After spending two years planting c4, being alone in a search and destroy, and retrieving the headquarters, I believe its fair to say that I played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare to the death. I remember when I first signed online and experienced the fresh breath of air that was its online multiplayer. The COD4 multiplayer soon became the industry standard in regards to First Person Shooters. It was original, and addictive. Between the graphics, the perks, the rank up system, the party system, and the prestige mode, it simply was THE FPS to beat.
Now it did not take two years for me to realize this. It was just the case that no other FPS could ever touch the greatness that was COD4 (never mind the COD4.5 game, World at War). But the two year undefeated champ finally took a beating on February 27th of 2009. The new challengers name was Killzone 2. It only took me two hours to come to the conclusion that Call of Duty 4 was finally trumped as king. My decision based upon writing this article fell only on the reason that I want every FPS fan to play this game. If you do not have a Playstation 3, and you love FPS, now is the best time to go ahead and pick one up, along with a copy of Killzone 2. I have three main reasons why Killzone 2 surpasses Call of Duty 4 (remember, I’m only talking about the online multiplayer portion of the game).
1. Graphics-Jaw dropping. Awe inspiring. Eye watering with tears of joy. The graphics exceed any other console game ever. Period. The lighting sources, the shadows, the textures, the colors; all of it is top notch. And graphics usually hit a degrade in multiplayer when compared to the single player portion of the game. But not in Killzone 2. The graphics of the single player compared to multiplayer is indistinguishable. There is no difference. And that’s saying something when talking about how ridiculous the campaign portion of the game looks. I’m telling you, there is no better feeling then looking down the red tinted scope of your stA 52 SLAR sniper rifle, watching the gold dust of Pyrrhus Ris swift in and out of sight, only to land a devastating head shot on the ISA enemy who is kilometers down-field. And mind you, this all looks superbly beautiful while in motion. So yes, in terms of graphics, Killzone 2 beats out Call Of Duty 4 (as it should; its 2 years ahead).
2. Gameplay-I honestly thought that the addictive multiplayer gameplay of COD4 would never be touched. Well thank you Killzone 2. Not only does Killzone 2 have a rank up system in the likes of Call Of Duty 4, but it has a denser, more meatier rank up system. You start out as grunt. You get some kills, you get points. Get enough points per game and you start to move up in rank, soon unlocking different classes such as a medic who revives, or a tactician who delivers spawn points for the map. But the interesting thing is, in every battle, you can earn ribbons that help you unlock new abilities to use in the game. For example, suppose you get 10 sniper rifle kills in a game, and you earn a ribbon. If you earn this ribbon eight times, then you get a better scope for your sniper. There are a plethora of ribbons to hunt for, so you will be kept very busy in Killzone 2. Also, the “games” you play in Killzone 2 are brilliant. It is all streamlined together so fluid. For instance, you first spawn and the first game you play is regular team death match (body count), and whatever team has the most kills at the end of five minutes gains one score. Then, on the same map, it switches to a different game type, like capture the flag (propaganda box). And when it switches game type, it does so streamingly. Whoever has the most scores out of 7, wins the entire “war” and receives a 1.5x multiplier of points that you might have earned in the game. The rank up system and the dynamic game switching will be the new industry standard. (* I’m not touching on the controls here. Killzone 2 feels different. We all know that. Just get used to it, and stop crying about it. It wanted its own identity).
3.CLAN SUPPORT- The last thing I want to touch on is the clan support. The clan support featured in Killzone 2 single-handedly overshadows the options available in COD4. In Killzone 2, you can make a clan, register your clan, assign different management positions to each member of your clan, and the best part is, sign up in tournaments with your clan. No, you do not sign up on a different website, you simply do it from the game. There is a tournament option, that you and your clan can sign up for and battle with many other clans in the same tournament. Think of the NBA playoffs but with Killzone 2 clans. Whoever ends up the victor receives VALOR points (rank points), which both clans bet on before the match. That’s right, you wager how much VALOR points are up for grabs before the match. If you win, you gain that many points, but if your clan losses, then your clan can say goodbye to your hard earned Valor points. Killzone 2’s online multiplayer clan support is iconic. There is nothing like it. Not to mention that COD4 really never featured clan support, except tag options.
There we have it. I have given three main reasons why the multiplayer in Killzone 2 is now the king to defeat. Now granted, I am not taking anything away from how good Call Of Duty 4 is/was. The fact is, it took two long years for it to stay on top without any serious competition. Sure you can argue Resistance 2, or Gears 2, but Gears is a TPS so I am not considering that, and Resistance 2 just felt flat to me. The single player in that game was superb, and the online co-op was just as terrific. The competitive multiplayer was really flat, annoying, and had the worst level design I had ever seen. But Killzone 2 does take the crown from Call of Duty 4. For now. We are all watching you Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2…
PS3 fanboy or 360 fanboy…it does not matter. Play this game. I promise, you will enjoy it just as much, if not more than Call of Duty 4.
–Big Bear (Kyle Barreira)
