Well, my impressions after completing the game and playing 2 hours online shows about the same. Loading is this game is super annoying, especially when it pauses for up to 10 seconds while the little "saving" icon flashes. The graphics are phenomenal! The gameplay is.... just another shooter with a story that has no big surprises and nothing we haven't seen before (but no game does this anymore so no biggie). The aiming mechanics are simply wrong. It makes it impossible to make small little adjustments without wasting a lot of time. It makes it very difficult to snipe and makes close quarters combat very complicated since you eventually begin turning too fast to stop where you want. The online, now THAT is a great experience. Although, as stated, NO ONE uses the sites except to shoot stationary targets. I only used the sights to pick people off who were camping. Other than that it was all run, gun, and fire from the hip.

Now, the online is still mounds of fun! I love how it transitions and does basically 7 "rounds" of different game modes. It never ends the action and offers a large variety of options. Squads don't ever get used, and if you have an invite, you can't even tell unless you check the squad tab. You can't change your main weapon very easily after death. Basically the only time you will ever want/need a squad is if you have 4 buddies and want to play, which means you have to join the game separately, which is another annoying part. Luckily when you are finding a game they give you the option to join a friend, but I'd still like to see them patch in a party system.

So all in all, the game is great and fun, but to say those things the OP nitpicked on are not a big deal, is also wrong. These things do take away quite a bit. It's mostly why this game is only a 91 or 92 on meta scores. The online is the best of any PS3 game, though, and the 6-7 hour campaign is still fun despite these issues.

How I miss the lightning gun, but the gun I probably ended up using every reasonable chance I got was the flamethrower. That is simply one of the best flamerthrowers ever to grace game, I love the way the napalm is fired!

Graphics: Outstanding nothing else to say about them. I honestly never noticed any low quality textures on the indoor environments, they looked great to me. Not consistent?? what game were you playing? the whole game looked great to me. Actually most other shooters have a lot less consistency than KZ2 (and id think that would be a lot easier if a game didn't have much detail to begin with). Well I think the large battles are much better done than CoD4, that would be the closest competitor.

cover system: I thought it was really good, certain things would only block partially and leave you vulnerable, other things would give full cover- I never experienced 'full cover' from things that shouldn't have been. You don't see cover systems that often in FPS and it certainly added to the experience for me. It is a stretch to say that the system is plain awful - seems you went out of your way to bash something that doesn't really hold much effect on the game (with reguards to having to re-scope; wasn't that hard for me. Were you playing with the default control scheme?).

AI: Squad mates were never really that helpful on their own, but they do bail you out from time to time. The AI of the helghast was something I've never seen before at their level - I was impressed - this is what really made the game feel a lot less like 'just another shooter' to me. In my experience I was never able to charge in very successfully; the helghast would just gun me down too quickly, the only time I could do it is if there was only 1-2 guys.

Aiming: I thought it wasn't that bad, I think most people are most frustrated by the lack of it auto aiming instead of the perceived 'lag' most will mention. Yea you miss to the side and it can be tough to line up shots, but it's like that in other games with 2 analogue sticks; this game just doesn't have the aim assist they do. I think most people didn't realize the games they played in the past actually had this incorporated and got used to it.

Loading: The mid level pauses i got were usually 1 second at most with a few 2 seconds max. Yea they're there, but its always in a safe spot I don't see how it takes you away from the immersion of the game unless you're being very nitpicky. I know i wouldn't rather wait a whole minute or more to load it up, just so it didn't give a 1 second pause mid level.

The soundtrack is usually a big deal to me and this game delivered one of the best I've heard in a while, the sniper level music is amazing. Why don't other games have action music playing like this in the background? It really took the game to another level for me.

Many people didn't like the story; I actually thought it was pretty good, nothing too hard to understand, a few 'moments.' I really dug the 'starship troopers' type feeling the game sent.
Sometimes I'd prefer a game's story didn't have too much to remember, if it is i tend to lose track whats going and in turn, i end up not caring about whats going on. It seems like now days people expect the story to be on par with the Best movies in Hollywood, you have to remember there's a ton of movies with mediocre plots in them too, they are the majority. The story segments are done very well and not too long or too short. The pacing between story and gameplay felt just right to me. I could see how people would get really irritated by Rico's explicit personality, I thought it was fitting for the game honestly; I mean c'mon you're fighting a huge war, killing hundreds of these guys, people are dieing all over the place - there's no room to be anything but ruthless, yes he would be swearing all the time, I find it unrealistic when they don't swear.

@nightsurge: i got a squad invite last night by some random guy It showed me on the main screen, i didn't have to go to another menu.

@OP you've only played 2 hours. Trust me, the graphics get better as the game progresses IMO. I loved the enemy AI personally too. Online is where it's at though. It's just too much fun.

@Dbot: Sorry, didn't realise there was one

@the next 3 replies afterwards:

I was expecting these types of responses. I'm not saying I was flamebaiting, it's just that there's a tendency for people to think that Killzone 2 is perfect, and an opinion other than that is wrong. Also, it's an impressions thread about my initial thoughts and initial impact of the game, so I don't think 2 hours is premature. Like I said, it's not my final opinion.

Furthermore, given that Killzone 2's positive are fairly obvious, I thought I'd give my take on what's not so good, considering that's what will determine how much people like/dislike the game

@AE86:

I'm sorry you feel that way, but like I said, I thought I'd touch on what I thought people wanted to know.

@Staude:

Thanks, I'm glad there's a least one person that realised it is my opinion and I'm glad that you did say you don't feel the same way, hopefully I'll get used to how things work in this game.

@Kanariya:

I'm fairly certain that I thoroughly enjoyed MGS4 (loved), R1 (liked) and R2 (really liked). I also really like Uncharted, except I hammer down on it alot because whilst it's a great game, I don't think it deserves the hyperbole. Uncharted is probably the only game I talk about that I probably bashing undeservedly.

@Rainbird:

Yeah that's exactly what I want from the cover system aswell. I'm hoping that my negative view from the start gets better once I get more used to it, but it just feels unintuitive to me.

@SnakeEyez:

I look foward to multiplayer, but I think the single player later on will give me a better impression (after I get used to it and all).

@Robo6021:

Sorry, I should have made it clear, when I was talking about KZ2 I was comparing it to AAA games (which I think it is a part of). In that sense, it's consistency is not as great (not saying it's bad) compared to other games, but when the graphics are good, they are the best, it's just that they aren't always like that (but when they're "bad" they are pretty damn good still).

About the loading, I think where Guerilla chose the loading spots was great, you're right, they aren't in the middle of battle or anything. What annoys me is that they opted for that to begin with, the loads do actually break up the fluidity of the game. You don't see those sorts of things in MGS4, Cod4 and Halo 3, they are all such a seamless experience.

Also, they aren't 1 second (not always), but they aren't overly long, but they have broken up the flow of the game for me thus far.

BUT, I should say they aren't a deal breaker for me, it's just one of the things that hit me first when I started playing

@Pristine20:

I'd be really surprised if the graphics got better, I really would, but that's something to look forward too. Yeah the enemy AI is something else at times, it really is.

Damn, sorry, 2 long posts in 1 thread. Just a lot to reply to.

You can change the settings so you hold zoom, but that only really works if you change zoom to L1, I disagree with much of the stuff you say, but unfortunately I have a history essay to do, but I must admit when you called the controls crap, and I really don't get your complaints about the cover system

I am surprised you bought it in the first place. Quite a positive impression coming from you.

@Rob
Is it just up for like a second, and does it show up while you are battling in the main screen? Perhaps I just missed it because I never saw it. Either that or perhaps they invited me before the match began.

Also, I actually did notice some auto aim. It is definitely there. It isn't like auto aim where it moves the cursor for you, though. The auto aim that I noticed in the campaign was it actually moved your bullets. I saw many times where my aim was not aligned, and yet the shots still hit somehow. A few times my cursor did move by itself when someone ran across, but I think those were either me moving it and not noticing, or some random glitch because I only saw it do that like 2 times.

As far as the lack of auto aim in multi-player and campaign, those are not why the controls are annoying. They are annoying because when you turn, your controller does not stop turning immediately, and does not turn fast immediately on pressing it. This is fine for when there is some distance between you and your target, but when it comes to close quarters and you are trying to melee, it makes it impossible to turn and melee the way you want. Lack of auto aim is fine as long as the aiming reticule would stop when I stop and start as soon as I start with a consistent speed. I've gotten used to it for the most part... it just makes it impossible to aim during close quarters combat and meleeing.

I actually really like the controls.

As for the textures, I can't think of another FPS on consoles that does them better. TPS, however, is a different story, but looking at the textures from a third person perspective would be akin to looking at the ground textures in Killzone 2 while standing on top a table. It's just the camera position that makes them look better, as you're not looking at them as closely.

Great impressions, though.   My main complaint is the fact that you can only carry one main weapon, as well as a few things in multiplayer.  You can join a friend's game rather easily, but you can't invite your friends to your newly created game.  I'm forced to send out messages via PSN, and only half even bother to respond because they most likely didn't notice that they got a message.

Oh yeah! I forgot that was my main gripe in the game! Only one main weapon? Come on! I need an assault + smg or assault + snipe or assault + rocket! Not assault + pistol!