Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

While I was part of the minority who thoroughly enjoyed the first Killzone, I have to say that Killzone 2 is a major leap forward for the franchise. Guerrilla has taken their FPS & made it a gritty, visceral experience that gave me an honest sensation of uneasiness about entering its fields of combat (yes, I almost felt afraid to enter the game it immersed me that much). They have achieved this not only with incredible graphics & environmental detail (from lingering dust in the air & your rifle scope after close explosions to rebar seen under bullet shattered concrete pillars), but they have succeeded in fleshing out the Helgast enemies. They are no longer just the 2 dimensional cardboard cutouts that pop out in fixed locations for me to shoot. From the opening speech of Helghast leader, Emperor Visari (again masterfully portrayed by Brian Cox) I knew this wasn't going to be any ordinary arcade shooter. Guerrilla has given us an enemy as tenacious & fanatical about fighting off invaders of their homeland as the SS was in the later days of World War II.