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Who is your favourite Killzone 1 hero? This poll is closed. |
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| Templar |
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7 | 3.24% |
| Rico |
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14 | 6.48% |
| Luger |
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23 | 10.65% |
| Hakha |
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64 | 29.63% |
| Don't talk to me about Killzone 1 |
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108 | 50.00% |
| Total: | 216 votes | ||
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Neruz posted:Also unless I missed something the backstory stuff doesn't actually mention how bad the taxes were; I mean it is their system so it's not entirely unreasonable to levy some kind of fee for passage. EarthGov obviously felt the taxes were unreasonable but I'm pretty sure EarthGov would consider anything more than 'completely free, plus we'll help you in any way we can also for free' as unreasonable. The backstory does mention the Helghan Corporation steadily raising taxes as time went on (also, it's space - fee for passage is a bit of a joke when it isn't a narrow strip of land or water channel that only so much traffic can fit through), so I'm inclined to think everyone in power on every side in Killzone's backstory is a dick with the only genuine good guys being innocent victims on both sides.
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Mar 30, 2015 05:25
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Without knowing the exact mechanics behind space travel in Killzone I can't really speak as to whether having passage fees is a reasonable concept or not  I can certainly think of multiple good reasons why they would be reasonable up to a certain point, depending on how accurately the game universe runs with space physics. So I'm unwilling to just unilaterally dismiss the concept of fees\taxes as unreasonable in and of themselves, obviously raising them over time without a good reason isn't cool either way though it still doesn't justify dumping the entire populace onto a barely inhabitable hell world and then making GBS threads all over them.
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Mar 30, 2015 05:32
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Didn't the ships need some sort of refueling and Helghan took advantage of that?
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Mar 30, 2015 05:36
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Backstory doesn't say so, just that all ships passing through Alpha Centauri have to pass through "Helghan space" in order to get through the system, any ships heading to or from Sol have to pass through Alpha Centauri, and the Helghan Corporation instituted a toll on any ships passing through Helghan space, a fee they steadily increased as time went on. Could be indicative of refueling/resupply, could be FTL is short-ranged and ships have to daisy-chain from system to system, who knows. quote:I can certainly think of multiple good reasons why they would be reasonable up to a certain point, depending on how accurately the game universe runs with space physics. So I'm unwilling to just unilaterally dismiss the concept of fees\taxes as unreasonable in and of themselves, obviously raising them over time without a good reason isn't cool either way though it still doesn't justify dumping the entire populace onto a barely inhabitable hell world and then making GBS threads all over them. The ISA didn't put the Helghast on Helghan, that was a voluntary exodus. The backstory points to the passage taxes as being an important factor in the problematic Helghan/ISA relations, and probably the one that started it all, but it was by no means the only point of contention. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 05:40
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So do you (Blind Sally/Nine Gear) have something against ADS'ing? Or is it not that strong in this game?
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Mar 30, 2015 05:41
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I went back over the history from the first thread; it explicitly states that the space station in Helghan orbit was perfectly positioned to service ships passing through Alpha Centauri and that ships that did so stopped at the station for supplies, maintenance and fuel. So yeah taxing that is completely and totally reasonable. The ISA gets pissed off not because the Helghans are taxing the 'space lane' but because the taxes go straight to Vekta and they don't get a cut. Helghan then makes a poo poo-ton of cash via taxes and selling energy to passing colony ships and they take over local administration from the ISA. Why exactly the ISA allows them to do this is not explained but probably comes down to more short term profiteering. The Helghan then save up a bunch of money and offer to buy the system outright, the UCN is suffering from a shortage of funds and makes a stupid decision to sell the system for yet more short term profiteering (I'm noting a trend here with the ISA\EarthGov being loving terrible at thinking in the long term and constantly making bad decisions that generate short term revenue but long term losses, whoever wrote this story doesn't seem to like modern American capitalism very much.) Then poo poo starts getting out of control, the Helghan levy a tariff against any non-Helghan ship that passes through their system citing traffic control, customs, search and rescue and soforth as reasons for the tariff. To be fair at least some of the tariff probably is going to these things, but they start slowly raising it because it turns out even the Helghan aren't immune to short term profiteering idiocy. At this point the UCN takes a good long look at the situation and realizes they hosed themselves hard, they also look at Helghan making tons of money and get super jelly because they want their slice of the pie, so they respond by levying their own tariffs and raising taxes on the colonies so they can make a quick buck which can be put into building a giant space navy which will definitely not be used to forcefully conquer the Helghan system to 'fix' their mistakes, nosiree. They then promptly rescind a number of privileges that were previously granted to the Helghan; specifically the privilege to have a pace fleet and to have tariffs on shipping. Note that prior to this point while the Helghan taxes are kind of bullshit they are completely and totally legal. The Helghan say 'no gently caress you' to that but do offer to engage in diplomacy to try and find some way to meet in the middle. The wealthy shitheads back on Vekta don't much like that though so they pressure the government into not meeting in the middle. Unsurprisingly this goes nowhere, the UCN then starts panicking when they realize oh poo poo if Helghan wants to it can cut them off at the knees, Helghan then attempts to expel ISA forces from a pretty well justified fear that the ISA forces are eyeballing their poo poo, minor hostilities break out and the Earth fleet uses that as an excuse to move in and take over. The all-important space station gets destroyed and everyone blames everyone else. Odds are pretty good it was the ISA though. After the UCN beats up everyone and takes over the UCN Senate then decides on a deal which is basically outright theft whereby they take over administration of Vekta and they start shipping in a bunch of loyalists to Vekta to cement their hold in the system. Militant Helghan extremists decide they don't like this and start various terrorist insurgent actions all over Vekta, though the majority of the Helghan population would rather just live in peace. The ISA clamp down harder and harder on the Helghan, punishing the majority for the actions of the minority, this gets worse until a bunch of rich Helghan families decide to gently caress this poo poo, pool their wealth and buy some ships to go to Helghan. The ISA and UCN then basically abandon Helghan because they don't want to pay for anything. The ISA then force a bunch of nasty trade sanctions on Helghan; kicking them while they are down just because they can. So yeah, I think I feel confident in saying the ISA\EarthGov are definitely the bigger assholes here.
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Mar 30, 2015 06:07
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Rick_Hunter posted:So do you (Blind Sally/Nine Gear) have something against ADS'ing? Or is it not that strong in this game? Yeah, that would be me. crow's gonna do the KZ3 run, but I can't speak for his playstyle there. The ironsights are pretty solid in this game, but you honesty don't need them if you aren't playing on Elite difficulty. The reticle on-screen is so accurate that using the sights just takes away precious fractions of a second that I could use for shooting--which is a habit I may have picked up from playing KZ2 multiplayer. Going back to Elite, though, every Killzone game takes away your on-screen reticle on the hardest difficulty. That means you're forced to rely on the ironsights, but like I say, they're pretty decent so it's never much of a hindrance. (That said, Elite mode's lack of on-screen reticle does render some weapons relatively impotent. The Helghast machine gun lacks ironsights, getting a limited zoom function instead. It's terrible. Seriously, it's more accurate to use the ironsights on the submachine gun at that point. It basically means the only machine gun you're going to use throughout the campaign is the ISA version that you see Rico lugging around all the time.The ISA shotgun doesn't even get a limited zoom, function, so it's basically useless. Its flashlight sort of works as a replacement reticle, but the lighting in some areas of the game makes it impossible to see. The ISA assault rifle truly stands head and shoulders above every other weapons in this regard, because of its optical sight. It is the unrivaled weapon for beating Elite difficulty. In fact, I figure Guerrilla recognized this as well, because for Killzone 3 they improve the optical sight for the ISA assault rifle so that it's not green on green (See, Lazyfire? They're learning!), AND they add an optical sight to the Helghast assault rifle and the ISA shotgun. Yeah, the shotgun winds up getting an optical sight.)
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Mar 30, 2015 06:30
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I will never understand why FPS designers keep adding optical sights to shotguns. I mean come on.
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Mar 30, 2015 06:34
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I mean, the shotgun in the third game has a superior range to its older iterations, but it still feels mostly unnecessary. Reminds me of this:
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Mar 30, 2015 06:37
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"Just walk away..."
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Mar 30, 2015 06:37
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At least the sight is on the gun, not held in the other hand.
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Mar 30, 2015 06:45
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Cythereal posted:Backstory doesn't say so, just that all ships passing through Alpha Centauri have to pass through "Helghan space" in order to get through the system, any ships heading to or from Sol have to pass through Alpha Centauri, and the Helghan Corporation instituted a toll on any ships passing through Helghan space, a fee they steadily increased as time went on. Since the backstory mentions that they're in the perfect spot to service ships, it's likely something akin to Star Wars with "lanes" of FTL space. The reason is that, obviously, space is constantly moving and there's always a chance that you'll end up running into something awful (if it's possible for your craft to interact with massive celestial bodies like planets or stars in hyperspace, like in Star Wars) or at least missing your target if you make a blind jump. So ships travel on the paths of least resistance, where the motion of celestial bodies will be predictable enough that they can hit the right spot when their nav computer does the math right. The natural consequence of sticking to known routes and windows is that you can't really go off in whatever direction you want. This not only requires you to place resupply stations along routes, but it opens you up to easier blockades if ships can't easily go around.
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Mar 30, 2015 07:42
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To be honest I wouldn't be at all surprised if the writers never even bothered to think about the actual physics involved. I mean as far as I can tell they never even bother to explain how FTL works in the Killzone universe. Or if there is any FTL or what.
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Mar 30, 2015 08:10
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Neruz posted:To be honest I wouldn't be at all surprised if the writers never even bothered to think about the actual physics involved. I'm assuming there is indeed FTL of some kind at work here, because The UCA / ISA has colonies in other systems besides Alpha Centauri A & B, and even traveling at relativistic speeds between them would be insanely unfeasible. Just getting from Sol to Alpha Centauri would take four and a half years at the speed of light, and Killzone 1 sure as hell didn't take four years (though it loving felt like it). If I had to guess, I'd say there was some kind of quantum tunneling FTL going on, like warp drive was Star Trek, or hyperspace from Star Wars or Homeworld, or shockspace from Dead Space, a slow straight line, as opposed to the Battlestar Galactica space folding "boop, you're there" kind. Because that's the only way I can sort of rationalize the Earth fleet taking as long as it did to get from Earth to Vekta. So at the very least, FTL is implied by the the very nature of the series' universe. The opening to Killzone 2 really muddies the waters unintentionally by being all artsy with its cinematography. The distance between Alpha Centauri A, where Helghan is, and Alpha Centauri B, where Vekta is is close enough that FTL isn't really necessary, and you could complete the trip in weeks or months with a decent set of powerful sublight engines. Though one thing I did like seeing in the opening cutscene was attention to conservation of momentum (Newton's first law) while out in space. The ISA cruisers only use their engines to accelerate to their cruising velocity, and then "glide" to Helghan because there's no friction to slow them down and necessitate the continuous use of engines for forward momentum like you see in a lot of other science fiction properties. The only time their engines fire up again is to either conduct formational maneuvers or to brake in preparation for entry into Helghan's atmosphere. ...Before the ARC Cannons blast them out of the sky that is. There is heavy reference to cryogenic stasis on starships in the early days of extrasolar expansion on the Killzone Wiki, however, so I'm assuming whatever FTL tech came along well after Vekta and Helghan were settled. Rick_Hunter posted:So do you (Blind Sally/Nine Gear) have something against ADS'ing? Or is it not that strong in this game? I can assure you, once we get to Killzone 3, you'll be seeing a ton of down-sight aiming. Sally's play style is a lot more kinetic and on the fly, while I tend to stick to cover and don't move until I either clear the area or am forced to abandon it, ADS'ing enemies more frequently the farther away from me they are. I'm trying to vary things up a little bit just so its not a boring slough, but we'll see how things go once we finally get there.
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Mar 30, 2015 10:21
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I agree that FTL is implied if you have any knowledge of physics, but I suspect the writers have no sense of scale and it never occurred to them that FTL is necessary. That's what I mean when I say I wouldn't be surprised if they never even bothered to think about the actual physics involved. Killzone isn't exactly hard sci-fi after all. e: The fact that we have absolutely no info on even basic stuff like the mass, acceleration and fuel of ISA cruisers also really doesn't help. The fact that they appear to have taken serious artistic liberties with how Alpha Centauri is set up further muddies the waters. Neruz fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 10:30
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It's entirely possible they just didn't feel those details were relevant to what they were trying to do, and thus excluded them.
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Mar 30, 2015 13:44
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It's even highly likely they did just that given how they detailed the rest of the setting.
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Mar 30, 2015 13:51
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I'm pretty sure they knew all along that FTL travel was a necessity in their world. It just hasn't really been majorly important to the setting, so they don't need to detail exactly how it works or the differences between Helghast, ISA, and UCN ships. Even the barest knowledge of space would tell you that space travel without physics-defying FTL is unfeasible outside of flying through a single solar system.
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Mar 30, 2015 19:04
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nine-gear crow posted:I can assure you, once we get to Killzone 3, you'll be seeing a ton of down-sight aiming. Sally's play style is a lot more kinetic and on the fly, while I tend to stick to cover and don't move until I either clear the area or am forced to abandon it, ADS'ing enemies more frequently the farther away from me they are. I'm trying to vary things up a little bit just so its not a boring slough, but we'll see how things go once we finally get there. By the time we get around to recording KZ3, I'm expecting your playstyle to look like this: 
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Mar 30, 2015 19:09
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Blind Sally posted:By the time we get around to recording KZ3, I'm expecting your playstyle to look like this: melee kills were brutal as hell in 2, mercs and 3. shadow fall kinda does away with them for the most part.
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Mar 30, 2015 20:46
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pengun101 posted:melee kills were brutal as hell in 2, mercs and 3. shadow fall kinda does away with them for the most part. Shadow Fall still has them, but they've greatly reduced the number of potential kills. Likely because you're playing as a Shadow Marshal and thus your character prefers surgical precision to gouging people's eyes out through their goggles with his bare thumbs. One very neat thing introduced is the ability to stab someone in stealth and then immediately throw the knife at a nearby soldier.
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Mar 30, 2015 21:08
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nine-gear crow posted:I can assure you, once we get to Killzone 3, you'll be seeing a ton of down-sight aiming. Sally's play style is a lot more kinetic and on the fly, while I tend to stick to cover and don't move until I either clear the area or am forced to abandon it, ADS'ing enemies more frequently the farther away from me they are. I'm trying to vary things up a little bit just so its not a boring slough, but we'll see how things go once we finally get there. After playing Destiny and beating MW1-3 and Ghosts on Veteran, I can't imagine not ADS'ing on any kind of game that has the option to so my opinion is obviously biased. Because of its designation as the 'Halo Killer', I never gave too much thought to the aiming system in Killzone 1 (as odd as it seems to zoom in but not actually use your gun) because it was much like the aiming in Halo which didn't actually use the gun and acted as if you were looking through a scope in your helmet visor.
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Mar 31, 2015 00:28
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Yeah, you don't need to aim down the sights through the original trilogy or Mercenary. I haven't played Shadow Fall, and I don't know what gameplay changes were made there, so maybe someone who has could speak to it? w/r/t the thread, I am sort of on spring break vay-cay, so KZ2's next update won't be forthcoming for a week and change. crow is pretty busy too, but if he has the opportunity, there might be another KZ:L update, or I might even be able to get out a mini-update, in that time.
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Mar 31, 2015 20:13
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Aw, man. Robert Z'dar died 
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Apr 1, 2015 02:34
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Blind Sally posted:Aw, man. Robert Z'dar died Knew I'd find it here. RIP Luger's source model.
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Apr 1, 2015 05:05
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Praise be to Fedule for our new thread title 
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Apr 5, 2015 03:56
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And for helping us get the thread tag changed. Truly, Killzone is the most Shakespearean of LPs.
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Apr 5, 2015 04:04
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So I rewatched Paul Verhoven's Starship Troopers after a few years, and all I could think about was how much it reminded me of what you guys have been saying about the Killzone series. They both seem to be satirizing their subject matter, but playing it so completely straight that you can't really tell unless you know where to look. They both also throw in ridiculous nonsense that seems to be specifically designed to make you question the story (SS Commandant Neil Patrick Harris for Starship Troopers, the Intruders for Killzone). Christ, they even both have Ricos, though the only crime ST's Rico is guilty of is being Caspar Van Dien. I do wonder if KZ has a leg up over ST by having a humanoid enemy. In ST, it's really easy to see the Bugs as inhuman monsters, even though there are little flashes of there being more to them. In KZ, you're inclined to see the Helghast as having understandable motives, which makes it more likely you'll be willing to start questioning the motives of each side.
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Apr 6, 2015 20:48
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 Small intermission update. Questions were asked about the character models for Killzone 2, specifically whether or not as much detail was put into the ISA soldiers as the Helghast soldiers. At first I didn't really have an answer, so I dug around and--well, the answer is yes! The ISA soldiers are incredibly detailed, you just don't see them as often. Unless you play multiplayer, as those models appear there as the various classes. In fact, I like how Guerrilla integrated the class models in both single and multiplayer. If you notice it, it really helps sell the idea that multiplayer fights are just skirmishes going on around Helghan outside the vision of Sev and co. With that all in mind, here's a brief guide to all the classes, where they can be found in single-player and what they're job is in multiplayer:  Rifleman The bog standard class for the Helghast and ISA. For the Helghast, this is represented in the iconic Helghast soldier--so not necessarily the specific "Rifleman" enemy type we've seen, but Assault enemy type. For the ISA, it's the nameless soldier who will follow us for five feet before dying horribly. They are the most common and you see them all over the place. In multiplayer, they are the starting class. They lack any special abilities, which may seem like a big drawback, but they are unique in that they are "trained" in nearly every gun. That is to say, once you start unlocking weapons, the rifleman has the ability to use nearly all of them whereas most classes can only use two or three. So really, their versatility is their special ability, it just isn't apparent until you've put in some ranks and unlocked a bunch of guns. Note, this includes assault rifles, sidearms, rocket launchers, submachine guns, shotguns, and light machine guns.  Medic The medic comes equipped the sweet Visari Corp made revive gun. Sev gets to use it throughout the campaign, but you won't ever see an ally use it (unless you play multiplayer). We see ISA medics here and there, denoted by their white helmet. In the very first video, I pause to glance at one on the beachhead, shortly after being dropped off by the Intruder. They don't play much of a combat role in single-player, and are really just "window dressing", seen attending to injured ISA soldiers. Helghast medics are not seen during the campaign. In multiplayer, it is the first class unlocked. The revive gun can be used at any time, though it requires time to recharge between revives. It CAN be used as a weapon, though, and can also revive people from long distances--much longer than what Sev does, though I figure that's okay because if we're going to be all "lore" about it, then Sev isn't a trained medic and probably doesn't know how to handle the gun sufficiently from a distance. Getting enough revives in multiplayer unlocks the second medic badge, which lets you throw out medpacks to heal allies and yourself. Note: enemies can pick up dropped medkits. Also note: Visari Corp also invented the medpacks.  Engineer In the campaign, ISA engineers tend to only be seen on the ISA Cruiser, New Sun. They sort of mill in the background with canned animations to make it look like they're working on the poo poo. Standing near them will trigger some incidental dialogue, usually related to fixing something. Eh. Helghast Engineers are never seen fixing anything in the campaign. They instead function as flamethrower units. So if you see a Helghast Engineer in the campaign, kill them quickly! With fire!--for irony. The can drop sentry turrets (pictured above) in multiplayer. The turrents are super powerful, but they can take a decent amount of damage before dropping and act as great distractions. Also, an engineer can drop multiple turrets, but there's a global cap for the team so that one side doesn't pick only engineer class and spam turrets across a map. The secondary badge for the Engineer allows them to repair specific points around maps, allowing access to bottomless ammunition crates and emplaced machine guns. Weapon selection is super limited, as they can only use the shotgun and sidearms. The only other class with such a limited weapon selection is the scout.  Tactician Tacticians do not appear in the singleplayer campaign, though you will hear dialogue of soldiers, ISA and Helghast, referring to their COs. Presumably, these are the tacticians. Do note, though, that (helmet aside) the tactician uniform is the same one that Sev, Natko, and Garza are wearing. So Alpha Squad, being elite soldiers, highly ranked, are basically tacticians.  In multiplayer, the tacticians comes armed with a Spawn Grenade, which is super useful. Allies spawn facing the direction the grenade was thrown. The second ability is the Drone. Which is awesome. The tactician drops a flare, and a drone shows up a short while later to mess things up. Drones can take quite a few hits, and due to their height advantage, make great distractions and are excellent at crowd control. The ISA drone:  You don't see the ISA drone in single-player, but those of you who have played Shadow Fall know that the ISA will start using drones far more extensively. The Helghast drone:  aka the Sentry Bot. The upgraded version of the Sentry Bots we dealt with in Killzone 1. These I can deal with. In single-player, they go down with relative ease. They are nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the horrors that are ATACs.  Assault The heavy weapons guys. The ISA guys wear the same uniform as the tactician, sans helmet, so you can ultimately think of Alpha Squad as combination tactician/assault troops. They DO like blowing stuff up. Interestingly, the Helghast assault model is NOT the same Support Trooper that harasses you with rockets. In the campaign, these models are used by the Grenadiers, who instead harass you with the rotary grenade launcher. In multiplayer, both their badges come unlocked, one granting a 50% boost to health (but slows movement speed), and one that gives an additional 20% health boost, improved health regen, and a boost to movement speed.  Saboteur Though they are sort of represented as Special Forces-type characters in multiplayer, they aren't really represented as such in the campaign. In the campaign, they appear as the Miner enemy-type, and only appear in a certain area armed with the Helghast LMG. I have yet to find an ISA saboteur in the campaign at all, though presumably they're all hidden or on special assignment, so it makes sense I guess. After all-- --their multiplayer ability is to disguise themselves as enemy model types. The way you pick up on whether or not your multiplayer actually a disguised saboteur is pretty cool and I like it. Okay, so you know how each faction has a part of them that glows? Like, the Helghast have glowing red eyes, and the ISA have an equipment belt with glowing blue lights? Well, a disguised saboteur will lack that glow. Pretty neat! The unlockable ability for the saboteur is C4. Good ol'C4 from Killzone: Liberation makes a comeback for multiplayer. They function as proximity mines here.  Scout The Helghast variant is seen throughout the campaign as the Sniper enemy type. The ISA variant is another one of those models that I've yet to find in singleplayer, though due to their abilities in multiplayer, it's another one of those things you can handwave away as "lore". In multiplayer, they can cloak to become effectively invisible. When they move, there's a little bit of the whole "Predator ripple", and occasionally bits of armour will pop in and out of existence, but it's otherwise perfect camouflage. Their secondary ability is the Spot & Mark skill. All enemies on the scout's screen will be marked with a white cross for about a minute, which will be visible to all allies. Is limited to only using the sniper rifle and sidearms. The ISA scout model does appear in other games, interestingly enough. The appear infrequently throughout the Helghan sections of Killzone: Mercenary, spending as much of their time as possible cloaked and giving you grief. As a merc, you have access to sweet tech, though, and can field a detection drone that will disable their cloaking device so you can see them in all their ghillie suit glory.  While we're here, I'm going to throw out a couple of multiplayer-only weapons that don't really fit in in any other update:  C4 Explosive This isn't the same C4 as in Liberation. Linked to the Saboteur class, this gun functions similar to the Sticky Grenade in Halo; throw it and it will stick to any surface, including your allies and enemies. Unlike the Sticky Grenade, these must be manually detonated with remote. An enemy with full health could potentially survive a blast, so it's often better to be safe and drop several of them. They can be prematurely detonated with gunfire.  M80 Rocket Launcher Identical to the M404 Missile Launcher from the first game. Probably the same gun, just with a different name. Just as powerful as the VC9 Rocket Launcher employed by the Helghast. However, while the VC9 has iron sights, this gun has a scope. Also, if you target an enemy with the scope until it locks on, the rocket will home into that position. The homing function is great for destroying airborne targets.    IT CAME FROM DEVIANTART 
Sally fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2015 17:23
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Marshal Radisic posted:I do wonder if KZ has a leg up over ST by having a humanoid enemy. In ST, it's really easy to see the Bugs as inhuman monsters, even though there are little flashes of there being more to them. In KZ, you're inclined to see the Helghast as having understandable motives, which makes it more likely you'll be willing to start questioning the motives of each side. I tend to agree with this sentiment. Although I think Guerrilla might have been worried that their point wasn't getting across by having you play as a character aligned to one side. Killzone: Mercenary really makes this clear when you play as a third-party, more interested in getting paid for a service than any sort of political or military gain. One character sums up the whole situation when they remark that the Helghast and ISA "deserve each other".
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Apr 7, 2015 17:33
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 Merry Christmas from the Helghast Third Army. You WILL sing on-key, or you will be summarily executed.
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Apr 8, 2015 05:14
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 Lazyfire joins us again, as we continue our push to Visari's Palace--only to have it forcibly stalled by the introduction of the game's secondary antagonist. Also, Lazyfire has started up an LP of Shadow Of Mordor. You should check it out!  Having secured Visari Square, we march ever onward to his palace--  --but before we can cross the bridge, we are introduced to Colonel Mael Radec, who promptly orders fire to rain down upon the convoy, destroying the bridge and cutting off access. Radec is one of the big bads of this game, second only to Visari himself. He's cruel, intelligent, and very good at his job. At the moment, that consists of stopping the ISA advance through Pyhrrus City. Radec is also willing to do pretty much whatever it takes to succeed.  Which includes blowing up vital infrastructure that could not only cripple the Helghast military's mobility, but also its ability to rebuild and restore the city after the war--but if it means saving Pyhhrus City from invaders, then whatever works, right?  Get it? Do you get it??!  But yeah, it works. The convoy is halted, and Alpha Squad is scattered. While Radec systematically continues to destroy or secure all other bridges headed to the palace, Narville and co. are forced to regroup. Sev, meanwhile, is forced to find an alternate route back to his allies. Fun fact: if you want, you can hang around here at this point and pick off Helghast soldiers on the other side of the gap. It doesn't achieve anything, but hey, it's satisfying.  Moving on through the stormdrain, we bump into one of my favourite bits of window dressing in Killzone 2. See, I've said it before, but the Killzone games really shine when it comes to the details. Whether those details are horrifying ammo types being revealed in instruction booklets, or complex socio-political histories posted on a website, they never fail to impress me with just how horrific, gruesome, and brutal they are. Case in point: these fun little bugs. The size of a large pair of shoes, the aptly named CADAVER BEETLE is a common sight on Helghan. They're a scavenger insect and are found, quite literally, everywhere on Helghan: jungles, cities, sewers, deserts--whatever. They perform a vital function in the planet's ecosystem, consuming anything that ever dies. Anything. Ever. All things. As you might imagine, they're quite abundant at the moment, considering the large amounts of ISA and Helghast food sources falling all around them. You can shoot them if you want, causing them to burst open in a flash of guts and lightning (seriously--look closely during the video), but they're ultimately harmless. They're more cute than anything. Look:  Another fun fact: if you hang around a Cadaver Beetle when there are bodies nearby, it will eventually find its way to the food source and start snacking. I love it. What a great little detail. Nearly every player is going to miss it, which is too bad, because it's wonderful. Planet Helghan is a horrible nightmarish deathtrap, and every new detail we learn about it just reinforces that thought. Moving on through the level, we come out into the Salamun District, another run down shantytown area of Pyhrrus City where Garza locates us. Working our way back to the rest of Alpha and the convoy, we are tasked with taking down some mortars that are giving Narville hell. After blowing up the first one, we get some plot development. Garza and Sev pick up some enemy chatter over the radio. It's Colonel Radec, issuing orders. The most important part is here:  "The defense system is initialized." Man, could that possibly sound more ominous? After blowing up the second mortar, we get a little more plot development when Evelyn Batton calls up Sev and Garza. It's easy to miss as just a bit of background dialogue, but it's actually critical to our secondary plot, so I've transcribed the conversation: quote:Batton: Alpha, can you talk? That topic finished, Garza immediately broaches another one: quote:Garza: Oh hey, Evelyn--got some intel for you. We caught a message from Radec on Hig comms. Mentioned some 'defense system'. Maybe it's related? "Maybe it's related?" Ha, of course it's related! What remains to be seen is how that will manifest itself. Moving on, we find a pile of ISA corpses:  Partway through the mission, Rico will task you with checking up on a crashed Intruder location to find any survivors. Sev and Garza weren't able to save Jeffries, so maybe they can save someone else? No such luck, of course. It winds up being a whole "horrors of war" thing, and the last, injured survivor is killed by a sniper when the Helghast spring their trap--because of course the Helghast would use injured ISA soldiers as bait. We watched them do that in the last video, when we were with Rico and Natko.  This shantytown section is another particularly hard chokepoint on Elite difficulty. Unlike last time, where we had Rico and Natko to back us up in a position with a relatively decent amount of cover, we're left only with Garza in a place covered with multiple routes, allowing Helghast to easily overwhelm you while their rockets and machine gun rain down upon from the high ground. The biggest difficulty on Elite, are the two Support Troopers firing rockets at you from the end of the stage. Now, they won't appear until you thin out the first wave and the dropships bring reinforcements, so that allows you the opportunity to get familiar with the area without being blown up. One thing to remember about this section: you can always retreat back to the river where you found the pile of dead ISA soldiers--though if you get cornered there, you're done. Stick close to Garza, as he's going to be invaluable as a distraction and as a second target. If he goes down, all the enemies are going to switch focus to you. Stay out of the middle of the map, and pick one of the two sides, sticking in ramp walkways. They are tight corridors, so if you get overwhelming, it won't be hard or the Helghast to kill you, but it allows you to funnel them in 1 or 2 at a time, while avoiding fire from troops taking cover across the way--besides, they act as invaluable cover from the dropship's machine guns. You might think the covered areas at the top level would be sufficient, but they are vulnerable to rocket launcher fire. The Support Troopers are great at hitting you with splash damage. Once the dropship flies away and you've eliminated any immediate Helghast threat, take out the nearest Support Trooper--I recommend taking the left path for this, as you can then sprint to where they were taking cover, giving you perfect protection from the second Support Trooper, and depriving the other Helghast soldiers from using the emplaced machine gun. From there, play it safe until the second Support Trooper is down. With that obstacle clear, you can take out the remaining Helghast at your leisure. I essentially use this strategy in the video, but taking more risks since it's on Normal difficulty.  Moving on, the level ends with Alpha Squad doing what it does best: breaking things. I'm not sure if that building was part of an electrical grid or a communications tower of some sort, but I love that Garza's first response to not finding roof access is to simply collapse the entire building. Whatever works, I guess.  "Oh no! I'm playing Killzone 2, but I'm so used from the AI tactics in Killzone 1, that I have no idea how to handle an enemy that uses cover!" Do you find yourself saying that when playing this game? Have no fear, as Visari Corporation developed the answer to your prayers. Murder the Flamethrower Helghast nearest to you and take his gun and learn to love that spray arc:  It reminds me of the flamethower from Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil--if I could have found a decent image or video of the arc in that game, I would have posted it. Enemies in Turok 2 didn't bother with cover, but it's a brilliant tool here, great at clearing out pesky Helghast. Also, if you haven't had an ally die on you yet, it gets forced on you here:  After Garza opens the door, a Helghast with a shotgun rushes in and kills him. It's possible to kill the Helghast before, but you need to be prepared, and even then, he still manages to knock out Garza. Note, due to my accuracy, I probably hurt Garza more than I helped him. Still, it's a nice touch, because it makes sure that every player has had the opportunity to use the Revive Gun before the game gets too difficult.   Sure, Hakha isn't in this game, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy Sean Pertwee's voice acting, right? We'll just cast him as a different character! In this case, Colonel Radec. Colonel Mael Radec is Visari's personal bodyguard. Vicious, cruel, and loyal, he is sometimes referred to as the "Hound Of Visari". We hear mention of his name way back aboard the New Sun in the first chapter, but this is the first time we've seen his face or heard his voice. He grew up poor during the Helghan depression, and joined the military the moment Visari started making his power plays. His skills saw him quickly rise to the rank of an officer. An incredible marksman and hand-to-hand combatant, Radec is also a gifted tactician. He's not necessarily the best at looking at the broad picture, but that's okay because Visari and his Generals worry about overall war strategy--they rely on Radec to Since he came from a lower caste, Radec actually requires his breathing apparatus, much like the men under his command. It's rare for a Helghan from such a background to rise to such high heights in the military, and in fact, only one other Helghast has managed to do so: Killzone: Liberation's Colonel Tendon Cobar. Radec was personally left in charge of the defenses of Pyhrrus City and is responsible for deploying the arc weapons we've seen thus far. Ever wonder why Pyhrrus City is so quiet and sparse? Radec was the man responsible for evacuating the civilian populace to Konstantine City--that's why we only find soldiers and traps in Pyhrrus. Radec also has a reputation for being fearless. He is known to lead his battles from the frontlines, even going so far as to be the first to enter a room even if it's a breaching maneuver. He is trusted to train the soldiers of Helghan, and is known as 'The Schoolmaster' in his own building, the Radec Academy. The design for Radec takes a lot of inspiration from the Nazi Waffen-SS. We'll be seeing a lot of him.   Pyro Trooper Have fairly unique armour for a Helghast, in that it's not all black. They're more easily identifiable by the fact that they wield flamethrowers, though. Keep your distance from them--not always easy, since the flamethrower has a decent amount of range to it. They're not quite as clever as their Killzone: Liberation counterparts, so they won't give you too much trouble by blocking chokepoints until you get much later in the game. They actually aren't that hard to deal with, despite having some of the highest health/armour in the game. They take a lot of hits, sure, but head-shots are still one-hit-kills and it's pretty easy to keep your distance. Worst comes to worst, just rush'em with a knife and they'll go down fast. They'll never engage in melee, preferring to retreat and use fire.  Commando Visually distinctive in that they have four-eyed goggles. The commando operates much like shock troopers do, in that they'll try to close the distance between you quickly in order to shoot you. Unlike the shock troopers, their shotgun does a lot more damage. Also, they have more armour, so it's harder to stop them. If you can keep your distance while putting them down, you'll be fine. The section where we encounter them in this chapter, where Garza is more or less scripted to take a fall, is difficult because the tight corridors play to the Commando's strength. This situation doesn't occur often, so don't live in fear of these guys. They're nearly harmless in the open.  VC1 Flamethrower Another Visari Corporation weapon. Why does Visari Corp make all the fun guns? Not only is it great for clearing enemies from out of cover, but it's also great at striking fear into them. I mean, did you hear the screams the Helghast made in the video? This flamethrower doesn't have a particularly large ammo capacity, considering the size of the fuel canister--much as it's represented in Killzone: Liberation. The flame stream's arc is super useful, and while the gun is a lot of fun to use, it's still pretty much a gimmick weapon. Ammo for the weapon is scare, though it does wind up appearing more frequently than other gimmick weapons we'll see later on. With that in mind, it's sort of a take it or leave it weapon. It's not bad, so use it if you love it. You won't find a lot of ammo, though, so if you're worried about running dry in a fire fight, either be okay with picking up a fallen rifle halfway through a battle or bring a different gun. If you look at the barrel, you'll notice it shares similarities with the StA-3 machine gun, which was modelled after the German MG-42. You'll also notice the VC1 looks sorta like the flamethrower Sigourney Weaver used in Aliens. Also, this is one of a few weapons that don't regularly appear in multiplayer. The flamethrower appears exclusively on a single DLC multiplayer map--though to be frank, I never found the flamethrower as much fun in multiplayer. Enjoy using this weapon while you can, because later levels will have Helghast pointing them back at you.  LS13 Shotgun ISA made. It's basically the M13 Shotgun. In fact, it is the M13 shotgun, just with a different name--so, I guess it also comes with poison shells. Hmm. Unlike in Killzone 1, you can only fire a single shot--not that shooting 3-shots at once was a great benefit. It's a bog-standard video game shotgun, so its range is terrible, its fire rate is slow, and it takes forever to reload. It's powerful, though. I mean, most enemies can be killed in a single shot if you manage to strike them with all 20-pellets in a round. That said, I don't like it. It's not fun. It fires too slow. My play-style benefits from having an excess of bullets to throw, particularly at longer distances. If the shotgun works for you, then cool, but I'm not going to use it. Oh, and it's Natko's favoured gun, so "ew", I guess. As an aside, the shotgun doesn't come with any zoom function in this game. Instead it gets a flashlight. Which is useless, since there really aren't any dark areas to use it in. One more aside--or, fun fact, really. Due to the whole 20-pellets in a round thing, it was possible for people in Killzone 2's multiplayer to get over 100% accuracy.  Trip Mines They're about as effective as they were in the other games: not very. They're not common at all and they're often not in your path, so they're not very effective. I presume they work like the trip mines in Killzone 1 where if you have Helghast DNA they are coded not to detonate. There's no playable Helghast character in this game, nor are the weapons abundant enough that we get to see a Helghast run through one, so I guess we'll never know for sure. Regardless, if one gets in your way, shoot it and move on.  Smoke Grenades Unlike in Killzone: Liberation, the player does not get to use smoke grenades. There ARE multiple grenade-types in this game, but they're all lethal. Honestly, I'm not sure if this grenade came from a Scout or a standard Assault Trooper, as you don't see them get thrown very often. As you can probably tell, they aren't very effective. Their use doesn't increase with difficulty, either, they just don't get used very often. It's interesting that they're being fielded, I guess.  Auto-Mortars On Stilts The exact same as the Auto-Mortars we've seen in previous levels, except elevated. Still not a real threat to us--as they're currently bombarding Narville and the rest of the convoy. They function as set-dressing here, although since they are marked by our objectives, we are required to blow them up using the SixAxis D-Charges. A whole lot of really rad Radec concept art:  Final Radec design. Early art looks like they toyed with the idea of having Radec be of a more noble background, complete with hair and exposed face:   Some of these designs are pretty awesome and metal, but I can see why they didn't go with them. The Nazi SS uniform is evil enough without having cartoonishly evil black spikes and black feathers jutting from it. More early designs without the unique helmet:  Lastly, a bunch of different mask designs for Radec: 
Sally fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Apr 12, 2015 06:26
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nine-gear crow posted:
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Apr 12, 2015 06:42
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Hahaha, god damnit deviantart. I found this. Since I did the Killzone 2 multiplayer class update, I feel it's relevant:
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Apr 12, 2015 06:43
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Blind Sally posted:god damnit deviantart. period, end sentence.
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Apr 12, 2015 06:45
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Blind Sally posted:If you look at the barrel, you'll notice it shares similarities with the StA-3 machine gun, which was modelled after the German MG-42. You'll also notice the VC1 looks sorta like the flamethrower Sigourney Weaver used in Aliens. Does this fit into your analysis anywhere? Perhaps a convenient hole in the shape of a burnt corpse leaning out of a truck on a desert highway?
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Apr 12, 2015 09:20
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Blind Sally posted:Early art looks like they toyed with the idea of having Radec be of a more noble background, complete with hair and exposed face:  The Nazis also got a massive boner for Roman stuff, right?
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Apr 12, 2015 18:21
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HardDisk posted:
I'm getting more of a medieval knight vibe from that concept art than Roman, myself, or a Spanish conquistador.
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Apr 12, 2015 18:42
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HardDisk posted:
That's more of a Greek Hoplite helmet though than a Roman one. What you're really thinking of in this case is the Imperial helmet. 
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Apr 12, 2015 19:42
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HardDisk posted:The Nazis also got a massive boner for Roman stuff, right? I'm not super well-versed on that particular fact about Nazis, buuuuuut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_salute#Germany The Nazi salute was derived from the so-called "Roman Salute", which presumably originates from this painting:  Fish Noise posted:So the flamethrower is a combination of a villain weapon and a hero weapon. I don't know what your last question is referencing, but to your first one: yes! If we want to take the idea of the flamethrower as a combination villainous/heroic weapon seriously, then it fits the idea that the ISA and Helghast are basically interchangeable. Who is good? Who is bad? Doesn't matter. They're actually both mostly horrible and the fact that each side has aspects that display heroism or "goodness" doesn't detract from the fact that overall they're terrible.
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Apr 21, 2015 16:46
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