Part 16: Chapter 5 Intro
It's happening. IT'S HAPPENING! .jpg)
5.1
High in the Vektan mountains, lies the ISA Fortress. From it, General Vaughton leaves in a shuttle to the SD Platform to meet up with General Adams and retake control of the array.
[Enter] ISA Pilot and General Vaughton
ISA PILOT
We art clear to lift in yet a moment, General Vaughton. Thou and thy men shalt be upon the SD Platform within fifteen minutes, and nary a moment longer.
Exeunt
Lights flutter, illuminating the other side of the stage. We are elsewhere, down in the outskirts of Vekta City. Our heroes emerge upon the nearby shore.
[Enter] Templar, Rico [Velasquez], Luger, and Hakha
TEMPLAR
Attend, we are tasked with escorting Colonel Hakha away from this accurséd warzone as fleet as our feet may fly. Upon arriving at yonder ISA Fortess, he shall be ferried to the Generals awaiting him on the SD Platform.
LUGER
The fortress, aye, but we doth require a boat, Templar. The docks lay nearby.
VELASQUEZ
Great! Seasickness! It's bad enough having to look at this mutant's face all day.
HAKHA
'Sblood, though doth have a goodly tongue, nay? S'a shame it doth not match thy mind, as one sharped even a bit, as a blade on a whetstone, will rise above the frailties of thy flesh and, as they say, "cope with it".
VELASQUEZ
It's lucky for you that you hold some vital shit in your head, you bald fuck, else I'd rip it right off and shove it up your--
TEMPLAR
Stay your tongue, Sergeant! You both must sheathe they swords!
Exeunt
After such a long wait, I feel it's important to start the update right and proper--
--with an image of Rico being an absolute shit.
So yeah. We only just got Hakha and already the team's getting their undies in a bunch. As you may have already guessed, this sorts itself out over the course of the campaign as the diverse group of soldiers come to trust each other. They even become (dare I say it?) friends.
They're still a bunch of useless tools on the battlefield though.
Here's Luger coming up to give supporting fire after I die.
Seriously, what the hell are you all doing back there?!
Anyways, we're flashing back to WW2 with these next two stages. This sequence along the beachhead will be one long protracted battle of Normandy. Landing craft will attempt to assault a seemingly impregnable defense system and countless lives will be lost. Here's the interesting bit:
We're on the receiving end. It's subtle, super subtle, but Guerrilla has framed it so that the heroes are in the position of the Nazi Germans repelling the Allied advance. I mean, look at the above image, of a Helghast APC rolling off of an amphibious landing craft, and compare it to this image from
Eh? Eh? Though are technically playing as the heroes of the story, we are quietly being framed as the villains. We are the invading forces who have occupied France, and the Allies are fighting back in a desperate bid to retake it. No really, look back at the earlier history for this franchise: the ISA invaded and took Vekta from the Helghan Corporation, then packed them all off to Helghan. This sort of thing will reoccur throughout the series, so Guerrilla is obviously being very deliberate in how they are framing their conflicts.
Gildiss
A man with a full head of luxuriant hair, cut in a stylish coif. Gildiss came to the aid of this LP when he learned of the plight facing nearly the entire Helghast populace, men and women both: baldness. What he learned during his time with us shocked and horrified him. Throughout the ordeal, he learned to sympathize with the Helghast, admire them even. Yet he now sleeps easier at nights, knowing that no matter what happens, his hair will never look as bad as General Anime's.
He also recently finished an LP of Dragon's Dogma. The thread is still open if you want to compliment him on his hair, though it has also recently reached the LP Archive, as well. Gildiss is also in the market for a new avatar. I think he was hoping for a Dragon's Dogma-related one, but I think we should all band together and get him a Killzone-related one. Something involving Luger and/or Robert Z'Dar.
So Hakha is the best character in the game. There is now to reason to choose another character. Like Templar, he's a standard FPS character, so he doesn't suffer from the weaknesses that affect Rico or Luger. However, unlike Templar, he isn't a generic, white-bread, boring character. No, Hakha also gets some strengths! For one, he is much more accurate with the StA-52 Assault Rifle, due to having trained with it as a Helghast soldier. What this means in gameplay is that the most common gun is now super useful! Forget having to scrimp and save for ammo, you will always, ALWAYS have more at hand. This is a huge boon, especially in later levels when enemies turn into bullet sponges and specialized ammo and weapons capable of taking them out become more rare--having a standard rifle to fall back on will be key to getting through.
Aside from that, he gets a Luger-esque ability, in that he can access places other characters cannot. Throughout the game are the occasional Helghast checkpoint. These checkpoints offer shortcuts or alternate routes through levels that only Hakha can use. The laser beams prevent anyone who isn't a Helghast from passing through. I suppose they scan the person's DNA or something? It's a sci-fi game, whatever. Point is, Hakha sometimes gets to go off on his own and act as support from above to help his team. It's a nice, if ultimately superficial distraction.
Add that all together, and you have a character who displays far more utility than any of the others. The devs were saving the best for last, but now that we have him: go Hakha, or go home. (Kidding, I will switch between other characters for later chapters, though it pains me to do so).
Hakha
HEALTH REGEN - Average
STAMINA REGEN - Average
DEFENSE - Average
WEAPONS - StA-52 Assault Rifle, IvP-18 Tropov Machine Pistol, FSK-7 Fury Combat Knife
ABILITIES - Superior aim with StA-52 AR, can pass through Helghast checkpoints, can vault obstacles and climb ladders.
Helghast Assault Boat
Pretty much scenery. These arrive, drop off the troops, and that's it. Presumably, the person steering it sits quaking in fear inside as ISA soldiers mow down his incompetent friends. They are equipped with a turret to back up the troops, but it's never used in game. So yeah, these are basically scenery. Good job, Helghast!
Sentry Bots
Unmanned aerial support for Helghast soldiers. These come armed with twin machine guns and can hover in place in the air. They sound dangerous, and should be, but instead are super flimsy and can be shot down quickly. It'a a nice touch of sci-fi in a sci-fi FPS that remains surprisingly grounded in realism throughout. They are, however, a harbinger of things to come. Don't think the Helghast stopped working on their design. No. Heaven's no. When we get to Helghan, we're going to be seeing A LOT of Sentry Bots. Better Sentry Bots. Stronger Sentry Bots. BIGGER Sentry Bots.
M327 Grenade Launcher
Manufactured by ISA Laboratories. It fires six 40 x 46 mm grenades from a rotating drum. Learn to arc your shots, or be doomed to forever miss. Nicknamed the "Thumper", this gun is more powerful than the Bullpup pistol and benefits from not requiring immediate reload. It does slightly slow down the player move speed, but it's negligible. This is a solid gun to have around in a pinch as it can cause a lot of splash damage quickly, as well as be used to dismantle Helghast armour. If you've the choice between this and the Bullpup or M82 grenade launcher, always take this. The ability to fire multiple rounds without reloading is a huge benefit. It does have a secondary function, but it's a proximity mine, so it's not really useful ever. Except if you were one of the five people who played Killzone 1 multiplayer.
FSK-7 Fury Combat Knife
I'm not sure, I'm not a knife guy, but I'm pretty sure this is a bad design. It's likely this is another example of Helghast weapons being designed for looks rather than utility. The Killzone wikia says it's weighted to hack more than slash (haha, funny that it is a weapon for only "Hakha", then, right? Puns!), and that it's more of a light axe than knife, but--ugh, I don't know, this looks all kinds of impractical. Like, this better be made of space metal, right? Like, is it gonna snap off in a dude? What if, like, a large zipper gets caught in the blade's space and you can't pull it out? Guess you're screwed, then.
Again, I don't know, someone who knows knives, please fill us in.