Killzone is one of the flagship, first party games for Sony and the PlayStation brand. It’s never been as huge as Microsoft’s Halo series, but it has been a solid franchise, that mostly lives in the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre for many years. The series follows a war that rages between Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) and the Helghan Empire.
Killzone 2 takes the fight to the planet Helghan, as you take on the role of Sergeant Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko and battle through the Helghan army in order to reach Helghast leader, Scolar Visari, capture him and bring the Helghast war machine to a halt. You make your way through the Helghan environment, on the trail of Visari and you cross paths with Visari’s Imperial Guard leader – Colonel Mael Radec. The chase for Visari ends with Sev traversing through Visari’s Palace, culminating in a final battle with Radec.
You enter the main hall which has two levels, connected by locked stairwell doors. The Radec battle is split into two parts. The first sees you battle more Heghan army troops, who enter via doors surrounding the upper level, while Radec sporadically teleports around the hall. The fight escalates when access to the upper level becomes available and troops begin to surround you, the player and begin to use heavy gauge weapons, such as rocket launchers. This first part of the fight is very tough especially on the higher difficulties, as enemies use assault rifles, sniper rifles and explosive based weapons throughout. Once you hit the checkpoint cutscene, then you move onto part two.
Part two of the battle, sees you take on Radec alone. This is where it can be truly difficult, as Radec teleports randomly around the area, shooting at and then charging at you with a knife. If he catches you, he will kill you instantly. There are several tactics that can be employed here, each with varying degrees of success, but I recommend backing against a corner wall, load up the shotgun, watch for blue lights and unload the shells into Radec the second you spot him. Any hesitation will result in death for the player. An added challenge this fight is a bronze trophy for completing the overall fight in less than 20 minutes. This can be a daunting challenge for your first attempt, if you aren’t too skilled at shooting or are behind cover for long periods of time, but can be easily obtained in later retries of the fight.
Eventually you will succeed and be treated to the final set of cut scenes. Radec goes out of the game on his own terms, leaving him sprawled on the floor and you walk into Visari’s throne room, where your buddy Rico takes him out mid speech. The game ends with an inevitable setup for a sequel of all out war with the Helghast army, which would release as Killzone 3.