Part 11: Cruiser

• Chapter 8, with Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, and CJacobs
  
• Chapter 8, no commentary

The last chapter left us on a bit of a cliff-hanger. We've had some Liberation updates to tide us over, but now that Templar's one-man-crusade has finished, we're moving on with Killzone 2 again. This level's a game changer.

Welcome to the ISA's darkest moment.



Did Garza make it?



No. No he didn't.



What a messed up moment. Sev is grieving the loss of his friend and comrade, who died arguably as a result of Rico's reckless actions, and here comes Rico to, what? I don't know. Make a connection? Reach out to Sev? Sev isn't having any of it, and Rico certainly doesn't seem apologetic in the least. He is far more defensive than he has any right to be. What is he going to say to Sev? "Whatever."? "These things happen in war, but it's not my fault, really."?



Thank goodness for Natko. When you really need it, he's actually a pretty decent guy. He spots the storm on the horizon and defuses the oncoming fist-fight. I appreciate that Natko recognizes Sev's grief, and recognizes that Rico is overstepping his boundaries. He stops both of his allies from making a mistake in this moment.

Y'know, maybe Natko isn't so bad after all.



And then sirens and alarms interrupt Sev's mourning. Man, look at that face. Sev is devastated.



So, yeah, on our way to the bridge. Having the ISA Cruisers essentially be giant towers seems problematic. What happens if the power gets knocked out in combat? Elevators are everywhere. Are there gigantic stairwells or excruciatingly long ladders to get around this problem? It seems to me that having the ships based on a horizontal plane would have minimized this potential risk. Point for the Helghast Cruisers, I guess.



Parasite craft return from Killzone 1. They've got a redesign. I love how the drill now explodes forward, potentially killing any unwanted ambush and clearing the way for its payload of Helghast troops.



And--oh goodness, what are those?! They look like mass-produced versions of General Statson's mech back in Killzone: Liberation.

Moving along, we reach the bridge and get orders directly from the Colonel. He even does the whole "I WANT YOU" post to sell it:



The sequence on the gun decks is pretty cool. The skies start out with a few ISA Cruisers fighting off the Helghast Crusiers, their attack ships, and their parasite craft. As the battle progresses, and more Intruders are released to evacuate soldiers, the Cruisers start falling:



Soon all that's left are the Helghast Cruisers, and the red warning markers become more crowded on the screen as ever more Helghast fighters appear to do battle. It's a losing battle, but the visuals used to represent it are pretty neat. Good on you, Killzone!

As Alpha Squad regroups and plans to escape, Sev takes a detour to check out what's going on on the bridge. Weird that he would take the detour to begin with, but okay, we'll go with it for narrative purposes.



Two Elite Shock Troopers appear, and we learn something new about Radec: he has incredibly advanced cloaking technology! Look at that! Damn! In later games, the Helghast Scout Snipers use similar tech--heck, they use it in Multiplayer in this game.



And now we have the showdown between the two colonels of the game that we've been waiting for!



I love the imagery here. Radec has the higher ground, the more dominant position, but it's very slight. Templar is still a force to be reckoned with. Consider what he did in Killzone 1 and Liberation. It really IS too bad they didn't meet on the battlefield. Still, as we saw in the last chapter, Radec isn't a very patient man.



He kills Evelyn Batton for trying to erase the nuclear code data.



And he kills Jan Templar immediately thereafter.



Just--damn...



Anyways, in the Chapter 1 update, I said this:


And now that imagery becomes even more poignant. Like I said, Templar is still a force to be reckoned with, and I believe Radec has underestimated him here, even in his final moments:



Templar disengages safety protocols and fires up the ship's thrusters.



(Great detail: I love that you can spot the parasite crafts, the Leech Pods, stuck in the sides of the Crusier).



Like a sword, the New Sun stabs at the heart of Helghan.



Have at thee!



That first explosion there is the New Sun, its nuclear reactors detonating in the blast.



This blast here.

That's petrusite.





It triggers a chain reaction, damaging the pipelines all the way into the city, effectively dismantling its Arc Grid.

Though as Evelyn pointed out in the video, that wont solve our Arc woes. Those shield defense we saw are gone, sure, so the city's defenses are down--but she found an autonomous Arc Grid beneath Visari's Palace. Good ol'Helghast redundancy means we still have our work cut out for us.

Also of note, the explosions we see have a greenish hue to them, rather than the standard blue petrusite blast. This is intentional on the part of Guerrilla. They are sowing the seeds for future events. When irradiated, petrusite turns green. The significance of that won't be important until Killzone 3. So make note of it, but don't worry about it for now.

We have a bigger problem at hand:



Rico.



Wait a minute--



--is that?



It is! Private Billinghurst survived the Vektan invasion. AND he got a promotion! He helps us fight in the section before the AA-guns, so that's cool. A definite step-up from Killzone 1, where he's portrayed as this cowardly kind of guy.

If you want to catch up on Private Billinhurst's storied accomplishments in the Killzone universe, check out the Killzone 1 LP here and here.





New gameplay segment! It's a--oh, a turret segment :/

It's not terrible, at least, and it's brief. And it's the only one in this game. Two modes of fire: the main guns, which have infinite ammo (until the game claims you're out); and the homing missiles, which you have limited amounts of. As you take damage, lights will flash and spark, and you'll hear beeping. You'll heal if you are given time, just like on foot, but you can't take cover, so you need to be offensive to maintain your defense. Even on Elite mode, though, that isn't too difficult.

The Leech Pods don't give you much trouble. They don't fire back. Take them out at your leisure. Use the main guns, though, as the missiles are better served for the Strike Fighters, particularly as they sequence progresses and they are released more frequently. Don't worry about "protecting" the Intruders. They are scripted to escape. I mean, don't shoot at them, but don't worry about defending them, either. Just kill the Strike Fighters as soon as possible. The section will be over before you know it.




Elite Shock Trooper

Referred to as "Shocks" or "Leets" by the ISA. These guys are the Helghast equivalent to Alpha Squad. They are trained to function in any condition, and are only deployed for the most dangerous and complex tasks--hence why we only see them for the surgical destruction of the New Sun. Their armour means they can take more hits than most Helghast, but otherwise you don't have too much to fear from them. If you get close, they will try to knife you. If you try to take cover too much, they will try to flush you out with Teslite grenades. Just prioritize killing them over other Helghast and you'll be fine.

Note that some Elite Shock Troopers are confirmed to be women. In the Killzone 3 novelization, Sev finds a photo of one--presumably the girlfriend or sister of the dead Helghast he took it off of. This detail isn't really portrayed in the game.




TR-X Teslite Grenade

Brought to you by the power of petrusite!

Once armed, it starts spinning, extracting energy from the atmosphere. When fully charged, it releases its burst of electricity, damaging anything in the area. Though note: it is infrastructure friendly, so don't worry about a blast knocking over a building.

It has about the same blast spread as a standard frag grenade, but continues to emit electricity over time, making it an AWESOME area denial weapon. It makes it really too bad that this weapon appears so infrequently in the game. As the player character, you only get to use them yourself in, what, the last chapter? Lame.

It doesn't appear at all in multiplayer.




Helghast Cruiser

I neglected to talk about these in the opening chapter of the game, so we're talking about them now. Half the size of an ISA Crusier, and a quarter of the size of a UCN Cruiser, the Helghast Cruisers don't look like much. I mean, they look cool, but by comparison, they're underwhelming in size, armour, and firepower. Restrictions prevent the Helghast from developing larger cruisers--but that's okay, because the compensate by having a large number of them. Like, tonnes. Mass produced.

crow and CJacobs wonder why the Helghast Cruisers are just attacking now, poking fun at the fact that the ISA Cruisers have just been idling there. Well, at this point in the war, the ISA believe their fleet to have been decimated. Remember the opening cinematic? The ISA Cruisers cut them all down without taking a single casualty. The Helghast Cruisers were defenseless. Back on Helghan, Visari wisely used the remaining fleet to evacuate Pyrrhus City. The Arc Cannons proved a much more effective deterrent anyways, so what good would it have been to throw more cruisers at the ISA?

Well, under the command of Colonel Radec, they make for an excellent surprise attack. Lull the ISA into thinking they've wiped out most of the fleet. Let them hover over Pyrrhus City with impunity for a while--then surprise the by throwing dozens and dozens of the things at them, giving Radec time to access the nuclear strike codes for Red Dust.

Perfect!

I should also note, that the fleet here fails to wipe out Battlegroup Mandrake. I mean, yeah, the ISA lose a few ships, including the New Sun and the Zephyr, but part of the reason for that is the Helghast concentrated fire on Templar's command ship, and they wound up taking out its escort as a side-effect. Ultimately, Battlegroup Mandrake manages to regroup and drive off the inferior Helghast Cruisers, and we'll see that several remain by the time we reach Killzone 3.

Anyways, looking at the image for the Cruiser--you see those saw-like teeth at the bow of the vessel? Strike fighters. There are no detailed images of these particular brand of Helghast Strike Fighter that I can find online, so just know that these are the things we spent a lot of time shooting at. At the stern of the ship, are six Overlord Dropships. The can also field Leech Pods, and are armed with missiles and anti-aircraft batteries. So they're pretty powerful in a vacuum, but aren't much compared to what the ISA and UCN have.


Leech Pod

The Leech Pods from Killzone 1 make a reappearance, but get a bit of an upgrade. Now the drill fires off upon boarding, clearing the immediate route for the Helghast soldiers on board. A neat touch, and we get to see it in action during the stage.



This is concept art back from Salamun Bridge, but I wanted to bring it back now just to see how cool and science fiction-y petrusite is:



Because this is effectively what we've done to the petrusite grid, but on a far, FAR larger scale.

Here is the New Sun's death concept art:



Interestingly, it looks like they have it crashing into Pyrrhus City here. Might have been kind of an evil action for the heroic good guy, Jan Templar, no? Better to have it crash in the barrens, blowing up the grid, than in a city where hundreds of thousands would die--ISA included.