Killzone: Liberation

Killzone : Liberation
Developer(s)	Guerrilla Games
Publisher(s)	SCE
Platform(s)	PSP
Release	October 31, 2006 November 3, 2006 November 8, 2006 March 30, 2007
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single player, 6 player ad-hoc multiplayer, 8-Player Infrastructure multiplayer

Killzone: Liberation is the sequel to the 2004 First-person shooter Killzone. Killzone: Liberation was released for Playstation Portable on October 31, 2006 in the US and on November 3, 2006 in Europe.

The game is a direct sequel to Killzone and continues right after where the first game ended. Killzone: Liberation should not be confused with Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3, another addition to the Killzone franchise.

Story

In Killzone: Liberation, two months after the events of Killzone, most of southern Vekta is still under Helghast control. The rules of war have been cast aside with the Helghast General, Armin Metrac, employing brutal measures in order to seize the initiative and strengthen his position further. Returning as Templar, players will be sent on a mission to undertake a covert operation to save hostages captured by Metrac, while ISA troops continue the fight for liberty. There are 4 "chapters" with 4 levels in which players eliminate the Helghast resistance (a fifth chapter was made available to download).

Gameplay

This game features a top-down isometric view in contrast to the original Killzone game for the PS2, which was a first-person shooter. The resultant game can be seen as a mixture of a shooter and a dungeon crawler.

The player can only control Jan Templar, although he can board and control several vehicles: heavy machine gun turrets, a tank, a hovercraft and a jetpack. During some levels a 'buddy' can be ordered around (although some are unarmed). These 'buddies' are normally teammates (Rico and Luger) or people that have to be rescued (The three VIP's in the third mission, first chapter and Evelyn in the third and fourth mission, fourth chapter).

By collecting various pickups in the form of money cases, the player unlocks new weapons to use in the game. These weapons can be found in various weapons caches in certain levels. After enough money is amassed, the V2 upgraded weapons become available. The weapons in the caches are also converted into the V2 upgraded versions. Some of the unlockable weapons are: The Helgast Assault Rifle, a machine pistol, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, a revolver, a crossbow and a medium machine gun (The ISA assault rifle is the default weapon).

The player can also unlock upgrades to Templar's abilities by completing challenge games within certain limits (Such as shooting X number of targets without shooting the 'civilian' targets). These are ranked in bronze, silver and gold. Upgrades come in the form of carrying more items, hitting harder in close quarters combat, performing actions faster or upgraded health.

Downloadable Content

The game was originally intended to have downloadable content from Day 1, but due to technical difficulties, the Downloads promised were initially un-delivered. On May 30th, 2007 the downloadable upgrade was released. This release included two additions: online multi-player support and chapter 5 of the single player campaign.

Multiplayer

Players can play via both Ad-Hoc and Infrastrcture. There are a variety of game modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Assault. Infrastructure was only made available for download, and is not initially available for "out of the box play"

Reception

Unlike its predecessor, which received mediocre reviews, Liberation was received with overall positive reviews.

• IGN - 9.0
• Gamespot - 8.3
• Game Informer - 7.5
• TGZ - 8.3
• Metacritic - 77

Awards

• Received IGN's award for Best PSP Offline Multiplayer Game of 2006 [1].

External links

• Official Website
• Downloadable Killzone Demo
• KillzoneUnit: Killzone Fan/News Site