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It’s been a while between drinks, but here’s a Spare Change article to ease your Christmas shopping burden. This gem of a title is a PSP exclusive but if you’re any type of fan of Sony’s darling shooter Killzone 2 you owe it to yourself to pick this up.
I got my copy for a mere $18, quite literally the change I had in my cars ash tray. Bargain, thy name be Killzone: Liberation.
Good news first, if you were imagining working the PSP’s single analog stick and D-pad into a working FPS control scheme fear not. Killzone: Liberation is a third person shooter that gives you a birds eye view of the terrain as you move your little ISA commando, Jan Templar around the levels (Sev having been born the day before the events of Killzone 2, hence his thin hair and short stature). Cover is still an essential element of play and sustained fire from several Helghan will quickly result in a telegram to your mother if you don’t duck at the right time.
Ah the tank, the worlds most heavily armoured penis extension
Thankfully the aiming and movement controls are pretty slick and it’s never difficult to move around the bombed out terrain. When you have a partner, either a squad mate like Rico or Luger, or a rescued VIP, it’s simple to issue commands with a tap of the D-pad and a quick selection of cover to move to or targets to attack.
The game features all your favourite ISA and Helghan weapons which are added to your weapon crates when you find a certain number of secret cases hidden around each level. After unlocking all the weapons you can upgrade each one to improve accuracy and rate of fire. Templar also gets the opportunity to use several gun emplacements and drive several vehicles including a tank and hovercraft. Later in the game you get temporary access to a jetpack as well. A lot more options than you had in Killzone 2.
Eat hot high velocity lead you Helghan scum!
There are actually a lot of elements in Killzone: Liberation that you’ll notice didn’t make the transition to Killzone 2. The Helghan have rather cool looking armoured dogs that alert troops to your presence before trying to maul you. Two specialist Helghan units equipped with jet packs and flamethrowers are also missing in Killzone 2. Even odder, it’s mentioned that the Helghan dogs are introduced by General Metrac, the guy you’re trying to kill, to replace the ineffective and failure prone sentry drones. But in Killzone 2 the sentry drones are back again.
If you’re getting tired of the campaign you can also try out the challenge modes that are pretty varied. On top of the basic shooting challenges there’s ones for capturing Spider Mines and completing other tasks from the game. It’s worth taking a good crack at the challenge modes as completing them can unlock abilities during the campaign such as increased ammo capacity and health.
Here's the squad command screen, how easy is that to use?
Although I haven’t played it yet the multiplayer has up to six players over Ad Hoc or eight players using the infrastructure multiplayer downloadable from the Playstation Store. All the usual game modes are there such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF and Objective where the Helghan team has to try and plant explosives in the ISA base. Also available from the Playstation Store is an add on pack for the game including more multiplayer maps and a new game type and a whole new chapter to the single player campaign. There are four chapters out of the box.
Killzone: Liberation is easily worth twice its current shelf price and if you own a PSP it’s just about the best shooter you can pick up. Well worth your Spare Change.
It's gonna need more than a panadol and foot rub to get over that
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