KILLZONE 2 DEMO IMPRESSION

Very short but sweet would be my overall taste of the new KILLZONE 2 demo. The demo throws you right in the middle of the battle as you and your squad mates are storming Corinth River from above.

First off even though this is just the demo I have to admit that during my first play through I could not help but admire the scenery. As soon as we leaped off the carrier I immediately began sight seeing, it is really hard not to. From aircrafts flying over head to missles blazing through the sky you seriously are engulfed in a warzone and it looks unbelievable. Really, you have to see it. The reload animation is top-notch as your weapon looks like it has been in it’s fair share of scuffles. Also, the way the lighting reflects off of surfaces is CRAZY! Light rays fill through open spaces in the most realistic fashion.

As far as the  bullet damage, they leave damage on cement, dirt, walls you name it. Whatever you shoot it is negatively affected nicely. At one point after I was finish clearing the warehouse of enemies I started looking for things to shoot up and I started shooting this piece of metal that kept hoping around the floor as I shot it. It twisted, turned and slid across the ground as it would in reality. I got a real kick out of it. At one point I began shooting into the water to see how far the bullets would go out and make a splash and the bullets affected the water very far out. Was this necessary? No, but I had to test the water. (No pun intended)  Also, the sound of the game is as just impressive as the visuals. From the bullets hitting the ground to the screams and explosions going off all around you I really couldn’t see how a game could sound better. Unlike the original KILLZONE which displayed ambient sounds throughout the game, KILLZONE 2 demo offers more of a musical dramatic affect to the experience. It truly sounded like an action movie.

What took some getting use to was the controls which were very different from many previous shooters. To aim you have to press R3 and to shoot you press R1, not as smooth as COD4’s aim and shoot mechanic but it gets quite easy as you get used to the controls. Switching between weapons was a breeze as you can utilize your knife as well. The cover system was very smooth and easy to adapt. I sometimes caught myself having to think about pressing R3 in order to aim and shoot while coming out of cover but it eventually got very easy. By the way the sprint mechanic is flawless. It definitely made up for the pacing initially. When I first begin to move around it felt rather slow and awkward but as I moved into battle I found it was not even an issue and it really feels like the weapons have a true sense of weight to them that give it this simulator feel. It is obvious that a lot of time went into perfecting the pacing.

The combat has to be approached realistically. Gone are days of reloading while not in cover, don’t do it. Tossing grenades is a blast as they cause tons of damage so I had to be sure not to cook them for too long if you know what I mean.

Again the demo is toooo short but it serves it’s brief purpose. It looks INSANE in HD and the sound is incredible. All in all from this brief experience of KILLZONE 2 I find that it feels like the Gran Turismo of shooters. The controls take some getting used to and the presentation is remarkable, a realistic shooting simulation. I loved it!

Go pre-order it NOW!