Part 8: Suljeva Village
CJacobs joins us again, for the halfway point in the game. Up until now, the entirety of Killzone 2 has taken place in a, more or less, straight line from the beaches to the front gate of Visari Palace. These first five chapters have been one extended "kill zone", if you will. The ISA weren't exactly prepared for what they found on Helghan, but they made due and progressed quite far.
But now we're stuck.
I'm making assumptions, but if I were to take a guess, our progress so far would more or less look like this:
So close, and yet so far away. Here is the point, halfway through the game, where the game's main plot (capturing Visari and reclaiming the stolen nukes) must give away to the B-plot that has been existing in our periphery. Now is the time to figure out just what exactly is going on with the Helghast's Arc Tech and whatever petrusite is. Narville and Avenger Convoy have been able to wing it up to this point, but now we've hit a wall. Of electricity.
Our new objective is to get as much intel on the Arc Tech as possible to hopefully find a way through the defense systems.
Oh, and before you say "get Battle Group Mandrake's cruisers to glass the place from orbit", know that massive Arc Towers and anti-aircraft batteries surround Visari's Palace, currently preventing aerial landings and assaults. Not even the ISA's hired mercenaries can currently infiltrate the defenses.
The level opens up with Natko griping about something. While that's not anything new, the tone of his voice suggests he's actually concerned this time.
I'll grant Natko this: he's part of Alpha Squad. This four-person team is depended upon by the New Sun and Avenger Convoy to fix problems. Any problems. Doesn't matter. Throw Alpha Squad at it. To be a member, you have to be highly trained and highly competent. Natko's a shit-heel, but he's good at his job. He's complained and joked throughout the game thus far, knowing that no matter what came at him, he'd have the rest of Alpha at his side--again, highly trained and competent soldiers. Now he's been put in charge of escorting a civilian. The "dead weight" comment is rude, but it strikes me as Natko being genuinely nervous about the current mission. (And as we see, it turns out he's not entirely incorrect).
I don't know what this is. Some weird space tech communication beacon? Field lab for analysing petrusite? Probably the latter. We discover a scout team was sent in ahead of Alpha to set up a comm link to the New Sun, but that was at a station in the village, not with whatever this is. I dunno.
The beginning of this level is a marked change from most stages. Barring the opening of the first chapter (aboard the New Sun), most of the chapters have started off in the middle of explosions and gunfire. Here, it's quiet. Peaceful. Serene, even. Desolate, sure, but serene.
Suljeva Village is a small settlement built up around a refinery. As crow pointed out, it's probably a work camp. Partway through the stage we wind getting in a fight with the locals. They're armed with Stahl Arms weaponry and they know how to use it, so there seems to be some link with the Helghast Military. Whether or not they fight out of an intense loyalty to their masters, or out of fear of repercussions is unknown, but they fight nonetheless.
There are many factories and refineries across the Helghan landscape, and as ores and minerals are exhausted in one place, it'll be abandoned so that work can continue elsewhere. It's noted in some Killzone: Mercenary intel, that these abandoned sites quickly become shantytowns where the poorer populace of Helghan congregate. They're tolerated by the the Helghast Administration, but they're known to be sites of illicit trade, rampant with crime and violence.
That said, Helghan slums still often become vibrant cyberpunk communities:
Suljeva Village is not one of those communities. Far from the ocean, deep in the Helghast desert, Suljeva Village is going to be slowly buried by Helghan sands and winds, choking it until it is nothing more than a memory, a faded mark on an old map of Helghan industrial centers, tucked away in a dusty drawer in some filing cabinet in some government building.
It'll look pretty, though.
And unforgiving. To really give you the impression that Suljeva Village was a dead or dying settlement, Guerrilla even went so far as to design the level so that it looked like you were walking through the desiccated remains of some massive fallen beast. Specifically, it's rib cage:
Not only that, but from the get-go, the place is seen crawling with Cadaver Beetles, presumably feasting off the "carcass" that is Suljeva Village. Though they're probably there due to the number of Helghast and ISA bodies, but their presence only helps reinforce the image that this place is dead, or at the very least, a place where people go to die:
As Rico puts it, "some damn mining village? Frickin' butcher's shop".
The way the dead ISA soldiers are presented, they present several ideas. One, reinforcing Suljeva as a place people go to die. The fact that they were tortured before death also adds another war crime to the list that the Helghast have committed. Not only that, but it resonates with Rico's later line about the "butcher's shop", as the one ISA soldier strung up is reminiscent of meat hung to drain of blood. A morbid detail, but it's there.
Further helping to create this terrible atmosphere, is the presence of these fellas:
(Note its size next to the already disgustingly large cadaver beetle).
Ah, yes. The elusive Helghan Spider.
Massive creatures, they happen to feed on petrusite, giving their eyes that creepy blow glow, as well as endowing them with a particularly dangerous defense mechanism. While not poisonous, its bite is electric. Yes. Electric. Like, Arc Tech electric. Other predators quickly learn to avoid Helghan Spiders, because aside from being extremely aggressive, going so far as to chase larger creatures, biting them repeatedly until they die, they also explode violently and electrically upon death. This isn't a big deal unless you're really low on health--which is rare in their presence--but it's a nice touch.
What I really love about the Helghan Spiders, is that they aren't presented in such a way that they're a genuine threat. You experience them when you're alone, away from the Helghast regulars and the Helghan miners. They chase you through caverns and corridors, attacking you, harassing you, but never proving to be genuinely threatening. They're an annoyance, really, as you really have to go out of your way to get killed by one. What they're here for is texture. It's another detail in a game all about details. Welcome to planet Helghan. It's ugly, it's poisonous, it's all sorts of terrible, now meet the wildlife.
Really, what the Helghan Spiders are here for is to repulse and horrify you. Case in point, this is how they attack:
It doesn't deal very much damage at all, but man if that isn't the most terrifying way to attack you. They jump up to eye-level so that they can bite you. Going at it from a lore perspective, I'd hazard a guess that they quickly evolved to learn that jumping up into the face of larger prey was the quickest and most effective way to scare away Helghan miners, keeping them out of their territory and away from their nests. Makes sense. Clever, really.
It makes for one of my favourite Rico moments:
Overall, this whole level is design to evoke fear and horror. Even the Sentry Bots, normally totally mundane and harmless, are portrayed as creepy, insect-like, alien monsters in Suljeva:
They're still harmless. The bots that attack you while you're restoring power have terrible aim and will struggle to hit you through the metal girders. You don't even need to kill them, as when you head back down they tend not to follow you. Still, it's the image of them hanging there in the sky like some eldritch Lovecraftian horror that adds to the atmosphere of this chapter.
Get lost while playing Killzone 2? It's pretty straight-forward, so that's pretty surprising, but hey, Guerrilla has your back anyways:
With the press of a button, you will be instantly reminded of where you need to go. It's a small addition, but Guerrilla is intent that you remain in the action. In the rare occasion that you do get turned around, they would prefer you get back on track immediately rather than waste even half a minute back tracking.
Thank you, Guerrilla, for having your priorities straight.
(I'd count Helghan Spiders as enemies, but I gave them a write-up above, so I won't repeat it here).
Miner
Are the Helghast Military? Are the Helghan civilians? Are they a guerrilla force? Who knows! Who cares?! They seem to have a link to the military given their battlefield competence and the fact that they're all equipped with Stahl Arms LMGs, but as I've mentioned, we don't know if they're fighting out of loyalty or fear--or if they're just trying to defend their land from trespassers.
Miners can be difficult. They don't make use of cover as often as regular Helghast soldiers--whether that's due to a lack of training, or hubris because they have such big guns, we won't know--but they're very aggressive. On their own, they'll quickly fall back or switch to cover, but when in a group, they're quick to rush forward, guns blazing, out in the open.
The part where I first encountered them in this video is another spike in difficulty if you're playing on Elite mode. The big problem is that the StA-3 does a tonne of damage, meaning you can't take many hits from them, and their aggressive tactics makes it hard to avoid taking said hits. The shotgun is a bust for getting through here, since the lack of reticle on Elite makes it go from near useless to useless. The normally useful StA-3 loses a lot of its utility without the reticle as well--as does the boltgun. What you're left with to fight this fight is a choice between the Helghast assault rifle, picked up on a weapon rack next to the dead ISA torture victims, or grabbing an ISA assault rifle off the rack on the Intruder when you and Rico first get off the elevator. I would highly recommend the ISA rifle due to its better accuracy and optical sight, but use whatever works for you.
What follows, then, is a slow and tedious fight. The miners you encounter when they first break down the door are easy enough to kill (as long as you don't let any of the three retreat), so it'll be their back up that will give you the most trouble. When you exit the building, immediately to the right and above you are a pair of miners that will target you. They're probably the best to get next since their actually pretty much cut off from the other miners. You can climb a nearby ladder to reach them, but that gets you on the catwalk which makes you vulnerable to several other miners. Still, they're probably who you want to take out next, because once you go past the catwalk, either above it or below it, you're going to be surrounded by miners and the ones on the catwalk can pick you off with impunity.
The hardest part is clearing out the first wave of miners and the ones on the catwalk. If you can clear the high ground or take it for yourself, it becomes easier to pick them off one-by-one. They aren't as aggressive when they're on their own, so breaking them up quickly is desirable.
On easier difficulties, they aren't much of a concern at all, and they only appear in this section of the game, so eh.
Scout Sniper
These guys are actually fairly rare in Killzone 2. This part here is where you encounter them, but nowhere else. It makes for a nice set-piece, but they really aren't intimidating enough to be much of a threat. They lack the cloaking mechanism given to them in multiplayer mode, so it's easy to track them down. Look for the laser sight and kill them. The sniper rifle is powerful and will kill you in two shots even on the easiest difficulty, but it's easy to dodge as they need time to lock onto you with the laser sight before firing. Not really much of a threat at all.
Most interesting is how they've developed over the games. In Killzone 1, they have some pretty goofy looking optical sights:
In Killzone: Liberation they seem to be wearing raincoats, but otherwise look like normal Helghast:
Here in Killzone 2, they at least look super threatening and weird and alien. I like their design, even if they are pretty useless outside multiplayer.
Advanced Assault Infantry
The elite of the elite. Or at least the more advanced. These guys are highly trained versions of the standard Assault Infantry. They have more health/armour, they move faster, they shoot faster, and are overall more aggressive. But only slightly. Lore would make them out to be terrifying, but they're only slightly more of a nuisance than standard Assault Infantry. On Elite, yeah, all Helghast are super lethal, but there's a problem with these guys that makes them slightly less dangerous.
They can't deflect headshots.
Your standard Assault Infantry have always had the opportunity of deflecting headshots. It's the whole thing where you shoot off their helmets first, right? You can't shoot off the helmets on the Advanced Infantry, so they can't "tank" a headshot, making it easier to kill them quickly. Ha! So much for being more lethal.
Sentry Bot
Upgraded versions of those pitiful jokes General Lente threw at us in Killzone 1. They're bigger, faster, and have more health, but still go down relatively quickly with small arms fire. They are nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to ATACs. They look mean, but are more of a nuisance. It's only in multiplayer that they can truly become a threat.
StA-3 Light Machine Gun
Old reliable. Sadly, it's no longer as effective as it was in the first game. When all guns were inaccurate, the one with the most bullets was king. Now it's--only okay. The clip is slightly smaller, 96 down from 100, but it's still nearly twice the size of the ISA' equivalent LMG. Its firerate is impressive, but the gun is more affected by recoil this time around. It also lacks iron sights, being a hip-fire only weapon, though the game does provide you with a limited zoom function.
Ultimately, it's only okay this time around. We'll mostly be using it as a turret, because it's what the Helghast use for their emplacement guns. It works pretty well in most difficulties due to the reticle on screen, but you're still going to want to crouch when you fire to maximize your accuracy (you can see me doing this throughout the video). It loses pretty much all reliability in Elite mode, though, as it's nearly impossible to reliably aim it without the reticle.
VC21 Boltgun
Like many of the vehicles in Helghast employ, this was originally a mining tool that was later modified into a weapon. Fires high-speeed bolts that explode after a timed delay. They can pierce infanty armour rather easily, allowing you to pin enemies to the wall before their internal organs explode. There's no way to test whether or not they'd pierce Heavy Trooper armour, since this essentially a novelty weapon and will never appear on a level that has Heavies.
This weapon is a one-hit-kill on all humanoid targets. The explosion at the end isn't even that large, so it's more of a comment on Helghast weaponry being over-engineered and overkill than anything. This gun is remarkably accurate, but due to its design, doesn't function well at long ranges. That said, it's available on a DLC multiplayer map, and some players have proven to be incredibly skilled with distance headshots.
It's fun to use, but as I mentioned before, basically a novelty weapon.
As an aside, the Killzone 3 novelization reveals that Sev's father was killed by this gun during the Helghast invasion. I have no idea which Helghast thought bringing one of these to Vekta was a good idea, but sure, we'll go with it.
Wasteland Bullet
High-speed train used on Helghan to quickly transport materials to and from work sites. Who wants to guess where the next level takes place? Nothing to really right home about these trains. They're effectively just big platforms with boxes on them. There was a DLC multiplayer map released that took place on two adjacent trains--hence the image. The map was called the "Wasteland Bullet".
Concept art for the "rib cage" section of Suljeva Village, where you engage the snipers:
And here is a shot of the environment of Suljeva Village. I made the Dune reference, because honestly, this area is what I sort of imagined a sietch would look like:
