Sony 's hype machine sure has done some numbers on their Killzone franchise. The originating title for the Playstation 2 was dubbed the "Halo Killer" and Sony actually had the bollocks to release it the week before Halo 2. Well, poor AI problems kept review scores down and Killzone from killing much of anything. Probably didn't help things that GTA: San Andreas and Metroid Prime 2 came out the same time as well. Now don't even get me started on the PS3 Killzone E3 2005 trailer! Real-time gameplay my behind! Sheesh! Anyhoo, somewhere amongst all this madness Guerilla Games has been working away on a port for the PSP entitled Killzone: Liberation. Let's try and figure out where the hype went.

Don't believe the hype!
Killzone: Liberation continues the story just a couple of months after the events from the first game. The evil Helghasts are stopping at nothing to regain control. The ISA calls back Jan Templar to undergo a covert mission to save hostages and fight the enemy.

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The developers decided to go with an isometric point of view, for the main reason that they're geniuses and realize that first person shooters don't work well on the PSP. The game sorta feels like the offspring of Neo Contra and Commando. All silliness aside, this view works quite well for this type of game. You can get a good overview of the playing field, which helps you plan your next course of attack.

A good chunk of the game is spent rescuing hostages and fellow solders. Finding health kits is vital to the success of your mission. You often have to choose whether to give the health to yourself or the person you're escorting. Giving health to another character is done via injection, which is a hoot. There are many weapons and even vehicles to commandeer. Plowing through everything with tanks is a blast and they could have almost made an entrire game based on that. Though I didn't get to play any of it, there are many multiplayer options, to boot.

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Who ya callin' tiny?
While the playing field is tiny, everything is beautifully detailed and the characters are well animated. Great sound effects and explosions add some excitement, but then here's the problem. The game doesn't get exciting very often. You spend a lot of time running around looking for people or items but not actually fighting. The Killzone AI curse returns as well. It was easy for me to trick the bad guys into getting stuck behind a wall or crate so I could annihilate them from afar. Aiming (both guns and grenades) is a little quirky at first, but you come to deal with it over time. There is a bit of slowdown at times, which is funny since the action doesn't really get all that hectic.

Killzone Killer?
Problems aside, Killzone: Liberation does possess a lot of potential. Those of you expecting a run n' gun type of game might be disappointed as I've never seen more than a handful of enemies on the screen at a time. This is more of an espionage side quest. Sneak around, kill a bad guy, complete your objective, go back home type of game. Looking forward to see how the multiplayer pans out in the final release. A game like this has a ton of possibilities in that area. We'll just have to wait and see when Killzone: Liberations is released this Halloween. '

-NakedBoB