Part 5: Six Months On
It's actually less than six months, as we aren't quite caught up to the first chapter's timeline. Anyways, in all that time, Stahl and Orlock are still arguing.
Orlock's assault only succeeded in pushing the remaining ISA forces underground. Narville, Sev, and perhaps even Rico, are all safe and sound, hidden somewhere on Helghan.
Meanwhile, Stahl has developed weapon prototypes with irradiated petrusite but is refusing to turn it over to his planet's governing body. Fortunately for him, he has enough political clout that they really can't force his hand. Much to Orlock's chagrin, they have to play nice with Stalh or he's literally going to take his toys and go home.
It's at this point that the Helghast Senate does something. This is Senator Kuisma. According to the game's novelization, Killzone: Ascendancy he is an actual pedophile. He comes out in support of Stahl in this scene, not because he actually likes Stahl, but because he's being blackmailed. This is very telling about how Stahl is viewed by the Senate. They think he's so dangerous and unpredictable that the only person willing to support him is a blackmailed pedophile. (I will say, I could have done without knowing that little detail about Kuisma—thanks Sam Bradbury, author of the smash hit Killzone: Ascendancy).
This is Senator Gunsteling. He's old, cranky, and hates Stahl with a passion. He is the most vocal supporter of Orlock but is the first to cave in to Stahl's bluff, so he's ultimately a pragmatic leader. Anyways, Stahl still refuses to give up his petrusite weapons, but he gives an ominous warning about a broadcast he's about to make in two days that will change the senate's mind about who should be leader.
If you'll remember back to our opening chapter, Sev,
Meanwhile, in a creepy space jungle—
-—the ISA are now subsisting on electrical space spiders.
Hey, CJacobs!!
Also, this grunt right here looks surprisingly similar to the ISA general who was in contact with Narville in the last chapter:
It may just be a case of similar character models, but I like to think that he survived and is now getting by on foot because Narville commands the ISA ground forces on Helghan.
And here we meet Dusty, I mean, Kowalski. He's an ISA recon soldier with a massive beard. Seriously, I don't think that's regulation. Anyways, Kowalski is notable for being Dante Garza's original character model. If you take a look at the 2007 E3 trailer, you can see "Kowalski-Garza" sitting in real Garza's position on the Blood Meridian Intruder—he even speaks in Garza's voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDMBWRlctQY
It's a little thing, but Guerrilla clearly put enough work into the character that they wanted to see him get used somewhere. Anyways, he's here to tutor us on the finer points of stealth in a Killzone game. We only need to use stealth for this mission, but hey. The longer we can keep up the faux-stealth the easier it will be to get through the level. Otherwise, we'll be swarmed by Helghast.
This scene is really just to show that the ISA aren't doing too great. It's cold, the food sucks, people are sad, and there's constant tension that the Helgast might find them. Speaking of sad, though, here's Narville trying to cheer up Hooper. I snapped this shot so crow could finally look at that patch on Narville's shoulder. It isn't very high resolution. I think it's either a skull in a Helghast helment or a robot penis. Can't tell for sure.
Also, this:
I couldn't help myself. Here's the template if anyone else wants to get in on the Sad Hooper meme experience:
Moving right along, welcome to the Kaznan Jungle. This is one of the first times we've truly been able to see Helghan in its natural state. This jungle is like something out of a nightmare—or the bottom of the sea. A lot of the plants like look like they could either be sessile insects or terrestrial coral. Many are dangerous, too. The scorpion tail-like plants will sting you if you get close, not to mention the blast pods. It's here that the nearly black and white colour scheme of Killzone 3 really shines.
The rocks and sky really are black and white, so the only colour we get come from the monstrous foliage. Straw yellows, deep oranges and reds, splashes of purple—
—it's not the kind of plant life we're used to seeing. I mean, there are red plants on earth but they're rare compared to green plants. Most I've seen are various types of kelp that need to be red in order to still photosynthesize what little light can pierce the ocean's depths. Regardless, it's all utterly alien. We may as well be walking on the bottom of the ocean.
We get some splashes of green, once again, courtesy of irradiated petrusite.
This scene is significant not only because it shows off Stahl's weapons and what irradiated petrusite is capable of (which is literally exploding people), but because that's the same gun that Sevchenko had in his hands when he interrupted Narville's execution in the first chapter. So take notes: we're going to get that gun later on.
The big reveal of the chapter is that the Vektan government has capitulated and the ISA forces are to surrender to the Helghast as prisoners of war. Kind of a shitty end. This would probably be okay, though, if the actual Helghast army were the ones to capture them. As much of a war horse as Orlock is, he likes playing by the rules. Unfortunately for Narville and co., they're under attack by Stahl's private army—and as we saw with the irradiated petrusite, they don't really care about taking prisoners alive.
Except Visari's killers, of course. Narville and Alpha Squad are at the top of Stahl's list.
Also, this goofy scene was featured heavily when Guerrilla was making trailers and showing off footage at E3. The Capture Troopers are still lame, but they got a lot of coverage.
So to sum up this whole mission:
Kowalski
Goodbye, Captain Narville. See you at your execution.
Sev gets in a separate dropship, which he will obviously escape from later on.
And we're off! Sadly, this is the last we'll see of the Kaznan Jungle, what is probably the most visually interesting stage in the whole game.
There's not much to say about Kowalski that I haven't already said. He's Garza's old character model and was reused here to be the stealth tutorial mission guy. He dies at the end of the mission. In the novelization, Sev actually finds him while he's dying and he holds his hand while he bleeds out. That's about it.
So long, Kowalski, we hardly knew ye.
Capture Trooper
These guys are lame. Total yawn. The above image is taken from Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception because it shows a Capture Trooper that might actually be effective: one holding a gun. Otherwise they have a wrist-mounted knife, never use cover, and will always charge at the player. They usually appear in pairs, so that can be annoying. You get a trophy for melee killing one, which is pretty much a free trophy since the easiest way to kill them is to let them get close and melee kill them.
:/
Their armour is stronger than standard Helghast troopers. They can tank quite a few assault rifle bullets, but thanks to the game's engine, they can't actually move quickly enough across the battlefield to really take advantage of it. Oh, if only they had a gun.
There are strange cylinders attached to their knives. This suggests either a poison or a tranquilizer is present in the blades. Knowing the Helghast, it's likely a poison.
Helghast Trooper Carrier
The Helghast answer to the ISA's EXO. Only, better? It's autonomous, for one, meaning you don't have to worry about pilot injury or death rendering the EXO useless. It can also transport three additional Helghast soldiers, is more agile and mobile, and not only is it armed with a mortar and a flamethrower but it is capable of engaging in melee combat. Small arms fire can destroy them, but they have decent armour. It only takes two rocket launcher shots to bring them down, though. Not too much to say about them because we don't really see them outside of scripted events. This level is where we encounter most of them and even then we just sneak past them.
Luger's gun is back. It functions the same as it did in Killzone 1: you can rapid fire silenced SMG rounds or fire a single accurate shot to kill most enemies. The BIG difference here is that the single shot is actually accurate for once. Unlike Killzone 1, your bullets won't wildly spray everywhere due to bad programming, so what was once the "Dickshot 5000" is not just an okay silenced SMG.
The most interesting thing about the Capture Troopers is that concept art showed that there was going to be a female variant. Too bad Guerrilla decided to once again stick with only haven token women rather than diversifying the game's cast.
Kaznan Jungle concept art.
Kaznan Jungle ISA camp concept art.