, the highly anticipated Sony's Playstation 3 Sci-fi First Person Shooter has been reviewed by countless online sites and game magazines. while the current scores bode very well for the exclusive shooter, some of them give off a very strong sense of bias and favouritism, not something you would expect when dealing with the mass readership reviews influence.
Indeed no one can turn a blind eye to the journalism that has occupied Killzone 2 over the months leading up to it's release, some of which have indeed been pitiful to say the least, I won't mention any names but there have been a few websites who have gone out of their way to, for lack of a better term 'bash' Killzone 2, indeed for little sighted or justifiable reason.
And with the review scores rolling in, we can spot some of this bias still, firstly it seems like some reviewers believe it is their job to review a product based on what it doesn't have, now I have never quite understood this logic, killzone 2 is getting scored down for lacking a co-op mode, sure that would have been a great addition, but the fact is it isn't part of the game, therefore reviewers should not take points away for the lack of the feature, to further my point take a look at the reviews of Call of Duty 4, a great shooter in many ways, with an addicting multiplayer mode, the game did not have co-op, I repeat it did not have a co-op feature, yet it was barely mentioned in reviews, and even in reviews were it was brought up, points were usually not deducted. This is not the same with Killzone 2. If this applies to Killzone 2 then every shooter hence forth had better include a co-op mode, or we should expect the same to happen.
Secondly, it seems like Reviewers are missing the point of Killzone 2's gameplay, some are expecting the game to completely change the genre, this is however not the case, Killzone 2 is a shooter that does what shooters are supposed to do, and does them to a very high standard, neither Halo nor Call of duty 4, revolutionised the genre, yet they were never docked points for it. Reviewers say Killzone 2 is 'samey' with a weak story and cliche FPS techniques, I am sorry to once again disagree but I have never seen a more cliche War story than that of Call of Duty 4, and again nobody felt the need to mention it.
Moving on to graphics, this one is causing quite a stir, we all know just how good Killzone 2 looks, screenshots and videos of the game can testify to the claim that this is probably one of the best looking games of all time. The funny thing is some reviewers (again I wont call any names) seem to think that due to small niggles with the graphics here and there, that points should be dropped, is it me or are people being mightily harsh to what is the best looking console title in a while?
Some reviewers, sight some low resolution textures as a reason to dock points, failing to realise that every game has low resolution textures, again using Halo or COD4 as an example these games were praised for their great visuals at the time, but very few reviewers pointed out the low-res texture work in halo and cod4 of which there were a substantial number, but for some strange reason, Killzone 2 having low-res textures is a major problem. to avoid confusion here is what I am saying
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Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 were both great looking games at the respective times of their release, however they still had low-res textures and poor character models in some places, yet reviewers simply ignored them, Killzone 2 however, every low-res texture is spotted and the game is criticised'
I find it a little strange that arguably the best looking console title is getting scored less than a '10' for graphics. but hey, what can I do.
In conclusion I would like to point out that this doesn't apply to the majority of Killzone 2 reviews out there, just a substantial select few who choose to review this game differently, instead of looking at it as it's own individual game and grading it on that, in the past reviewers seemed to be impartial or fair with their reviews as they gave scores based on the game's merit, now things have certainly changed, there are sites who are straying from the pack and scoring this game unduly.
Note: I know it may seem like I care too much about reviews, but in all honesty I don't, The game is great, and I know this having tried it for myself, as I said in my other KZ2 article
here, Killzone 2 has lived up to it's expectations and it's a shooter any true shooter fan would enjoy.
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