Killzone 2 / Killzone 3
Oh how I miss Killzone. I was always a fan of the series, but the ending of the second game will always be a “moment” for me. I typically find it hard to follow along with fictional politics stuff, but that wasn’t the case in Killzone 2. After a satisfyingly sludgy first-person shooter campaign, the final moments sees Rico, always the most rash and foulmouthed character, act out of turn and murder Visari, Helghan’s dictator. I often wonder if Visari was intentionally taunting Sev and Rico to kill him. It’s hard to say, but I like that in an ending: something that keeps me guessing and thinking about the implications and character motivations after the credits roll.
Killzone’s politics and visual connections to real world political movements and conflicts is complicated, and to be honest, I don’t particularly know what to make of it all, even so many years later. But Visari’s final speech planted some doubt in my mind that anything I had done so far in the campaign was going to actually make a difference.
The fleet of new Helghast ships and the reality that the war is far, far from over, met with Sev’s casual motion of putting his gun down, taking a seat on the steps to Visari’s office with a gesture of, “well, now what?” always gets a bit of a laugh out of me. It feels quite human in that moment: when the situation is fucked and you have absolutely no idea what you can do as just one person.
Sadly, I cannot say the same about Killzone 3 which decided to essentially end its conflict by blowing up the planet. No resolution, and none of the unexpected drama of Rico’s reckless behavior in the second game. It just felt like a quick and lazy way to get out of a narrative someone wasn’t sure how to wrap up. — Claire Jackson
