Review J__R 3/5 · Sep 30, 2025
Killzone HD and PS2
Does anyone know where the term Halo killer was first used? As far as I can remember it was some videogame magazine, quickly followed by many other magazines and websites. It was used by gaming media to sell magazines, as click bait, to stimulate engagement and fire up fanboys. It wasn’t the first time a term like this was used …
Does anyone know where the term Halo killer was first used? As far as I can remember it was some videogame magazine, quickly followed by many other magazines and websites. It was used by gaming media to sell magazines, as click bait, to stimulate engagement and fire up fanboys. It wasn’t the first time a term like this was used or the first time false expectations were set and it wouldn’t be the last. Killzone is an ambitious, sci-fi, first person shooter, on competing hardware and maybe Sony did want a franchise to compete with Halo. But this term (and similar ones) is shallow, lazy, hyperbolic, misleading and fuelled toxicity rather than interesting discussion and Killzone isn’t like Halo. It is more like a successor to the World War II shooters of the PS1 and PS2 era, just now in a gritty, future, sci-fi setting. I’m glad I came back to it as part one of revisiting and reviewing this series. I like it a bit more than what I had in my memory. I mostly enjoyed my time with it and there is a decent amount to praise here but the first Killzone still won’t ever escape the criticisms of being a little flat and forgettable.
Killzone is undeniably a technically remarkable PS2 game with high production values. It looks impressive for its time and that is not just because I am playing the PS3 HD release, I also popped in my PS2 copy and spent a bit of time playing the original too. A lot of the objects and locations, particularly indoor areas, look good, with many nice details and some destructibility. The game goes for a gritty, desolate, hard sci-fi look with an often subdued colour palette that is regularly successful at achieving a great feel and tone. Don’t trust anyone that tells you this is only a grey/brown shooter; they probably didn’t play past the two first levels. Killzone takes you through trenches and battle torn streets. There is a shopping mall and an open park area filled with trees in full pink bloom, with petals floating in the air. You go through slums, docks, mangroves, swamp and lush green jungle. You work your way up a snowy mountain to a base at the peak and then way beyond that at the end. There is plenty of variety here.
The character models and guns in particular, are really well done. The guns have great reload and weapon swap animations and there is a good variety of them with many having an alternate fire. I have always been a fan of the way the Helghast look. They are like WWII soldiers in those gas masks but with a sci-fi twist and darker colours. I can’t forget to mention those glowing orange/red eyes as well. They have the harsh voices and dialogue to match creating cold, brutal and intimidating foes. Killzone pairs its technically impressive visuals and good ideas with mostly great sound effects and a great soundtrack but unfortunately it just doesn’t fully work for two main reasons.
The first issue is that it is all so often just bland, flat, quiet and uninteresting. The second is that it is too ambitious for the PS2 and it has a number of short comings. There are frame rate issues in the original (that were improved somewhat for the HD release) and it suffers from short draw distances. There is a lack of scale despite them trying to sell that there is a large war going on and often a lack of enemies on screen. The imposing impression of the Helghast soldiers goes out the window as they start moving around like complete goofballs, often facing the wrong direction and being awful at long and mid range combat. They are just dumb targets you’ll have no problem dispatching, even on hard, as long as you don’t rush in too much at the wrong time. There is the occasional glitch, bug or issue as well. Like bodies falling in weird positions and being half in the floor/wall, some odd textures or minor visual distractions. Nothing too severe but it added up and all the issues I have mentioned can make the game stilted, like it is not flowing from one moment to the next.
Actually it is important to mention the HD release is a downgrade. The HD release has poor looking cut scenes for some reason. The PS2 version is a little darker and has this fog that helps hide draw distance issues but also does wonders for the game’s atmosphere. It adds to the gritty look and works well with the Helghast designs too and the smoke and dust is better. They somehow messed up the way the guns look when firing and something seems off about the audio pretty much across the board. Strangely the game even plays better on PS2. I’m not sure if it is because it was specifically tuned for the PS2 controller and sticks or what but the difference is big enough that it becomes viable to increase your aggression, speed and accuracy on the PS2. Playing more aggressively reduces the dumbness on display from enemies as well, further making it feel better. The PS2 version looks better, plays better and feels more alive. The differences are big enough that I would easily recommend the PS2 version and I would rate it higher. The PS3 HD version does offer trophies, looks better in some ways on a big modern TV and it might be more accessible to most.
Killzone begins with you looking at the front cover of the case with those big, bold, glowing Helghast eyes. Pop it open and you find a manual which has been designed to look like a Vekta newspaper complete with fictional advertisements. The articles in this ‘newspaper’ are written and laid out in a way so that it still functions as a game manual. I really miss this stuff. When you start up the game an epic opening cinematic with a speech by the Helghan leader Visari greets you. They’ve built up this great lore and world with these two opposing sides and given it all a great look and sound. They did a great job portraying the Helghan as a nationalistic, cold, and brutal, imposing force that will stop at nothing. But then you start playing and it falls kind of flat. It lacks urgency and intensity. It doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere interesting, just a mission to stop the invading force with predictable turns and ending. There are four playable characters. Captain Templar is the good guy, motivated soldier/leader and he has history with the female Shadow Marshal (assassin) Luger. Shadow Marshals are looked down on a bit because of their tactics. Then there is the brash, one man army Rico who just lost everyone he was fighting alongside. Finally there is Hakha who is half Vektan and half Helghan. This group has internal conflict and is obviously ripe to do interesting things with, but nope, despite moments of tension it goes predictably and doesn’t do much. Then there is the tone and dialogue, I’m looking mostly right at Rico. Killzone tries to be this darker, more serious, sci-fi game but clashes that with this I don’t know, like a bro military vibe. The villain, Adams, is just another villain while the actually interesting villain and one of Killzone’s high points, the well voiced, Visari gets little screen time. Killzone should be cool as hell and a bit different but it’s not, although I don’t mind spending time with this squad and wouldn’t call anything here bad.
The way Killzone plays is to some extent similar. I’m not going to complain about the controls. It doesn’t have the same layout as a modern FPS title and you can change it but I didn’t. I got used to it in like 15 minutes. It worked fine and I was enjoying it. I won’t be complaining about how Killzone feels. It is one of those FPS games that tries to make it feel like you are in control of a human character wielding a large weapon and carrying gear, instead of a floating gun or a quick, light, floaty, unreal character. Killzone is grounded with long reload and weapon swap animations complete with camera movement too. Vaulting things and hitting melee attacks is similar. Even just moving about and crouching have a bit of camera movement and everything is a bit slower and weightier. This leads to more considered play and commitment to each action. It fits well with how Killzone plays; bursts of aggression followed by moving or ducking behind something, before jumping into the next eruption of violence. The regenerating health/health pickup mix complements all this too. I also won’t be complaining about difficulty or checkpoints. The game is broken into chapters that are further broken up into short chunks (about 3 – 15 minutes). During these sections you get at least one checkpoint, so you are never really losing much time after death. There is nothing wrong with a game having a little punishment that might create tension and stop you from rushing into Helghast bullets. If I was to complain about difficulty it would be that it is on the easier side, not hard, because the Helghan are dumb. I like all these things about Killzone; the controls, the feel and the checkpoints.
I also like that Killzone has four playable characters. Templar plays like an assault and is pretty straight forward. Luger has a silenced weapon, a knife, and night vision and can move quicker, which means you can actually rush up to enemies and stab a whole group to death. She can also crawl through small spaces and climb ropes leading to different paths to get the drop on foes. Rico is a tank that can take more damage and walk in swinging his big gun around. Hakha is somewhere in between Luger and Templar. As a half Helghan he uses their weapons and can bypass their traps leading to different areas. There are times when things play out a little different depending on the character too. This is fantastic for replay value and the game lets you pick whoever you want at the start of each chapter, once they have joined the squad. It lets you carve out your own campaign experience to an extent and I really enjoyed this. The campaign feels like just the right length too and as I mentioned it is divided up into snappy sections.
Killzone also has a battlefield multiplayer mode that can be played in single player or splitscreen with bots. It has a variety of modes and gives you the opportunity to play as the Helghan. Killzone delivers on content, variety and it mostly plays well. There are some small issues like the lack of a jump button. Instead it has an action button that is used for vaulting, interacting and melee. It is often rough to use as you need to be standing and facing just right. Picking up weapons is similar to this as well. The sprint and stamina attached to it is pretty weak. This is all very minor compared to the serious issue.
The problem is that it is flat and monotonous. Killzone is predictable. You always know when and where a fight will take place, you can predict what upcoming rooms or locations will look like, and you could even predict where enemies will spawn from and probably what type they’ll be. Combine this with dumb, typically unaggressive enemies that struggle to aim well below hard difficulty and even with differing environments, characters, weapons and approaches it starts blurring into a forgettable trudge. You’ll find the typical use the mounted gun here or use the sniper here sections that aren’t really well done. It is made worse by lacking memorable set pieces, intensity, energy and sound. This game is often so quiet despite what music there is being really good. The quiet works for the windy, rainy docks or the mountains where the ambient sounds are broken by gunshots and Helghast screams but most of the time you’re left wondering why it is always so quiet. Your squad and the Helghan do accurately vocally react to what is happening but that gets repetitive. The design is so straight forward and safe in so many ways that it is regularly kind of lifeless and it clashes up against all the good ideas in a way that feels awkward.
I like Killzone and enjoyed my time with it, I even played through it two and a half times. However it is stuck in this space of almost being something really great. They had high quality ingredients and good ideas but used that to serve up a dish that is uninspired and unseasoned but then also overly ambitious in some aspects. Thankfully Guerrilla Games were able to cook again, next time with the more powerful PS3, before I get to Killzone 2 and 3 though I’ll be checking out the PSP title Killzone Liberation next. I would recommend Killzone to big PS2 fans that haven’t tried it yet or Killzone fans keen to see where it all started, for everyone else Killzone isn’t essential. Again if you do plan on playing go with the PS2 version if you are able to.
