Just yesterday, I was offered the chance to play the upcoming shooter extravaganza Killzone 2 for half of the day. I couldn’t go due to work reasons though. However, I manage to ask two buddies of mine to attend this egregious play session in my stead, both of whom have conflicting mindsets for their console and nation/party of choice. I’ll refer to them to their gamertags, since they’re pretty shy in showing off their names in public. I bring you the gist of Killzone 2’s single-player mode through the words of XTC, an avid Xbox 360 owner, and PendragonS, worshipper of all things Sony-related.

PendragonS: Holy shit, Killzone 2 is the best goddamn thing to ever appear in, like, ever! WOOO! (raises his left arm, fists clenched)

XTC: (rolls eyes)Whoa, hold on there, boy. Have you even played Gears of War 2?

PendragonS: That’s not relevant to the subject. What’s relevant is that this shooter rocks all shooter’s sock’s off!

XTC: I was in the same room with you. First off, the controls. Why the hell do you feel like your character moves like as if he’s carrying a sack of bricks?

PendragonS: (breaths in and out) The controls? Hmm..it IS weighty, but it takes only a few minutes to get accustomed to it. After that, it becomes second nature once you acknowledge the fact that he isn’t some superhuman like Master Chef; he’s a normal dude who happens to carry heavy rifles and wears protective gear with him. Not every control scheme has to follow goddamn Halo all the time.

XTC: I…..okay, you have a point there. In the end, all that matters is that anything that makes you shoot bullets out of your pea-shooter are all mapped on the trigger button. Still, there’s no way to map the melee attacks on the Circle button. You could do that not only in Halo, but also in Call of Duty, and that’s a multiplatform game. Suck on that!

PendragonS: You win this round. But let’s talk about graphics. To put it bluntly, Killzone 2 makes Gears of War look like crayon drawings.

XTC: Does not!

PendragonS: Does too!

XTC: Does not….ah, fuck it. We’ll keep on like this forever. It IS true that the graphic engine makes even Crysis look like an 8-year old’s scribble. However, what did Guerilla choose to do with this newfound 2008 technology? Create a bunch of cities and places that look just like real life: factories, desert, train station, alleyways and half-dead urban zones. Killzone 2’s set in an alien planet: get creative with your settings dammit!

PendragonS: That’s not a fair assessment. Not every game needs to have giant worms and tyrannosaurus mutants with guns strapped on their backs to look interesting. I felt that the robot you get to pilot in the game and a few of the vehicle and robot designs weren’t too shabby.

XTC: I have to admit, having the main bad guys put on red glowing goggles help distinguish them from the grey and brown backgrounds. Makes it easier to kill things, you know?

PendragonS: Whatever. I overheard some PR guy saying that the game is nothing more than “shooting Nazis in space.” How far off is that statement?

XTC: Err, fanboy much? He has a point. Looking at the deserted gray city, and checking out the propaganda posters and giant flags and banners with the Helghay….

PendragonS: Hel-GHAST! Get it right!

XTC: Whatever. Helghast, and you can see the allusions there. And really, do you look at shooters for having excellence in story-telling? As far as I can tell, you invade an enemy’s home planet with a bunch of guys who were the understudies for the squad in Predator.

PendragonS: No way! I felt for one of the characters when he met his untimely death. And it’s nice to see the guy from the first game, Templar, back in the saddle.

XTC: Look, as much as I like action heroes, they’re not the least bit memorable. Gears of War 2 had idiots for cast members, I’ll give you that, but they’re memorable idiots. Poke fun at Marcus and Dom’s ambigiously gay relationship, us gamers remember all the overplayed lunacy that transpired. Killzone 2’s characters? They’re a means to an end: a paper-thin one at that.

PendragonS: Oh really? Well, we’ll just see about that

(PendragonS stops Killzone 2 to play through Gears of War 2 for about 3 hours or so to prove a point)

PendragonS: Ten shitload of grubs. Heh heh. Fine, you have a point. Gears of War 2 is dumb, but it went out all of its way. The Killzone 2 gang? Not so fun at parties. But they swear a lot, I’ll give them that.

XTC: I do dig the Helghast’s voices though. They’re like the perfect-sounding British evil villains recreated in videogame form. If you want to go meta, Killzone 2 is a parallel reflection of the Americans fighting their independence against the British oppresors, or something like that. I just read about this stuff online. Oh, and the music kicks so much ass. Sorry, Halo theme, but Killzone 2’s entire OST is on my “To Listen” list.

PendragonS: Finally! We agreed on something! The dramatic moments of the music comes in at appropriate times, and it sounds so grand when you’re in a guerilla-style combat of hiding and shooting.

XTC: Wow, we haven’t even gone to the shooting bits yet! I’ll start: the enemies in this game are pretty smart, even at default settings. They dodge and take cover like their A.I lifespans depended on it, although they succumb to the patented Halo run-shoot-melee combo a dozen of times. Wonder how it’ll be like on the harder difficulty settings?

PendragonS: The weapons! Wow, they handle pretty realistically! The rifle you start with is pretty good for a default weapon. I also like the fact that you are only allowed to carry a main weapon at a time. It makes you try out different weapons on the ground and on the rack. The levels themselves are designed so that you make use of whatever weapon you are offered on the spot.

XTC: True that. Particular moments include the bridge and the academy shows that you will not be stuck empty-handed should your main weapon run out of ammo. Shooters live and die by their level design and weapon-handling, and Killzone 2 at least knows this.

PendragonS: Glad to see an X-Bot turn to the good side of thi…….

XTC: However, apart from a few standouts like the Bolt gun and Electric gun, the weapon selection is just retreads of Call of Duty. Machine gun, SMG, assault rifle? Not really a brimming well of originality in Helghast, issit?

PendragonS: O Realy? How about the innovative SixAxis controls for using the sniper rifle? That hasn’t been done before!

XTC: Yeah, but do we really want that kind of innovation? It’s just Sony’s excuse to make Killzone 2 as exclusive as they can. Gee, instead of pressing the Circle button to turn a steam valve, how about we make it so that we tilt the controller like how you would actually turn a steam valve in real life? Pointless, gimmicky, and just plain stupid. On that note, I use the sniper gun less thanks to this “feature”.

PendragonS: Anyway, despite all that, I believe that Killzone 2 is worth the money simply because…

XTC:…you’re an apologetic Sony fanboy who is waiting for Killzone 2 to justify your purchase of an expensive hunk of a black monolith? The single-player mode, while it has its moments of shooting and action, is not up on par when compared to the likes of Epic and Infinity Ward’s way of doing things. If you’re buying a PS3 just so you can play Killzone 2’s single-player mode, you’re an idiot.

PendragonS: Chee (*short for “farewell*)! That’s pretty harsh. The robot segment was awesome! The game looks great. And wait, we haven’t played multiplayer yet, so we can’t really give our final thoughts on it unless you checked out the online parts thoroughly. With real people all over the world, lor. With news about other American journalists claiming that multiplayer is good (even though they only played among a small group of themselves and probably for a few hours) is enough to convert unbelievers.

XTC: I…uh…ah…dammit. It’s not over yet, Sony Defence Fart! How much is Sony paying you for this?

PendragonS: The same amount Microsoft paid you and Gaylara to blow them on your respective blogs! You’ve just been Sabo’d!

XTC: Stupid atas Pee-sai 3 snob!

PendragonS: Okie, time out. We really sound stupid leh. Let’s just take the game for what it is and finish this. For me, it’s a thumbs-up.

XTC: Thumbs in the middle.

PendragonS: Nice. Now let’s celebrate our newfound respect of consoles and gaming hobby between each other at the kedai mamak.

XTC: Hell yes!

(P.S: This is for satirical purposes and such mutual agreements between parties will not happen in real life. Bottom line: Killzone 2’s single-player mode is fun, but with a few noticeable hiccups here and there. The multiplayer portion will be discussed after the game is out for a week or so. Get your copy at the end of the month)