Let me tell you why.

I think that the same thing that will move Hawx off store shelves cheapens its appeal. To put it bluntly it’s the Tom Clancy license. It is, in my opinion, one of the worst licenses in video games. Basing a narrative on it is like putting blinders on a horse and forcing it down a well traveled path. Ever twist and turn in the story is seen from miles away and each one is executed with forgettable dialogue. Despite that however it’s campaign is still fun, even if I found myself laughing at it rather than with it.

The level up and unlock system in it is a nice change of pace as well. You earn exp in both modes of play (campaign and online versus) by kill things. As you level up it unlocks extra aircraft and weapon load outs for them. All game modes have combat challenges to accomplish which when unlocked reward you with hefty chunks of EXP. A challenge is as simple as destroy 100 ground targets.  Missions also unlock aircraft, with some of the later missions unlocking the Eruofighter Typhoon and the F-22 Raptor.

The campaign has online co-op with seamless drop in and out. The friend system is well implemented, being in game, it is simple and effective a blessing for game using PSN. The multi-player is a bit bland with only death match, but dog fighting is what Hawx is all about so despite that it’s fun.

A nice added feature for the PS3 release is the ability to easily record and then upload videos to your youtube account. I tried recording a multiplayer match, check it out. Not the best quality, but it’s still a cool feature. Be forewarned its 9 minutes long.

All of those things put hawx in a good place for downloadable content. Most notably would be new game play modes for the completive online sections. But there is a catch, it has to be free. I know, consumer saying he wants free stuff, lost your respect for me didn’t you? Well keep reading.

Take a look at Burnout Paradise, look at the numbers it’s sold! Criterion games made a bucket load off it because they invested time into giving it ‘long legs’. So how did they do it? They kept adding to it, from bikes, to a day and night cycle and eventually an entire island. Most of the ‘DLC’ they added was free, a happy surprise which made the purchase an incredible deal. This endeared themselves to the developer. Nothing is more powerful than a happy fan base as it both markets for you and continues to purchase your goods.

I think it would be a wise move if Ubisoft tried a similar approach with Hawx. Continued updates would make it a ‘must have’ PS3 game. Hell, cut it down to 40 dollars, add a few more game play modes for verses and I would pick it up.  DLC is coming for Hawx, by the way, as they have a tab in game for it. Let’s just hope it’s not already on the disc.

So guys rent but don’t buy. It’s more than worth the price of a rental.

Final Score 6/10

‘Was it worth the cash’?

Well that’s a tricky question; let’s see if I can answer it.

Like I usually do I started with the single player campaign. It began with a magnificent looking introduction sequence that delivered me straight into the action. The presentation was smooth, polished and well crafted making for an experience that was hard not to enjoy, at least visually. But so what? The game’s graphics look amazing but I didn’t come to Helgan to site see. I was there to kick ass take some names.

Thanks in part to the game’s demo I had a good handle on Kilzone 2’s control scheme and got right into the kick ass part. Unfortunately the game had other ideas and after dying a few times I decided that the ‘pacing’ in Kilzone 2 was perhaps slower than I had expected. Death is a nice way of teaching people that running up and gunning guys down, while fun, is not necessarily a good way to progress. The game seems to go out of its way early to teach you that and so I quickly leaner that the usage cover was the key to survival. Once I adopted the mentality of ‘cover equals life’ I found myself enjoying combat far more than I had previously.

After a bit more practice I exchanged my rather cautions approach for a bolder one. I started using grenades to flush out enemies from cover, flanking mauves to get around them and sometimes even direct assaults. However those kinds of mauves are best done delicately as the game lacks reliable auto aim snap. Because of that most my approaches resulted in failure but when they succeeded it felt awesome. After a while I struck a balance between offence and defence and soon afterwards I really began to fly through the game.

In time I invariably found myself identifying with certain weapons and began choosing them above the others. This choice was crucial as I was only allowed to carry a single primary weapon at any given time. The saving grace of that mechanic is your back up side arm, a high powered revolver with unlimited ammo.  Armed with the right gun and a bit of caution I soon powered though the rest Killzone 2’s single player campaign. It took me about ten hours.

During that time I never really got attached to any of the characters and upon reflection the characterization was rather weak.  Rico, a squad mate of Sevs, is a particularly good example of that weakness. His dialogue was often poorly written and vulgar. Both of those factors generally made his character forgettable. When all was said and done I enjoyed fighting on Helgan, regardless of the bad one liners or the terrible weather.

Check mark off the single player campaign, it was worth the money. But was multiplayer wroth it too? Well to find that out I’d have to try it. So right after the credits rolled I jumped online. That’s right; I set my sights on multiplayer.

For most people multiplayer is what they bought the game for. So its quality of either makes or breaks the purchase. I recognize the importance of good multiplayer and agree that if it’s not worth a damn then you just blew your cash.

In this case multiplayer was unlike anything I’ve played on my PS3. Killzone 2’s online component, called Warzone, is something like a mix between Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4. In a nut shell, Killzone’s multiplayer is a class based, objective oriented, game with an experience point unlock system.

In an unexpected twist you won’t be using cover online. To keep matches ‘fast passed’ it was removed. I think that choice works towards the games benefit even if I do miss the lean and peak firing I had come to rely on.

Now all of that is pretty weird, but that’s nothing compared to how matches are structured. Instead of choosing beforehand what kind of match to host, you rather choose which modes will be included in your game. The game then randomly cycles though all the selected modes ‘live’ mixing things up. There are five different objective modes, they are Assassination, Body Count, Search and Destroy, Capture and Hold and Search and Retrieve.

Each of the ‘modes’ featured are effectively modified variant of their traditional counterparts found in other games. Body Count, for example is a simple team death match. Assassination has you kill or defend a selected player. Search and Destroy is essentially bomb mode from counter strike but with unlimited bombs. Capture and Hold has you capture areas around the map and by doing so gain points over time. The first team to the target point count wins that mode. The final mode is Search and Retrieve; it’s like a reversed capture the flag. The scoring zone is next to the enemy’s spawn making you run towards the enemy, rather than way.

Okay you got your ‘Russian Roulette’ of game modes, so what about the levelling and classes? Well you start off with as a basic solider. It has no real benefits other than the ability to use almost all the weapons available online. Unfortunately you’ll have to unlock these weapons by completing the objectives and by killing enemies. Both of which earn you experience points. Obtain enough ‘exp’ and you’ll level up and unlock new weapons and eventually classes.

The first class you’ll unlock is the medic who can revive fallen players. Like all the extra classes he has a second ability which is, of course, locked. You’re going to have to earn it. You can do that by reviewing 5 people in a match, eight times. That unlocks the medic’s secondary ‘badge’ the health pack.

A secondary badge, like health packs, can be swapped out for another class’s secondary badge. To do that however, you are going to need to unlock the ‘right’ to modify the class in question. That’s a bit confusing, here is an example. I want to have proximity mines on my Medic, so I need to unlock the health packs secondary unlock. To do so I will need to heal five people in a match, eight times. I will also need to have unlocked the secondary ability ‘proximity mines’ and the class who possesses them, the Saboteur.

Now I could go on about each class and all the abilities, but that could fill a text book. So I’m just going to list them off real quick. First you got the Medic, you’ve already seen what he can do. The second is the engineer who can lay turrets and repair guns and ammo creates around the map. The third is the Tactician who can drop forward spawn grenades. The fourth is the Assault that has extra armour and full health regeneration. The fifth is the Saboteur, who can disguise himself as the enemy. And the last is the Scout, who is the obligatory sniper.

Take all of those guys, put them in superbly designed levels and make them work as a team. Mix well and you have one seriously complex game. But does it work well? The answer to that is yes, yes it does. In fact I’ve spent a lot of time unlocking everything available just to answer that question and in doing so had a blast. Although I have some misgivings about things like spawn grenades I still think that a small game, 10 on 10, is always great.

When all was said and done I had fun with Killzone 2, a rare occurrence between me and modern games. If I had to classify it I would say it’s an experience akin to a roller coaster. You get on on and it starts, though expert usage of pacing it builds up your anticipation and then tosses you down for an action packed ride.

The story is nothing special and the characters are kind of bland. That doesn’t matter much though, as the world and enemies won’t give you enough time to care. I rarely see a title with as much love applied to its design as Killzone 2. If you own a PS3 you should at least rent it, assuming you can find it in stock. And if you can’t I recommend purchasing it.

So there you have it, it’s worth the cash.