Guerilla Games is known for creating the beautiful PlayStation exclusives in the open world Horizon Zero Dawn and the sequel Horizon Forbidden West. Still, there was a time when the Amsterdam developer was synonymous with the first-person shooter genre. It’s a shot in the rose kill zone (playfully called “the Halo Killer”) redefined first-person shooters in a big way. While the first game certainly had its flaws, the sequel is almost perfect – but unfortunately the series falls apart after that.
kill zone debuted in 2004 on the PlayStation 2 and was an instant success. The sound effects are gritty and gritty, the story is an intriguing exploration of good and evil in the midst of war, and the playable characters are all unique and fully realized. Kill zone 2 was released in 2009, surpassing the first game in almost every way. The sequel is arguably the best looking FPS for its time, and the game delves deeper into the Helghast & ISA war than the first game. However, the ending may not have been the best creative choice as it triggers the franchise’s decline in quality and story.
kill zone is a game that shows how desperate people fighting for survival can be driven into acts of pure evil. In the first game, the Helghast becomes the obvious villains, but as the series progresses, the line between the “good” ISA and the “bad” Helghast begins to blur. In the prologue, Helghan leader Scolar Visari tells the player that his people were abandoned many years earlier by the ISA on the planet that would become their homeworld. The harsh environment has cost many lives, but those who survived saw the ISA as evil.
The FPS looks at different perspectives in the context of war by allowing the player to change characters within his squad and between missions. By doing this, Guerilla asks the player to try different tactics for each mission and gain new perspectives. Captain Jan Templar is a versatile soldier and born leader, Sergeant Rico Velasquez is a tank with an intense hatred for the Helghast, Colonel Gregor Hakha is a Helghast turned ISA spy and Shadow Marshal Luger is the stealth agent and former love interest from Templar. Each character has a different playstyle and a very different perspective on the war between the Helghast and the ISA, creating a diverse and exciting team to follow.
Kill zone 2 further explores the gray area of war and the line between good and evil, this time focusing on trauma, acts of violence and propaganda. If the series continued with Kill zone 2upward trajectory, it would certainly still be considered “the” Halo killer”, as the story concepts and characters are much more interesting than Bungie’s hit series. In Kill zone 2 the player is limited to one character, Tomas Sevchenko, but since he’s hugely nuanced and has plenty of growth moments throughout the game, it doesn’t feel like a step back from multiple playable characters.
although Kill zone 2 is the best in the series, the ending is the remarkable moment where the series falters and never recovers. The conclusion sees the execution of Scolar Visari by Rico, which virtually guarantees that the war between the ISA and Helghan will never end. The people of Helghan will always see their leader, Visari, as a martyr, and they will always see the ISA as his executioners. In a radical turn of events, the end of Kill zone 2 shows the ISA as the villains because their actions are what causes the war to continue.
The first two kill zone games formed the basis for what could have been a fantastic series by exploring the characters behind the violence. Unfortunately, Kill zone 3 doesn’t continue this concept, opting instead for a more simplified good versus evil story, ending with the decimation of the Helghan home world. While the game didn’t live up to its predecessors in terms of nuance and complex storytelling, that latest act of relentless violence by the ISA could have been a fitting, albeit extremely bleak, ending to the trilogy.
However, Guerilla Games took one last kick of the can with Killzone shadow trap. This latest entry feels completely removed from the first two games, and its connection to Kill zone 3 disappoints. shadow fall has nothing of the heart that drove kill zone and Kill zone 2and even parts of Kill zone 3. maybe because Halo is a franchise that is still going strong, Guerilla Games felt a responsibility to continue. Still, it’s hard to enjoy a game when the heartfelt storytelling component is no longer there. kill zone should have ended with Visari’s death, as in later mentions it became a shell of its former self. Guerilla has now passed to the Horizon series, which will hopefully maintain its upward trajectory as it continues.
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