YMMV / Killzone

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Based on the backstory, one could infer that the ISA and UCN are the villains, for their unfair treatment of the corporations sent to colonize other planets for natural resources, especially to the Helghan Corporation. The Helghast, on the other hand, were trying to break off from the UCN's corruption but fell victim to Peace Through Superior Firepower, which forced them to flee to Helghan, adapt and become the militaristic culture that they are in order to survive and resist the UCN's tyranny. Admittedly, while becoming tyrannical themselves.
  • The one-sentence description for Killzone 3 on Giant Bomb offers a very anti-ISA interpretation: "Killzone 3 continues the story of the invasion of the planet Helghan by the oppressive forces of the merciless Interplanetary Strategic Alliance."
• Anti-Climax Boss: One can use the flamethrower to burn Radec in 2, and his boss battle will then only consist of him screaming and flailing in agony (leaving him unable to attack) whilst the player continuously shoots him until he runs out of health, which then triggers his death cutscene.
  • In the original, General Adams isn't very tough, being fairly immobile and taken out with two explosive shots on even the hardest difficulty
• Awesome Video Game Levels: Killzone 2 is practically made of them, highlights include:
  • Beating back the assault troops that have attacked the New Sun.
  • Taking control of a small mecha and tearing through the Badlands searching for survivors from the previous level.
  • And the last level where you storm Visari's palace.
  • The entire stage in Killzone 3 when you work to bring down the MAWLR.
  • The final segment of the Jungle level, where hundreds of Higs start swarming you, slowly pushing you back in a massive gunfight.
• Complete Monster: The conflict between The Helghast and the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) has produced several ruthless villains from both sides:
  • Killzone 3 & Shadow Fall: Chairman Jorhan Brimve Stahl takes the reigns of de facto leadership of the Helghast after Scolar Visari's death. A weapons manufacturer who tests his newest weapons on captive prisoners of war, Stahl uses his men as expendable pawns. After gleefully murdering his chief rival, Stahl makes preparations to bomb Earth and leaves his own armies to die. Surviving the conflict, Stahl makes plans to initiate "The Terracide" on the chief human homeworld to kill anything with human blood, even members of his own species. Backing terrorism, murder and genocidal science, Stahl repeatedly shows his only loyalties are to himself and his twisted greed and notions of strength.
  • Shadow Fall:
    • Thomas Sinclair is the bigoted director of the Vektan Security Agency and Lucas Kellan's commander until he turns on Lucas when the latter sides with the Helghan Echo. Bringing an ISA armada to Jorhan Stahl's hideout, Sinclair sacrifices his forces to Stahl's bioweapon while he infiltrates Stahl's base to steal the weapon, killing Stahl and Lucas in the process. Sinclair would then rally Vektans to go against the Helghasts, planning to create another war between the two sides and use the bioweapon to wipe out the entire Helghan race, uncaring about the millions of casualties he might cause as long as he could satisfy his hatred towards the Helghasts.
    • Vladko Tyran, leader of the Black Hand, a Helghast terrorist group, is introduced via a massive terrorist bombing aimed at soldiers and civilians alike. Tyran has human hostages taken and orders them executed while loading captured trains with explosives and sending them to the city to kill as many people as possible. Tyran functions as Stahl's chief subordinate to pull off the Terracide, viewing humans as inferiors who deserve nothing less than extermination while attempting to shatter the peace between Helghast and human to send both sides in a brutal, pointless war. Tyran vows not to stop until "the streets run red" with human blood.
    • Dr. Hillary Massar is the human who views the Helghast as "superior" species and believes the inferior must be annihilated. Using her scientific genius, Massar experiments fatally on innocent beings to develop a plague that will kill everything of Terran blood, no matter how small. Massar relished the point when it would be destroyed, killing all humans except for herself.
  • Spinoffs:
    • Liberation: General Armin Metrac is a sadistic warmonger tasked with conquering Southern Vekta for the Helghast. Already taking the eastern part of Southern Vekta and murdering thousands in his wake, soldiers and civilians alike, Metrac would kidnap VIPs of the ISA—Interplanetary Strategic Alliance—planning to kill them unless ISA Forces leave Southern Vekta, a threat he makes good on when he tortures one to death. Having also convinced ISA General Dwight Stratson into handing him the ISA nuclear weapons, Metrac intents to use the weapons on Southern Vekta, potentially killing millions, while also kidnapping scientist Evelyn Batton and Sergeant Rico Velasquez, torturing the former to extract the nuclear codes and framing the latter for the nuclear attack. Eventually killed by Jan Templar, Armin Metrac is revealed to have sent the nuclear weapons to Scolar Visari, allowing Visari to use the weapons to nuke the Helghast capital Pyrrhus.
    • Mercenary: Colonel Vyktor Kratek is a ruthless Helghast officer with genocidal plans for the people of Vekta. Introduced torturing Admiral Grey, killing prisoners with gas to torment her and almost fatally shooting her in the head, Kratek retreats to Vekta where he forces Dr. Savic to create a virus for him by threatening his family. Testing the virus on petty criminals arrested in the slums, Kratek wanted to make it as virulent as possible to destroy all life on Vekta. When Savic retreats to the Vektan Embassy to defect with the virus's trigger, Kratek attacks it to retrieve him, ordering his men to kill the unarmed ambassador and his wife while sparing their son Justus since he is innocent—later revealing Kratek doesn't really care, giving permission for the boy to be "disposed of" in the final mission. Forcing the mercenary Arran Danner to work for him, Kratek tries to kill him when he outlives his usefulness, hypocritically claiming that "betrayal has its own price". Having no loyalty to his own claimed standards, Kratek is nothing more than a mass murderer and among the Helghan Empire's worst.
• Contested Sequel:
  • Killzone 3 is either seen as Even Better Sequel by some players and critics such as Jim Sterling for its improved visuals, chaotic nature and multiplayer refinements, or as a disappointing follow-up for going for a more fantastic approach with its science fiction elements, downplaying the slower paced movement and gunplay of Killzone 2, and featuring a short and abrupt campaign mode.
  • Killzone Shadow Fall is perhaps the most contested title in the series, and it is either seen as a great evolution of the series, or as a severe case of Sequelitis. Fans either praise it for its more Darker and Edgier tone, significant departure from the more buddy military of the previous games and a more vibrant color palette, in addition to a larger level design that allows for more freedom. Detractors criticize its rushed and convoluted plot, its hasty world-building and for doubling-down on the changes started by Killzone 3.
• Creator's Pet:
  • Rico, who's a loudmouthed, annoying asshole who does a nice job breaking things. In addition, his AI can be summed up as "get shot, and get shot often", and the player is NOT allowed to abandon his injured ass at any point for being stupid, he MUST be revived. He is severely disliked by the fandom as a result. This could be intentional - to offset Sev's measured approach, and ultimately show the futility of aggression for aggression's sake, as well as how blindly running in like an idiot is a poor tactic. The developers have Rico getting some Character Development in the third game but many considered it too late by them.
  • In the third game, the plot can be almost completely summed up as "Rico is always right". While Captain Narville is trying to save his men from getting killed senselessly by ordering retreats and ceasing of gunfire, Rico instead keeps insisting that they go on the offensive. However, Rico ends up being the one who the team listens to, and Sev even states that Rico's ideas are the only ones that will guarantee a chance of survival. This is the same Rico that not only got Garza killed, but also killed Visari when the mission was to capture him alive.
• Cult Classic: Killzone Mercenary has a small but vocal following and is frequently referred to not only as the best shooter game on the PlayStation Vita, but the best PlayStation Vita game period.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Radec is one of the series' most popular characters. He's so popular that he got to represent Killzone in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and not one of the protagonists.
  • Garza is pretty popular as well, mainly because of his laid-back personality and witty wisecracks.
  • Jammer has also become fairly popular, with people doing artwork of her and writing fanfics about her.
  • Kowalski, mainly because he looks like Dusty. Ironically his model was a left over from the 2007 version of Killzone 2, as visible in the second trailer, in which he was the original model for Garza, with Garza's model being used for a rookie replaced by a generic soldiers in the final version. This means that his model actualy precedes Dusty.
  • Lucas and Echo have become greatly memorable for their roles in Shadowfall. Both were willing to defy their sides' orders in order to do what's right and stop the Vektans and Helghasts from starting another war that would destroy them both.
• Evil Is Cool: The Helghast are so beloved that a common fan request for each game is a Helghast campaign. Killzones 2, 3, and Shadowfall have the Helghast in awesome-looking full-body armor, while the ISA... look like modern-day troopers with modern gear. At least the first game had some futurism for the ISA.
• Game-Breaker: The Helghast Rocket Launcher in the first game (especially in multiplayer). Its primary fire is powerful enough, but its secondary fire launches all four barrels, and has a wide area of effect.
  • Rico's machine gun. Not only does it do an ungodly amount of damage, it has a rocket launcher as its alt fire.
  • Luger's sub-machine gun. It does better damage than Jan or Hakha's rifle, and has much less recoil to boot, making headshots a snap.
• Goddamned Bats: Helghast Shock Troopers in the second game. Jesus fuck, stop running around and take your lead suppository like a man!
• Growing the Beard: While the first game isn't really that bad, it's commonly regarded as an ordinary 2000s FPS that didn't bring anything new to the table. The second game was a massive improvement in every aspect and turned the series into one of Sony's most beloved franchises.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: As the events of Killzone 3 show, the ISA were in no position to safely extract Visari if they had taken him alive, and his death ended up fracturing the Helghan leadership and putting Stahl in a position where he was able to destroy the entire freakin planet!. So in a weird way, Rico shooting Visari actually worked out, although Rico had absolutely no way of knowing that at the time.
• Inferred Holocaust:
  • Killzone 3's ending. Stahl's own superweapon is set off, by the heroes stopping him and in the aftermath, Jammer notes that the entire planet has fallen silent. Shadowfall confirms that some of the Helghast managed to evade their homeworld's destruction.
• Magnificent Bastard: Mercenary: Blackjack is an Arms Dealer with no loyalty to either the ISA or the Helghast and whose primary motive is profit, yet is affable, charming and with a code of honour, morally objecting to the creation and use of a virus that could wipe out all life on a planet. Assisting Danner throughout the campaign, even when Danner is falsely labelled a traitor to Vekta and forced to work for Colonel Vyktor Kratek, Blackjack continues to sell him weapons and tools and eventually saves the day by hijacking Danner's comms, leading him and the boy Justus to safety and orchestrating to destruction of the virus. Ending the game by wiping out records of Danner's and Justus' pasts to help them evade capture, Blackjack will continue to profit from the war between Vekta and Helghan.
• Narm:
  • The repetitive Helghast dialogue from the first game.
  • Somewhat parodied when you first use the sniper rifle against a Helghast ambush. An infantry soldier's death (the guy on the rooftop) causes an anguished (and somewhat annoyed) "NOOOOOO!!! NOT HIM!! He was just a boy!!"
• Polished Port: If you have to play the original game, whether via digital means or the ''Killzone Trilogy' release that puts the whole series on one disk, the HD remaster is hands-down the definitive way to play it, with more stable performance and visuals overall that dwarf the PS2 version.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Some people began warming up to Rico after his much-needed character development in Killzone 3. Throughout the game, he constantly goes out of his way to rescue other major characters, including Jammer, Sev, and Narville (whom he saves twice). Not only that, but he also Takes a Level in Badass by becoming the leader of the Raiders, a squad of guerilla-style ISA soldiers who performed a hit-and-run attack on Stahl Arms Deep South. During gameplay, he can also revive the player using a defibrillator, but only when he's close enough, which can be a bit annoying at times.
• Rooting for the Empire: The Helghast are way more popular than the ISA for various reasons. Sony realized this for Killzone 2, and made them the focus of the promotion, and much more explicitly sympathetic. Shadowfall goes even farther to humanize them, and to point out the ISA doesn't have clean hands themselves. Also, the last mission lets us play as one for the first time.
• The Scrappy: Rico, probably the most hated character in the series amongst the fandom, due to both his attitude and his Artificial Stupidity as an in-game ally. However, he has had some redemption in Killzone 3, where he realized how much damage his actions really caused and tries to atone for them by rescuing his friends and taking better care of their lives.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Opinion was divided on the "weighted weapons" of Killzone 2; some found the acceleration and momentum added a realistic feeling to shooting, while others found it made aiming feel clumsy. It was toned down significantly for the sequel.
  • The damage system can be annoying during the campaign. It goes like this, the damage output varies depending on the range of the shot, you can kill and be killed in three-to-four hits at close range, five-to-six at medium range and six-to-seven at long range depending on the diffilculty, causing unavoidable deaths in the campaign when you're surprised by an enemy in the middle of a battle.
  • Adjusting your sniper rifle's zoom level while in cover is a real pain to say the least. Releasing the left thumbstick causes you to duck back into cover, so in order to reach the D-pad you either have to use your middle finger to hold down L2 while using your index finger to operate the D-pad or take your right index finger off the trigger button. Thankfully, the third game doesn't require you to hold the thumbstick forward to keep aiming, freeing up your thumb to use the D-pad.
• Scrappy Weapon: The Helghast machine gun in Killzone, while perfectly serviceable in the campaign due to its plentiful ammo and large clip, severely lags behind in the multiplayer mode. Given that guns and ammo spawn in fixed locations for players to obtain, the machine gun being one of the few spawned weapons that has no means of delivering a One-Hit Kill (every other weapon barring your starting pistol is either explosive, a shotgun, or a sniper weapon, or at least has a Secondary Fire with one of those functions), so players that know the map would likely rather beeline for any other weapon than something that's only marginally better than the assault rifle you spawn with and will likely lose a direct fight with, say, a grenade launcher or its ISA counterpart. If you're playing as Helghast, it doesn't even have that going for it since Helghast players spawn with one shell for their underslung shotgun to let them delete the first enemy that gets up close and personal with them.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: In Killzone 3, you can survive noticeably less damage than in Killzone 2. This is balanced out by having your squadmates being able to revive you from "last stand" a total of 3 times before you die for real. However, being downed still counts as a death as far as the game's stat counter is concerned (not to mention being a blow to your ego), so your campaign stats will show a lot more deaths in Killzone 3 than Killzone 2.
• Sequelitis: Downplayed, but both Killzone 3 and Killzone: Shadow Fall are far more contested in some circles for not building on Killzone 2's gameplay and atmosphere in significant way, instead straying away in favor of more popular trends. Neither is generally considered a bad game (Killzone 3 particularly is very beloved in circles of the fandom), but the general opinion is that Killzone 2 is the series' peak.
  • Killzone: Mercenary generally avoided this, with particular praise being given to its quality as a handheld title after several unsuccessful first-person shooters on the PlayStation Vita. It is generally well-liked within the fanbase for maintaining several stylistic and mechanical choices from the first two games.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: After months of being hyped up as a "Halo killer" (that's what it was often referred to), a good deal of backlash set in when Killzone for PlayStation 2 turned out to be an okay but too ambitious shooter with numerous issues (sluggish controls, low enemy variety, repetitive voice acting, graphical issues, inconsistent framerate, etc). The game attracted a devoted fanbase, but in general became almost a byword for hubris in the FPS genre. With the sequel, it aimed to be the Killer App for the PS3, which was a slightly less lofty goal than dethroning what could be the most popular FPS series of the decade. But this time, they delivered. It was universally acclaimed by critics and fans as a much superior title, gaining a rare 91/100 on Metacritic.
• Tear Jerker:
  • A small one in 2, Garza's death. Damn you, Rico.
  • In Mercenary, Justus Harkin saw his parents getting killed by the Helghast. It doesn't help that Justus is a child.
  • Similarly, In Shadowfall, Lucas watches his father get killed right in front of him. Like Justus, he was also a kid when it happened.
  • Also in Shadowfall, when Kellan infiltrates New Helghan in order to assassinate Tyran, we get a glimpse of what life is like on the other side of the wall, in which we see Helghast civilians living in ghetto-like conditions while being monitored constantly by security forces. After five games in which the Helghast have been portrayed primarily as faceless Mooks, seeing them as actual people for the first time, scared and just trying to survive is a truly sobering experience.
• That One Boss:
  • Radec. Unless the player has a flamethrower-see Anti-Climax Boss above.
  • Anders Benoit in Killzone Mercenary. And rightfully so. He uses the Carapace shield, a 3-round burst sniper rifle and spends the first half of his fight on top of his Intruder. Once you grounded him? You have to stun him by shooting fuel rods Justus raises. And for the entirety of the fight, he can call for backup. On the bright side, you can scavenge their ammo and Benoit's Carapace averts The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard and temporarily deactivates every time he shoots, allowing the player to get in a shot of their own.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • In general, the secondary fire function of all the weapons from Killzone were removed in the later games; many of those functions were very useful, and their removal is a noticeable downgrade.
  • The ISA machine gun. It now needs to reload and doesn't shoot rockets, on the plus side it no longer overheats if you fire it for too long.
  • The Helghast pistol also lost its burst fire mode, the Helghan assault rifle lost its Masterkey-like shotgun attachment, and the Helghast missile launcher was reduced from 3 tubes to one tube, though that's probably in the name of balance as the original ones Secondary Fire modes were a bit over powered.
  • The Helghast machine gun is now extremely inaccurate, quite unlike in the first game, and you can't even aim it at the risk of making it a Game-Breaker. They gave it pinpoint accuracy again in 3, but only when crouched or shooting from cover.
  • The Helghast Assault Rifle in 2 lost it's scope and was downgraded to iron sights, while being generally average. In 3, they added the scope back.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Saric from Shadow Fall; he is an intimidating character similar to Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, yet he only appears in a total of two scenes.
• Tough Act to Follow: While Killzone 3 and Shadow Fall received positive reviews and have their fans, Killzone 2 remains the series' unambiguous high point for many critics and players. It was praised for its impressive graphics and significant improvements over the original game while still retaining many of the aspects that attracted people to Killzone 1 such as the slower-paced movement and deliberate shooting design. Killzone 3 and Killzone Shadow Fall, while not considered bad titles, often get criticized for gradually stripping some of the elements that Killzone 2 ironed out.
• Vindicated by History: Several major instances over the years:
  • The original 2004 game was a victim of the hype machine that Sony fueled against Halo, and received a mixed reception upon release. However, as time went on, Killzone was praised for its setting, atmosphere and art direction, which was seen by players as unique and distinctive in comparison to other shooter games at the time. Sony's decision to pursue sequels for the game eventually helped propelling Killzone into one of the PlayStation brand more notable IPs, and the game was eventually released on PS3 in 2012.
  • Similar to its forerunner, Shadow Fall received generally mixed reviews upon release. While several critics thought it was a solid launch title, most complained that the game lacked innovation and noticed faults in the writing and AI. The game was also met with mixed responses from fans for its changes to the franchise's formula and presentation. Years later, with the Killzone franchise laying dormant and the PS4 lacking first-person shooter exclusives (in comparison to the PS3 era, which between Killzone and Resistance saw five major releases to the genre), fans saw Shadow Fall in new light. The game is now praised for its still impressive visuals, art direction, Grey-and-Gray Morality premise and themes, which many see as novel and relevant to today's political and social issues.
  • The series as a whole received this from PlayStation players, what with its last two entries releasing back in 2013, and Guerrilla seemingly moving on to work on its new franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn. Even before that, Killzone found newfound fans for its dark presentation and unique sci-fi look, in no small part thanks to the strong reception of its second installment which put the franchise on the map. Fans have been clamoring for a continuation for years, and hope that Guerrilla's new multiplayer-focused game is related to Killzone.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • While the first game was a victim of Special Effects Failure due to its rushed development schedule and the weaker tech of the PS2, the the other two games became prime examples of how powerful the PS3 can be; it took almost ten years and a full console generation for games to start consistently looking better than Killzone 2, primarily due to the strength of its art design and lightning engine. Shadow Fall brought this trope to another level on the PS4, and it seems to hold up pretty well for a launch title even when compared to more recent Sony titles.
  • Mercenary deserves a special mention for bringing near-PS3 quality graphics to a handheld console.

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