The combat itself is viscerally violent, laden with gory blood splotches and tons of explosions. It also strikes an interesting balance between intensity and methodic strategy. Despite the bullets flying around and the grenades detonating left and right, Killzone 2’s combat is decidedly slower paced in comparison to recent war games like Call of Duty 4. Your character moves slower, turns slower, and reloads his weapons slower. You may be a space marine, but the combat is a lot more realistic than the game’s science fiction background would normally suggest. As opposed to a game like Halo where you play as a badass super soldier capable of tackling an entire army, Killzone 2 does a great job of making you feel like you’re just another soldier lost in the chaos of war.

To help you cope with Killzone 2’s savage enemy AI, Guerrilla gives gamers a cover system which is sort of new to the world of first person shooters. Though Rainbow Six Vegas featured a cover system that would pan the camera out and let you fight in third person, Killzone 2’s cover system functions continuously in first person. It will lock you into place behind a wall, debris, etc. and you can pop out to snipe enemies, throw grenades, or sprint to a new hiding place. In theory this would work brilliant, but actually using it is a bit cumbersome and takes practice before you can utilize it with any real degree of efficiency. The game demands that you input an awkward combination of buttons on the Playstation 3 controller in order to lean out, aim, and shoot, and the end result hardly feels fluid. After a few hours of destroying the Helghast with accurate rifle fire bursts, you will probably get the hang of using Killzone 2’s cover system. Unfortunately, it never really felt as second nature as it needed to.

Despite a few other hiccups in Killzone 2’s campaign mode (enemy variety is a bit on the sparse side and boss encounters drag a bit) it’s still genuinely loads of fun. Stricken with a plethora of glaring flaws, it may be one of the game’s weaker aspects, but regardless, it’s well worth playing. It would have been nice to have the option to play through the campaign cooperatively though. Its absence is as noticeable as it is disappointing, especially since a cooperative mode is pretty standard in shooters these days. The campaign mode screams to be played with a buddy. You command a squad of AI controlled marines -why can’t your friend pick up a controller and play as one of them?