Killzone 2 Demo Impressions -or- Happy Daxel is Happy

Oh Joy, how I have never more felt so happy to be wrong.

After Killzone 2 was announced, I was skeptic of the games ability to bring me massive amounts of super-happy-ultra-omega-fun-time. Killzone was disappointing for me, mostly because the game always found a way to crash half way through, and I went through 3 disks before I gave up. I did try Liberation when that came out, and I did have fun with that, and I will also say that if I ever pick up a PSP, I�ll be looking out for a copy of that game as well.
Anyways, Killzone 2 wasn�t looking to hot, all up until now.

Killzone 2 is fun.



Ok, the demo is fun. For the 3 minuets I managed to blow past it, and I wasn�t really trying hard. I was causally unloading on anything that moved. I picked up every piece of ammo available, and was even forced to use the magnum a while, before I switched to back to my main gun, and I only had about 20 shots left.
Needless to say, it was a fun 3 minutes.

First off, the game is damn near the most beautiful thing I have laid my eyes on. It sucks that I didn�t get to see the full color spectrum I hope Killzone 2 will push (silver, brown, and red where the colors I saw), but it doesn�t stop it from being pretty. Really pretty.

Second, the cover mechanic takes some getting used to, and can sometimes be a hindrance, doing things you don�t want it to do, but otherwise it�s pretty nice. Crouch, get behind some cover, shimmy to the left or right, pop out, bust a few caps, reload. Pretty straightforward and nice, but I wish that you could have your back to cover in first person mode, and that you would blind fire. That would make thing extremely nice.



The only complaint I have is that, and this might just be me, but the looking in the game feels�like waving you hand through water. Starting out slow, but then gaining speed as you gain momentum. It�s not exactly sluggish, but it doesn�t�feel right, to me at least. I know 1Up had some similar words for this kinda phenomenon, and I tried turning the X and Y axis sensitivity up all the way, but I still got the same feeling. It may not sound like something big, but for me, it�s kinda�weird.

All things come down, I�ve been proven wrong. Killzone 2 is a fun shooter, and if the demo plays out like the real deal when I pick this game up, it�ll be a 60$ well spent.