Lookie! SIXAXIS! [Killzone 2]

For all those who preordered in the US and Canada from the Gamestop family, the Killzone 2 demo is out. It’s pretty cool, though if you really don’t like supporting Gamestop, I’d put my preorder in at Amazon.com because their preorder bonus (Home costumes) will last longer. The demo offered is only around 5 – 15 minutes long, depending on your aim and how much you like to run, which brings me to the topic of controls.

COD and Resistance have been my shooters of late, and often I’ll find myself blowing myself up with grenades or crouching or something when I just wanted to run. It’s a minor thing that I have to get used to each time I play one of them. In the Killzone 2 demo, running is COD style, clicking on the LS, and aiming is Resistance 1 style, clicking on the RS. Having moved on to Resistance 2 since though, I am glad that Killzone 2 offers up the option to change aim to the L1 button, which should make the transitions between playing R2, COD, and KZ2 that much easier.

I am disappointed though that of the six preset controller layouts available, none of them give you the option of reassigning the Crouch / Get into Cover button to something other than L2. Now, this isn’t the full game, and I don’t know what kind of balance there’s going to be there, but it seems like cover will be a big deal throughout the campaign, and L2 is just not a good button for actions that require you to hold it down for extend periods of time. So, here’s hoping for a patch for more controller options down the line.

Of course, there is no Cover button in multiplayer, so this may not be a big deal in the long run.

All in all, it’s a decent demo if you want to get a feel for the game. Other than that, it’s quite short, and we’ve seen all of this in trailers released long ago. If you absolutely must have the demo, Euro account or just waiting till the public release on the 26th are the way to go. Then you can get the Helghan Home costume! (Home will be cool. I promise.)

Oh, the SIXAXIS thing in the title? If you move the controller around during the load screen, it moves the screen. (see video) The effect is pretty cool. Like the first time you rotated around Issac’s holographic iventory display in Dead Space. Don’t get the demo for this of course. It’s just something to look for when the full game comes out.