KILLZONE 2 VS. HALO 3: We pit the two rival FPS powerhouses against each other in several categories to find out which is the superior sci-fi-themed shooter!
Six years ago, game pubs and the rest of video game playing world first heard about an ambitious new first-person shooter being developed for the PS2 by an Amsterdam-based studio no one had ever heard of. The game was called Killzone, and it was immediately hailed by numerous sources as having the potential to be a bona fide "Halo Killer."
The reality was that Killzone was not a video game that could be accurately labeled as something capable of squashing the Halo franchise, and this is coming from someone who used to play the original Killzone religiously with all my buddies for a solid year after its release.
Now that the reviews are in for Killzone 2 (read GamePro's perfect 5 out of 5 star review of Killzone 2), it's clear that Guerilla Games has finally delivered a game they can be proud of. From its riveting campaign to its robust multiplayer support, Killzone 2 nails just about everything they didn't quite achieve with their first game. But how does it compare to the last installment in the Halo series, Halo 3, the franchise it was originally set out to kill? Read on to find out.
Killzone 2 versus Halo 3
Table of Contents
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Ite BEGINS
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Round One: Protagonists
Halo 3
Halo's iconic hero, John-117 AKA "Master Chief" returns in Halo 3 after appearing in both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. Chief is a man of few words and is devoid of much of a personality. But by making MC such a mysterious fella with few perceivable characteristics, this empowers the player to relate to him no matter what. Master Chief has become such a recognizable video game protagonist over the years, but what do we really know about the guy? The answer is, not a whole lot, and that's the point.
Killzone 2
Though the first Killzone game's protagonist, ISA Captain Jan Templar, does make an appearance in the game, he's not a playable character in KZ2. In the sequel, he's replaced by a younger ISA sergeant, Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, a faux-hawk sporting soldier who's as tough as nails, but not exactly charismatic or even memorable.
THE WINNER: Halo 3
Some games have protags you remember, others you don't. Killzone 2 fits into the later group. The outcome of this first round of Killzone 2 vs. Halo 3 leaves Chief as the victor.
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Round Two: Story
Killzone 2
In a nutshell, Killzone 2's story is about a big showdown against the nefarious Helghast on their own home planet, which is ravaged by unpredictable lightning storms, spider-infested ghettos, and corpse-eating cockroaches the size of a man's head. Your mission is to take down the Helghast leader, a Adolf-Hitler wannabe named Scolar Visari.
Halo 3
Halo 3's plot is as hard to explain as a David Lynch film, but I'll briefly go over the basics. You play as Master Chief, the last Spartan alive, who crash lands into an African jungle on Earth at the beginning of the game. Your assignment is to stop the Covenant leader, the High Prophet of Truth from activating the Forerunner structure, in which case all hell will break loose. Multiple twists in the story arise, keeping the game interesting, including a moment at the end where it looks like Chief and Cortana are both dead.
THE WINNER: Halo 3
It's arguable that Halo 3's story is too convoluted for its own good, but the same could be about other video game giants like every game in the Metal Gear Solid franchise (I'm looking at you Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots). In the end, Halo 3's rich fictionalized alien races, intriguing conflicts, and diverse planets win over Killzone 2's rather straightforward backstory.
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Round Three: Weapons
Halo 3
Anyone who's played Halo 3 (or any Halo game for that matter) will tell you that the game's arsenal of weapons, which include imaginative guns used by both Halo's Covenant alien race as well as humans, are anything but conventional. From the pink-spike firing Needler gun to Halo's dual-bladed Energy Sword, Halo's weapons stash are some of the most original game weapons of all time.
Killzone 2
Killzone 2's weapons cache, which includes everything from guns that shoot electricity, flames, and metallic bolts, to more traditional guns like assault rifles and pistols, contains a lot of deadly weapons that feel excellent in your hands as you're blowing away Helghast enemies. For the most part, the game's weapons aren't vastly different from what you'd find in realistic shooters like Call of Duty, but we don't see this as a bad thing.
THE WINNER: Draw
Neither game's collection firearms are underwhelming by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they each offer something that the other doesn't. Halo 3's arsenal is more inventive as it's less based on real world guns, while Killzone 2's weapons are more realistic and feel a whole lot deadlier in your hands.
Round Four: Enemies
Killzone 2
It's not hard to spot who the enemy is in Killzone 2. Your gas mask- donning foes come in several varieties, but they all retain that basic look: glowing red eyes, smooth black Darth Vader-like suits, and booming voices that sound like they're gargling broken glass.
Halo 3
Halo 3's enemy roster is not as simple as Killzone 2's. In the game, you're faced against several different breeds of enemy including the grotesquely-misshapen The Flood, gorilla-sized savages called Brutes, miniaturized low-level enemies called Grunts, and several others.
THE WINNER: Killzone 2
Quantity conquers quality in Round IV of Killzone 2 vs. Halo 3, as Halo 3's colorful assortment of enemies doesn't quite compare to the unforgettably diabolical Helghast.
Round Five: Single Player
Halo 3
Halo 3's single-player mode has many of the same elements that Killzone 2 does: vehicle missions to break up the pace of the game, visits to exotic and extremely perilous fictionalized planets, and even a few boss battles sprinkled in there to spice things up. One thing Halo 3's campaign has that its competitor doesn't is cooperative support that allows you to play through the main game with up to three of your buddies online.
Killzone 2
I've played through just about every FPS game's campaign from the original Doom to Crysis and I have never been as blown away by a game's single-player mode as I have with Killzone 2's. From its brilliant mission variety, to its face-meltingly intense vehicle missions, to its riveting massive shootouts, Killzone 2 depiction of futuristic warfare is unmatched.
THE WINNER: Killzone 2
While Halo 3's chief focus is definitely on its full-bodied multiplayer experience, its single-player campaign is nothing to scoff at. Ultimately, it can't beat out Killzone 2's breathtakingly epic campaign that has the same high energy as an A-grade action film.
Round Six: Multiplayer
Killzone 2
Killzone 2 features an immensely customizable multiplayer experience, one that includes clan matches, an exhaustive trophy system, and various character classes you can play as like invisibility-suited Scouts, medics, engineers, and several others. You can even wager bets on the outcome of matches to earn points.
Halo 3
Even nearly two years after its release, Halo 3 remains one of the most played games overall on Xbox Live--last year it was ranked the #1 game played online on Xbox 360. From the numerous addictive multiplayer modes that everyone loves like Oddball, King of the Hill, and of course Slayer, to new incredibly fun game types like Rocket Race VIP where teams of two ride together on mongooses while one player shoots rockets from its back, Halo 3's multiplayer has a lot to offer.
THE WINNER: Killzone 2
Though not tried and true as Halo's multiplayer experience, Killzone 2's multiplayer wins Round VI, giving it a one round lead over Halo 3 so far in this match up. I'm confident that gamers will be sucked into Killzone 2's Call of Duty-caliber multiplayer experience.
Final Round: Extras/Replayability/Overall
Halo 3
One of Halo 3's best extra modes is Forge, where players can tailor their very own multiplayer experience, setting up everything they want in the game from specific rules to the vehicles available on the map. Its replay value is high too-even though the game is somewhat dated and not as sexy as say Call of Duty: World at War/Call of Duty 4. It's still played a great deal online and many gamers will continue to play it even after Halo 3: ODST releases.
Killzone 2
Killzone 2 doesn't have any crazy modes outside its single-player and multiplayer options, but the years it's taken for Guerilla Games to polish and perfect this beast of a first-person shooter's two main game types really shows.
WINNER: Killzone 2
If I had to recommend just one of the two FPS behemoths, Killzone 2 would the one. It is the superior FPS game. Some might say that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare would be a better match up against Killzone 2 due to it being a newer, more relevant FPS game, but when you think of the PS3's definitive FPS you think Killzone 2 and when you think of the Xbox 360's you most likely think of Halo 3.
Killzone 2 Wins: 4
Halo 3 Wins: 2
Ties: 1
OVERALL WINNER: KILLZONE 2
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WOW....shocked to see Killzone 2 wins
obviously THIS is not the opinion of the majority!
WHAT DO YOU THINK VG CHARTZ
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