Let Us Playeth The Killzone Trilogy - The Tragedy Of Rico, Moor Of Vekta

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Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Hello and welcome to the Let's Play (and discuss) the Killzone Quadrilogy thread, wherein nine-gear crow and myself needlessly complicate a series of shooty-man games.

Specifically, we will be playing through the PS2's Killzone, the PSP's Killzone: Liberation, and the PS3's Killzone 2 & 3, in that order. To do this, we'll be using the PS3's Killzone Trilogy which includes an updated Killzone with improved graphics and bug fixes. For the PSP game, we will be playing through the free Act 5 DLC as well as the original campaign. For the multiplayer modes, we will be giving the barest of demonstrations, as we'd prefer to focus on the singleplayer camapigns.

With regards to the other games, crow and I won't be playing them for this LP. Neither of us (currently) have a equipment needed to do a Vita or PS4 LP, so there are no plans to go through either Killzone: Mercenary or Killzone: Shadow Fall.

: : :S P O I L E R � P O L I C Y : : : :siren:

I don't really care. The surface plot of the games is so shallow that spoilers are kind of moot anyways. The meat of the LP will be figuring out the subtext for each scene. So treat it like people treat Shakespeare: so many people know that the ending of Hamlet involves everyone dying that it's not really a spoiler anymore. The discussion and interpretation of performances are more important than the actual events. So if you find an interesting connection to a later game, don't be afraid to point it out. That said, unlike Shakespeare, most people haven't played Killzone, so don't be rude about spoilers. I also don't want pages to turn into redacted CIA documents, but hey, let's see how it goes.

There have been a couple of really good threads in Cinema Discusso over the years that utilized a running commentary style of reviewing--specifically, Kyle Hyde's American Psycho thread and Terry van Feleday's Transformers threads. In the spirit of those threads, I want to give a similar treatment to the Killzone franchise.

Let's Needlessly Complicate The Killzone Quadrilogy

On the surface, Killzone and its sequels appear to be nothing more than Sony and Guerrilla's benchmark mindless action-packed FPS series meant to serve as glorified tech demos. Certainly, they do a solid job at demonstrating the power of the PlayStation brand, complete with gun porn, Michael Bay-esque visual effects, and threadbare plots. There are countless allusions to real-world historical and political events--most notably, World War II and Nazism. Unfortunately, nothing substantial ever seems to come of any of this and the plot and characters wind up being simple, shallow, and forgettable. Oh, and did I mention the games suffer from a serious case of tokenism and that you could count the female characters across the trilogy on one hand?

Clear signs of a half-baked game, right? Open and shut case.

Only, I don't think it's as simple as that. It seems to me that Guerrilla Games is trying to say something with the Killzone series. Something intelligent. Something clever. Something subtle. See, I feel that the wrong people over-hype Killzone as the premier PlayStation FPS series for the wrong reasons, while the right people under-hype the games as mindless drivel for the wrong reasons. It's a simple formula, but like Spec Ops: The Line, I feel Killzone is trying to make a critical statement through it. (Though I think it's doing it a lot more subtly than Spec Ops, which is probably why the series doesn't get the attention I think it should.)

Like Terry van Feleday with Transformers, I can't summarize my appreciation for this franchise in a simple essay. There seems to be a lot of topics being touched on, such as:

criticism of war fiction in general
criticism of testosterone-laden machismo
recurring themes regarding the entropy of war and fears of homogeneity
deconstruction of modern and traditional action hero tropes
colour-theory
notions of good and evil
et cetera

It's hard to parse out exactly what Guerrilla's end-goal might be, but I want to take a stab at it. nine-gear crow and I might be pulling out sub-text from nothing, but I think there's enough of it there that the Killzone games start to look downright Shakespearean in comparison to other sci-fi military shooters.

That said--

--while we turn a critical lens to the games, we will also be recreating them as if they were literal works of Shakespeare. Now, before you ask "what the gently caress is a Shakespeare?", let me assure you that he was a very talented fellow. A poet, playwright, and actor, among other things, Shakespeare has long been considered one of the best of English literature's canon. It's too early to tell how well Killzone will react to being adapted to a Shakespearean style, but we'll be damned if we aren't going to try!

Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, please just Let's Play some Killzone, okay?

If you're here for a Killzone LP, you'll get a Killzone LP. With every update of critical analysis and Shakespearean dialogue, there will be a proper LP video where crow and I commentate over and discuss gameplay. We'll talk about weapons, characters, secrets, and all that good stuff. It's all part of the package.

And please take part in the discussion. I don't want to only stick to the broad themes mentioned earlier, and I will make a concerted effort to drag into the spotlight any meaning, intentional or unintentional, that I can find. However, any help from other posters would be great, as I want to encourage discussion. So if you feel something relevant has been missed, do bring it up!

So without much ado about nothing, I give you The Tragedy Of Rico Velasquez, The Moor Of Vekta:

Sally fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Mar 6, 2015

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 21:56

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 00:13

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

While recording with Gildiss, the subject of Luger's disproportionately large head is brought up. nine-gear crow is persuaded to bring Photoshop into the equation:

Never stop making gifs of Killzone physics, crow:

(the club remix -- :siren:

warning, rapidly flashing lights :siren:

)

Miscellany bad physics shots from crow:

The Halo-Killer:

trizophenie has triggered an LP convergence event:

crow points out Killzone's best selling feature:

Sally fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Mar 2, 2015

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 21:57

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

First update. No gameplay.

Before you start booing, hear me out. Killzone opens up with, what I consider to be, one of the best PS2 cinematics period. It looks fantastic. For the time, it was mind blowing and, well, I think it holds up today. There's no gameplay here, but there's a lot going on visually and sub-textually. I feel it'd be a waste and a disservice to spend a fleeting glimpse at this opening before diving into gameplay. For one, the cinematic introduces a character so key to the Killzone universe that his presence ripples throughout all of the games, including those for the PS4 and Vita, long after his eventual death.

But don't take my word for it. Watch Brian Cox do his thing:

Prologue

Enter [Visari as] Prologue

My people. Helghan's sons and daughters, lo.
For many years a broken nation we
Have been. O'erpress'd, and conquer'd, shunt by those
We sought to flee. Ten years ago, I ask'd
For time, and that boon was grant'd by thee.
O thou, the strength in my arm, holder of
My dreams. Our forefathers embark'd upon
The greatest journey evermore in all
Of humankind's antiquity. A journey
For independence. Freedom, Helghan was.
At first, it weaken'd body, mind, and soul--
But stay! Our strength, it grew! Throughout the time
Thou givest me, I have rebuilt our nation,
I have rebuilt our strength, I have rebuilt
Our pride! Our foes at home have been re-train'd
To see anew our cause. So henceforward,
we stand united once again. Henceforward,
Our foes who seek to break our will shall hear
Our voice. And Henceforward, we act as one.
And we shall be ignored no more! Attend!
My heroes of the Helghast dream, now is our time!

Exeunt

A rousing speech from a charismatic man. Though I'm sure if you know anything about history, it might seem familiar. This is Scolar Visari, the Autarch of the planet Helghan and the Helghast people. If you didn't know, the title "autarch" comes from the word "autarchy" which has its roots in Greek and is defined as an "absolute sovereignty". That would thus make Visari an "absolute sovereign". But really, let's not mince words, the man is a dictator. The language in his speech is radical, inflammatory, and extremely nationalistic. The game hasn't even begun and Guerrilla has made sure we know who our foe is. Visari's rally here is the embodiment of fascism with Visari playing the role of quintessential despot.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I have a lot more to say on Visari himself. This opening cinematic is here to identify who our enemy for the game is going to be and to associate them with historical "villains". Thus, before we even start shooting at the Helghast, they are stigmatized and we're already primed to start gunning them down. This clever association is poisoning the well, if we want to talk about fallacies. See, if you listen to Visari's speech without the visuals, he is clearly describing the Helghast as the victims. They are an "oppressed" and "conquered" nation looking to fight back for their freedom. This certainly doesn't sound unreasonable. I mean, look at the American Revolution. The American Colonies violently rebelled against Britain due to what they called "British oppression". Visari is arguing for freedom, but thanks to the visuals--well, take a look:

We've immediately got a visual reference to Nazism. Compare the Helghast Triad to the Nazi Flag Swastika:

The colouring is identical and the images are very similar. (Note, that the Helghast triad is actually supposed to represent three things: 1. The Duty every Helghast has to dream of a free Helghan, 2. The Obedience that every Helghast must show if all are to survive, 3. The Loyalty every Helghast should have for their government; I believe they came from some merchandise, a Helghast pendant specifically--if anyone can confirm that, that'd be hot). And as mentioned earlier, Visari's speech itself is very reminiscent of rallies given by Adolf Hitler of Benito Mussolini.

nine-gear crow posted:

What's more, the Helghast insignia is a tripartite symbol. If we're continuing with the Visari Helgan is an amalgamation of all major dictatorships idea, it draws an interesting parallel to the iconography of the Workers Party of Korea, the ruling dictatorship of North Korea. It's symbol is meant to represent the cooperation and codependency of the worker, the farmer and the intellectual in the survival of the Korean state, or rather in the survival of the Kim family.

We're going to be seeing a lot more of Helgan iconography as we head into the Killzone 2 and 3, and the parallels to the Soviet and Korean "mythology of the state" is beyond unnerving at times.

Crabtree posted:

[T]here may be even further symbolism and similarities to in the three points of the Triad to the Nazi flag, as according to Sherree Owens Zalampas's Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture, Art, and Music, three itself seems to be a very recurring theme in swastika's design.

Sherree Owens Zalampas, page 43 posted:
In Mein Kampf, Hitler discussed at length his selection of colors for the swastika flag. He decided to use black, white and red because they had �the most brilliant harmony in existence,� because he had been a soldier under these colors, and because their aesthetic effect they were most compatible with his feelings. He rejected all designs which were submitted to him in favor of his own design � a red background, a white disk and a black swastika in the middle. He stated that the red meant the social ideal of the movement, the white stressed the nationalistic idea, and the swastika represented the mission of the Aryan race.

Also I'm willing to bet Visari is more Mussolini than Hitler, even if Helgan is a more easily identifiable Germany. He may deliver a shared basic theatrics to his speech methods - like how it builds into a loud and frightful march after talking about the planet making them stronger (even though the game cheated by bring up orchestral scores instead of relying only on the strength of his delivery); but we have yet to see this Autarch manipulate fashionable lateness to build up tension in the crowd nor bald women fainting at the sight of his arrival.

This is a man who has the weight of a suffering nation on his shoulders. A man driven to extreme ends who truly believes in what he is doing. It's not hard to imagine Helghan as a rebuilt post-WWI Germany. In fact, looking deeper into the game's history further reinforces that comparison.

These images are here to further underscore the WWII references at play in this video. Visari pumping his hand in the air, for example, is again reminiscent of Mussolini doing the very same during his speeches:

This one here, though, is more interesting. The game opens with the Helghast triad and associates it immediately with the Nazi swastika. Yet here we see that in the founding days of Helghan it was used to denote a medical clinic:

This just deepens the swastika association. The swastika did not originate with National Socialism, but was taken from Asian cultures and religions. Now, I'm not an expert on this and I won't pretend to be, so if anyone has more information on, say, Indian religious usage of the swastika, I'd like to hear it. As far as I can tell, though, the swastika is a symbol that is used to denote wealth and prosperity. When the Nazi's co-opted it, it became stigmatized, particularly in the Western world, and is now associated with hate, violence, and anti-Semitism. Fitting, then, that the Helghast would co-opt a symbol that was used to denote health and medical aid, and twist it into something darker.

SpecialK800 posted:

You know there's more to the image of the triad on the hospital than it merely being a pre-space fascist symbol. Fascist parties in Europe before World War II and still today in places like Greece gained wide popularity by appealing to the poor/unemployed portions of the population. A lot of that popularity came through providing services which were traditionally governmental or which catered to wealthier classes of people. Recently in Greece the Fascist Golden Dawn party distributed food and other necessities to poor towns and villages, but only gave then to ethnic Greeks. The famous Beer Hall Putsch was one of many time the growing Nazi Party called meetings in restaurants and bars and paid for the visitors to eat and drink (This may seem less like charity, until you remember Post-WWI Germany saw rampant unemployment and hyperinflation). The use of the triad on the hospital may suggest it was run by the same group who helped Visari come to power as a way of gaining popular support.

To build off of that, I remembered that that's exactly what's going on in the game. Delving into the history a bit more, the Helghast triad was originally used in the very early days of the Helghast Administration:

Seen at the end of Killzone 2

It was three interlocking arms meant to symbolize justice, and freedom between the three major galactic nations: The Helghan Administration, the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA), and the United Colonial Nations (UCN). If none of that makes sense, don't worry it will. Later posts will include historical info dumps.

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Just as a note on the swastika, it was used by many other groups, organisations and militaries before Nazi Germany ever got around to using it. In most cases I've heard or read about, the swastika was used as a symbol of luck, rather than wealth or prosperity.

The best example of this is with the Finnish Air Force, who adopted the swastika (Actually called the Hakaristi in Finland) back in 1918 when Swedish count Eric von Rosen donated an aircraft (Their second since creation) to them. Count von Rosen painted the blue Hakaristi on the aircraft as his personal good luck charm, and the Finns adopted it as their own. The white background was added afterwards. After the war ended for Finland, the allies pressured Finland to change and remove all forms of the Hakaristi due to its close resemblance to the swastika.

Wikipedia provides a flag for the Finnish Air Force Staff with two swastikas on it and dates it 1958, although I can't confirm any long-term use.

Fun Fact: Eric von Rosen was a brother-in-law to Hermann Goring.
Latvia used a red swastika for their air force up until their dissolution when annexed by the Soviet Union

I also want to point out that the atmosphere of Helghan makes people's hair fall out. Now, it won't become clear until Killzone: Liberation, but not all Helghast are hairless. Most are, but baldness is more a problem of the lower and middle class. Many "upper crust" Helghast actually have full heads of hair. I figure that those that don't have hair are either suffering from standard male-pattern baldness, rose up through the ranks, or shave their head in solidarity with their people. Visari comes from a very wealthy family, so I figure he is either naturally bald, or he shaves his head to better identify with his people. This is never mentioned in the game and is pure speculation on my part. Though, it should be noted that as a kid Visari did indeed shave his head:

The rest of the video are intercut scenes of the Helghast's first invasion wave. Now, this could be seen as a broken nation fighting back against its oppressors, yet the imagery clearly presents the Helghast as villains. They're seen gunning down innocent civilians no less! Furthermore, if they were a "conquered" nation, it's clear that is no longer the case. The opening cinematic reveals a massive military invasion force and demonstrates the Helghast's power by de-clawing a three-star ISA general before he can even bring the Space Defense systems online:

This is the face of powerlessness.

And this image is here just because those two soldiers on the left look kinda like our protagonists, Templar and Rico. Heh. Probably just re-used models due to the limitations of the game's engine and the PS2.

But really, if you aren't convinced that the Helghast are the villains so far, the cinematic ends with Visari glaring menacingly into the camera to really drive that point home:

Visari is loving this.

(And with that, we're now ready to start shooting Helghast scum!)

As characters come and go in the LP, I will talk about them under this heading. I'll also discuss when there are major reveals and such, so don't worry if you think I'm being a bit skimpy on information here, as I'll revisit characters again and again throughout the LP.

This particular video introduced us to two major characters: the Helghast leader, Autarch Scolar Visari, and Three-Star ISA General Stuart Adams.

Voiced by: Brian Cox

To further prove that this game is a work of Shakespeare, I want to quickly point out that Visari's VA, Brian Cox, is a performer in the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Ahem.

To quickly review what we know about Visari: he is the epitome of dictator. Every major dictator from WWII is present here, and then some. I hope the Hitler and Mussolini connotations are obvious. He has the charisma of both men, shares similar symbols as Hitler, and even looks a bit like Mussolini. Furthermore, his speech mirrors those given by the Italian and German WWII leaders. Not to be left out, Joseph Stalin is also being referenced in Visari's name. Note, Stalin's real name is "Iosif Visarionovich Dzhugashilivi".

The game history suggests that Helghast was conquered and needed to be rebuilt. Much like Hitler after WWI, Visari swooped in as a charismatic leader and captured the minds of his people, rebuilding and revitalizing (and militarizing) them into a strong and proud people.

It should also be noted that Visari looks like Apocalypse Now-era Marlon Brando. Incidentally, Killzone's layout reminds me a bit of Heart Of Darkness, with Visari being the Colonel Kurtz awaiting you in the depths of Hell. Might seem like a bit of a stretch now, but I think it'll make more sense as the LP progresses.

Voiced by: Ronny Cox

Lovingly referred to as "General Anime" by nine-gear crow, I am shocked that any military would allow a Three-Star General to grow shoulder-length dye-streaked hair and a soul-patch. Adams is in charge of the planet Vekta's Space Defense Platform, a massive satellite armed with laser and missile weaponry, capable of devastating fleets. Poor Adams, just as he was about to cut the Helghast invasion fleet in half, had his whole system shut down. He is going to be a key player in the game and we'll be seeing a lot more of Adams, as one of the primary goals of Killzone is going to be trying to get the SD Platform back up and running.

Before posting this LP, I polled a couple of threads to get goon opinions on Killzone. Like I said before, I think these games are popular and despised for the wrong reasons.

When liked, it's usually because they look great and/or play great. The whole "gun porn" and love of Michael Bay-esque attention to visual and audio detail, etc., etc. Even those people who liked the games, though, don't remember much about the story or characters:

titties posted:

I really liked KZ1. I didn't play a lot of PS2 FPS games. The ones that stick out to me were the Star Wars: Battlefront games, Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Killzone, MoH: Frontline, and Black. Out of those, the Battlefront titles and Timesplitters are kind of in their own league. Black was super-boring poop. MoH was fun, but I remember it being kind of arcade-y and having a more demanding pace than I would have liked. But KZ nicely scratched an itch for me, being less arcade-y than Frontline or TS and far more interesting than Black. I remember being really impressed that they did so well in communicating the heft and recoil of the weapons.

kirbysuperstar posted:

I really like the Killzone series as a whole. They have a really cool art design, despite the lack of colours in the first two, and the weapons are really great looking (such as the Helghast AR with the massive barrel of ammo and secondary shotgun on it). They're very technically impressive games, and they play pretty well, though the first is really rough. Also the Helghast are really cool, even if they are totally ripped off from Jin-Roh

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Played Killzone 2 and 3, loved both of them. The gameplay was great for an FPS and the controls + the way you moved felt a lot more "real" compared to something like Call of Duty. Your character can't spin 180 degrees in a second and shoot people in the face, which in turn makes moving around and being more tactical with your approach much more rewarding. The class system is cool and, from what I remember, doesn't overlap much if at all which makes every character useful in fights.

I don't recall the story too much, but I personally really like the enemy character design (The Helghast). There's something about them that really appeals to my taste, maybe its those glowing red eyes they have.

Despite all it's criticism, I would still purchase the Killzone game on PS4 because I like the franchise.

Radec and Visari both have some good lines and Visari (Brian Cox) delivers a really good performance with his speeches. I don't remember being too fond of Rico on the other hand, something made me want to punch his face.

copy posted:

I don't remember much about the first two but I remember having a blast in the multiplayer for the third one. Specifically I remember the attack/defend maps being super fun and I remember the Helghast commander guy being so supportive and positive that I was always disappointed when I wasn't on the space-nazi team. Seriously the other team's narrator was such a cock. Nothing was ever good enough for him and he would complain even if your team won. Compared to the Helghast narrator where even if you lost the guy was all just "Vee vill try again for ze glory of Helghan!"

So I guess if nothing else they should get credit for taking a throwaway announcer character and using that as the foundation for the World's First Endearing Space-Nazi.

JordanKai posted:

I love all the Killzone games outside of the first one and I don't understand why the series catches so much flak as a whole.

Ularg posted:

I really do like a bit of the aesthetic, even if I remember Killzone 3 being sort of disappointing.

Scyron posted:

Ever since I played Killzone 2, I always have to find out how the controls are, like "weighted" a la killzone 2 before I can fully commit to buying the latest release.

Everything else is fine for me, a bit unique doing things slightly different than the average fps. I never finished KZ1 on ps2, it sucked.

EDIT: I do enjoy shooting space Nazis.

RagnarokAngel posted:

The Killzone games tend to look great and have potentially interesting universes which just don't pan out where it matters, the gameplay.

VolticSurge posted:

I thought the first one was meh,liked the second and third in spite of my hatred for most of the cast.

Otherwise, those that don't like it dislike it's blandness, hate its characters or story, or dislike the gameplay--or are just totally indifferent to it altogether:

Killrrhubarb posted:

They're a mediocre first person shooter with some interesting bits, but overall pretty bland. The story wasn't too inspired or interesting, either. There are definitely better FPS, but worse ones too.

JT Jag posted:

I have no thoughts regarding the Killzone series as I never played it.

Policenaut posted:

Killzone is a series that Guerrilla Games spent far too much time writing back story to justify their Space WW2 scenario as being a realistic one and too little time applying it in any meaningful way. If you spend a little time looking into Killzone's "canon", you'll find a plethora of history, dates, names, and such regarding humanity's expansion into the stars, the Helghan Corporation and their colonization and subsequent monopoly over Vekta, the straining relations and tensions between Helghan and Earth, and the ensuing conflict (that happens before any of the games) where Earth forcibly deports an entire planet to a death ball where they become radical Post-WW1 Space Germany with Gas Mask Nazis. There's a ton of interesting stuff going on, but you never see it in any of the games.

The games are visual showcases with bog standard gameplay that ultimately serve as interactive hardware sizzle reels for whatever they're put out on. It angers me that Killzone has an interesting story, but every game is just "The Space Nazis are bad, go kill them" (except Mercenary which was "Space Nazis AND Space Americans are bad, go kill them for money"). Killzone 2 is probably the best one of the bunch, with Mercenary as runner up solely because it lets you kill ISA scum and it arguably has the best online play in the series.

SSNeoman posted:

Killzone is a series that desperately wants to be Modern Warfare, but fails because it's a forgettable FPS series. The third is notable for having enemies that like to spam grenades. And as previously noted, the games are basically hardware porn.

If you're thinking of buying these games, yourself a favor and pickup Resistance instead. Preferably the third one.

Zain posted:

I only played Killzone 2, but I will say that the main villain has some of the best lines and dialog in any video game in the shooter genre. The multiplayer was surprisingly entertaining, but the main game was bogged down with things like infinite spawning enemies until you move up 10 more feet.

neetengie posted:

I think the series would have been better if you played as the Helghans and if the first game was about taking back their homeland, but the way their culture/politics are written that would need a complete rewrite.

Lazyfire posted:

Like I said before/after the video we did a while back: I've never played any of the games, but my thoughts on them made it seem like a series built to emulate Halo to an extent, and were more an Also-Ran rather than a blockbuster franchise. The fact that it got three sequels makes it seem like people must have played it, but you guys were the 2nd and 3rd person I've ever heard say they've played the games after kalon Zombie.

That said, the Killzone 2 E3 reveal for the PS3 needs to be in the OP because holy poo poo most games today don't look that good and Sony tried to pass it off as PS3 footage.

Grump posted:

I never played Killzone 1. Killzone 2 was pretty forgettable, muddy, and shooting things didn't feel good. Killzone 3 was a solid game overall and more polished, but still muddy.

blackguy32 posted:

Killzone 1 sucks. Even if they did fix many of the technical things in it, it just wasn't a very good game at all. The levels feel empty and the combat is boring. I remember it being hyped up to be a Halo Killer and it was far from it.

Killzone 2 was good for its multiplayer, but the controls are pretty lovely. I think it says a lot that they fixed the controls for KZ 3 and Shadow Fall. I thought that KZ 2 had the best campaign though. It would be my favorite if the controls weren't so bad.

Killzone 3 was average to mediocre. However, it was fun to see Malcolm McDowell and Ray Winstone ham it up as Helghan villains. I thought it had a pretty cool final level as well.

Ultimately, I think the games are pretty drat average. The multiplayer is kind of good, but they have always been marred by dumb design decisions.

The one constant is that nearly everyone thought Killzone 1 sucked. :negative:

Regardless, no one once praised the game's writing or handling of subtext. I hope that by the end of this LP, crow and I will have changed that.

_{Those of you impatient for gameplay, no worries. crow and I have the next video recorded and ready to go, so the next update won't be long coming.}

Sally fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 21:57

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Strong Mouse posted:

(Also, I am hearing a distinct lack of iambic pentameter from you two. This is Shakespeare, man. You've got to really get into it!)

Huh, yeah--

code:

[b]Prologue[/b]

[i]Enter [Visari as] Prologue[/i]

/  /  u    /    u   /    u    u  /  u
My people. Sons and daughters of Helghan.
u   / u  /      /  u    /    u / u
For many years, we have been a broken
/ u     /      /   /        /  u      u  /     u
Nation. Shunt, o'erpress'd, conquer'd by those we
/      u  u /     /   /     /u   u /
Sought to escape. Ten years ago, I ask'd
u   /     u   /    /    u   /   u   u  /
For time, and that boon was grant'd by thee.
/     u   /        u  u  /    u   /  u   u
Thou, the strength in my arm, the holder of
u  /       /   /   u u     u /      u  u
My dreams. Our forefathers embark'd on the
/   u    / uu   u  u   /  u    u
Greatest exodus in the hist'ry of
/   u  /     u  / uu   u   /   u
All mankind. An exodus for freedom.
/  u    u /    u    /   u    u  /      u
Helghan became that freedom. At first, it
/  u     u   /   u  /     u  u    /   u
Weaken'd us, but in fact, we were growing
/    u    u  u   /    u    u    / u   u
Stronger. In the time thou hast given me,
u /    u /     u   / u     u /    u /
I have rebuilt our nation, I have rebuilt
u   /         u   u /    u /     u   /
Our strength, and I have rebuilt our pride!
u   /u u    u  /    u    /    u  /
Our enemies at home have been re-train'd.
u  u    / u   u    /   / u      u /
We have given them new insights into
u   /      /    /  u     u  /     u/ u
Our cause. Henceforward, we stand united
/    /     /    /  u     /     /  u   u  u /
Once more. Henceforward, those driven to divide
u  u    /    u   /      /    /  u     u  u
Us will hear our voice. Henceforward, we shall
/   u  /    u   u  u     /  u /     u  /
Act as one, and we shall be ignored no more!
u /  u    u  u   /  u     /      /   u  u   /
Defenders of the Helghast dream, now is our time!

[i]Exeunt[/i]

I was so concerned about making sure the pentameter fit that I messed up and forgot to check my iambs. It looks like this is predominantly trochaic pentameter rather than blank verse proper.

I'll have to fix that.

Sally fucked around with this message at 06:52 on May 2, 2014

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 23:39

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Alright, I fixed it! Visari now speaks in blank verse. Here's my scansion to prove it:

code:

[b]Prologue[/b]

[i]Enter [Visari as] Prologue[/i]

u  /  u    /    u    /    u   /    u     /
My people. Helghan's sons and daughters, lo.
u   / u  /     u /  u   / u    /
For many years a broken nation we
u    /     u   /        u   /  u       /     u  /
Have been. O'erpress'd, and conquer'd, shunt by those 
u  /      u  /     /    /    u/   u /
We sought to flee. Ten years ago, I ask'd
u   /     u   /    /    u   /   u   u  /
For time, and that boon was grant'd by thee.
u /     u   /        u  u  /    /  u   /
O thou, the strength in my arm, holder of
u  /       u   /   u u     u /      u/
My dreams. Our forefathers embark'd upon
u   /   u    /   u   /u  /    u  /
The greatest journey evermore in all
u   / u  /      u / u  /   u /   u
Of  humankind's antiquity. A journey
u   / u /  u      /   u    /  u    /
For independence. Freedom, Helghan was.
u  /      u  /  u     / u   /     u   /
At first, it weaken'd body, mind, and soul--
u   /     u   /         u  /     u      /   u   /
But stay! Our strength, it grew! Throughout the time
u    /  u   u   u /    u /     u   / u
Thou givest me, I have rebuilt our nation,
u /    u /     u   /         u /    u /
I have rebuilt our strength, I have rebuilt
u   /      u   /    u  /    u    /    u  /
Our pride! Our foes at home have been re-train'd
u  /   u/   u   /      u  /    /  u
To see anew our cause. So henceforward,
u  /     u/ u   /    u/     /    /  u
we stand united once again. Henceforward,
u   /    u   /    u  /     u   /    u     /
Our foes who seek to break our will shall hear
u   /      u   /    /  u     u  /   u  /
Our voice. And Henceforward, we act as one.
u   /  u     /  u /     u  /     u /
And we shall be ignored no more! Attend!
u  / u    /  u   /  u     /      /   u  u   /
My heroes of the Helghast dream, now is our time!

[i]Exeunt[/i]

Of course, it's not perfect blank verse. Some lines are catalectic while others are hypercatelectic, and there are a few foot substitutions, but hey, they are necessary for the dramatic effect of Visari's speech. Shakespeare did it, so I did too.

Also, I've gone back and added in people's insights in the game to the post. I hope this breakdown of the Killzone games can truly become a collaborative thing. I added another image for the Helghast triad analysis, too. While trawling the internet for more KZ history, I found this:

I'd nearly forgotten about it, but the triad was used not only to denote a medical facility in Helghan's early years, but was also a symbol of the early Helghan Administration--which I will delve into.

The three interlocking arms were meant to symbolize peace, justice, and freedom between the three major galactic nations: The Helghan Administration, the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA), and the United Colonial Nations (UCN). If none of that makes sense, don't worry it will. Later posts will include historical info dumps.

Crabtree posted:

Will we going into the theoretical First Worlds War that likely transpired to make the start of Killzone a straight retelling of WW2 when it shows up in game or are people free to discuss the history leading up to the beginning?

I'm absolutely going to be bringing up the pre-game history from Guerrilla and in fact have all the images and quotes saved from the old Flash-timeline they had on their site around Killzone 2's release. Of course, if you've got a brilliant bit of analysis, I don't see much problem with bringing it up. The history barely appears at all in any of the games, so as far as I'm concerned, it's not really spoilers to talk about.

But yeah, in the next update proper I will begin going over the backstory for this series.

supermikhail posted:

I'll do you one better:

"Peopleus mius. Soni et daughteri Haelghani. Manios annos brokenum natium haevbeent. Shunnti, oppressti, conquerti ab thos qui escapium sought. Decem annos, timum askt, et thatum boonum est ex thee grantet. Thou, mium armum fortituda, miis dreamis holdius. Nostri forfatheri embarkt on greateum exodium de historiam humanum. Exodium pro libertam. Haelghan thatam libertam becomt..."

Sally fucked around with this message at 06:52 on May 2, 2014

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 19:41

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Szurumbur posted:

But please turn on subtitles if at all possible.

Oh yeah. Way ahead of you. Subtitles are on, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to affect the opening cinematic. Actual gameplay and in-game cinematics are subtitled.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 19:54

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Yeah, unfortunately Guerrilla has since taken down that website (though it was up for a looooong time). Fortunately, I managed to find screen captures of all that history. :woop:

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 20:17

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Scyron posted:

I sort of wish my quote could add that I do enjoy shooting space nazis.

Added!

JamieTheD posted:

Or they were pulling a Wipeout. It's surprising how many god-drat games have lore that's never, ever found in-game, but in their website, press materials, random snippets from the manual... Hell, I could probably recite Mighty No. 9's life story already, and the god-drat game isn't even done yet!

_{_{Keiji Inafune, I love your games and all, but please, enough teasing, I can't take it!}}

There's a bit of a difference, though. When people discover Wip3out's lore, I think they're either pleasantly surprised by the depth or totally indifferent. When people discover Killzone's lore, a lot of the times they get really angry and pissed off at "what the games could have been" and wind up cursing Guerrilla's name or something like that...

In other news, if you haven't read JamieTheD's LP of the Wip3out series, you totally should! It's really solid and interesting.

# ¿ May 1, 2014 14:55

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Chapter 1, Stage 1 with Blind Sally and nine-gear crow

1.1

A battle rages on a nondescript battlefield in the Vektan countryside.
Enter Vektan soldiers, [Templar], and Helghast soldiers.

TEMPLAR

The comms dost worsen. Doth any person mark me?
We shall be routed without aidance. Fie!

ISA SOLDIER 1

I prithee, sir, what now?

TEMPLAR

We retire rearward.

Enter ISA Soldier, [Sanchez]

TEMPLAR

God's blood! Dost thou seek to meet thy maker?
Who's there? Stand, and unfold yourself.

SANCHEZ

For Vekta!
Private Sanchez, sir.
Quake not for the Helghast, sir;
They wade into our snare. Mines!
Lo, dead mid-step!

TEMPLAR

Will the minefield last?

SANCHEZ

Pray, not long, sir--
They've sought intrusion the greater part of the day.

TEMPLAR

Knowest thou this area, Sanchez?

SANCHEZ

Yessir! I've oppressed the Helghast since first light,
But I can no longer hearken the Forward Post o'er the ridge.

TEMPLAR

Truly. Sanchez, marshal the way.
We must hinder the Helghast's approach.
Lead us through alive.

SANCHEZ

Yessir! To the main line we shall go. Cover my advance.

[Templar and Sanchez] dodge Helghast mortars and machine gun fire. They take cover in an ISA controlled bunker outside the city.

ISA SOLDIER 2

Captain Templar, praise god! And here returns the rest of your unit.

ISA SOLDIER 3

Captain, you live and breath! Art thou injured? No.
Thitherward is the city's entrance. Thou must cross the industries to find HQ.
Helghast have broken through; they already occupy the city. Be mindful.

SANCHEZ

Godspeed, sir.

Exeunt

This first image was from the opening cutscene, but since I missed it I'll cover it here:

There's our first glimpse of the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) logo. That's not the standard logo, though. What we see on that broken wall is the ISA "sun" logo. Which is, well, basically the same as the standard logo only it has visible sun rays radiating from it. The more commonly seen ISA logo is this one:

We talked a bit about the Helghast triad's connotations to the Nazi swastika, but now I want to look at the actual symbology of the icon itself. The number three obviously can carry a lot of meaning. Past, present, future, or mind, body, soul--there are a lot of things you can attach the number three to. Not to forget the Christian symbology of three being the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Is there anything to that? Well, maybe. Look at the name of the people using the image: Helghast. The people of Helghan were originally called Helghans until Visari coined the term "Helghast". Where did the word come from? Well, "gast" is a Middle English word for "ghost". It could be that the addition of "-ghast" is meant to infer that his people now have "spirit". Either that, or he intended it to be something to menace their enemies: "hell ghost". Could it then be a perversion of "holy ghost"?

Regardless, there's more to it. Triangles are used in alchemical symbols. A triangle with the base down refers to water and earth, while a triangle with the base up refers to fire and air. The Helghast triad is shown in both forms, so if there's an alchemical connection it may be tenuous and incidental.

Lastly, the three arrows bursting outward seem to indicate expansion or explosion. The Helghast are certainly ready to fight and are eager to take Vekta for their own. This seems to be the strongest (and simplest) explanation for the use of the arrows. Conversely, the ISA use a circle for their symbol. Circles are often used to represent protective themes or shields. In opposition to the Helghast triad, the two halves of the circle could represent the ISA's purpose of containing the Helghast threat. A circle can also represent eternity (see: Ouroboros). With regards to alchemy, the circle represents spirit. This all isn't even mentioning the fact that the sun is seen as a life-giving image.

What does this all mean? Well, if we're going to set up clear good-guys and bad-guys, it helps to give them symbols that make them seem holy and life-giving, and violent and into witchcraft respectively. Although, I don't think it's that simple. Guerrilla Games is going through a lot of effort to make really clear and obvious black and white heroes and villains. I sort of brought it up in the video when crow and I talked about colour theory, but I think this is all sort of a red herring. We're supposed to think that ISA=good and Helghast=bad at first glance. Yet there's a lot more to the story than that. Everything is more of a shade of grey, and that'll become a lot more obvious as we get further into the games and start delving into the series' lore.

nine-gear crow posted:

Also, one last bit of personal analysis on the ISA logo:

This variant of the ISA logo is only seen in Killzone 1 and has been dubbed the ISA "sun" logo by players. There's no offical go-to version of it available online. I had to plumb the depths of DeviantArt to find a useable vector of it for the LP. That said, thanks to DA user FenixArtBox for the vector. (Just try to ignore all the My Little Pony artwork...).

Anyway, the sun logo is trying to colour your perception of the ISA as the unambiguous "good" guys here. Their logo is a sun, a source of light and warmth and prosperity. There are no sharp edges on the logo unlike the Helghast logo, indicating that the ISA's authority radiates outwards seemingly benevolently, as opposed to hostilely like the barbs of the Helghast logo.

Morever, the logo is green in colour, as opposed to the Helghast's black, red and white logo. The choice of colour here seemingly indicates that the ISA are on the side of "life" as all their equipment and iconography are seemingly verdant colours: green logo, green armour, warm orange highlights on their armour, and in Killzone 2 and Killzone 3, they also have soft blue lights added to their armour to contrast the harsh red and orange lights of the Helghast soldiers.

And yet, you'll notice that the ISA logo, in both versions, is a very grey, almost sickly green colour. The implication, when looking at it through a Colour Theory lens seems to indicate that, yes, there is life here, but it's slowly dying too.

This is compounded when you look at the variation between the two ISA logos between Killzone 1 and Liberation/2/3. In the first game where the ISA are allegedly the good guys, their logo is the sun variant. In the rest of the series, where the waters of the ISA's true nature and characterization becomes muddied (significantly), it's replaced with the simple sphere logo. The warmth and light has been stripped away from the ISA. They're no longer worthy of having the sun as their emblem any more, and there's a moment in Killzone 2 that demonstrates this kind in such a way I was actually struck by the symbolism of it when it happened.

....On and it also kind of looks like the OSHA High Explosive warning sign too.

SpecialK800 posted:

There are a lot of design things going on between the Helghast and ISA logos. You guys mentioned the differences in the coloring and Crow mentioned the sort of "barbed" nature of the Helghast triad. But the difference between curved lines and harsh angles is important too. Curved lines denote softer, more organic things. This is carried over with regard to the ISA. Their soldiers, though all armored, tend to have exposed heads and patches of visible skin. In Killzone 1 we see them defending a world with actual nature, though it is ravaged by war brought by the Helghast. The Helghast triad, meanwhile, uses harsh angles and straight lines, often denoting a more artificial or mechanical design. The Helghast then fight completely covered by armor and machinery. Throughout the entire series you barely ever see that sickly pale Helghast skin on a soldier. Their forces look like warfare machines from the outside. And when we finally see Helghan, well let's just say their world has a lot less nature to enjoy (at least until Killzone 3). There are so many tiny details regarding the symbols and their use, especially the variations on the Helghast triad, that you could write a book.
...
But I won't be writing it.

chiasaur11 posted:

I know it's a gimmee, but the thing that struck me about the ISA logo?

It's corporate. I mean, it looks less like a nation's flag and more like it comes at the end of an infomercial for NutriPharm.

The Helghast's symbol says "We're the baddies", but it also says "We are a nation-state with a military.". They're bad people, but they're people.

The ISA's symbol says "Cayce Pollard is about to start puking her guts out".

All this talk about religious symbology made me laugh when I screencapped this image though:

They say that there are no atheists in foxholes, and it seems for a moment that Jan Templar might have found Jesus himself--

--so I think he was a bit disappointed to find out that it was only Pvt. Sanchez.

I've always thought the first few areas of Killzone were meant to serve as a "greatest hits" of WWI and WWII. After all, we're literally fighting Space Nazis, right? The game is eager to drive that point home. This first stage is one huge reference to WWI's trench warfare. I'd elaborate more, but I don't think I have to. Really, all you need to do is GIS images of WWI battlefields:

Thankfully, we have ~~Jesus~~ Sanchez to lead us to ~~redemption~~ the Forward Post:

I snagged that image of the boot because I thought it was strange. I've played Killzone six or seven times now, and that's the first time I've noticed the boot. Why is it there? What does it mean? Who did it belong to? Why are there no other boots in the game? Or wait, ARE there other boots in the game!?

Crabtree posted:

To me that separated boots screams Kemmerich's Boots from All Quiet on the Western Front. A good pair of boots were one of the most precious commodities a soldier could have in the Great War, it was both comfort and protection against the horrors of Trench Foot caused by likely sitting around in dank, deteriorating trench conditions for possibly months as you wait for the next senseless charge of the day. I mean, for God's sake, this was the war where one of its deadliest battles, Verdun, spanned the course of over 9 bloody months. In the book, the boots bring nothing but death or misery to those that possess them. And yet they are still coveted and taken, from mutilated friends or robbed from corpses that obviously no longer need them. "What good are they to you, (Franz)? I can use them!"

With regards to the Hakkendorf building below, I'm not sure, but I think it's just a name. I'm not sure what its roots are or where it's from (maybe The Netherlands? That's where Guerrilla Games is based). If anyone has any thoughts, lemme know.

Wahad posted:

Hakkendorf is not a Dutch but a German name - for example, D�sseldorf, the German city, means "town/village of fools". I'm not sure what Hakken means, but if it's an alternate spelling of the word "hacken", Hakkendorf would be "town/village of chopping" - perhaps denoting a place with lots of lumber production?

Most of the historical information for Killzone doesn't appear in the games themselves. Guerrilla did write up a whole bunch of really interesting stuff, though. It used to be available on a website around the time when Killzone 2 was released, but that whole thing has since been taken down. I was fortunate enough to discover that a forum user at NeoGAF by the name of "Sentry" got screencaps of everything and made them available. Here's the thread in particular if you absolutely must read up on everything immediately. I will be covering it all with annotations over the course of the next few updates, though.

The lore splash page looked something like this:

As you can see, there are seven distinct eras covering centuries of time in the not-too-distant future. Killzone, Killzone 2, Killzone 3, Killzone: Liberation, and Killzone: Mercenary all take place during the "Second Extrasolar War" era, that tiny little wedge on the far right of the timeline. Yeah. Seriously. This series has a LOT of history. As far as I can tell, Killzone: Shadow Fall takes place between 20-30 years after the end of the Second Extrasolar War--but that's neither here nor there at the moment.

The Terran Era is the closest to our current time and has a lot of issues that we currently have. Namely: energy crises and fear of global apocalypse. It's a pretty cool back story and could easily be the genesis for any number of science fiction novels, games, or films. Heck, it even starts with World War III:

In an alternate universe, we got Mad Max. In the Killzone universe, we got space Nazis.

That's interesting. We could very well have been immediately thrust down a path where corporations are effectively ruling all space colonies a la the Alien franchise, and yet here the United Colonial Nations (UCN) are placing strict regulations in order to try and curb that potential outcome. The Helghan Corporation is present at this time, eager to become the next Weyland-Yutani.

The idea of a Space United Nations working frantically with a group of highly-trained elite volunteer soldiers from member nations to try and colonise space for a dying Earth is an awesome one. If they ever make a Killzone: Origins game, this could be an interesting concept to go off on. It could be a 4x type game. Actually, heck, they could make a 4x game in the current Killzone universe and that'd be sweet. Or it could be a Killzone: X-COM kind of thing, who knows.

Someone on staff must be a Sid Meier fan. This star stuff is a bit out of my league, so if anyone knows more about astronomy and such, please share it. As far as I can tell, Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system: two stars orbiting each other. Hence, the Alpha Centauri A and B. Wanna take a guess at what the rocky planet around A and the lush Eden around B wind up becoming?

Nothing major to note here. A changing of the guard.

And here we get our first intonations that the Helghan Corporation might be run by less that exemplary people. A few things to note here. First, the names of the UCA Navy vessels. They're all very fitting for deep space exploration/colonisation vessels. A lot of Biblical names present.

Archon - A "ruler" or "leader". (Greek origins).
Triumph - The most obvious name. "Victory", "conquest", etc. (Old French origins)
Pacifica - Likely derived from "pacific" and not from the name of a city or company. Thus, "peaceful" or "tranquil". (Latin origins).
Jericho - An ancient city of Palestine. (Hebrew origins).
Seraph - A member of the highest order of angels. (Hebrew origins).
Harbinger - A herald marking the approach of another. (An alteration of a Middle English word. Has roots as far back as Old Saxon and Old High German).

Too bad they all ~~got destroyed by the Helghan Corporation in order to force~~--ahem. Too bad they all went missing.

Also, I like to imagine that the Interplanetary Banking Guild (IBG) and Dune's Spacing Guild are basically the same thing.

We discover that the two planets, Helghan and Vekta, are both named for and by the Helghan Corporation and its CEO. Interesting. This ends the so-called "Terran Era". Now that space colonisation is one its way, humans are no longer limited to inhabiting the Earth.

Gameplay in all the Killzone games are a bit clunky. Part of this is to really ground the player in the game universe and feel like they're truly responsible for the actions they take on-screen. For some people, this really worked. For others, they hated it. One thing's for sure, the games have often needed tweaking to their controls to be comfortable to play for most people.

The first thing I did in the video was turn off AUTO RELOAD. It's a horrible, horrible thing that is a minor help at the best of times, and responsible for most avoidable deaths at the worst of times. Reloading in this game is a slow, ponderous task. Sure, it's more realistic, but it also means you need to adjust your play style accordingly. If you run out of bullets in a fire fight without cover, what makes more sense: pausing to reload your gun, or quickly drawing out a second loaded firearm? It's the latter. Always the latter. You can carry three guns on you at a time (that's one more than Killzone's contemporary Halo! Truly, the Halo-killer!), so there's no excuse to not use that to your advantage. With AUTO RELOAD on, though, it negates that bonus as you can't interrupt the reload action. Once it starts you just gotta let it play out and hope you don't die before it's done. So turning it off is a great idea.

The Helghast's StA-52 AR was a rather hated gun by the internet because of its second fire, a single shotgun shell. See, on paper it's a great idea: if you turn around a corner and are ambushed by a Helghast squad, you can quickly off the closest soldier with the single shotgun blast, and spray the remaining 60 rifle rounds at the others while you retreat for cover. In practice, the AUTO RELOAD made the player reload the underslung shotgun after that single shot, leaving them open to fire and wishing they could use the primary fire. Again, no auto reload, no problem.

Anyways, onto our HUD. As you probably saw, there's a Health Bar, a Stamina Bar, and an Ammo Bar showing off a gun's remaining primary and secondary rounds. I mentioned that each character plays a bit differently, and that's true. Each character regenerates Health and Stamina at different rates and takes different amounts of damage--not to mention they start with different weapons, move at different speeds, specialize in certain weapons, and have access to certain areas. It all sounds very cool, but in practice, the differences are rather minimal.

Still, here's Templar's stats:

Templar
HEALTH REGEN - Average
STAMINA REGEN - Average
DEFENSE - Average
WEAPONS - M82-G Assault Rifle, M4 Semi-Automatic Pistol
ABILITIES - Can climb ladders, and vault over obstacles

Voiced by Kal Weber

I mentioned in the video that I thought Templar was our "everyman action hero". Each of the four main characters in Killzone seem to be portraying an action hero trope, and in Templar's case, he's the blue-collar working stiff caught in a bad situation. He's John McClane, Martin Brody, Marty McFly, Duke Nukem, Theo Faron, Sarah Connor, whatever. He's the guy who's not too much unlike yourself, who deals with everyday problems not unlike yourself, and who can never seem to catch a break not unlike yourself. As we'll see, Templar is the most grounded of the group, can take John McClane-like beatings and keep on kicking, and has loveable relationship problems.

Despite being one of four playable characters, I feel like Templar is the "canon" main character, and as such I'll be playing him for the game's ending (though frankly, the ending differences between characters are so minimal it's laughable). He'll also be our protagonist in the PSP game and a major character in the sequel.

Uncredited--though there are, like, five people credited as "Additional ISA Voices"

An ISA Private who was present on the ground for the Helghast's initial invasion. Sanchez is a pretty gung-ho kind of guy, but he gets the job done and helped get Templar through the trenches safely. He's alright in my books.

Most of the vehicles appeared in the opening cutscene, but I neglected to speak about them there, so here they are--though the Overlord and Hover APC are both in this first mission.

Helghast Cruiser
The standard Helghast fleet cruiser. It's design is based off of early First Extrasolar War variants. Heck, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Has a mixed armament of missiles and AA batteries. Can hold six Overlord Dropships and carries a complement of Leechpods, small craft used for space-to-space boarding parties. They are smaller than ISA Cruisers and lack their firepower, but that allows them to have a numerical superiority and to handle better in atmospheric conditions. If it's ship-to-ship combat in space, though, the ISA Cruiser generally always comes out on top. During the Vektan invasion, they were able to overwhelm the existing ISA Navy because most Cruisers had been phased out in favour of an Orbital Defense System.

Helghast Overlord Dropship
The HGH Overlord is the backbone of the Helghast air force. Armed with twin Scylla machine guns, it is able to rain down hellish cover fire while troops rappel to the ground. Can carry eight soldiers. There is no canopy, so the pilot does not need direct line of sight to fly. Advance monitors allow them to pilot and fire, effectively making these flying tanks. As such, only sustained heavy fire can bring down these ships. Some of the most durable and reliable vessels in service, the HGH Overlords continue to be used long after the Second Extrasolar War up into the events of Killzone: Shadow Fall.

Helghast Jet Bike
A fast-attack vehicle. Lightly armoured, they can be shot down with standard assault rifles. They are rather unsafe and their Helghast Air Cavalry is prone to fatal accidents. Oh, and the pilot is uncovered, leaving them vulnerable to small rounds fire. They are basically Space Harleys, not unlike Swoops from the Star Wars EU.

Helghast Hover APC
Designed specifically for the Vektan invasion, they are far more mobile on the planet's surface than their ISA counterparts, the Lancers. Specifically, they can maneuver over muddy and rocky terrain without hindrance. They were also responsible for much of the Third Army's early victories. Despite being able to hover, they are still vulnerable to land mines. The base model can carry ten troops and is equipped with a Scylla machine gun. There is an anti-air model (shown) equipped with a Chimera Heavy Weapons Platform, though it can only hold six troops. There is also a Multiple Rocket Launcher (MRL) model, but its entire storage is used for ammunition, so it is used exclusively for fire support.

Strategic Defense Platform
Also known as the SD Platform or Orbital Defense Platform. Huge satellites with a large solar sail. They are armed with high powered lasers capable of performing pin-point bombardment strikes. They are strong enough to pierce the armour of UCN Cruisers, vessels twice the size of ISA Cruisers. Knowing this, part of the Helghast's invasion plan of Vekta was to disable and capture the SD Platforms. In doing so, they could turn them against the UCN when they inevitably showed up to reinforce Vekta. Once the SD Platforms were built, Vekta no longer saw the need for maintaining a large Navy and began demilitarizing and decommissioning their Cruisers.

M82 Assault Rifle
Manufactured by the ISA, it is their standard-issue rifle. Comes in variants with a grenade launcher or silencer attachment, known as the M82-G and M82SE respectively. Is a powerful rifle with high accuracy and an average rate of fire. It's recommended for mid-range combat, as sustained rate of fire ruins accuracy, but a trained marksman utilizing single-shots can easily deliver head shots. It's a solid rifle that you can generally keep stocked on ammunition as long as you aren't wasting shots.
We'll only see the M82-G in Killzone 1, as it's only used by ISA RRF (Rapid Reaction Force). All other games we play as regular ISA Marines, who use the standard M82. RRF soldiers are always on stand-by for an enemy invasion and make up 15% of a colony's military. Templar is RRF, just to be clear. Vektan RRF casualties were so high after the Helghast invasion that it was disbanded and its survivors absorbed into other forces.

M4 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Manufactured by the ISA. Uses .50AE ammo and has a 7-round clip. Intended to be the Space Desert Eagle and is about as useful as one, hyuk! But no, seriously, this gun is terrible and should only be used by masochists. It's awkward, clumsy, and there's a shortage of ammo for it. Ditch it as soon as possible and use any other gun.

M194 Fragmentation Grenade
Manufactured by the ISA and nicknamed the "door knocker". Can kill a man within 2 metres of the explosion. Is armed with a series of lights in order to allow soldiers to more safely "cook" grenades. Very popular and also used by Helghast military--they love throwing grenades when you hide in cover too long.

StA-52 Assault Rifle
Also known as the StA-52 Light Assault Rifle. Manufactured by Stahl Arms, this gun is the workhorse of the Helghast military. Uses a helical magazine, much like many real-world bullpups. This allows for a greater ammo capacity, though the complexity of the weapon can increase malfunction (thankfully this game takes place in the future, so all those sorts of problems have been ironed out). The StA-52 AR is a solid gun for short to mid-range application. It loses accuracy with sustained fire, so isn't great for long-range combat, though its iron-sights can mitigate that problem a bit. In Killzone 1 this gun is okay at best, unless used by Hakha. This rifle is significantly more useful in later games.
Is seen in two variants: one with an underslung single-shot shotgun attachment, and one without. The only time the former is seen is in Killzone 1 in the hands of the Helghast Third Army, the invading force on Vekta under command of General Joseph Lente. Purportedly the most well-trained of the Helghast Army (watch the LP, these guys are idiots), they are certainly the most well-funded. This could explain why they were armed with more advanced hover tanks and assault rifles than Helghast in later games.

M224 MOMAG
MOMAG=Mounted Machine Gun. ISA manufactured and their most common emplaced machine gun. It's 50Cal. linkless ammunition belt allows for a higher rate of fire than other MGs, but results in massive recoil. Sustained fire is not recommended.

"Killzone" Physics:

IT BEGINS.

Sally fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Nov 12, 2014

# ¿ May 1, 2014 19:49

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Odd. I just watched them both in Firefox. I, uh, I don't know? I'll check in with crow.

# ¿ May 1, 2014 20:54

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Man, so many rad posts. You guys are finding all sorts of sweet things I missed. This is brilliant! First, thanks for fixin' the vids, crow. I updated the post. Oh, and kudos for finding a clearer example of the ISA "sun" logo. I couldn't find one and it was driving me nuts.

SpecialK800 posted:

There are a lot of design things going on between the Helghast and ISA logos. You guys mentioned the differences in the coloring and Crow mentioned the sort of "barbed" nature of the Helghast triad. But the difference between curved lines and harsh angles is important too. Curved lines denote softer, more organic things. This is carried over with regard to the ISA. Their soldiers, though all armored, tend to have exposed heads and patches of visible skin. In Killzone 1 we see them defending a world with actual nature, though it is ravaged by war brought by the Helghast. The Helghast triad, meanwhile, uses harsh angles and straight lines, often denoting a more artificial or mechanical design. The Helghast then fight completely covered by armor and machinery. Throughout the entire series you barely ever see that sickly pale Helghast skin on a soldier. Their forces look like warfare machines from the outside. And when we finally see Helghan, well let's just say their world has a lot less nature to enjoy (at least until Killzone 3). There are so many tiny details regarding the symbols and their use, especially the variations on the Helghast triad, that you could write a book.
...
But I won't be writing it.

This is interesting and dips into a point I was going to bring up in later videos. Guerrilla seems to be trying to say something about homogeneity. Specifically, that they're associating it with evil and bad things. As you say, the Helghast come across as very artificial, whereas the ISA seem far more organic. For all we know, the Helghast soldiers are clones stuck in identical suits of armour. They could literally be Storm Troopers mass produced for the Vektan invasion. The have no distinguishing marks from one another, they all have the same goggles, the same weaponry, and--though this may be more a limitation of the game's engine--they all have the same angry British voice. By contrast, the ISA are individuals. They do not wear helmets, or if they do, they do not cover their faces. You can see the people in the armour. You can see that they are human beings of different nationalities, with different hair-styles, with moles, scars, different voices, etc. etc. It's a same-y collective fighting a group of proud individuals.

Of course, this gets kind of turned on its head when you give it a closer examination. When you squint at the Helghast, you'll notice that they aren't all identical. Some of them wear berets instead of helmets. Some don't wear helmets at all, and you can see their faces. Some wear sleeveless uniforms. It's subtle, but it's there, and it suggests that they're just as individualistic as the ISA, but perhaps the ISA doesn't notice or care to notice because they find the Helghast so unrecognizable and inhuman. Again, to contrast that, when you peer closely at the ISA, they're all basically the same--much like the Helghast. Okay, so there's like, one woman, and two or three people of colour in the Vektan military, but otherwise it's predominantly youngish-to-middle-aged bald-to-short-haired white men. I swear, 98% of all ISA NPCs we meet in Killzone (and its sequels, frankly) are just those aforementioned white dudes. Though we can see the ISA soldier's faces and recognize them as individuals, being able to see them all also shows off just how homogenous the ISA/Vektan population is.

Now, what does this mean in the greater scope of the Killzone universe? I have some theories that I'm still trying to sort out, but I'm not entirely sure.

chiasaur11 posted:

It's corporate.

Oh man, that's so obvious I didn't even pick up on it. Of course it's really corporate. Well, as we delve more into the game's hidden lore, that begins to make so much sense. Nice catch.

SiteMeister posted:

Perhaps a minor quibble, Sire Mander, but 'tis "exeunt," E before U.

'Sblood! What hath I wrought? Tis a trifle, indeed, but nonetheless I have corrected the error! Many thanks.

Crabtree posted:

To me that separated boots screams Kemmerich's Boots from All Quiet on the Western Front. A good pair of boots were one of the most precious commodities a soldier could have in the Great War, it was both comfort and protection against the horrors of Trench Foot caused by likely sitting around in dank, deteriorating trench conditions for possibly months as you wait for the next senseless charge of the day. I mean, for God's sake, this was the war where one of its deadliest battles, Verdun, spanned the course of over 9 bloody months. In the book, the boots bring nothing but death or misery to those that possess them. And yet they are still coveted and taken, from mutilated friends or robbed from corpses that obviously no longer need them. "What good are they to you, (Franz)? I can use them!"

Ha, clever! I would never have caught that. I haven't read All Quiet On The Western Front since grade school. Considering that first level seems very obviously to be trying to evoke imagery or ideas from WWI and trench combat, I think that discarded boot (which looks to be in excellent shape) could very well be a reference to All Quiet. It's certainly one of the more well-known pieces of WWI literature. The question then is are the ISA supposed to representative of these characters struggling in the trenches, or is the boot supposed to be more evocative of the Space Nazis now bearing down on the protagonists?

(Or perhaps it's just a subtle nod to a great book?)

# ¿ May 2, 2014 18:59

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Hmm. Though if we want to be generous to the game, then perhaps the choice to have the ISA soldiers be un-helmeted is a very deliberate one. Say we do consider the ISA a sort of notAmerica (or a Space America) and their lack of helmets to be a bit of stupid Hollywood-ism. Where did they get it from? Maybe regular UCA-issue uniforms have regulation helmets but ISA don't because they are literally a bunch of stupid redneck backwater colonials that the Earth Fleets look down on. I mean, maybe that uniform is a deliberate, if misguided, attempt by ISA culture to emulate powerful historical nations? If that's the case, why wouldn't a Space America emulate the USA in the most obvious of manners: through their pop culture. After all, Arnold schwarzenegger didn't wear a helmet in Commando, so why should the ISA, who basically consider themselves to be the action heroes of space?

If we want to push the Individualism angle, we could talk about it in terms of national generalizations. The USA is often consider to be a very individualistic nation (well, most Western nations are). If the ISA is Space America (and they do have American accents so that isn't a far reach), then this might be a bit of subconscious stupidity on their part. By contrast, the Helhast are a much more collectivist nation. Consider that they are based off of real-world totalitarian nations, like the Soviet Union and North Korea, this collectivist nature makes sense thematically. There are no individuals on Helghan (excepting Autarch Visari, our glorious leader), only the Helghast--and we are all Helghast! Everyone works, fights, and dies for Helghan. In fact, everyone serves compulsory military service and must wear identical masked uniforms to further hide their identities and unify them into a single hive mind.

Maybe I'm being too generous to the game and to Guerrilla, but I figure I ought to be for this LP.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 17:56

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Chapter 1, Stage 2 with Blind Sally and nine-gear crow

1.2

Enter ISA Soldiers, and Helghast Sniper obfuscated by scenery

ISA SOLDIER 1
Keep thy heads concealed!

Enter [Templar]

TEMPLAR
Salutations, soldier. Appraise me of the situation.

ISA SOLDIER 1
Hail, Captain Templar, thou art a most welcome sight.
We hast rebuked the enemy's assault, yet remain assailable thitherward.
Tis a sniper. Our rifle was abandoned in the water tower yonder.
We can givest thou covering fire to retrieve it.

TEMPLAR
Aye, I mark thee. Hold fast.

HELGHAST SNIPER
Craven fly-bitten apple-johns, thou art death-marked!

ISA SOLDIER 2
God's blood, save us, sir!

ISA SOLDIER 3
No! Not Johnson, he was naught but a boy!

TEMPLAR
Begone, Helghast.

ISA SOLDIER 1
The whoreson expires! Rally, men, we go hence to the HQ.

TEMPLAR
Soldier, how fare you?

ISA SOLDIER 3
Alas, poor Johnson! I knew him, Captain Templar: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath--

TEMPLER
Enough, get thee gone. To the HQ.

Exeunt

Welcome back to the first chapter of Killzone 1, wherein we experience a "greatest hits" of WWI and WWII styles of warfare! Today we're going to see street-to-street combat, the likes of which were seen at the Battle Of Stalingrad. Basically, the ISA are combating the Heghast in bombed-out city ruins and fighting over one block at a time.

Compare what we're seeing in the level to images of the Battle Of Stalingrad. Or, heck, check out this picture I found (only, you have to replace Russian with ISA and German with Helghast):

I should note that most historians consider the Battle Of Stalingrad to be a key turning point in the European theatre, marking when Germany stopped making gains and the tide of the battle began to turn in favour of the Allies. This is not the case here. This stage will not be a turning point for the ISA in the invasion of Vekta.

Oh, and we also notice that we have arms at this point:

The reason our arms are so visible during actions like vaulting over debris, hitting switches, reloading, and climbing ladders is the very same reason we don't have a "jump" button. It grounds the player into the game character and provides a more realistic "weighted" experience. Truly. When asked if they were going to add in a "jump" function to Killzone HD, Technical Director Michiel van der Leeuw and Senior Programmer Frank Compagner said:

quote:

FC: No, something like that would require extensive changes to the levels, to prevent players from climbing out of the geometry.
ML: More importantly, it would run counter to what we were trying to do with Killzone. The omission of the �jump� button was a very deliberate design decision, almost like a statement against other shooters of the time. We wanted players to have a visceral, realistic experience, and that meant preventing them from traversing our game by bunny-hopping or rocket-jumping. Even when we re-introduced jumps for the obstacle-heavy terrains in Killzone 2, they were �weighty� jumps � not perfect parabolic arcs, but the sort of short leaps a heavily packed soldier would make.

Also, is there anyone who's into guns? What's the benefit of having an orange-coloured scope? Is it like wearing those glasses that reduce sun glare? It doesn't seem to be any sort of heat or night vision kind of thing, it's just looking through the world like looking through a glass of urine. Maybe it has something to do with the Helghast "seeing red" when it comes to fighting the ISA, though it's really more an amber colour than a red.

I also noticed more Hakkendorf buildings throughout the level. It must be the name of a company, because the city we're fighting through is the aptly-named Vekta City.

I also thought this bit of the level was sort of poetic. What we're playing is essentially a corridor shooter. Killzone opens up in places, but we're never not being funneled through a linear corridor. The fact that this corridor/tunnel is raised upwards is a clever microcosm of the entire first game. We're going to spend our time being funneled through corridors onwards and upwards until we end up in the mountains of Vekta. If I could sum up Killzone in a single image, it would be this: the player being funneled upwards. Now, if I could sum up Killzone 2 in a single image, it would be the player being funneled downwards. I'm going to go reread Heart of Darkness to make sure I'm getting my analogies straight, but I kind of view the first game as an anti-Heart of Darkness, with the characters going down the river away from madness and despair and into clarity and hope. Killzone 2 is where it gets dark and the characters go up the river to reach the inevitable confrontation with Kurtz.

Today we're going too look at the Early Vektan Era.

I've made reference to Vekta and Helghan being some sort of bizarro America and Britain before, and this history isn't helping. 12 Colonies on Vekta? Does that make Helghan the 13th? (If so, does that make Helghan Georgia?) The perceived allusions to the American revolution that I noted were in Visari's speech only seem more plausible.

I can't wait for the inevitable release of Killzone 4 which takes place on Gyre and is basically Pacific War In Space. Haha, just kidding! Gyre will never ever be mentioned again in the Killzone mythos!

Anyways, here we have the formation of the ISA. Already we can see they're going to be a very bureaucratic organization, entirely government-run and government-funded. I think it's neat that each government gets its own little ISA force to play with, though.

Everything is just peachy, but we've just been set up for a major point of conflict. For ships to get from Vekta to ANYWHERE ELSE, they must pass through Helghan airspace. Same for any ships on Earth, Gyre, or any other colony wanting to reach Vekta: they need to pass through Helghan. Not problem now that every one is on the same side, but--well, we'll see how long that lasts.

Yup, everything is just peachy. Though, I imagine having both planet's governments on Vekta is going to cause some friction down the line. Also, the ISA getting uppity about Helghan wanting to have its own military force is ridiculous. It's clear that Vektan politicians want their planet to remain the seat of power in Alpha Centauri even this early in the timeline. Not a crazy idea, either, as Vekta is much more desirable planet to live on.

Oh, and just a reminder of the mentioned triad:

The Helghan Corporation is now basically self-sufficient from Earth. That's gotta be bothering the UCN/UCA.

Remember, the ISA are UCN backed. Despite their independence, you go high enough up the ISA chain and you'll find links to the UCN/UCA. The Helghan Corporation/Protectorate is a private company compared to the ISA's Earth government roots. The more independent they become they unhappier Earth will be (and the more sanctions will be imposed).

The Alpha Centauri purchase by the new Helghan Administration has thus got to be a pretty big embarrassment for Earth. Still, caught in a rock and a hard place. At least Earth still exerts a tonne of control through UCN/UCA forces and ISA Command in the area. This won't last, though, and we all know it.

First thing's first: how bad is that sniper rifle? While it's basically a one-hit kill no matter where you hit an enemy, it's awkward to see out of, has a slow firing rate, and is awkward to aim. I said awkward twice, there. It's really awkward. See, while aiming you don't move the screen to line up your sights. You move a reticule within the screen. It's really hard to describe without experience this horror for yourself, but you can probably get an idea of what a joke it is in the video. I mean, it's not totally broken, but it doesn't really work either. Probably a good thing they stopped producing them.

Oh, I'd also like to say a few words about Killzone HD. With the release of the Killzone Trilogy, Guerrilla decided to dig up the old back-up files from a shoe box and do an HD version of the first entry in the series. Yeah, you heard that right, shoe box. Anyways, the obvious difference is that the game now supports 720p and has trophies. It also looks nicer because the graphics are uncompressed, unlike the PS2 version. Oh, and there's been a number of minor bug fixes that fix some invisible walls, draw distance, and just generally improve gameplay. Yeah. So if you think this game looks clunky and awkward now, ooooh boy, you haven't played the PS2 original. (I unironically love them both). So yeah, everything is better in Killzone HD, even though they didn't add in a "jump" button.

Helghast Light Hover Tank
This tank strikes a balance between the maneuverability and speed of the Hover APC and the firepower of heavier Helghast tanks. In fact, the Hover Tank can keep pace with Hover APCs, which is probably why they were used extensively in the first strike during the invasion of Vekta. However, this speed comes at a cost. They are rather lightly armour and can easily be dismantled by a group of ISA soldiers with anti-tank weaponry. They do not see much use outside of the blitzkrieg on Vekta.

StA-52 SLAR
Aka the StA-52 Sniper/Light Assault Rifle. Manufactured by Stahl Arms, it was the only known sniper rifle fielded during the Vektan invasion. Not long after, a superior sniper rifle manufactured by the Visari Corporation would enter production. This would be the sniper rifle seen during ISA invasion of Helghan. Not that this hurt Stahl Arms all that much, they pretty much produce every other gun in the Helghast inventory. This rifle is a heavily modified version of the standard StA-52 LAR, with six high-calibre rounds and an adjustable scope. Considering how crap this gun winds up being, though, it's probably a good thing they stopped producing them.

There aren't a lot of guns in this level, so I want to talk quickly about the two largest corporations on Helghan. That they're both arms manufacturers should come as no surprise.

Stahl Arms
As you can see, Stahl Arms borrows the Helghast triad for their logo. Very patriotic. They are the largest corporation on Helghan and focus almost primarily on research, development, and production for the Helghast military. They focus primarily on small arms for the soldiers on the ground and have a philosophy devoted almost entirely to high-capacity rapid-fire weaponry. That said, there are a few factories working on extremely high-tech projects. Founded by Khage Stahl, the company is currently owned an operated by his son, Jorhan Stahl--who doesn't have much to do now, but will appear in Killzone 3.

Visari Corporation
The second largest company on Helghan, and thus Stahl Arms largest competitor, is the Autarch's own family company, the Visari Corporation. Unlike Stahl Arms, Visari Corporation focusses almost entirely on experimental weaponry and support weaponry, rarely gunpowder based. They are also responsible for manufacturing Helghan medical equipment.

Now, I'm noticing a very interesting pattern here. Helghan is very corporate, obviously. These colonies were originally created by corporations. The two largest corporations on modern Helghast basically run the entire planet. That said, notice that they are family companies? I think that's great. Who DOESN'T want to see a family company succeed? Compare this to Vekta. On Vekta it's all government corporations. One big faceless conglomerate run by the ISA. Their weapons and vehicles are developed in-house and have such exciting names as the ISA Laboratories or ISA Weapon Systems. There are no families here. There are no people here. It's just the company. Just the brand. Perhaps the Helghast are merely the logical conclusion of small family businesses standing up against faceless multi-national corporations?

That said, here's the ISA developed weapon we saw in the level:

M404 Missile Launcher
Has a dumb-fire mode and a laser-guided alternate fire. It's much lighter and easier to use/handle compared to the Helghan missile launchers fielded during the Vektan invasion. Nicknamed the "drainpipe" by ISA soldiers. After the Vektan invasion, some lunkhead in ISA R&D gave it a new paint job and started calling it the "M80 Rocket Launcher". Despite their names, the two weapons are identical--except that the M80 is only available in Killzone 2's multiplayer. Go figure.

paragon1 posted:

I don't think the corporation's being family owned is supposed to make them sympathetic. I think it's supposed to scream "monarchy" or maybe "oligopoly". The people who dislike corporations and portray them as evil tend to think of the very wealthy people who often own them as the new aristocracy. We aren't seeing sentimentality over mom and pop shops via Stahl and Visari in my opinion.

The only reason I can think to have any coloring at all on your scope is some kind of tinting to reduce glare. I'm pretty sure said tinting wouldn't make the world look like piss.

"Killzone Physics" re-emerge quickly after the last video.

And I hope you've all seen The Thing--

Sally fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ May 4, 2014 19:11

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Good god, I'd forgotten about those. I'll never get tired of Killzone's goofy-rear end physics. Truly it was the PS2's "HALO KILLER" that was promised.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 04:16

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

paragon1 posted:

I don't think the corporation's being family owned is supposed to make them sympathetic. I think it's supposed to scream "monarchy" or maybe "oligopoly". The people who dislike corporations and portray them as evil tend to think of the very wealthy people who often own them as the new aristocracy. We aren't seeing sentimentality over mom and pop shops via Stahl and Visari in my opinion.

The only reason I can think to have any coloring at all on your scope is some kind of tinting to reduce glare. I'm pretty sure said tinting wouldn't make the world look like piss.

Yeah, that bit was more of a throw-away joke than anything. I think your point about it being a "monarchy" is spot on. Especially considering that the Visaris are treated like royalty. Scolar basically sits on a throne and his daughter is effectively the Princess of Helghan. Oh, not to mention the immense and unquestioned power Visari wields as their Autarch.

I've been thinkin' about the coloured scope, and it makes most sense from a practical standpoint to reduce glare. That said, I also like to imagine that whoever was responsible for it was a huge Bono fan and wanted to give the rifle true Bono Vision�:

I also like to think that one of the reasons Stahl Arms stopped manufacturing them past Killzone 1 is because the association to Bono made it a huge piece of crap.

And with regards to Shadow Fall, my PS3's disc drive is broken and I'm eventually going to get a replacement Blu-Ray player. In all likelihood, I'll get a PS4 so by the time we finish Killzone 3 we could roll right into the new game. Dunno any easy ways to do Mercenary, though, considering the Vita still has no video output and Sony has no plans to release Vita TV in NA. That said, as I mentioned earlier I have no opposition to turning this into a KILLZONE MEGATHREAD if someone else wants to LP the newer games. I'd be happy to help go through them and continue the analysis.

Mr. Highway posted:

[Good points]

In the interest of full disclosure, I will absolutely be championing Killzone's cause. It wouldn't make sense for me to claim that Killzone has enough depth to be compared to Shakespeare then turn around and deride it as generic pap. Though there are lows so deep that even I won't be able to defend them, I will largely be trying to view the games in a positive light. The challenge for me, then, will be to see if my analyses can hold up under the thread's scrutiny. In that regard, I'm fully expecting there to be some amount of scoffing at the ideas presented.

So let me try and respond to your remarks, because I think you're right in that I haven't really explained why I think the first chapter is a sort of "WWI & II Greatest Hits". Killzone 1 was released in 2004, and as you mentioned, a number of big WWII-related media had been present in pop culture by this time, including Saving Private Ryan, Band Of Brothers, and approximately nine Medal Of Honor games. As such, I think the players were absolutely meant to draw on and apply them. It allows for Guerrilla to imply a much deeper story than is present in the game. (I'm going to focus on WWII because it's clearly the biggest influence on the game) World War II was a massive and complex event, not easily summarized. Guerrilla seems to have wanted to have a complex universe as evidenced by the huge effort made to create a rich and detailed timeline, but they didn't convey that in-game for whatever reason. Frankly, I don't think they wanted to--which I'll come back to. By drawing so many parallels to WWII, Guerrilla is able to have their huge operatic sci-fi shooter without needing to spend too much in-game time building or explaining the world and the reasons for this conflict. Instead, they are able to imply a huge back story by tapping into the player's meta-textual knowledge of real world events. Rather than needing detailed motivation for the Helghast invasion, it is enough to see a charismatic WWII-esque dictator give an impassioned speech before kicking his soldiers out the door. We now imagine the Helghast to be a post-WWI Germany won over by a madman due to harsh sanctions imposed by the supposed "good guys", the ISA--who are now representative of Western Europe given the nature of the Blitzkrieg-like invasion we witness in the opening cutscenes and first few levels.

Now when you think about making a sci-fi shooter, you've got to realize that you have a lot of freedom. When it takes place on planets far from Earth with futuristic technology, the ~~sky~~ universe is the limit. You can do whatever you want. Look at Red Faction, Halo, Gears Of War, Half-Life, Doom, Unreal or any other number of sci-fi FPSes; they can be as bizarre or realistic as the devs choose. With that in mind, Guerrilla specifically chose to make their shooter highly realistic and to ground it in a conflict that draws huge historical comparisons. It's true, and I won't deny that it's possible Sony and Guerrilla just wanted to popularize on the popularity of WWII pop culture at the time, but I prefer to think they were trying to comment on it--and they've certainly stuck with this theme given that Shadow Fall is supposed to be the Cold War. In Killzone 1 we have a band of brothers (and a sister) reliving the Second World War (and other wars) in a highly futuristic setting. I believe this is done to comment on the universality of war and combat. It's painful. It's ugly. It's destructive. Much like how Visari is not any single despot, but is an amalgamation meant to represent the Universal Dictator, I feel that the conflict in Killzone is not meant to represent any one war, but Universal (Modern Industrialized) War--I added "Modern Industrialized" in parentheses because I feel that is specifically the kind of warfare Guerrilla is commenting on, not warfare throughout human history. With regards to Killzone 1, this claim might seem a little farfetched at first, especially considering we're only through the first two stages. There are about 44 stages throughout the 11 chapters, so I hope it starts to seem more reasonable as we continue the LP, but we're also going to see references to at least the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan, as well as a variety of advanced real-world weaponry and technology, such as laser-designated aerial bombardments and unmanned aerial drones.

With regards to why Guerrilla didn't include a richer story in-game, I feel like they didn't want the added burden. One of their philosophies seems to be grounding the player in the universe and making it feel real. By having too much political back story, it begins to remove the player from the conflict at hand. They want you to feel like a grunt in WWII, only in space, and so you're given about as much in-game information and history as one of those grunts might have. You don't need to know the long history of conflict and animosity between Helghan and Vekta, it is enough for you to know that the Helghast are xenophobic pricks led by a mad zealot who have decide to invade your beautiful and lush homeworld unprovoked. They are the bad guys and you are the good guys. An oversimplification given the game's overarching plot, but totally what a guy like Jan Templar would believe. In fact, throughout the games the main characters are mostly removed from the politics. As we'll see, the leaders in Killzone 1 largely do their plotting and planning in cutscenes removed from the player and the forces on the ground. Templar and co. receive their orders and they do what they do, without necessarily having the full picture that their leaders and politicians do. This continues throughout the series, though honestly, I don't think it's adequately portrayed until Killzone 3. Some people complained that Orlock and Stahl's scenes were essentially removed from the events the player was involved in, but as far as I can tell, that's entirely the point.

And holy crap, this wound up being a much longer response than I intended. Uh, how'd I do?

Sally fucked around with this message at 18:38 on May 5, 2014

# ¿ May 5, 2014 17:56

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Insert name here posted:

Huh, I've never seen them with fins like that. Admittedly, I don't have the greatest knowledge of weaponry, nor do I know anything about aerodynamics. Thanks, though!

# ¿ May 6, 2014 14:48

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Chapter 1, Stage 3 with Blind Sally and nine-gear crow

1.3

Enter [Templar] and ISA Soldiers

ISA SOLDIER 1
Captain Templar, the invasion hast severely compromised this area.
Thou art needed at headquarters. Onward, through the shuttle repair bays.

ISA SOLDIER 2
Inbound jetbike! Incoming Helghast!

TEMPLAR
Fie, tis never-ending.

ISA SOLDIER 1
With haste, before we're swarmed.

The ISA Soldiers and [Templar] cross the stage, fending off Helghast attackers along the way.

Enter another ISA Soldier

ISA SOLDIER 3
Sir, this way. The headquarters are yonder.

ISA SOLDIER 1
Thou shalt go on ahead, Captain. We will defend this position or lay down our lives.

TEMPLAR
Brave soul, stay strong. I tarry no longer. Away.

Exeunt

Not a long level this update, and nor is there a lot to talk about that hasn't already been touched on. This is one of the shortest levels in the game and it serves to prolong our fight through the city. In keeping with our total war concept and "greatest hits of WWI and WWII", we have gone from street-to-street combat to building-to-building and could still be in Stalingrad or any other battle bogged down in large city centres. In that way, this stage is an extension of the last. The buildings themselves are referred to as "shuttle repair bays". I assume they refer to some sort of civilian shuttle, though we don't really see any ever in Killzone. The only vehicle specifically referred to as a shuttle in-game is a space shuttle, so these may or may not be bays to repair them.

Of note, this is the first stage where we start to see dissimilarities between Helghast goons. I incorrectly referred to him as a Helghast Scout, when in fact he was a Helghast Officer:

The difference between Officers and Troopers are subtle: one wears a garrison cap, one doesn't. Ha. It's a minor difference and most people don't pick up on it, but it shows that not all Helghast are identical even if it's hard for non-Helghast to tell at first glance--is that space racist? Anyways, Officers are generally equipped with StA-52 LRs, though we'll occasionally see them with grenade launchers.

For reference, here's a closer still of a Helghast Trooper:

Today we're going to look at the "Platinum Era", wherein the Helghan Administration enters a Golden Age or prosperity with their two planets and tensions begin to rise with Earth.

It's good to see that the Helghan Administration is making use of their unique position as a hub between colonies to tax the every-loving poo poo out of everyone else. I'm sure that's not going to piss off anyone at all. Nope. People are just going to tighten their belts and pay because they understand that that's the nature of business.

Haha, whoops! It looks like they actually pissed Earth right off! I don't believe that Heavy Crusiers get much screen time in the Killzone universe. They're certainly an ever-present threat from the Earth-fleet, and are one of the reasons why the Helghast target the ISA SD Platforms for capture during the Vektan Invasion, but we don't really get to see them in action. By the time of the events of Killzone, the Helghast and Vektans are still only limited to standard Cruisers so that Earth can maintain its superiority.

And so we essentially have our Space American Revolution, with the Thirteen Colonies (Twelve on Vekta, and Helghan) seceding from their mother ~~country~~ planet, ~~Great Britain~~ Earth. I wonder if there was a Vektan Tea Party and if they shot the cargo crates into the sun.

This is quite a brief "filler" level and we don't run into a lot of new content. No new guns or vehicles, though it's the first time we've encountered jetbikes in game. They can deal a lot of damage but due to the nature of their strafing attack they're rarely a problem unless they attack in groups, which only happens a handful of times in the game. They're fragile, so sustained fire can bring them down, however they generally just leave after making two passes so it's better to conserve ammo and just duck when they appear.

Oh, and melee sucks in this game. I'm not going to pretend that Killzone ever really was the "HALO KILLER" that game magazines made it out to be, but if it were, it wouldn't be killing Master Chief with its sweet melee. There's nothing more frustrating than taking damage while running up to the enemy, taking more damage while you try to get the context sensitive melee prompt to appear, then taking even more damage/dying because the enemy had too much health and your melee attack didn't trigger his death animation. Worthless. There are melee weapons in this game that increase damage enough to make them more viable, but it's generally not worth the effort, especially since the melee weapons cannot be found in the environment, and thus can only be used with specific characters who have them for starting equipment.

Sally fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Nov 12, 2014

# ¿ May 6, 2014 16:20

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Kangra posted:

Another note: 'Seraph' is Hebrew in origin, not from Latin.

Dr. Tough posted:

Those scouts are wearing garrison caps, not berets. Important difference I know.

Ah, good catches. Fixed. Minor, sure, but it's nice to know I made a mistake so I can correct it. Thanks. (It looks like I mixed up the origins of "seraph" with "seraphic", which has Church Latin origins, when researching the etymology).

And yeah, the final boss of Killzone 2 is hell. They are quite literally the only reason I was unable to get a trophy for having beaten the game on Veteran difficulty. I was pretty miffed at having to bump back down to Hard to see the final cutscene, though admittedly, they're also a handful on Normal--and this is after the difficulty was patched.

# ¿ May 7, 2014 06:48

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

IBlameRoadSuess posted:

I'm fairly willing to actually buy into the idea that the games are deeper than most people realize. I myself only played a small bit of Killzone 2 and 3, barely making it past the first level in each, but I do own a Vita and have beaten Killzone Mercenary a couple times. And that game does support a lot of the ideas that you're positing about the Helghast and ISA being not-so-different from one another. If I had any possible way to record the footage I would definitely try but Sony really locked the Vita down in terms of what you can do with it without jailbreaking the hell out of it.

Yeah, I've been think about that myself. I think it could potentially work with a decent video camera positioned correctly. Squack McQuack's WarioWare DIY is done on a DS with a video camera and it comes out looking pretty good. I've seen a couple of YouTube KZ:M LPs that look half decent and just need the brightness turned up. But yeah, I'm pretty unwilling to shell out the money for a Vita then shell out even more and ship it to a third-party company to have an HDMI port or something installed into it--which would be what I'd have to do since I lack the resources or know-how to jailbreak anything myself.

Oh, and yeah, to echo crow, the unlisted videos are an SA exclusivity thing. Someone asked "why?" in the SOTE thread, but no one seemed really bothered by it, so we've continued to do it.

MassRafTer posted:

The idea that the Helghast control some sort of trade chokepoint in space is kind of funny.

I like to imagine it's kind of like how in The Phantom Menace, the Trade Federation set up a blockade of Naboo by putting a ring of ships around the planet's equator.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 18:58

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

The game timeline mentions at least one other colony planet (Gyre in the Altair system). If I were to seriously try and guess what made Helghan a chokepoint planet, it probably go something like this:

Though powerful, human space crusiers probably aren't advanced enough to handle sustained and uninterrupted spaceflight past certain distances. That the Helghast have a space chokepoint is probably because ships don't have the range to continue onto other colonies without first stopping to refuel on Helghan.

# ¿ May 11, 2014 06:56

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

The next update is almost ready, but there's no harm in a quick peek. Though the Helghan Administration and the wealthy people of Vekta are hoping to secure their independence, the ISA forces stationed in the colonies are still loyal to the UCN. When the Helghan Administration tried to co-opt them, it set off a conflict that drained their resources and prevented them from any major arms build up:

The Earth fleet arrived only a few years after setting out. This is either a mistake on Guerrilla's part, because if I'm not mistaken, Alpha Centauri is approximately 4.5 lightyears away, or technological advances have brought ships close to reaching the speed of light. Actually, it could be that the UCN Fleet didn't launch from Earth and were already partway to the colonies. Regardless, it winds up being a massacre:

(The full update will be up soon).

# ¿ May 11, 2014 16:39

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

1.4

Amidst the ruins of Vekta City, ISA hold-outs hunker down in a shelled out building.

Enter ISA soldiers. Enter [Templar] opposite.

TEMPLAR
Hail, soldier.

ISA SOLDIER
Captain Templar, we've been expecting thee.
Our CO is yonder. Sergeant, Captain Templar is here.

ISA SERGEANT
Tis good to see you lived through the assault.
General Vaughton hath said thee would be coming this--

ISA SOLDIER
Helghast armour, closing in on thy position!

ISA SERGEANT
A pox upon the Helghast! Defend, soldiers, we must stand until our vehicles arrive.
Hold your ground!

ISA SOLDIER
Craven malcontents, dost they bring tanks!?

ISA SERGEANT
Cover thy brain-pans.
Look, Lancers!

ISA SOLDIER
Hurrah!

Enter ISA soldier

ISA SOLDIER
Captain, over here. General Vaughton hath asked me to escort thou.
Onward, to the command room, sir.

Exeunt

1.5

Inside an ISA bunker, rocked by explosions.

Enter General [Vaughton], [Templar], ISA Comm Officers and Vektan Soldiers

VAUGHTON
Bring General Adams these tidings: the security key tis presently on its way to me.
I shalt be shuttling up in a--

FEMALE COMMS OFFICER
T'will be within the hour, General.

VAUGHTON
--within the hour. I expect preparations to be complete when I arrive.

ARI L. CALIBAN [over the comms]
Yes, sir. Exit

VAUGHTON
God's blood! Well met, Jan!

TEMPLAR
Aye, General, tis most fortunate. How fares the battle?

VAUGHTON
Tis impossible to foresee with the comms as they are,
But we face the Third Helghan Army led by a General Lente.
If the villains persist in their deluge of troops,
We may as well lay down our arms.

TEMPLAR
What a piece of work our SD Platforms, how sturdy in strength,
How infinite in fortitude, in form and use how express and admirable,
In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a lump of solder.

VAUGHTON
Aye.

TEMPLAR
And what tis the latest?

VAUGHTON
General Adams is trying most admirably to repair them,
But they must be completely reprogrammed.
I must bring to his person the security key
To override the control fail-safe.
I await the key's arrival before departing.

TEMPLAR
And news from Earth?

VAUGHTON
The cavalry has been sent hitherward.
We must hold til they arrive.
Jan, I sought thee for a reason.
A mission. I was hoping thou--

TEMPLAR
What doth thou need of me?

VAUGHTON
An infield operations agent tis working for us behind enemy lines.
A one Colonel Hakha.

TEMPLAR
A spy?

VAUGHTON
Infield agent. So aye, a spy.
Not but three-hours ago, we received intelligence claiming he hath information
Vital to our cause. He is now fighting alongside an ISA platoon in the slum's mall.
Yet since, we have heard not a word. We need him. The enemy wants him.
I believe our best chance is a--

TEMPLAR
A small team travelling quickly. Understood, sir. I'm on it.

An explosion rocks the stage.

Exeunt

This update continues our trek through bombed-out city centres. Except now we get to experience infantry combat supported by armour. The advent of tanks changed the way wars were fought. They were the industrial revolution's equivalent of an armoured knight on horseback. The tank--oh god, someone else could explain this way better than I could. My knowledge of tank history is assuredly not as thorough as it could be, so I'll keep my point brief and succinct. Tanks were in WWI and provided support for infantry, but they were slow and unreliable, often getting bogged down in the muddy trenches of the battlefields. Advances in technology really made the tank come into its own in WWII, becoming a tool of war that could make or break battles. Being such a huge part of WWII, it's not surprising that tanks and other armoured vehicles are a major part of Killzone. Fortunately for Templar and co., they're going to be able to avoid most encounters with tanks usually arriving after a major battle has taken place. Unfortunately for the player, we won't get to see any sweet tank battles until the sequels when we actually get to drive vehicles.

This update also contains numerous examples of Killzone's less than stellar AI and graphical hiccups.

This here is a fine example of Helghast tactics. Park an APC in the middle of a field and let the soldiers funnel out of the back single-file so that they can be picked off one by one. That, or blown up en masse by a rocket launcher as we opted to do.

Here we see the Helghast displaying the most modern battlefield tactics. Modelled after 16th century Earth warfare, one soldier fires then drops to their knees to reload while the soldier behind them fires. They then switch places and slowly advance up the line to--wait. They have automatic weaponry. I just--I don't even--Why are they--

:negative:

Also, this happens a lot. Due to graphical restrictions (I'm assuming), Helghast bodies do not stay on screen indefinitely. Eventually they disappear into the ether leaving behind only their weapons. If you lost track during the fire fight, you can figure out how many Helghast you killed by counting the rifles left behind. It's like counting dogtags.

Okay, here's some actual interesting subtext. The ISA Lancers all have the ace of spades painted on them. Depending on who you ask, the ace of spades might have different connotations, but it generally seems to be known as the "death card". However, it's also considered the most valuable card in many card games, making it potentially really lucky. If I'm not mistaken, a number of airborne units in WWI wore the icon as a good luck charm.

Contrariwise, it had a much more sinister role in the Vietnam War. American soldiers believed that Vietnamese superstition led to them viewing the ace of spades as terribly unlucky. I don't believe that's true, but that's unimportant--the Americans believed it so strongly that having the card boosted their morale. Bicycle even shipped over crates of cards containing only the ace of spades for the soldiers to use. They would place the cards on the bodies or in the mouths of dead North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers. There are images on the internet, but they're pretty grim so look at your own risk. If you've ever watched Apocalypse Now, Robert Duvall's character partakes in this tradition after capturing the beachhead.

destitute posted:

Actually this looks a lot like the Special Operations Command emblem:

Special Forces are often referred to as the "Tip of the Spear", the spear in question being those that show up all over national iconography to represent strength of arms or military might; the first element to fight in a location is often Special Forces troops of one sort or another, and SOCOM's Tier One Operators are often the first to show up. I think it has less to do with being a death card and more to do with representing a SF unit -- some countries have only one type of Special Forces unit, which is essentially a Rapid Reaction Force. Those tanks, which look like Light Armored Vehicles with a seriously upgraded primary weapon system, would be a decent choice for rapid armored response in a metropolitan area; some SWAT units actually have LAVs. It might be a lot more thought than was actually put into it, but I could see the spear emblem being used to help reinforce that these are ISA RRF special forces tanks.

That brings up an interesting correlation -- the Helghast troops all look heavily armored and the ISA troops appear to be wearing some much more basic ballistic vests, whereas the descriptions for the vehicles and space assets describe the reverse; Helghast vehicles are lightly armored and smaller than their ISA counterparts. Very unlike the German armored corps during WWII. I assume that Helghast forces will be promptly torn to shreds once ISA mounts a coordinated counterattack, or do they have a more significantly armored main battle tank?

Kangra posted:

In the Ace of Spades analysis I think you meant World War II Airborne unit, and it was actually only one regiment of one division (the 506th Parachute Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne) that used spades as insignia. Each unit of the 101st marked their helmets with a card suit representing their regiment; in that case it's not really an ace of spades, just a spade.

On the subject of Vietnam, the Ace, and death cards, here's more than you ever wanted to know (and yes, it includes at least one image of a dead person).

And tucked away in the corner, we have some ISA soldiers who have been lined up and shot. A simple, yet effective image to help vilify the Helghast. Surely monsters like these deserve all the retribution that gets pointed at them, right? It's early yet in the game series, so we'll see if the ISA get the justice they're after or if they cross the line and become the villains they're trying to stop (hint: it's the latter).

Helghast standing in mid-air.

More graphical issues. That guy on the left, the back of his head looks like a giant raisin. Gross. Oh, and next to him is a token black guy. I wish that was a joke. You can count how many non-white people exist in the Killzone trilogy on one hand. You can also count the number of women in the Killzone trilogy on one hand.

Lastly, General Vaughton's horrible Muppet-mouth. I figure this was a graphical error, because even minor ISA soldiers, such as the comms officers, get rendered teeth. I can't believe they missed fixing it when redoing the HD version, though. I mean, they fixed a pillar that you could walk through in the upcoming office building level, but left in ol'General Gums here? Yikes.

Much like World War I, the First Extrasolar War was a relatively brief event only spanning a few years. However, like WWI, it would also wind up being extremely brutal and destructive.

The Helghan Administration tries to exert its independence, but years of impositions and restrictions placed upon them by Earth and the ISA mean they're a far inferior force. They don't stand a chance, frankly.

The UCA Navy Cruiser is massive. It's twice the size of an ISA Cruiser, which in turn is already larger than the Helghan Administration's Cruisers. This is partly due to budget constraints placed on the ISA, but also because Earth wishes to keep a stronger, more technologically advanced navy in reserve in case it ever needs to put down unrest in the colonies. Certainly, what better way to issue a silent threat than to build Navy with armaments twice the size of your own?

The destruction of the massive orbital platform above Helghan has huge implications. At this point, no one was actually living on the planet's surface. There were resource extraction operations going on, absolutely, but people actually lived on the space platform. Now, the survivors of the war are going to have to either try and make a go at living on the surface, which while heavily irradiated and storm-blasted, is (mostly) suitable for human habitation, or surrender to the ISA and take refuge on Vekta.

Earth has got to be feeling pretty good right about now. After having sold the Alpha Centauri system to the Helghan Administration, they now have enough pretext to come in and take it back for themselves by force. Vekta belongs wholly to the UCN-managed ISA forces.

IBlameRoadSuess posted:

WELP. So much for my prediction. vv

The only explanations I can think of that fits "in universe" as to how the UCN's fleet got there so quickly is that they were actually already on their way and the entire "deliberating over what to do about Helghan" was just a farce/misinformation/an outright lie. OR the navy was constructed somewhere in between Alpha Centauri and Earth. OR the colony ships just move a lot slower than cruisers do, due to size/cargo. The fact that the ISA just straight up supports the UCN without a fight is a little weird. But I assume most of the people in command aren't very loyal to their home planet, but are more loyal to the command structure of the military, which I guess makes sense, kind of? The UCN really are kind of dicks honestly. "Hey we'll sell you this territory but you have to gimp your navy and not have any way of defending yourselves if we wanna go back on the deal. Okay? Okay." Though to be fair, the Helghans probably did get a little overzealous with their tariffs and such. But is that really a reason to curbstomp them into oblivion?

The real question is who ACTUALLY blew up the space station. If there were already people living on the planet I might believe it was them, but if there was NOBODY down there at this point? I'm gonna say that it was the UCN who just straight up murdered a space station full of people because "taxes."

Given this bit of information, it actually gives more meaning to why the Helghast decided to go after the ISA aside from just "Visari's an insane Mussolini-Hitler speech." The Helghast have a bone to pick with the ISA. They actively sided against them when they probably needed them the most. It's as though most of the colonies sided with the British against the revolutionaries in 1776. Would YOU forgive the people living the high life on a veritable Eden while you're stuck on a storm blasted shithole because of them? I wouldn't. I also kinda see why there isn't a game about the stuff that happens before the games. It's mostly boring politicking, some early colonization mishaps, then just a curbstomp from the UCN to the Helghan.

(Why do I feel like by the end of this thread we'll have a emote but with a Helghast face and flag?)

This is really interesting. One of the things about the Killzone universe seems to be about history repeating itself. After all, we're centuries in the future and living in space and here we are reliving World Wars I and II. This particular scenario, of Helghan people having to flee their planet and take refuge on Vekta, leading to terrorist attacks on the rival population mirror the plot of Killzone: Shadow Fall. I haven't played the game, so I don't know how far the comparisons hold, and venturing any further might be spoiler territory, but it looks as though Shadow Fall is an example of the game's history repeating itself. Which is kind of neat.

Voiced by Bob Sherman

The four-star ISA general in charge of the ground defense of Vekta. Toothless. It bothers me that he's toothless. I'd like to think that was a mistake on Guerrilla's part, and yet they didn't fix it with the HD re-release. And so he remains toothless. Literally, not metaphorically. He has no teeth--and yet has no difficulty pronouncing words. Clearly a father-figure to Jan. I can't source it anywhere by the Killzone Wikia, so this may be from an art book or something BUT, apparently Jan's father, Dirk, died in the First Extrasolar War when Jan was just a boy. Vaughton and Dirk were close friends, so Vaughton took it upon himself to raise little Templar, leading the him to join the military like his father and entrenching the bond between him and Vaughton.

crow says Vaughton looks like a normally proportioned John McCain, but I think he looks more like Dwight Eisenhower. And I mean, really, Killzone is all about historical military references.

IBlameRoadSuess posted:

and

The Eisenhower comparison holds up fairly well I think.

Uncredited

Briefly seen on the comm, this troubled ISA soldier is the comms officer on the SD Platform. Aside from all the stress present from the Helghast attack rendering his station completely defenseless, this soldier (dubbed Ari L. Caliban by crow and myself) is also going to be the brunt of General Adams' short-temper, seeing as how he'll be delivering news about every upset and set-back in the war. Stay tuned for further adventures with this loveable lunkhead!

Uncredited

A token female. For a far-flung future society, there doesn't seem to be many military positions available for women. There's this comms officer, and one of our playable characters. That's it for Killzone 1. A third woman is added to the cast in Killzone: Liberation, and another two join by Killzone 3. I think Killzone: Shadow Fall adds another two women, but man, this series is awfully testosterone-laden. I kinda wish the ISA military was more like the one in Starship Troopers.

Frankly, I find the portrayal of women and non-white races in the Killzone universe problematic, in that they're basically non-existent. I mean, how do you reconcile it? "IN THE FUTURE, THERE ARE ONLY WHITE MEN!" Either Guerrilla is just following the status quo and engaging in some deep-seated cultural tokenism, or they're making a conscious comment on something. But what is that something? Are they trying to deconstruct action movie tropes and military narratives? Are they trying to shine a light on our own society narratives? Is it a statement on the evils of homogeneity?

ISA Lancer

Once again I demonstrate my lack of military knowledge by saying this looks like an M1 Abrams when some brief research shows it's more obviously modelled after the AMX-10RC. The Lancer is heavily armed and take down a Helghast Light Hover Tank with two shots. It's also relatively light, and it's 6x6 chassis allows it to travel at high speeds in urban settings, leading to it being used primarily as a police enforcement vehicle. While the Lancer is actually faster and more maneuverable in the city than either the Light Hover Tank or Hover APC, it's off-road capabilities are less than desirable and the ISA lost many of these vehicles to the Helghast fighting in the countryside, jungles, and beaches. In fact, if you look carefully throughout Killzone 1, you'll see many burned out Lancer wrecks! The ISA learned from the routing on Vekta and deploy different armoured vehicles in following games.

In true Blind Sally/nine-gear crow fashion, we can't run an LP without having failure of some sort rear its head:

KILLZONE!!!! :arghfist:

Sally fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ May 11, 2014 18:10

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Yeah, Helghast are still human. Their relatively short life-span since first colonizing Helghan have led to them having some unique traits, such as denser bones and hardier lungs to deal with the higher gravity and harsher atmosphere, but they're still human. There are a number of half-human/half-Helghast people in the series who are derisively referred to half-breeds. One of the playable characters in Killzone is "half-Helghast" and it's interesting to note that they have unique enough genetic markers that they can set up security checkpoints that can recognize "Helghast blood".

It's my understanding that Helghan has seen enough terraforming and atmosphere processing that most Helghast don't actually need to wear their masks anymore. For the most part, it's a symbol of the working class. However, those who spent considerable time in the mines before advancing up the social ladder still need the masks. When a high-ranking Helghast officer needs a breathing apparatus, it's a sign their family came from a lower social caste at some point (see: Colonel Mael Radec and Colonel Tendon Cobar). When the ISA invade Helghan in later games, none of the Vektan soldiers need masks though.

Same goes for the baldness thing. At first it was the upper crust who didn't have hair problems, but now the planet is safe enough that most people are fine excepting those who work in the mines--which isn't an insignificant part of the population, I should specify, as it's basically Helghan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industry. Most seem to shave their heads anyways as a form of solidarity.

MassRafTer posted:

Don't you see, the Helghast are using tactics from the time of Shakespeare!

It's a complete nitpick, I was just struck by it thinking "So did they choose colonies that extended out in a straight line from Earth?" At least Altair and Alpha Centauri are kind of sort of in the same direction.

In the next game we actually get crossbows!

I figure they went to Alpha Centauri as a first destination as it's the closest star system to our own. Altair isn't much further than that (and they can refuel in Alpha Centauri), so they're sort of going in a straight line because it's convenient.

destitute posted:

That brings up an interesting correlation -- the Helghast troops all look heavily armored and the ISA troops appear to be wearing some much more basic ballistic vests, whereas the descriptions for the vehicles and space assets describe the reverse; Helghast vehicles are lightly armored and smaller than their ISA counterparts. Very unlike the German armored corps during WWII. I assume that Helghast forces will be promptly torn to shreds once ISA mounts a coordinated counterattack, or do they have a more significantly armored main battle tank?

This is basically what happens. The Third Army comes in with their super mobile advance force and blitzkrieg the capitol city. While Vekta's RRF is drawn off to defend against the invasion, the Eight and Ninth Armies land in the south with bigger, but slower, weapons and armour:

After the initial invasion fails, the remaining Third Army retreats south to join up with the Eighth and Ninth. That's where the last Helghast hold outs on Vekta wind up. When the Helghast are finally pushed off of Vekta, the ISA council doesn't sue for peace but rather uses the invasion as a pretext to attack and occupy Helghan--as evidenced by the fact that there's a Killzone 2 and 3. As the ISA fleet approaches Helghan, they cut through the Helghast fleet like butter. However, there were no restrictions placed on ground-based weaponry so massive ground-to-orbit weapons take out much of the ISA before they can even land.

# ¿ May 12, 2014 17:40

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Yeah, holy crap. It's still hard to believe that's a handheld game. I never thought the Vita would look so good. Mind you, Guerrilla are one of those devs who know how to squeeze the most out of a system. How'd you capture that image? It looks amazing.

# ¿ May 12, 2014 18:04

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

SSJ Reeko posted:

[Helghast > ISA]

I always notice this when I read something Killzone related on another forum or in a YouTube comment section. People almost always hate the ISA and sympathize with the Helghast. I think I might screencap some of the more interesting comments and bring them up in a later update.

Also, apologies for the delay. Aside from a few technical issues, some real-world issues cropped up as well. No biggie, we're just behind on getting commentary for the second chapter.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 17:41

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Sorry for the delays! New post will be up before the weekend. Again, loads of technical delays and life stuff, but we've not forgotten about the LP either.

# ¿ May 23, 2014 06:18

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

2.1

A large explosion knocks over the soldiers Templar blacks out--
Then wakes up!

VAUGHTON
Art thou okay, Jan? I'm organizing an evacuation!

TEMPLAR
The security key. Did it arrive?

VAUGHTON
I fear not. It never made it!

TEMPLAR
I shalt retrieve it and return here.

VAUGHTON
Okay. Head for the Research Unit, but tread careful, Jan,
They're swarming in.

Exit [Vaughton] and [NCO]

[Templar] fights off a few Helghast. Enter Pvt. Billinghurst

BILLINGHURST
Private Billinghurst at your service, sir. I shall aid thou.

TEMPLAR
Most excellent. Come, we must make our way through yonder office complex.

Helghast appears. Templar easily dispatches him.

BILLINGHURST
Uh, th-thanks. Uh, I'll s-stay here and, uh, secure the area. Yeah.

TEMPLAR
Ye gods, really? Get thee gone!

Exeunt

Welcome! This video is a bit different. If the graphics don't look quite as sharp, that's because we're on the PS2 version of the game. For various reasons, the earlier HD footage for this level was unusable. Undaunted, crow replayed the level as close to my original madness as possible on his old copy of the game. This gives us a solid opportunity to admire how much the HD version improved the game as well as how much madder my skillz are compared to crow's. :thurman:

There's some interesting subtext going on with what we can interact with in this level. For the majority of this game--the VAST majority--we only interact with the Helghast. Whether it's killing their soldiers or blowing up their equipment, we're kicking names and taking rear end. Occasionally, we're able to interact with bits of the environment that aren't Helghast related. In this particular chapter, that manifests itself as--

--water coolers--

--glass windows--

--and vending machines. Or, to break it down to their very fundamentals: water, shelter, and food. To go off the idea that Guerrilla intended this to be very much a game that demonstrates the atrocity of war and its destructive nature, this is a drat clever way of pulling it off. Very obviously we can interact with the Helghast. Fundamentally, war involves the destruction of human life. In some wars, the destruction of military assets is the main goal. When we start to think about the concept of "total war", it makes sense to allow us to destroy objects that aren't necessarily of military value. Obviously, the game engine is too limited to allow us to destroy the actual infrastructure of Vekta (Killzone would probably crash on start up if anything resembling Geomod was involved with it), but it's interesting that we can destroy these, uh, let's say "effigies" of what we consider essential to life. We, the ISA, the people who are supposed to be the "good guys", are able to go around and destroy the very fundamentals of existence with impunity.

I mean, okay, sure, we're defending ourselves from a Helghast attack. But in our response to that, we are destroying the core pillars of life, sentient and otherwise. I'm also not making a big stink about this for no reason. This is going to become a recurring theme with the Vektans. They just wanna end this war and prevent further Helghast attacks, right? Well, the Vektan ISA pull of some real Harry S. Truman level nonsense to get it done.

Other than that, this level is home to what I figure are a bunch of developer photo Easter eggs disguised as ISA bigwigs.

Col. Hugh Laurie

Col. Will Sasso

Lt. Gen. Steve Buscemi

Gen. ~~Some Guy We Used To Work With~~ Bald Tom Selick?

Oh, and I like to imagine that Sparky Bars are chocolate bars filled with pop rocks, and that Rezzies are chocolate covered raisins and pretzels. I'd eat'em.

Lazyfire

Our first guest, of hopefully many, is Lazyfire. It's fitting that Lazyfire is the first person to join us on this adventure, because their Battlefield 4 LP is partly to blame for inspiring us to bring on rotating guests. He brought nine-gear crow and myself on as guests for that LP, so it was nice to be able to return the favour. Lazyfire has also played through Battlefield 3, and more recently has suffered through the first two Red Faction games.

His other LPs are worth checking out as well. Lazyfire's got a great sense of humour and timing. He consistently puts out high quality content and yet is always super humble. Always a pleasure to work with.

Lazyfire on LPArchive

Lazyfire on YouTube

This is the part of Helghan's history that Visari references in his opening speech. This is the early days of the Helghast. No longer able to live in the safety of the skyhook, the colonists must try and make a go at it on the planet.

When Visari speaks of the greatest exodus in humankind's history, he is speaking about this event. Frankly, the original colonists coming to Alpha Centauri seems to be a greater exodus to me, but hey, when you're trying to win over an oppressed populace, you work with what you got. Anyways, the ISA are happy to let the Helghans sod off and build their own colony on that godforsaken rock. They even grant them ownership of it so they don't have to deal with any of the burden of maintaining the colony.

Real nice. This is why people hate the ISA.

Living on Helghan blows. Mortality rates on the planet are super high so that any person unable to stand the harsh environment dies off.

Here's the part Visari also mentioned in his speech. Living on Helghan kills you--at least until it makes you stronger. Though living on Helghan in present times is much safer for your health and though the Helghan people are much hardier, people suffering symptoms of "lung burn" are still a thing, particularly among the lower class. Having started there before climbing the ranks in the military, Colonels Radec and Cobar are two prominent Helghast who need to wear breather masks.

Not all non-Helghan are bad. The ICSA, an independent neutral-aligned branch of the ISA, approach the people of Helghan hoping to offer aid. As you can see, it doesn't go over because the Helghans are already extremely xenophobic. Considering that the ICSA is still a branch of the ISA, can you blame them? Cause meanwhile, the ISA continue to impose stricter and harsher trade sanctions on the Helghan populace, making an already difficult life on the planet nearly unbearable.

Yeah, screw the ISA, right?

Because, ultimately, the ISA are kind of lazy and cheap, they decide to save some money/man-power by dismantling the majority of their fleet in favour of a planet-wide satellite defense system. It doesn't remain static--they do upgrade it over time and before the eventual Second Extrasolar War, but as we saw in the opening cutscene, this perhaps wasn't the wisest of ideas. The Helghast find a way to disable the defense platforms and roll in unimpeded.

Now I only have a bit of knowledge regarding evolution. I've taken high school and college level Biology courses, but I do not profess to be an expert here. In three generations, humans on Helghan have adapted more readily to the planet's environment. Now, I know evolution occurs over generations, but isn't this happening a bit fast? Mind you, the game also mentions something about "basic genetic conditioning", so I suppose you can handwave away some of it thanks to sci-fi/fantasy nonsense.

Neruz posted:

Three generations is indeed an extremely short time for widespread genetic change, however that said when evolution does occur it does actually tend to happen rather rapidly in response to the environment and as you mentioned the story talks about genetic conditioning so it is not unreasonable to suggest that Helghan geneticists have helped evolution along.

Improbable, but not impossible given the context.

Crocodylus Pontifex posted:

It could also be that the third generation was just the first to start showing these changes. This game does take place years after the third generation was born, and there still seems to be helghast that need the breather masks to survive. This is all conjecture on my part, I'm no expert on this sort of thing.

Regardless, the Helghan people are beginning to adapt to their planet.

Aaaaand our hero is born. As you can see, Visari is as close to Helghan royalty as you can get. Cute kid. Reminds me a bit of Damien from The Omen.

This is pretty foul. The ISA on Vekta enforce strict punishment on the Helghan which lead to a catastrophic problem, then refuse to send any aid because they've now crippled themselves due to the problem they created in the first place. A surefire way to make an entire planet hate you.

Now, the question here is whether or not Vekta intended to starve Helghan's citizens on purpose. Right now, Helghan is essentially Post-WWI Germany. We're all aware of the crazy economic sanctions and debt placed on the Germans by the Allies, but the Allied starvation of Germany is less well known. For nearly eight months after the war ended, Allied navel vessels blockaded Germany allowing its people to die of starvation. There's a decent article on the matter here if you're interested in reading up on it. Vekta's lack of support in Helghan's time of need could be because they lacked the resources themselves, but it could also have been a ploy to further weaken Helghan allowing them to be more easily bullied politically.

This is all supposition, as "Killzone" history clearly states that Vekta simply lacked the resources the help. Of course, history is written by the winners, and the Vektans have been coming out on top for a long while now.

Uncredited

Token black guy. I can deal with the idea that we won't see a lot of young people or elderly because in the middle of a warzone civilians are evacuated. Fine. That's fine. I still find it problematic that in the far flung future the military is basically all white men. This goes for both the ISA and the Helghast. Aside from Luger and Rico, I'm pretty sure Guerrilla only rendered one model each for a female ISA soldier and a black ISA soldier. Much like Terry Van Feleday's take on Transformers, Killzone here has an issue with its treatment of women and black people. I'm not willing to write it off as the developers being so caught up in action movie tropes that they neglected to diversify the game's cast. Frankly, I feel these games should be cleverer than that. So instead, it just reeks of tokenism.

Oh, and I'm also not a fan of how Billinghurst is portrayed as a coward.

BP-02 Pup Grenade Launcher

Fires a single-shot grenade. Manufactured by the Helghast, and is infrequently carried by Helghast officers in lieu of a more traditional pistol. Causes devastating damage, but its ammo-capacity make it a poor primary weapon. Still, replace your starting pistol with one of these if you come across one. They've got utility where ever you go and make a great back up gun. Their blast radius isn't as large as the standard grenade launcher, but unlike that marvel of military technology, you won't suffer from movement penalties while using the Pup.

M13 Semi-Automatic Shotgun

Also known as the LS13 Shotgun. Made by the ISA, but often utilized by Helghast soldiers. I don't really know what's up with it. It is called a "semi-automatic" weapon, but needs to be pumped after every shot. That's not semi-automatic, is it? People with gun knowledge, help me out! Anyways, This gun appears throughout the Killzone series. It gets better as it goes along, but it kinda stinks in the first game. It's powerful, yeah, but it's got a horrible spread. If you aren't fairly close up to get the bulk of the shot in the enemy, they aren't going down. I mean, individual pellets have crazy range, but their damage in negligible. So if only half the spread hits a standard trooper, they're gonna be fine. Then you're left pumping the gun taking hits in the meantime. The StA-52 shotgun alternate fire is better because you can always go back to primary fire if you don't put down an enemy. Really, you should be ditching this gun first chance you get. Or better yet, never pick it up in the first place. At least not until you get to one of the sequels.
Fun facts: the shells for this particular gun come in a red casing while the shells for the Helghast StA-52 alt-fire come in a green casing! Also, primary fire shoots one shell. Secondary fire shoots two shells. Pressing primary and secondary fire at the same time? Fires three shells! Space technology!

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Modeled after the Franchi SPAS-12, which actually shoots as a semi-automatic and pump-action firearm depending on what sort of ammunition is used. The whole "press 3 buttons for 3 shots" uhhh... mechanic, is probably why they labelled it as a semi-automatic.

KILLZONE!

Sally fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ May 24, 2014 08:58

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Haha, with all the delays and technical issues, this latest update is truly cursed! Gonna fix that right now. Thanks for the heads up!

EDIT: Fixed, both in the post and the OP.

Sally fucked around with this message at 09:14 on May 24, 2014

# ¿ May 24, 2014 09:11

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Lazyfire posted:

Watching it and seeing Melee wasn't a one hit kill didn't bug me overmuch. The fact that it wasn't an attack like a knife in the CoD games or a punch in Halo, but rather a full on animation that the attackee could just shrug off is one of those weird gameplay decisions that most developers would not include in their games now, but seemed like a decent hook back then.

Beat me to it. This is my issue with the melee as well.

Also, I captured the breaking glass thing in action. Check it out. It's not even the same shape as the vending machine. It's basically a window:

# ¿ May 24, 2014 19:29

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

nine-gear crow posted:

I just noticed that the No Commentary video is actually from the scrapped PS3 run. So you actually do get to see a bit of how this stage looks in high def and the curious audio desynch that forced me to turf the entire level and re-play through it all on the PS2.

Also, in the HD version, you can make out the brandname of the water coolers we're obsessively destroying throughout the level. They're called Jargogle, which according to Matador Network is an obsolete English verb meaning "to confuse or jumble".

Interesting...

You also get to see how much more of a madman I am with regards to shooting office equipment when compared to crow. I grabbed shots of food/water/shelter from the HD version so you could see the graphical differences between the PS2 and PS3 versions:

PS2 on the left/top <--> PS3 on the right/bottom

As crow said, it's easier to see the "Jargogle" label on the water coolers.

Comparing images side-by-side, the PS2 version was either a bit squashed, or the PS3 version is a bit stretched. I'm leaning to the former.

Also, the HD version looks like it fixes the weird misaligned breaking of glass in the PS2 version.

# ¿ May 26, 2014 18:30

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Chapter 2, Stage 2 & Stage 3 with Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, and Lazyfire

2.2

[Templar] enters a battle-worn courtyward.

ISA SOLDIER 1
Hail, Captain. The General said thou wouldst be arriving presently.
I have my orders. Come, to the Research Building. The key is--

ISA SOLDIER 2
Jet bikes!

TEMPLAR
Yea, tis a troubling foe.

The ISA duck while the sound of strafing jet bikes and gunfire sound overheard.

ISA SOLDIER 3 [over comms]
Attend! All personnel from the main building have retreated.
Any soldiers still defending must have need to fall back.

ISA SOLDIER 2
Finally!

TEMPLAR
Lend me thy ear, soldier. The SD Platform. Have thou knowledge of it?

ISA SOLDIER 1
Captain, I can let thou into yonder Research Building. Thither lie the key.
God speed, sir!

Exit ISA soldiers. [Templar] steps through a "doorway" and meets with another soldier.

ISA SOLDIER 3
Captain Templar. Here, thou must taketh this key to General Vaughton.
Tis a situation most foul, but he hath fallen back from the Comms Building.
The Helghast push too deep and force us to abandon our posts.

TEMPLAR
I must go to him, sergeant. Regroup with thy commander, and wish me luck.

ISA SOLDIER 3
Aye, may the god's look favourable upon thee.

Exeunt

Not a lot of super cool subtext in these levels. At this point, we're still in the game's extended prologue that consist of its first four chapters. Right now Jan needs to do whatever it takes to get the SD platform key and get to General Vaughton. We're going to wander through vaguely Black Mesa/Pillar Of Autumn-esque hallways and catwalks, but that's about the extent of it aside from some more pictures.

Military history seems deeply important to the ISA. Not necessarily to the same extent of the Helghast, where everyone serves and dies for their country, but the ISA are happy to plaster large photographs all over their research and communications buildings. These are clearly real photos, but I'm not sure where they come from or what war they were a part of. There's an image of sandbags--

--what appears to be the conning tower of an aircraft carrier (maybe someone with a better eye can confirm/deny that for me)--

--a radar dish--

--and some soldiers in masks firing a machine gun. It's a bit difficult to make out the gun, but judging from the masks I'm going to hazard a guess that his particular image is from World War I.

We've also got Colonel Al Pacino here and--

--and Brigadier General Peter Sellers.

Enemy-wise, we bump into what I'm going to term a Helghast Scout (or maybe a Recon?). These guys wear short sleeves and have Riddick goggles. They function identically to standard Helghast infantry, but in later games they operate specifically as Grenadiers. And I mean that in the "they only use grenades and forgo the use of firearms" type of grenadier. But we'll get to that.

This is interesting. Visari comes into power and claims that the people of Helghan, the Helghast, are no longer human. It's all rhetoric. Despite the genetic differences between the Helghast and humans on Earth/Vekta, the are absolutely still the same species. It's been mentioned already and is a recurring thing throughout the series, but Helghast and humans have no problem intermarrying and bearing viable offspring. In fact, one of Killzone's main characters is Half-Helghast/Half-Human. He should just be considered human, but prejudice is alive and well in the future.

More evidence of Visari being a Hitler/Mussolini-like character. This is the point where the "term" Helghast and all the associated iconography uniting them as a single people appears.

Much of this has already been touched on in earlier posts, particularly the connotations behind the Helghast Triad and the similarities to the Third Reich, but the new alphabet/language thing hasn't. It's interesting that the alphabet stuck but the new language couldn't get off the ground because it was easier for everyone to just keep speaking English. Heh.

Anyways, some fans of the game translated the Helghast alphabet in Killzone 2 and came up with this chart:

Pretty neat stuff. Unfortunately, not always used to its full extent. Not all graffiti on walls translate to something legible. Some of it is just nonsense. This is confirmed by the devs. A knee-jerk reaction might think that this is just willful laziness on the dev's part. However, I like to think that this is an incredibly subtle bit of context. This unique Helghast alphabet can't have been in use for much more than a decade. I'm sure the Helghast are all real proud of it, but I doubt they all know how to write in it. I think that the reason some of the graffiti is nonsensical is because not all Helghast know how to write in it. That doesn't stop them from writing Helghast symbols everywhere to try and show some pride in the homeworld, but while it might look intimidating to any Vektan who comes across it, it's going to be gibberish to anyone fluent in reading it.

Nice move, Guerrilla.

JamieTheD posted:

God-drat, looking at that chart, Helghan has features of Russian and Chinese in there, with maybe one sound that you can definitely attribute to germanic (ch, which it shares with Welsh and quite a few other languages). Don't get me wrong, I like the effort, but god-drat if writing your own alphabet language for a game doesn't give me a huge headache.

NGDBSS posted:

As someone with a (very) amateur interest in linguistics it's nice to see an alphabet that's not just a lazy substitution cipher. Particularly because English has exceptions for nearly all of its own phonetic rules when using the Latin alphabet, to the point that "ghoti" can be pronounced the same way as "fish". It's not perfect (English has a lot of vowels, for instance, and I suspect Helghast is closely related) but I can see some influence from IPA there.

^^Choice words from a Welshman.

anilEhilated posted:

Should also be noted that ch - as in, the Scottish (possibly Welsh, but the only example I'm going by is "Loch"), coughy ch - is present in most Slavic languages as well. Of course, those tend to have a distinct, different c as well.

Boy, I bet the Vektans sure feel silly for dismantling their fleet now! Also, it's nice that the Helghast got their skyhook up and running again.

At least they're being proactive with their SD platforms. The original ones are half a century old, so it's good to supplement them with new tech, right? Well, as we saw in the opening cutscene, it didn't do much good. But hey, General ~~Anime~~ Adams gets a name drop!

VKing posted:

Enjoying this LP. I've never owned a playstation or known anyone who got the Killzone series, so it's fun to finally see the game.

Speaking of the ISA logo, these are the logos of two branches of the Norwegian postal service:

They were introduced four years after Killzone, though.

Sally fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ May 26, 2014 19:33

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

My aging laptop finally kicked the bucket. Fortunately, I had backed up my data somewhat recently and didn't lose much worth losing. Most of the important LP files are already backed up on crow's computer. I've got a new PC and am currently re-installing old files and programs and will get the next update out as soon as possible.

With regards to the Helghast alphabet, I've seen it be suggested that it was inspired partly by the stylzed Hangul used in North Korean propaganda posters:

Combine that with the visual designs seen in Nazi propaganda posters:

And we get Helghast propaganda:

# ¿ May 28, 2014 19:35

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

anilEhilated posted:

I love the idea that you're playing as the Norwegian Postal Service.

I was waiting for a somewhat natural segue to come up in this thread's conversation for this, and I figure this is as ~~good a time as any~~ close as I'll get so--

Special Delivery: Combat knife to the chest!

THE MAIL ALWAYS GOES THROUGH!

# ¿ May 30, 2014 06:39

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

The Casualty posted:

BY DSHTSI?

Now I'm wondering if I didn't accidentally grab fan art instead of official art. It seems to be a surprisingly popular thing on deviantart, making Helghast propaganda. Not surprisingly, it's a much less popular thing to make ISA propaganda.

NGDBSS posted:

This looks less like a sequel to the game you guys are playing and more like Vanquish as an FPS.

Killzone is a funny series like that. Though the third sequel is actually a lot less kinetic than it appears in that gif. That's probably more an example of a bunch of game mechanics lining up in just the right way to look totally badass.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 15:27

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

2.4

Inside a complex of tunnels and ladders.

Enter [Templar]

TEMPLAR
Where art thou, General? General Vaughton?

Enter Helghast Soldier. Enter [Luger], who dispatches Helghast Soldier.

LUGER
Well, well, thy bottom tis held in my hands again, Templar. If thou knowest my intent.

TEMPLAR
Luger. I taketh it thou art back on active duty.

LUGER
Clearly? I graduated three fortnights early. It seems I have a talent.

TEMPLAR
Tis one of many. I was meant to meet the General here, but was waylaid by a marksman.

LUGER
Four, actually. Vaughton told me to meet thou here too. He said you would brief me on our mission.

TEMPLAR
Our mission? Trust the General to put practicalities ahead of--well, naught else!

LUGER
Methinks thou dost protest too much. What now?

TEMPLAR
My--our mission is to recover an operations agent named Colonel Hakha. He is trapped thitherward in the slums, but the General needs this key to reactivate the SD Platforms.

LUGER
Let us be on our way, then.

Exeunt

2.5

Elsewhere, aboard the ISA SD Platforms.

Enter [Ari L. Caliban] and General [Adams]

ADAMS
One hour ago, I told thou to report to me when there was the barest whisper of any progress.
One hour, I have been waiting with nary a visit. Thou shalt tell me why.

CALIBAN
Many apologies, General, there is naught we can do without General Vaughton's security key. The central processor--

ADAMS
Doth I need a lesson on the inner machinations of these platforms? Nay, because I run the curs�d things! General Vaughton hath found himself lost, so the key may be missing for some time, perhaps forever. Surely a master tradesman of your proficiency can find a way to revive the weapons system?

CALIBAN
Nay, my lord.

ADAMS
Nay? Dost thou believe in God? Or didst thy replace Him with some all-powerful mechanical golem, hmm? Well, whatever it is thou pray to, I would recommend praying now that Vaughton reappears.

Exeunt

After this level things start to open up a bit more. We have more characters introduced and the game's plot begins to get a little more interesting. For now it's a bit quiet, but there are a few things of note:

Our first in-game shout out to Earth. I don't know who/what "World Systems" are supposed to be in Killzone, but there will never be any other mention of them. Earth will be name dropped in the future, though.

The rest of this section is interesting in that it's very Half Life-esque. Stomping through these office buildings, climbing up metal tunnels and ladders--it's all very reminiscent of Black Mesa. This may or may not be intentional. Most likely, this is just Guerrilla doing the generic sci-fi thing. Which is fitting, considering our heroes are tropes and stereotypes. We won't be spending much time in environments like this, so enjoy it while you can.

We also encounter our first Helghast Elites:

They are far less interesting than Covenant Elites. If Killzone and Halo went head-to-head to find out whether or not Guerrilla had made the Halo-Killer, then the Helghast Elites would lose. Their AI is about as intelligent as the rest of the Helghast and they are little more than bullet sponges. Their one saving grace is that it's somewhat difficult to get head shots on them despite not wearing helmets. Oh, and I suppose they always carry useful weapons, so they're good for that. In later levels their bullet sponge powers somehow become more egregious.

Have a nice day! Courtesy of nine-gear crow.

Oh, and can we just pause a moment and appreciate how this poor ISA comms officer is working in the most toxic of work environments?

I mean, seriously, what the heck!?

We're now catching up with in-game lore. Unfortunately, that means our Killzone history lessons will be winding down quite a bit. On the flip-side, the games themselves are going to get more interesting so there's going to be more subtext to discuss, so at least the history was here for these downtimes.

Here we get to take a look at Scolar Visari's battle plan and begin to understand the Helghast's movements on Vekta:

You'll note that a couple of names have been redacted. Those are to avoid minor spoilers that you may or may not have already guessed, but hey. They will be revealed in time. Anyways, those two names are deep cover agents working within the ISA ranks to aid the Helghast, in particular, to weaken key ISA forces, such as the SD platforms. With Vekta's key defenses down, General Lente's Third Helghast Army is able to blitzkrieg the capitol facing little more than the ISA RRF, which include Jan Templar.

Now, you'll remember that the Helghast fleet is weaker compared to the ISA fleet (ship size-wise) and even tinier when compared to the UCN Navy. With that in mind, the Helghast plan to take over the SD Platforms and turn them to bear on Earth's fleet. Those satellite lasers are powerful enough to cut right through Earth's ships. Earth is dependent on her colonies to keep running, so if the Helghast can cut off supplies and enforce a blockade, they can force a capitulation and take control of the Alpha Centauri frontier for their own gain (and Visari would become emperor). A bold plan.

Anyways, the deep cover agents succeed in their goals and the Helghast fleets launch. Earth is notified of the advance and quickly mobilize. It remains to be seen whether or not reinforcements will arrive in time to stop the Helghast advance.

Voice by Jennifer Taylor Lawrence

If Jan Templar is our generic every-man space marine action hero, then Luger is our super-badass female action hero. She is Sarah Conner. She is ~~Kate Beckinsale~~ Selene. She is Aeon Flux. She is Ellen Ripley. She is Jill Valentine. She is Leeloomina� Lekatariba Lamina-Tcha� Ekbat De Sebat. She is also our video game trope token female character. She is the nimble, quick, more easily damaged character compared to our well-rounded lead action hero, Jan. Whether or not "Luger" is her real name is unknown. Is it a first name? A last name? A nickname? A call-sign? We'll never know. What we do know is that she is a Shadow Marshall. Whether this is some sort of spy operative or assassin type thing is never fully explained in this game, but that doesn't matter. Within moments we know all we need to know about Luger: her job involves killing and she is extremely competent at her job.

That aside, she is also quite literally the Yin to Templar's Yang. Which is perhaps fitting given that the game hints towards the two of them sharing a romantic past--one that Luger broke off in order to pursue her career. Anywho, my knowledge of Eastern Philosophy isn't the strongest, so if anyone wishes to add to the Yin/Yang talk, please do, but here's what I can tell:

The Yang is the masculine force. It represents the sun, light, and the positive. It represents things of the world. Jan Templar is certainly that. A fresh-faced Vektan marine leading the charge against and overwhelming enemy. Jan is very much the hero of his planet. A clear good guy against the forces of evil. He's very obvious, open, and conspicuous. There's nothing hidden about Jan at all. He's like Superman in his goal of fighting the good fight and helping those in need.

Now compare the Yin, which is a feminine force. It represents the moon, dark and the negative. It is a concealed, shaded concept which is fitting of Luger being a Shadow Marshall. Her job is somewhat murky. We don't exactly know what being a Shadow Marshall entails, but it is some sort of special operative. Notice that unlike Jan and--heck all the other ISA characters in the game, she doesn't wear green and orange, but wears black. She needs to be concealed, to hide in the shadows in order to be effective. Sinister and treacherous connotations can also be found within the concept of Yin, and this is certainly suggested by Luger's romantic "betrayal" of Jan.

This is a superficial examination of the idea, at best, but there certainly seems to be some sort of connection here. But I'll speak more of the dichotomy between Jan and Luger as the game goes on and we see the two characters interact.

StA-3 Stova Light Machine Gun

Another Stahl Arms masterpiece. This LMG works great as a close-to-mid range weapon. For some reason, the people on the Killzone wikia talk about how horrible it is an how terribly inaccurate it is. Oh, how wrong they are. Okay, well, sustained fire, sure. But if you're tapping the fire button, it's surprisingly accurate at medium ranges. Also, it has a 100-round barrel drum. Even if you're missing a few shots, you've got enough to keep firing on the enemy so that they die before you have to reload, heavy armour be damned. The barrel drum proves to have a significant advantage over all ISA LMGs in that it's a heckuva lot faster to reload. Simply put, the Helghast LMG can spit out far more bullets faster than ISA LMGs. Love the StA-3 LMG. It is your friend.

Lazyfire mentioned a couple of animated shorts in this last video. They are anti-war shorts made in response to World War I and World War II. The Helghast design prompted his memory and, watching the videos, the description of the forces of men sound quite like the Helghast soldiers. The videos are worth a watch if you fancy. They are linked below along with shots of the relevant scenes:

quote:

"Well, heh heh, there ain't no men in the world no more, sonnies. Nope, no more men. But as I remember the critters, they was uh, well, they was like monsters. They wore great big iron pots on their heads. And walked on their hind legs, and they carried terrible lookin' shootin' irons with knives on the ends of them! And their eyes flashed. And they had tremendous big snouts--like this--that curled down and fastened onto their stomachs!"

Peace On Earth (1939)

Good Will To Men (1955)

Sally fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Nov 12, 2014

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 06:18

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

It was a huge selling point for me. Heck, I've re-played the campaign with each character. Sadly, the differences are minor. In fact, specialized ammunition is so scare that you're going to wind up using either the ISA or Helghast assault rifle most of the time--so better off play as Templar or our yet to be encountered fourth character. The diverging pathways are also fairly superficial up until a few points much later in the game where your squad is actually divided to accomplish separate objectives simultaneously. It's a totally rad idea that Guerrilla wasn't able to implement successfully, in my opinion.

And yeah, General Anime is crazy.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 22:42

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Lateinshowing posted:

To be honest, I loved playing as Luger. Her sections are so much fun because you do get a sorta stealth vibe. Sadly, her sections weren't really designed as well (the AI didn't understand stealth as much as it should have) and since she has the least amount of health of all 4 players, she tends to die when discovered. But her melee..... it's a joy.

I'm terrible at stealth games. Just straight up. I'll admit that. Which is why I may have struggled with Luger in places. We do play as her in the next video and I show off her melee attacks, which'll be great! But yeah, her sections felt a bit rushed.

Rhjamiz posted:

Something that bugs me about the sniper rifle; when you scope in and fire, the bullet doesn't come from directly below or even, egregiously, the center of the screen. It comes from the bottom right, as if you had never moved the gun at all.

Ugh, you know? I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. That's awful, haha.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 19:18

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Haha, oh man. So I had bought a new laptop, but it was a busted piece of junk and I had return it. Now the new one is a busted piece of junk and I have to return I too. Third times a charm, I hope, so with any luck we can return to regular updates.

All the data and videos are fine and backed up, I just need to acquire a working pc.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 04:43

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

I still think it's because Luger is unfortunately wearing an all-black uniform. It blends in with the dark and shadowy backgrounds of the levels, making her head really stick out and look waaaaay too big for her body.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2014 21:42

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 00:13

Sally: Jan 9, 2007; Don't post Small Dash!

Chapter 3, Stage 1 with Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, and JamieTheD

[In stage adaptations, this would be the point where the story cuts to the next plot heavy scene. In film and game adaptations, this is the point wherein Captain Templar and Shadow Marshall Luger combat Helghast in a series of tunnels and train stations. Long stretches of action without dialogue are better suited for a television screen as opposed to Shakespeare's threatre.]

And thus our extended prologue continues. Only this time, we have a new character to play as. Luger is our defacto "stealth" character, though frankly, there isn't much cause for stealth in this game. I'll speak more about her abilities further down, but just a quick note on her heat vision:

Very cool looking. Can be turned on with the press of a button. Not really that useful. Really. The Helghast are easy enough to see with their glowing orange eyes, that there's never a point where you really need this. Honestly, you're most likely to play around with the goggles here when you first unlock Luger and then promptly forget about them, cause you'll never need'em. I'm still holding out hope that Guerrilla will further experiment with gameplay like what they did with Killzone: Liberation. It'd be cool to see a proper stealth game set in the Killzone universe. That, or a 4x strategy game, or something. Heck, I'd take a Killzone RPG or RTS. The series certainly has a rich enough lore to support games like that.

I'm a fan of the design of the ISA demolition charges. They've got big glowing green lights to let the user know it's safe to be around one. When it's armed--

--the lights turn orange, start flashing, and the device starts beeping before it explodes. A clear warning of impending danger. A simple but very practical weapon design. It reminds me of real-world claymores:

In the middle of battle, no matter how smart a guy is, it's easy to get caught up the adrenaline rush and make mistakes. Idiot-proof your bombs as much as possible! I appreciate that bit of Vektan design.

Luger also happens to be the only character who can crawl. This allows her to access areas locked out to other characters and let her sneak around enemies to ambush them. It's a mostly trivial addition to her gameplay, and is pretty obvious considering her role as "the stealth character", but it also ties in with the Yin and Yang idea I brought up in the last post. Not only is she a female character, but she works in the shadows, concealing herself and surprising enemies, all elements associated with Yin. This is the opposite of the Yang presented by the male characters--especially Templar.

Some real-world "Earth" advertisement present on Vekta.

Alongside some unique Vekta brands. Kiwi Smoothie is a new one. I like to think it's some sort of fruit frozen yogurt popsicle machine.

Oh, and here's some advertisement from the station. I didn't capture all of them, nor did I bother to get captures of the various graffiti throughout the area. None of it is super interesting, though there is a wide variety of stuff, so I appreciate Guerrilla's attempt at making the world seem real.

I don't know what language this is? Presumably Dutch, because Guerrilla has a studio based out of Amsterdam, but I honestly couldn't say. Does anyone know if this poster actually says anything or if it's gibberish?

JamieTheD

After weeks of looking for a second guest commentator, Blind Sally and nine-gear crow's search ended and a deal was made with forums user JamieTheD. As part of the deal, JamieTheD was promised paid transportation out of what he termed the "arse end of Wales". In return, JTheD promised to use his knowledge of game design and coding to help Sally and crow talk about Killzone of all games. It was almost too good a deal, but Jamie wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he could LP Rogue Trooper and the entire Wip3out series, he could surely slog it through a couple of Killzone videos.

JamieTheD is still waiting for his end of the bargain. The money has yet to arrive. Calls and messages to Blind Sally and nine-gear crow have gone unanswered.

JamieTheD on YouTube

Alright, time to talk about how Luger handles. She's faster than all the other characters. Sprinting, walking, whatever. She moves quicker. She also had heat vision goggles, which may or may not be absolutely useless. The biggest difference between her and other characters is, again, her mobility. But not just speedwise. She can also access pretty much every aspect of a level. In urban combat, she can climb ropes, crawl under low openings, utilize ventilation shafts, and whatever else is around, all to give her maximum visibility to snipe enemies or to sneak up on them.

Notable, she begins with a scoped and silenced submachine gun/machine pistol as well as a combat knife. If playing her stealthily, you'll honestly never want to use any other weapons. Considering how fragile she is, playing stealthy is the way to go. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of areas where stealth is viable. When using Luger, a lot of the time you're going to find yourself hanging back while your allies do a lot of the shooting. It's not great, but hey, that's what it is.

I mentioned she was fragile. Of the four characters, she takes damage the quickest. Stick to cover always, as a few stray bullets and eradicate her health bar. On the flipside, she regenerates health AND stamina faster than any other character. So it doesn't take her that long to get back into a fight, or to run away to safety. Still, Luger isn't the best choice of characters, especially for new players. Her abilities just aren't suited to this style of game. She would be much more at home in a Splinter Cell-esque title.

Luger
HEALTH REGEN - Fast
STAMINA REGEN - Fast
DEFENSE - Low
WEAPONS - M66-SD Machine Pistol, M32 Combat Knife
ABILITIES - Can climb ladders, vault over obstacles, climb ropes/vines, crawl into small spaces (eg., vents, tunnels, shafts, etc.), and has heat vision goggles.

M66-SD Submachine Gun

Aka the M66-SD Machine Pistol. The Vektan ISA manufacture this weapon with a silencer as standard issue. However, though the silencer's allow can muffle bullets in single-shot mode, it cannot muffle automatic fire. Has a 30 round clip. This gun is Luger's starting weapon. It's so close to being great, that it's disappointing. The single-shot function of this gun is devastating and can kill Helghast soldiers, those bullet sponges, with a single body shot. Head shots are, of course, more effective, but the gun has an unfortunate spread to it. Even when firing only a single bullet at a time, it becomes wildly inaccurate at distances, severely weakening it's ability to work as a sniper-type weapon. Still, it's generally more effective at long rang than the Helghast Sniper Rifle or the ISA Assault Rifle--it just sometimes takes a few shots to hit the target (good thing they're silenced). Sometimes referred to as the "silent death" by Shadow Marshalls. Keep it around when using Luger. Heck, pick it up if you find the rare instance of it in the world as other characters too.

M32 Combat Knife

Standard issue Vektan ISA combat knife. One of Luger's starting weapons. It made of a super space alloy that makes it extremely resistant to chipping and wear. Jokingly referred to as the "toothpick" by ISA soldiers. Only Luger gets it in Killzone 1 (and it suffers from being a melee weapon in a game that doesn't do melee very well), but it's default gear in the following two PS3 sequels. Honestly, though it has some rad unique melee deaths, ditch it for another gun as soon as possible.

Sally fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ Jun 10, 2014 22:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let Us Playeth The Killzone Trilogy - The Tragedy Of Rico, Moor Of Vekta

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