The Let's Play Archive

Killzone

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

Part 15: Chapter 4, Stage 4


4.4

Templar, Luger and Rico [enter a small abandoned building in the slums.]

TEMPLAR
There, the prisoner! Attend to him.

LUGER
God's blood--

TEMPLAR
What troubles?

VELASQUEZ
Motherfucking filthy little piece of shit!

LUGER
Lest mine eyes deceive me, he's a Helghast.

VELASQUEZ
Was a Helghast.

TEMPLAR
Stay your hand, Rico. Stand watch on the exits.

VELASQUEZ
Fuck. You.

TEMPLAR
Rico, thou base degenerate, the door!

LUGER
Te is the one we seek.

TEMPLAR
And praytell, ser, you're Helghast?

HAKHA
We know what we are, but know not what we may be. Aye, I am Helghast. Yet I am also Human.

VELASQUEZ
I don't wanna fucking imagine how that works.

TEMPLAR
And knowest thou who we are?

HAKHA
One must imagine thou art here to take me away.

LUGER
Thou art Hakha?

HAKHA
Yes.

LUGER
To which side dost thou belong, Hakha?

HAKHA
My own.

VELASQUEZ
Shit, we'll see what side he's on when I've got this baby shoved up his poppa's--

Enter Helghast soldier. Hakha takes Templar's gun and kills the soldier.

Exit Hakha and Rico

TEMPLAR
Keep his company close. Attend to his needs. Learn what thoughts grace his brow. You seem to be the apple of his eye.

LUGER
Thou presumes to much. Canst thou not move beyond the past?

Exit Luger

TEMPLAR
Yeah.

Exit

4.5

On the ISA SD Platform

Enter Adams and Private Caliban

CALIBAN
Sir, General Vaughton has been found.
He makes his way here at present.

ADAMS
Well, that's something. Make yonder preparations. Vaughton shall be greeted accordingly.

Exuent





For whatever reason, Luger's AI stops functioning and she thinks it's a brilliant idea to stand on an uncovered walkway and tank Helghast bullets. We're fortunate that allied NPCs of importance are invincible, because Luger'd be dead by now and we'd have to run out and heal her. It's not like she's lacking for cover in the slums. There's crap knocked over everywhere.

Speaking of the slums:



Living in the Vektan slums must suck. It's all concrete jungle and catwalks surrounded by railways and garbage. These shacks don't suggest a very comfortable lifestyle. It's amazing how quickly we've gone from the industrial core of Vekta, presumably where all its wealth comes from, to beautiful parkways filled with cherry blossoms, to this dumping ground. If you haven't picked up on it already: Vekta isn't the gorgeous Eden is pretends to be. It's pretty much got all the hypocrisy, destruction, and warmongering we see on Earth.



There's also a nice bit of characterization at the end of this level. Yeah, we meet Hakha and Rico throws a shit fit as he is wont to do, but the interaction between Jan and Luger is nice. Jan continues to be hung up on his old flame and starts making inappropriate comments. Really, Jan, you're in a warzone--a KILLZONE, if you will--bearing the brunt of a Helghast blitzkrieg, these sorts of comments are out of place and unhelpful. Thankfully, Luger has a clearer sense of what's important and tells him to get over it:



The best part is that this characterization remains, against all odds. You'd think such a trope-y game would have the two ex-lovers come together at the end of the game, right? Wrong! Killzone is once again beginning to subtly subvert expectations. This entire game is a small part of a larger conflict and takes place nearly entirely in combat. This small group is tasked with a mission that could turn the tide of war and need to remain focussed. Templar's attempts at patching up his love life are out of place. It's absolutely something that a generic action hero would do in a generic action movie featuring a stereotypical badass femme fatale character, but it's being knocked away at every turn here. It's a little more realistic, considering this is a game in the future in space with space-nazis and space ships, but hey, it's still refreshing.




Voiced by Sean Pertwee

Yes, that Sean Pertwee. Colonel Hakha here is probably the most charismatic and interesting character in the ISA. He's also probably the best character, playable and otherwise, in Killzone, so soak him up because we won't be getting him in subsequent games.

Going too much into Hakha's backstory reveals quite a bit of spoilers. Not super concerned about spoilers, but they're worth talking about so I'll expound on them when we actually get to that point. Regardless, Hakha was once a highly ranked Helghast officer, being Chief of Staff to a top General. Shortly before the invasion of Vekta, Hakha defected to the ISA for reasons that we'll delve into when we get to them. But in brief: Hakha didn't much care for Scolar Visari's policies. Upon defecting, he was marked for assassination by the Helghast Third Army during their invasion. His ISA bodyguard was wiped out in the initial thrust and he was captured, but fortunately, was saved by Templar's band of heroes. Which leads to where we are. Hakha has vital information for us that will be revealed in the next Chapter.

Oh, and we're also going to play the next Chapter as Hakha. I'll gush over what a superior character he is when we get there.

One last note: our fourth and final member of the team is "The Outsider" trope, rounding out our "Good Guy Leader", "Femme Fatale", and "Badass Tough Guy" tropes. In other media, this character is always different from the rest of the group in some way shape or form. Maybe they are a child amongst adults, a civilian in a military outfit, or, more simply, just someone from somewhere else, like a Russian soldier amongst US soldiers. They'll work alongside the team, but are discernibly, mostly visually (though in the latter-most of the aforementioned examples, an accent might separate them). Sometimes they are an alien character or a robot in sci-fi narratives. They could be an elf, or dwarf, or [insert mythological creature here] in fantasy narratives. They could be whatever, really. The only thing that unites them is that they are clearly the odd-one out of their group. In our instance, Hakha is half-Helghast, half-Human. This is going to be a benefit in terms of gameplay and plot narrative, but be a huge fucking problem for fucking Rico who fucking hates the fucking Helghast. Expect lots of tense drama manufactured purely by Rico's prejudice.