Price: £39.99 Players: 1-2 offline, plus online play Widescreen: Yes 60Hz: No DTS sound: No Killzone is a first-person-shooter that pits your squad against the deadly enemy that is the Helghast. Taking on the role of Captain Templar, this is set in the near future, but looks like a World War II first-person-shooter like Medal of Honour: Frontline and also goes for the bleak futuristic look in places like Halo 2, but while it can't hope to match that for the visuals, it actually comes across as more engaging to play. The human race finally got round to colonising space and at some point a splinter faction broke off and settled on Helghan, so what you're fighting against are not aliens, but humans... In this game, the single-player campaign puts you through eleven missions, each in several parts, starting with World War II-style trenches, then moving on to city sieges, sweaty jungles, etc., so you can see there's plenty of location variety. However, the enemy themselves are not the most varied bunch and don't change massively throughout the game even if they do look rather cool, looking a bit like a futuristic Nazi that's just fallen out of the pages of Hellboy.

On the plus side, Killzone is not original, but it's definitely huge fun. As it began, I enjoyed the shootout in the trenches, and then being able to duck for cover while reloading. In fact, that is one of the game's nice touches, reloading your gun, watching your point of view move about to accommodate this action, along with simply storming in and trying to kill as many baddies as you can before getting shot to pieces. Conversely, on the downside, it's maddening to get killed and go back to the start of the level/checkpoint, having been ambushed, but then if you do go looking for trouble... Also, while you do control a squad, you do feel like you're running a one-man army with only occasional help from your team as they just follow you like sheep. This leads me on to think that overall, the A.I. is not particularly "I", and there's no jump button to leap onto ledges although similar functions will come into play when required. In fact, things do seem a bit linear as you make your way from one level to another, and when you need a rocket launcher to deal with a tank... lo and behold there's one to be picked up, but this in itself doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the game. In addition, there's not as many things you can shoot off the walls, compared to games like Red Faction.

There is online play here, but I never was able to get the PS2 Network Adaptor to work. Perhaps it's because I'm on Pipex? Who knows. I tried many times to get it to work and sourced help here, there and everywhere. I can easily get Xbox Live up and running on that one and it works instantly so given the choice... That said, given that there's a lack of originality here, you're bound to have several other games that you can play online already. Even playing offline, you can still dip into the 'Battlefields' (online) section and go up against a CPU baddie. The graphics give some well-detailed cut-scenes, but for the game itself, that's nicely detailed and atmospheric in a lot of places, but often jerky as you move about and with jaggies that could've been avoided. You'll certainly hear some fantastic surround sound FX as the action goes on, and there's voices coming from the likes of British actors Sean Pertwee and Brian Cox. However, the utterances from your colleagues, in terms of voice commands, pain screams and other comments, do repeat themselves with alarming regularity.

There are several different weapons, but the sound FX on those aren't widely varied. The sniper rifle is difficult to control at first but you do get used to it when it's required. However, it will crop up in other sections as an option when you may as well save yourself the time and use your regular weapons, zoom in a bit, and then shoot a few careful shots in singuar form - as opposed to just blasting away which makes your gun move about - as that'll get the job done a bit more quickly. In some sections, it's worth hanging back to let your energy regain because as you step forward further you'll trigger the next wave of enemies, so once you learn where this happens you'll know you can hang back safely before heading on to the next onslaught. Also, thankfully, if you accidentally shoot your colleagues, neither do they die nor turn on you. Good job, as I once threw a grenade down a long staircase thinking it was a baddie at the bottom. As it traversed down, I focused my sights on him and they turned green. All I could do was think "Whoops!" just before he had to dive for cover! Overall, if you're not 100% sure you're in the market for what is essentially another war FPS game, give it a rental at least. It has a bit of a unique feel about it to make it stand out from the rest of the pack while not branching out in terms of what it could've achieved. However, for those that stick with it, you'll get to play as other army colleagues Luger, Rico and Hakha along the way.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2005.