History VideoGame / Killzone

* ChekovsGun: Although the objective of capturing Visari is mentioned throughout the game repeatedly, Evelyn specifically tells Rico to his face to "treat him professionally" if they meet the dictator should you stick around to overhear their conversation. [[spoiler:In the literal face of Visari's HannibalLecture as he got too close to Alpha Team for comfort, Rico, after two games of non-stop hatred for the Helghast, flips his shit and guns him down in cold blood, completely ignoring orders as flippantly as he should've been expected to. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Cue the Helghast's second wind and a massive clusterfuck of a power vacuum.]]]]

* DownerEnding[=/=]ShaggyDogStory: ''Killzone 2'', oh so very much. To iterate: [[spoiler: The team FINALLY makes it to Visari, and manages to kill Radec, the top General and Visiari's right hand man. Unfortunately, Visari pulls a BatmanGambit on Rico, and states that he will be martyrized in his death, sending the Helghast into a fury. Rico, broken over the deaths of his friends and comrades, ignores Sev's protests and kills him, basically ensuring that the Helghast will go apeshit. As Sev sits outside on the palace steps, a Helghast fleet flies into orbit, ready and willing to decimate the ISA forces still on the ground.]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Being a militant culture, Helghast promotion seems to be based significantly on personal martial skill (although ideological loyalty seems to be an even more important factor). On the [=ISA=] side, Captain Templar ends up being promoted to Colonel as well as Fleet Commander due to the copious amounts of asskicking he performs in the original ''Killzone'' and ''Killzone: Liberation''.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: ''Killzone 2'' and its games afterward retcon to make the ISA nor the Helghast ''completely'' justified in their actions: the Helghast are retconned to have arisen out of constant ISA oppression sending the planet into poverty and misery, and the ISA's invasion of Helga is portrayed as a Vietnam-style clusterfuck that only serves to bring civilians misery.

** The ability to revive fallen teammates in ''2'' and ''3'' was presumably meant to invoke this. However, downed teammates automatically revive when the last enemy in the area is dead, which is much less dangerous than leaving cover in the middle of a firefight to tend to them.

** As for the Helghast, their long-held anger and resentment towards the Vektans made them do atrocious things. When they invaded Vekta, [[KillEmAll they massacred civilians,(including Sev's family) as well as soldiers!]] They also held zero regard for the lives of [=POWs=], killing them on the spot and even subjecting some of them to horrifying military experiments. [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Sound familiar?]] To top it all off, Scolar Visari, the Helghast dictator, deliberately authorized the ''[[ShockAndAwe ''nuking of his own capital city,]]'' blatantly murdering many of his own men as well as the invading ISA there! Though that said, it's revealed that Visari did have much of the population evacuated prior to the ISA's invasion, explaining why said city seemed devoid of life.

* KillEmAll: In ''Shadow Fall'', [[spoiler: every single named character gets killed over the course of the game (including the protagonist). The only exceptions are Echo and Visari, who are presumably needed for the sequel, and the Helghast torturer, who just kind of disappears from the plot about halfway through.]]

''Killzone'' is a series of first-person shooters exclusive to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation consoles, developed by Netherlands-based Creator/GuerrillaGames. The series is known for taking classic war movie tropes and visual aesthetics from many of the 20th century's most brutal conflicts ([[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI both]] UsefulNotes/{{World War|II}}s, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, etc) and reconstructing them, wait for it, [[RecycledInSpace In Space]].

* CrapsackWorld: Being a story where World War II is essentially RecycledInSpace, the setting of Killzone is not pretty.

*** The ending to Shadow Fall. [[spoiler: Kellan manages to stop Stahl and Tyran from deploying the bioweapon only to be killed by Sinclair for having become a liability to his plans. Might be more of a BittersweetEnding after all, as while everyone except Echo is dead, she assassinates Sinclair and avenges Kellan. A newspaper found in the final level implies that the Helghast and Vektan civilians, at least, are overcoming their differences, and the trophy description for earning the TrueEnding indicates that the assassination of Sinclair prevented the escalation of a new war.]]

** A villain version comes from [[spoiler:Visari]] in Killzone 2. The ending makes it pretty clear that his death only made matters worse.[[spoiler:Thanks a lot Rico.]]

** Killzone 2's mech has exactly the same armament as Quake 4's, save for having four less missiles in the reloadable pod.

** There is also his speech about how the Helghast are superior humans and that they should become the dominant species, which is one of his justifications for the war. In Shadowfall it's revealed[[spoiler: his own daughter is half-Helghast.]]

*** The environment on Helghan is supposed to be hazardous to human health, right? At no point in any of the Killzone games do the ISA characters suffer from any ill-effects of the planet's conditions. Hell, in Killzone 3, [[spoiler: the ISA troops are stranded on the planet for six months, and none of them develop as much as a cough from the supposedly toxic atmosphere. Nor is any mention made of them receiving any drug treatments to combat such problems, it's apparently not an issue whatsoever.]]

* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Visari, in the middle of another epic speech]] at the end of Killzone 2.
* KillSat: The SD Platform in the first game, the ISA crusiers in Killzone 2 are pseudo versions of these. The SD platform does jack.

** While not as bleak for the protagonists, Killzone 3 cannot really be considered better or more hopeful than Killzone 2. The game even ends [[spoiler:with the possible death of the majority of people on Helghan including what could be left of the ISA there.]]

* ShockAndAwe

--> [[spoiler:'''General Adams]]:''' "There is never any pity, no mercy, for the traitor."
--> '''Colonel Hakha:''' "You try to compare us?... You made a choice, [[spoiler:General]], based on your own goals and morals. As did I. We may both seem traitors by our outside appearance, but that is where our common ground ends."

--> '''Radec:''' "Do not... toy with me." ''BANG!''

** ''Killzone 3'' includes a new gun which fires [[EnergyBall Energy Balls]] at its target and makes them explode gruesomely into LudicrousGibs.

** ''3'' looks to [[UpToEleven upgrade on that]], one such gem includes [[EyeScream stabbing a helghast in the eye with your combat knife]].

%% * AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Colonel Cobar, General Metrac, and Colonel Radec.

%% * BattleCouple: Rico and Jammer in [=KZ3=], [[ShipTease possibly]].
%% * BaldOfEvil: The Helghast in general, except for General Metrac and Jorhan Stahl, who have hair.

* FromBadToWorse: Killzone 2's ending. Oooh, '''''boy''''', does it get '''worse'''.
** Topped by Killzone 3 and its ending.
* GaidenGame: ''Killzone: Liberation'' - a top-down shooter for the PSP that takes place shortly after the first ''Killzone''.
** Also, the PS Vita game: ''Killzone: Mercenary''

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Let's face it-- given the backstory, neither the ISA nor the Helghast are ''completely'' justified in their actions.

** Rico's Leeroy Jenkins tendencies continue on in ''Killzone 3'', mixed in with AttackAttackAttack, as that's what he primarily has his Raiders do even when it seems like a bad idea. Somehow, it works, despite the fact that they should've all died after what he put them through. [[spoiler:He ''is'' called on killing Visari early on.]]

* RegeneratingHealth: The first game has partial regenerating health, where your health could only regenerate up to a certain amount at any one time. If you took more than that amount of damage in a single go, you'd have to find medikits to restore the rest. The later games all use the more common regenerate-health-to-full system.

* UpdatedReRelease: ''Killzone HD'' ports the original ''Killzone'' from Playstation 2 to Playstation 3, with improved performance and also updates the game to run in 16:9 widescreen rather than the old 4:3 format (this is noticeable as much more of the weapon model is visible). In comparison, running the original PS2 disc via backwards compatibility results in a stretched image.

* AwesomeYetImpractical: The Jetpack in Killzone 3. Though it is obviously useful for flying around, you can't crouch while using it, and using it to fly leaves you open to enemy fire. The Jetpack does have a machine gun with infinite ammo, but's rather inaccurate.

* DownerEnding[=/=]ShaggyDogStory: ''Killzone 2'', oh so very much. To iterate: [[spoiler: The team FINALLY makes it to Visari, and manages to kill Radec, the top General and Visiari's right hand man. Unfortunately, Visari pulls a BatmanGambit on Rico, and states that he will be martyrized in his death, sending the Helghast into a fury. Rico, broken over the deaths of his friends and comrades, ignores Sev's protests and kills him, basically ensuring that the Helghast will go apeshit. As Sev sits outside on the palace steps, a Helghast fleet flies into orbit, ready and willing to decimate the ISA forces still on the ground.]] ''Shit.''

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Colonel Cobar, General Metrac, and Colonel Radec.

* BattleCouple: Rico and Jammer in [=KZ3=], [[ShipTease possibly]].
* BaldOfEvil[=/=]BaldOfAwesome: The Helghast in general, except for General Metrac and Jorhan Stahl, who have hair.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Notable for taking a more hard sci-fi approach to its setting and the depiction of a futuristic war.
** However, there are many points where it regularly breaks into something much softer in one aspect or another. It's perhaps harder than most current scifi media.

* BadassBeard: Sev and Rico both grow one in the third game. Danner sports a chin curtain.

** Helghan is one in-universe, on account of being a barely hospitable DeathWorld with wrecked by an unstable climate, saturated with volatile and toxic substances, populated by hostile wildlife, and which would become the heart of a militaristic totalitarian regime hell-bent on revenge and racial supremacy. It gets worse post-Terracide as the planet-scaled devastation left the Helghan civilization all but obliterated, its surface a blasted wasteland littered with ruined cities while pockets of very angry and hostile Helghast survivors struggle to live underground.

* CentralTheme: The conflicts between the Helghast and the ISA and the history behind it exemplifies the fact that WarIsHell, often [[GreyAndGrayMorality fought by sides which are both justified and unjustified in their motives and deeds]] (some only a little [[ALighterShadeOfGrey better]] or [[ADarkerShadeofGray worse]] than others), and more often then not end in such a way they plant seeds of bitterness and vindictiveness which only serve to fuel a CycleOfRevenge that makes renewed conflict not only inevitable, but [[FromBadToWorse far worse than the previous one]], and in the process the warring sides push each other into becoming increasingly worse monsters as hatred accumulates between them with every atrocity perpetrated upon each other.

* CentralTheme: The conflicts between the Helghast and the ISA and the history behind it exemplifies the fact that WarIsHell, often [[GreyAndGrayMorality fought by sides which are both justified and unjustified in their motives and deeds]] (some only [[ALighterShadeOfGrey a little better than others]]), and more often then not end in such a way they plant seeds of bitterness and vindictiveness which only serve to fuel a CycleOfRevenge that makes renewed conflict not only inevitable, but [[FromBadToWorse far worse than the previous one]], and in the process the warring sides push each other into becoming increasingly worse monsters as hatred accumulates between them with every atrocity perpetrated upon each other.

* HalfBreedDiscrimination: New Helghan in ''Killzone: Shadowfall'' segregated "tainted" individuals and even deported them. Though same could be said to [[NotSoDifferent ISA side of Vekta]], which the said-exiled Half-Helghans were allowed back into New Helghan as a result.

** Also done to [[spoiler:General Adams]] who tries a NotSoDifferent on him.

** In the first game, [[spoiler:General Adams]] tries this with Hakha, declaring them NotSoDifferent. Hakha begs to differ.

** In Killzone 2, the scene where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YscGhJkb1J0 Radec confronts Templar]] can be described as: ''"A high ranking [[TheDragon Dragon]] wearing an elaborate mask and a dark uniform, boards an enemy ship flanked by two troopers, accompanied by a ominous music cue."'' [[Film/ANewHope Sound familiar]]?

* ShoutOut: Templar sometimes quotes ''Film/DirtyHarry'' and ''Series/TheATeam'' during battle.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: In Killzone 3, the ISA wants to end the war, and so is urging Narville to ''surrender his troops.'' To the ''Helghast.'' And yet expects the Helghast to abide by treaties and TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar.