Last week we saw the demo releases of two highly anticipated games – Halo Wars & KILLZONE 2. I’d like to say, up front, that I was very impressed with both demos. Both games looked beautiful, played well and both offer new and exciting things for their individual consoles.
KILLZONE 2 is a first person shooter being developed by Guerilla exclusively for the PlayStation 3. When the PS3 was first announced this game was seemingly synonymous with the full potential of Sony’s next-gen system. So for the last two years of development, Guerilla has had their hands full trying to meet those expectations. In the graphics department, this game is absolutely gorgeous. KILLZONE 2 offers textures, style and animations that have never before been seen on the PlayStation 3. Many have already said that this is the best looking console game to date. As far as game play is concerned, there have been some mixed reactions. The controls feel a bit “floaty” throughout and due to the extensive animations, actions feel delayed from their corresponding button presses. I was able to solve most of these issues by turning my controller sensitivity all the way up and remapping a few of the action buttons so that they felt more familiar (although many took issue with the controls even after these tweaks). The demo was a bit short so I was unable to get a feel for any of the specifics from the story line, but it was very immersive and felt like one hellacious battlefield. All-in-all Guerilla provided an action packed, beautiful demo that definitely got me excited for the February 26 release of KILLZONE 2.
Both Halo Wars and KILLZONE 2
are currently available for pre-order
.