The Let's Play Archive

Killzone

by Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, et al.

Part 11: Chapter 3 Interlude



3.3

In a park within the Vektan Capitol. Cherry blossoms are in bloom, petals blowing in the fog of war.

Enter [Templar] with [Luger]

TEMPLAR
So, hast thou much leisure time during thy training?

LUGER
Whatever dost thou mean? For sports and parties and the like?

TEMPLAR
Nay, I speak of--didst thou maketh any new friends--

LUGER
Art thou asking me if I was plough'd?

TEMPLAR
'Sblood! Perish the thought, milady! Heavens, I only--

LUGER
Hold thy tongue. Hark!

TEMPLAR
What tis it?

LUGER
Mark yonder!

Enter Helghast soldiers and a Hovertank.

TEMPLAR
Fie! Any thoughts?

LUGER
My pistol shan't pierce it, and there's no route around.

TEMPLAR
Hmm. Keepeth they crown covered.

Enter [Rico Velasquez]

RICO
YEEEAAAHHHH MOTHERFUCKERS! Come an'get it while it's hot!

TEMPLAR
Blast! That apple-john! Take the left flank!

RICO
You wanna piece of me!?

They fight. The Helghast are slain.

TEMPLAR
Well met.

RICO
I reckon you've heard about Vaughton being captured.

TEMPLAR
Say again!?

RICO
He's being held captive in the gatehouse on this tier.

TEMPLAR
Well, we must away! Lead on, soldier.

RICO
Vaughton is in that gatehouse there. Let's go get him.

They enter the gatehouse. Enter [General Vaughton], bound by the hands.

LUGER
General! General, how fare thee?

VAUGHTON
Alive, yet. Jan, didst thou acquire the security key?

TEMPLAR
Aye, sir, but the command base is lost.

VAUGHTON
And how sway the battle?

TEMPLAR
Poorly, my lord. We had trouble getting here, forsooth. Had it not been for this merry fellow--

RICO
Sergeant Rico Velasquez, sir.

VAUGHTON
Well met, Sergeant, it seems these two owe you--

RICO
It's the enemy who owe me, not these two. The Helghast scum wiped out my entire platoon. An' they'll be payin' off that debt in blood for as long as I breath! Sir.

VAUGHTON
I mark you well, soldier. A useful man to have at your side, Jan?

TEMPLAR
Absolutely, sir.

VAUGHTON
Sergeant, how wouldst thou like to accompany Captain Templar and Shadow Marshall Luger on a mission of great importance to the war effort?

RICO
An assassin?

LUGER
Shadow Marshall.

RICO
Huh. This mission. It's gonna hurt the Helghast?

VAUGHTON
Very much so.

RICO
I'm in.

VAUGHTON
Most excellent. I shall continue to General Adams on the SD Platform as planned. You three must endeavour to locate Colonel Hakha and escort him to my person as soon as humanely possible.

Exeunt



Now that we have more than one member in our party, we get to see what Killzone probably does best--well, this is arguable, but I'm going to argue in favour of it. Unlike other FPSes of its time (and still through to today), Killzone does character interaction really well. Whether it's General Anime getting all up in Caliban's face or Templar and Luger sharing some small talk while walking, their characters really come to life. A lot of people often don't like the characters in Killzone, but that's beside the point. What matters is their characters seem human. They seem real. Like them or not, they're interesting.

It was hinted in their first meeting, but Luger and Templar share a romantic past. Luger has moved on, but Templar is clearly hung up on it, as evidenced by the cringe-inducing conversation they have in the interlude video:



The best part of this conversation is that Luger KNOWS what Templar is asking, and recognizes that he's going about it in the most awkward and clumsy way imaginable--and she thinks it's hilarious. Whether or not she still harbours feelings for him, she certainly seems to enjoy making Templar feel uncomfortable. It's subtle, but right before the camera cuts away we see her flash a shit-eating grin:



Oh, for some reason there is a glitch in the game here and Jan's headgear changes colour briefly. It's odd. I have no idea what causes it or why Guerrilla didn't patch it out in the HD version.



Haha, he's just so damned indignant. What a goodie two-shoes.

Luckily, we're saved any more discomfort by this guy:



The first word out of his mouth is a protracted scream. The second word out of his mouth is a swear. That about sums up Rico Velasquez in a nut-shell. That, and an image of him shooting Helghast. Of course, there's always more to a character, and I'll be delving as deep as I can into Rico and his story. After all, he's the main character of the Killzone franchise. Oh wait, you didn't know that? Yeah, Templar's not the main character. He only appears in a few games, and not all of his appearances are playable. You may think Tomas Sevchenko, the young soldier seen in the PS3 Killzone sequels, is the main character, and you'd also be wrong. You see, the story of Killzone is about Rico Velasquez. It's about his continued downward spiral into suffering and tragedy and his attempt at redemption. I say "attempt", because I'm not so sure he succeeds in the end. "But Sally," you say, "surely this franchise can't be about THAT guy! At the very least, it's about the Helghast, isn't it?" Well, see, Rico's story is going to be closely interlinked with the fate of the Helghast. Yeah, other characters are affected by the war, but none to the same extent as Rico. Rico is fully invested in this conflict. It's all he has. I figure the story of the Helghast is just a part of the story of Rico.

I won't talk too much more about it. I'll wait, instead, for the LP to unfold. But folks, this here is the heart of the series, love him or hate him, he's the core. And I recognize that most people hate him. Rico is a bastard. But unfortunately, he's YOUR bastard and he's going to be with you every step of the way.

The closest comparison I can think of for Rico is Zeke from inFamous. But only in the first game. Whereas Zeke gets a proper redemption cycle in the sequel and becomes somewhat likeable, Rico never gets that. He gets worse. He screws up. A lot. Again and again. But he's not totally irredeemable. Take this shot near the end of the level, for instance:



When asked if he wants to join the squad on a mission critical to the war effort, Rico gives Luger a once over. At first glance, it looks like a pretty chauvinistic action. Rico literally sizes up Luger, checking her out from head to toe. He's clearly wary of her. In a different game, you'd probably think he was wary because she was a woman. Heck, Luger is already being portrayed as the femme fatale stereotype, it wouldn't be a big stretch to have the foul-mouthed, heavy weapons guy be portrayed as a chauvinist pig. But rather than scoff and say, "a woman?", Rico scoffs at her method of killing: "an assassin?" Rico is a brute. A thug. He solves problems by either hitting them, shooting them, or blowing them up. But he tackles all his problems head on. He might be wary of Luger, but I think it's interesting that it's because he doesn't fully understand or trust her style of combat. After all, I doubt Rico could comprehend or appreciate the concept of eliminating foes silently or the element of surprise--unless the surprise involved yelling "YEEEEEAH MOTHERFUCKERS" and dropping rockets on some unsuspecting Helghast's head.

It's interesting. It's Guerrilla both acknowledging that they're making liberal use of stereotypes and tropes in this game, while simultaneously bucking expectations. Bravo! It won't be the last time.

Mr. Highway posted:

I wonder if Rico's "assassin" line isn't just that he is a brute and that his style of operation is at the opposite end of the spectrum, but that assassination is not honorable. He took on a large number of Helghast in open combat by himself. Even though he did somewhat sneak up on them, he announced his presence by yelling. For him, combat could be the chance for individuals to show off the true extent of their might; if two men engage in fair play, the winner will be the more skillful, more competent. Combat is effectively an extension of a social system with unsaid rules that should be followed by all those wishing to engage in the system. Assassins represent the unfair, almost deconstructive, side of the combat system. With assassins on the field, combat is no longer bound by rules and conditions. I think this mindset would fit for someone who comes from a large family that would have probably been highly structured with superiority done by age. The oldest sibling would always be the oldest and therefore would have an automatic and permanent (until death) position above the others.

Also, man, that dialogue between Jan and Luger sure was awkward. Though I can't be too bothered by the awkwardness since, judging by Jan's reactions, it was intentional. However, one thing you skipped over, and one thing I never like about this kind of dialogue, is that Luger's half falls into cliché. Her being up front with "asking if I got laid" response is meant to show that she is able to engage in "guy talk" just like any other soldier. She is not limited by her gender and actually probably exceeds other male soldiers. I don't pretend to know the male to female ratio in fictional Killzone army, but I'm guessing that the majority of soldiers are male. With this in mind she has to remain strong-willed and can't show weakness. All of this is fine. What I don't like about the exchange is that it is a clichéd way of showing a strong female character. It is a paint-by-the-numbers way of establishing that the character is operating, with success, in a field that is naturally assumed to be opposing her. Luger and Jan's conversation could've come from any exchange of ex's having to work together.

Oh, and this last one is for JamieTheD:



Yes. Yes, the uplink key is just a pole.




Voiced by Tom Clarke Hill (Killzone 1, Killzone: Liberation), Charles Everett (Killzone 2, Killzone 3)

The oldest of nine siblings, Rico grew up in the slums of Vekta City. His parents ran a restaurant, and he spent his younger years working in the kitchen. It wasn't enough for him, and the young boy fell into petty crime as a teenager before enlisting in the army at 18. Rico is a military lifer. During the Helghast invasion of Vekta, his platoon was wiped out. He was the only survivor. That was enough to cement in the man an all-consuming hatred of the Helghast for life. Rico isn't a dumb man, but has a very simplistic view of world and doesn't have too many complex needs. Really, all he wants is to kill every single Helghast in the universe. Yup. He's supposed to be a good guy. As noted above, Rico prefers tackling problems head on. He doesn't care for espionage or stealth, not trusting those methods and finding them to be too time-consuming. Rico does have positive qualities: he's fiercely loyal to those he considers a friend. He's also ridiculously strong. The dude basically walks around in power armour with a minigun.

Going back to our idea of the characters of Killzone all being some sort of action movie trope, Rico is our heavy weapons character. Often simple and thuggish, these characters rarely get a starring role and more often than not play as a secondary character to our hero. He's any wrestler who got a bad action movie deal. He's Goldberg in Universal Soldier 2. He's Stone Cold in Condemned. His morality is so black and white that he's sometimes a villain--he's Dolph Lundgren in every other Universal Soldier film. He's also one huge walking reference to Aliens' Vasquez. Probably the best thing about Rico is that he's consistent. The man will always hate the Helghast. You will never be let down because you can always expect that of him.




M224-A3 Heavy Support Weapon

A gyro mounted support weapon. It's the sweet gun from Aliens, except it also has a rocket launcher attached to it. That's right, it's a minigun with a rocket launcher. This is the best weapon in the game. It's externally powered, with twin barrels, allowing it to fire faster than most other machine guns in the ISA military. Super destructive, super versatile, it's limited mostly by the fact that only Rico gets to use it. Also, ammo is somewhat scare for it. If you run out of bullets in the first stage of a chapter, that's probably it. Occasionally, you'll find ammo drops, but you'll usually have to wait for the start of a new chapter to be reloaded.

The gun disappears after Killzone 1, never to be seen again. Probably because it was too broken and overpowered. The in-universe explanation is that the gun is so heavy it can cause severe and crippling spinal problems, including paralysis, if used too long. People have been known to be hospitalized within a week of beginning training with this weapon. These can only be operated by those people who meet specific strength requirements, which Rico has in spades.