Three levels in and I like the game a lot, but I'm annoyed at the lack of polish in single player.
It's disappointing to clear an area and have everything go silent - everybody looking dumbly at each other - until you walk over to the spot on the ground where you have to stand to trigger the game back to life again.
The freeze-action loads really break up the game, and Sev's five-foot-tall POV is beyond retarded. Seriously, didn't this seem strange to anyone at Guerilla?
The momentum-based aiming seems rather overdone and pointless besides. I can see how it may be innovative or interesting, but it's just too pronounced and makes aiming a chore, especially long-distance, precision aiming.
While I'm complaining, I'll add that the cover system seems finicky and too often, it'll let me look around a corner but not shoot around it. Very frustrating.
Why do the gun sounds drop down so low when someone is talking? That jarred me and stuck out as an odd decision.
Finally, I think the color-draining-from-the-screen "you're dying" effect is a little overdone, and I've died or nearly died a couple of times now because the screen went monochrome and I thought, "I'm dead" when I was really still alive (until the next bullet took me out).
Having said all that, I'm impressed with the game anyway because I LOVE the universe (I have since the original Killzone) and because the visual/audio presentation is so spectacular. The guns feel nice to fire and the characters all seem to have a weight, a presence, that's missing from other games. It all conspires to put you right in the game in a really convincing way.
Also, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Really gripping stuff.
I'm not bothered by the "lack" of a story. The ISA is attacking Helghan, period. How much story does the average real-life soldier dwell on in the heat of a surge of battle? This game is all about the action, and given that videogames are primarily interactive entertainment, I'll take action over story most any day.
Overall, I'm pleased with Killzone 2 and I think the game will consume a lot of playtime in my near future. I do wish the game was more polished in some areas, but on the whole, this stands up quite nicely to other recent heavy-hitters on the consoles.
But I'm expecting Killzone 3 to bring some of these issues up to par with the astounding audiovisuals, no excuses.
I guess it would be even worse because your hand moves a lot faster and you would feel the accleration and the delay (not in a sense of controller lag) even more. Also console shooters are meant to be played with a controller and I think that's good...if I want to play kb/m I play PC games.