It's war on the PSP! Here's a review of Killzone: Liberation, created with love by X-Play.
The Pros
- Environmental graphics are adequate
- Features multiplayer co-op
- Ordering troops is easy enough.
The Cons
- Fails to deliver either an intuitive or entertaining experience
- Targeting is a nightmare
- Totally uninspired look and play
Helghast are the new Nazis. At least, that's what Sony wants you to think with its Killzone series of shooters. In actuality, Hitler had more charisma in one moustache hair than all of Killzone: Liberations on PSP. If only a lack of personality were the sole problem with this game.
The 100 Snores War
While we've gotten vomit-inducingly sick of playing shooters set in World War II, at least it's a setting you can sink your teeth into. Killzone takes the template of a war-torn world, and does nothing to jazz it up: You've got crates, dirt, and a few sets of stairs. It's surprising the opposing forces -- Helghast and ISA -- even find the area worth fighting for. It would seem more likely they'd just regard it as a parking lot and little else.
In the PS2 first-person predecessor, the enemy Helghast had the air of intergalactic death-troopers. With the camera pulled high above on the already-smaller PSP screen, they're indistinguishable from a bunch of Army privates -- eliminating the fear factor that gave the series a modicum of interesting content.
What Is It Good For?
The game's third-person perspective holds other issues, as well: Aiming in Killzone: Liberation is a crapshoot, more sensitive than a menopausal spinster. There's a reason most titles of this ilk opt for lock-on targeting. Gameplay as a whole is woefully unbalanced, leading to death after death for no good reason. Each time, you will question your desire to persevere; it's a losing battle. While there are cool weapons to use, the currency cost of unlocking them is staggering. While mini-games offer rewards such as the ability to carry more grenades and the like, but the tasks themselves are little more than training missions -- that can't be played until you beat an entire chapter, negating the learning experience.
Killzone: Liberation makes minefields, man vs. tank battles and co-op campaigns so unbelievably boring, you almost have to give developer Guerilla credit for missing the boat so entirely. On paper, you'd think the game would be a non-stop thrill ride; but instead, it throws a steady mixture boredom or frustration at you -- and often both at once! It's unfortunate, because it's not an awful looking game, the levels are designed fairly well, and squad-based commands are easily dished out.
Be Liberated
Yet again, the Killzone franchise fails to deliver. Last time, it was a mere me-too FPS that didn't live up to considerable hype. With Killzone: Liberations, it's a whole other, more sinister beast entirely: just a flat-out crummy game. Thankfully, PSP has its share of decent shooters either here already -- like Syphon Filter -- or on the horizon -- Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops -- so fewer gamers will feel compelled to enlist with this sorry squadron.
Article by: Justin Leeper
Video produced by: Mark Fahey
Comments
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dedon07
I doubt y'all see this because this is an old game but I was reading the killzone 3 article in gamepro and saw that there was a killzone on psp and I'm fixing to get one so I look up on metacritic the review for it and I see a ton of positive reviews from critics and gamers then I see g4 which gives it a 40 so I click full review to read it and I see y'all gave it a 2 out of 5 which from watching xplay I come to expect. Who reviews yalls games? Seriously because they are the worse ever when I'm watching xplay I can guess what the score y'all give it everytime 90% of ne IPs y'all give it a low score exspecially ones nobodys really talking about or ones you don't hear much about but games that are all over tv and the Internet and are sequels which already have a big fan base and y'all kno the first ones good y'all rate high it's like y'all are scared to go out on a limb and day a new game is good or it's like y'all go off of preorders and sales numbers do y'all even play the game or do y'all just watch trailers and see what other people say about them and see a few videos on it and hear what a developer says and if y'all don't like a game give it a 2 and if it's sellin ok give it a 3 and if it's sellin good give it a 4 and games like call of duty and mass effect and bioshock just go ahead and give them a 5 bc a ton of people play thm and like them seriously I know y'all don't actually play them and the cast of xplay you can tell they don't either get real gamers on there your views can tell everything is read off of a screen that has everything already written down for them to say you can deffinately tell Morgan Webb and Blair that they don't play and the girl that does the cheats y'all figured halls pretty a pretty face up there and no one would say anything I think Adam plays and you can deffinately tell Abby plays she's the main one there that plays she should be the host we are gamers we don't just want a pretty face on tv we want a gamer on there that knows what they are talking about and that actually plays games on there telling us about games and reviews on there that actually review games and that rate games rwheter they are popular or not one that can actually say that an okay game is good and it be his actual opinion it's like y'all are scared to rate a new IP good unless it's great and I mean really great
drewman2
you suck g4 THIS GAME IS GREAT 3OUT OF 5 TO ME SC##W YOU G4.
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