Tradition dictates that, after the Christmas frenzy, the games industry enters hibernation in January and February, with releases thin on the ground and much of its personnel decamping to the ski slopes. Which leaves the way open for enterprising publishers to pump out big releases into an uncluttered market, confident that they will grab centre stage. And there's the extra prize of being tagged as the first big game of the year. This is clearly Sony's strategy with the first-person shooter Killzone 2, which hits the shops on 27 February – although, unusually for this time of year, it has competition from GTA IV: The Lost and Damned (which, as an upstart download, must be irksome for Sony) and Street Fighter IV.
Killzone 2 is a huge game for Sony – PS3 exclusives are scarce these days, and PS3 owners are surely fed up with casting envious glances at the cutting-edge first-person shooters (most notably Halo 3 and Gears of War 2) available for the Xbox 360. Luckily, Killzone 2 does the business – just about. Visually, it is stunning, and in general is very well crafted. But the fact that Sony is also releasing it bundled with a PS3 suggests that it sees it as a game that will persuade people to buy its latest console and it isn't really good enough to fulfil that ambition.
For a game to become a hardware-shifter, it must offer something that previous examples of its genre didn't and, as far as the gameplay is concerned, there isn't anything in Killzone 2 that we haven't already experienced. Visually, it's very crisp, and impressive technological touches are apparent, such as the way in which firefights in enclosed spaces soon cause the atmosphere to fill with virtual smoke. But, if anything, the more you play it, the more it reminds you of Gears of War 2.
Firstly, it's a cover-based shooter – if you launch a gung-ho run at the enemy, you'll be cut down in milliseconds. It has a dark, grimy art style, and a storyline built on the interplay between distinctly meat-headed and extremely Americanised squadmates – again, Gears of War trademarks. And like Gears of War 2, it works hard to deliver a certain amount of variety to the gameplay. Which is fair enough, but it would have been nice if that variety had included something truly fresh and new.
Perhaps Killzone 2's strongest suit is its intensity: right from the start, you feel as though you have been thrust into the most hostile environment imaginable. Namely the planet Helghan, whose denizens invaded the Earth colony Vekta in the first Killzone. Now, as Sergeant "Sev" Sevchenko, you're a key member of a force invading Helghan, with a mandate to assassinate the Helghast dictator Scolar Visari. So, as your convoy grinds towards Visari's palace (encountering plenty of setbacks on the way), you take part in pitched battles held outdoors and indoors (in which a strategic, flanking approach coupled with patience is key), sequences involving manning fixed guns, sniping, firing rocket-launchers and even piloting a mech and some boss-battles. The latter are more inventive than usual, as you take on believable opponents, rather than weird creatures, such as Helghast heavy soldiers, which (in a nod to Resistance: Fall of Man) you have to shoot in the head so they double up, allowing you to then rupture the tanks on their backs. Then there are the seemingly impregnable ATAC airborne vehicles and, finally, Visari's right-hand man, Colonel Radec, who has an annoying tendency to disappear, reappear behind you and stab you in the back.
There's a sub-plot involving a sort of lightning-energy, which the Helghast have harnessed to create devastating firepower, which of course you must disrupt in order to advance on Visari's palace. Throughout the proceedings, the control system proves well-sorted (although it's near-impossible to move backwards without accidentally clicking your weapon into zoomed mode, at which point you become near-immobile) and the enemy AI impressive. All of which makes for an absorbing and rewarding experience. But not, unfortunately, an experience which feels unlikely any you have encountered in first-person shooters of yore.
The multiplayer side of the game will undoubtedly prove a big draw on the PlayStation Network – up to 32 players can take each other on and, as in the likes of Battlefield, you can choose which role (scout, medic, engineer and so on) to play within your squad. Given the dearth of truly credible first-person shooters for the PS3, Killzone 2 is pretty much an essential purchase for any non-shooting-averse PS3 owners. But while it is a very good game, it certainly isn't a great one. When we think back to the number of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games that truly broke new ground, we can't help being disappointed by Killzone 2.