where our previous playtest ended, everything was new. Ahead was an open space littered with handy cover – rubble, concrete slabs and broken masonry. Almost as soon we set foot onto the field, all hell broke loose and a lone gun post on top of a bombed-out tower block peppered our squad.
Using cover, we scurried to an abandoned gun turret and fired back. An oil barrel below the entrenched enemy caught our eye and a couple of shots later the thing exploded, bringing down the entire building. Sure, it’s massively scripted and shows Killzone 2 isn’t that original, but it does put on one hell of a show. This was more evident the further into the level we played. After demolishing the tower block with a well-placed shot to that clichéd barrel, we came across the real battle. Ahead of us were a dozen Helghast; behind us were our squad and armoured support.
As the firefight took hold, we used cover positions to progress and fend off the Helghast troops while enjoying the sight of enemies’ hats pinging off with well-aimed headshots. Then we got a shock as a huge tank burst onto the scene. The tank was ours, luckily. But as it arrived, so did a small army of Helghast, too many for us to deal with – so we retreated to a trench and watched the tank deal with the problem. While our tank was mopping up, we soon came under attack from one of the game’s mini-bosses, an armour-clad minigun carrying Helghan with a handy weak spot on his back in the shape of an explosive canister. The trick here is to use the accurate shooting mechanic to hit the boss in the leg, forcing him to spin and stumble around, exposing his back. Once again, just experimenting with the guns and body specific targeting proves fun and valuable.
