REVIEW: Killzone: Liberation

March 3, 2007

And Killzone: Liberation is done... thank god. What a huge pain in the ass. This game is probably one of the most unfair games I have ever played. Lets get one thing straight. It's one thing if a game is hard because you aren't familiar with the controls, or the gameplay. Devil May Cry 3 for example... when you first start playing, that game will just keep on kicking your ass over and over until you get the hang on the controls and the style you have to play, and then the game becomes really fun... you know because you are making this shit look easy and you are pulling off these really kick ass moves. Killzone: Liberation is hard for the sake of being hard. I don't know how many times I have wanted to turn this game off because it was no longer fun to play. Some of the most unfair boss fights I have seen in a long time. Its a miracle I even finished this game. Lets see if we can get to the bottom of this...

Graphics... you know for the most part, they are pretty good for a PSP game. If you have seen any videos for the game before, you know that instead of being an FPS like the first Killzone, it now takes on a sort of top-down RPG-esque look. I think this is just what the doctor ordered for the Killzone franchise. From the angle you play the game at, it looks great, however when you get close to the action for the cutscenes, you can tell that this is a PSP game. Everything has a pretty blocky look, but it doesn't really hurt the game... you just have to remember that the game isn't play from this level.

Audio is one of the few things that the Killzone franchise has been able to get right so far. Very solid voice work, although one some of the missions when you are along side with Rico, you will find he says the same shit over and over again. All the original voice actors return (I think) and the music, while short, still has the same quality as in the first Killzone. Guns sound fine, and the explosions are just dandy too. Not much else to say.

Now for the gameplay..... oh yes the gameplay. You will die alot in this game. Maybe alot is an understatement because actually, there is no number high enough to count how many times you will die in this game. Even though Killzone: Liberation has probably one of the more generous checkpoint systems of any game in a while, trying to get from one checkpoint to the next will sometimes take a few tries. Its not the main game that I had a problem with though, its the boss fights. Hands down... most unfair boss fights I have ever seen. Let me give you an example of what type of bullshit this game likes to pull. Lets take the third boss... it turn out to be that its the walking tank thing... unfortunately for it, its been damaged and can't walk anymore. Unfortunately for you, it has all its weapons active and there is no way to get way. What kind of weapons? Well in order for you to take down this boss, not only do you have to constantly dodge its machine gun, you have to dodge missiles, a carpet of grenade tosses and these bullshit walking spider mines. Before you know it, you have more dicks up your ass that a pornstar on a bad day. This was ridiculous. You would be lucky if you maybe only got a machine gun a missile combo, but you have never been truly fucked in the ass until you got all four at the same time. There was no way to even try and avoid it and even on the off chance you did, it would do the same bullshit again. By the time I finally beat this boss (and might I add.. to even beat this thing.. you have to take out each weapon out one at a time... all while dodging everything else), I didn't even have a moment of joy... I was just thinking if this was the third boss... I can't even imaging what the final boss is like... but I continued anyway. Luckily... it was AS bad... but thats really not saying alot.

I don't know... I would find it hard to recommend this game. Although it is one of the better PSP games out there, this is really not for the faint of heart. If you enjoy a challenge, (and I do mean a challenge) then I guess you owe it to your self to at least give it a rent. Its very short though, and if you knew what you were doing, and you just sat and played it. You could finish it in a sitting. Lets just hope Killzone 2 is not as crappy as the first one and a little bit easier than Liberation... then maybe we could have a "Halo killer." ;)