Rico: spastic racist Hakha: Shakespearean double agent Lugar: Black Widow Templar: Functioning Adult

You can't tell me that "What the fuck is a Shakespeare?" isn't a good line.

Not gonna lie, I have to give some credit to the writers with their dialogue. "The general doesn't like making martyrs. I'm not so fussy" is SUCH a good line.

Its funny how you pointed out that Hakha never showed up in future games because as a kid, I always assumed that the ISA would immediately kill Hakha the moment he stop being useful.

Real talk: Only game I've ever seen where characters actually use their scope's caps/covers. Optics are VERY fragile by firearm standards, and you want to protect them as much as you can.

I really love how the planets have multiple different environments, as opposed to the usual sci-fi "desert planet, snow planet" etc.

I like how they have sev in killzone 2. There’s moments, like after Garza dies and at the end, where he just seems tired. “Tired of it all, the shoulders sag, the far mournful. This wasn’t supposed to be like this” And just him sitting down and just looking so defeated is such a natural reaction to all the madness they went through. Just well done character design I enjoyed 👍🏾

That "re-educated" joke is so good, it keeps catching me off guard.

Kill Zone is one of those games where I wish there was a PC release. They totally should do a remake and release it for every platform except switch IMO.

the Machine artistry really makes sense. the Helgan LMG seemed VERY intuitive and nifty.

In my opinion, The Helghast (Barring the "Space Nazi" Rhetoric, Even if its Earned) are objectively (in my eyes) One of the best "Bad Guy" Groups out there. You can actually Understand and sympathize with them and their plight. Maybe not go as far as to Condone their Current actions (Refer to "Space Nazi Stuff") but at least understand why the Helghast so vehemently Hate the Vektans and the ISA. I mean, I dunno bout you. but i'd HATE people too if i was labled a "Terrorist" shot out into a far off hostile world, and told 'No, you dont deserve help' and left to die. I'd want who ever was responsible dead too.

1:53:00 was the most touching moment of the KZ series to me. Seeing how broken Sev was and not even flinching at their main Battleship being hit with artillery, it really hit the feels. He doesn't even twitch an eyebrow, just wrought with pain and exhaustion. From this point forward, Sev takes a major character change and I believe it's what bonds his relationship with Rico from now to the later series (even tho he caused Garza's death, kinda). Him and Rico have both lost their comrades who were close to them. It's no longer about fighting for home, their home is wherever each other is. Sev lost this at this very moment, even with 10+ year old graphics, you can see it in his eyes. As he walks away, you can see this tough brute almost holding back tears.

A new retrospective by Red Scot? Just hook it to my veins!

Breaks my heart how much the “Halo Killer” marketing hurt this series. There’s so much it did that I miss in modern FPS’s: the thoughtful conflict, the absolute grit that it carried from WW2 shooters into a futuristic setting, and the absolute mood that Vasari

Hazmat Suit wearing pin up girls? Squad morale restored!

I still find myself breaking into Visari's KZ intro speech at times. Killzone, had such a robust game world and so much content built around it. Good memories.

I have three Killzone tattoos. Yes, they're all Helghast

I always thought Garzas death was caused by Rico firing blindly and his stray bullet caught Garza.

I'm surprised the protags in these games don't just keep a bag over Rico's head when the important talking happens.

You gotta give the writers of the first three games mad props for being able to write some stirring speeches. Visari's opening monologues make me patriotic about being an oppressed space nazi.

I always wanted a game where I play as the bad guys. Killzone made me realize it isn't necessarily fun to play the bad guy.

“What the fuck is a shakesphere?” Is a golden quote of stupidity

One thing I like playing as Hakha is how the game swaps around how the guns work. As any other character, you can't carry as much ammo for Helgast weapons and they're inaccurate, switch to Hakha though, and he's more accurate/carries more Helgast weapon ammo, but if you pick up a ISA weapon (Such as the Asauult rifle in a map with friendlies who can die) he has worse accuracy/max ammo count with them than the other characters.

I just laughed my head off when when you looked up TheGamingBritShow. He has his perspective while you have yours (and you are going the extra miles).

Rico is literally the most infuriating side character ever

I wish Geurilla games can come back to this franchise in some form after the next Horizon game it doesn't matter to me if the 1-shadow fall is redone or a sequel,prequel or spin off game

Weapon movement in KZ 2 still looks so cinematic. Call me crazy but not even The new MW had such cinematic movement and it handled smooth as hell.

You know what I would kill for... Big sci-fi shooter that opens with back and forth propaganda of both sides with obvious bad sides and then letting the player, as an initially neutral smaller colony that gets to pick the starting faction for the campaign. Hit some notes like no such things as good guys or putting your own bad choices in your face regardless of your choice

Ok, for starters yes I did watch Gamingbritshow's retrospective when it first came out since I sub his work. However, while his work does a nice job at restrospecting the games themselves, his work doesnt hold a candle to yours. After watching just the first hour of your video I've learned more about not just the first Killzone, but also the history, the ISA, the Helgan, how they were all formed, what started it all, what were the inspirations and so so much more; and it's only the first hour! Through concept art I've never seen, text and audio logs I didnt even know existed, animations that make it visually appealing and striking to watch (seriously I had to rewind the video a few times because I was just watching the animations and couldnt hear the important details). I have watched all the way through your Aliens retrospective, your Turok retrospective, and my favorite (and funniest of the bunch) your "Dinosaur" Crisis retrospective. I have to say that this is by far your best work and I can wholeheartedly see not only why this video is deserving of the two and a half hour runtime but also the significant time jump between retrospectives. Well earned and well deserved. I find your best work to be in your retrospectives and I always appreciate watching them no matter the subject matter. If I have to wait another six months for another great retrospective of this quality; I will gladly and patiently wait. Excellent job Scot! I'm so glad that KZfaq's home page for once paid off. Now if you'll excuse me I have the rest of your video to watch. (Giddy glee)

The art direction for these games is off-the-chain in the best way possible. Such cool realistic designs.

The "re-educated" running gag is my damn favorite and always catches me laughing.

The Killzone franchise, for aesthetics and feel of play, was far more 40K than any official 40K video game.

Me at 3am:" better get some sleep lets turn on something on the tube to sleep to: Me at 6am: "screw sleep i need part two"

Visari's final speech in Killzone 2 still gives me chills.

I was a pretty big Killzone fan back in the day. The first game is kinda magical for me, coming out at the time of so many games that give me so many warm fuzzies, like the Jak games and Rachet & Clank. Killzone is another game like that, one that gives me those same flashbacks and those satisfied sigh worthy feels.

"Considering what normal, for the past century meant for Helghan, anyone should've seen that was never an option." Well, this video got recommended to me during some strange times.

Damn dude, I had just rewatched both Turok and Dino Crisis last night. Feels like a late X-mas gift this morning!

It's always fun when your brain randomly thinks: "hey remember that game about the space nazi's where they hired actual engineers and architects for Thier designs", and it sends you on a mad search across the internet untill your brain remembers the word "kill".

i really love how killzone 2 really makes understand why it's called " *brutal* street to street, house to house, floor to floor fighting". you never hear people saying " brutal tree to tree fighting" for example, and after playing this i know why: in an urban environment, you have to fight *hard* for every inch of ground

Imagine if there was Killzone game like Battlefield where you could use all the vehicles in the games

Glad I took the time to watch this! I don't normally think too much about Killzone admittedly, usually thinking of it as a very pretty if uninteresting series of shooters so seeing a analytical take shows me what I've been missing out on all this time. The only one I've had first hand experience with is Shadow Fall so it'll be interesting to see if you cover that in part 2 :) I can also tell by that trending tab that this took a loooong time for you to make XD The first game holds up at least one of my original opinions, its a very nice looking game despite the limited colour variation. It feels like the game only scratches the surface of the detailed story you later go into in part 3, but I get that this is likely just to get players into the world and deeper story beats likely come at a later point, what with the greyer narrative being more of a twist revealed at the end. Overall definitely one I want to try at some point, especially as I seem to be looking to collect every PS2 game XD It looks like one of the notably great games in the PS2 library. Killzone Liberation looks like its...not my cup of tea. Visually its still quite good on occasion for a PSP game. The gameplay looks like it has some good moments but can be too much of a pain because of all the reasons you stated and it feels like it doesn't really contribute much to the overall narrative. It seems like a good basis for a spinoff game so if they were to revisit it in future I think it could actually be quite good, I just don't think I'll be giving this one a go XD Funnily enough I have a PSP, if you ever need one your way feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do. Killzone 2 I remember hearing the infamous comparison to the trailer which wasn't representative at all and...while obviously nothing on the PS3 could look like that this is a damn fine looking game. The PS3/360 generation had such a massive shift in graphical progression but this actually holds up incredibly well, like despite only coming out in 2009 this looks like it could have been a much later release for the system. One thing I have to commend is how the AI has continuously improved from entry to entry, where Liberation had it made more complex this feels like its continued to develop on it whilst also allowing it to remain fair to the player. The gameplay seems to have taken a notable step up in general, being solid and with enough variation to keep things fresh and interesting throughout. The story was much like the first game an incredible step up in quality and I appreciate the brave and well handled bad ending. It was great and an amazing way to lead into Killzone 3. The story in general seemed to be dark and oddly realistic, or as realistic to war as it can get for a space war with lightning guns. I do wish Hakha wasn't disposed so quickly, but I guess they found it easier to tell of the complexities of the story in the way they handled it in 2 and maybe a constant reminder of the grey area might have felt like they were banging the player over the head with it and losing any subtlety. Overall I think this was a great video as ever! I love stuff like this which covers stuff I may not have been interested in before to give me a look into what I may be missing out on. I really think I might give Killzone 1 and 2 a proper try now to form my own opinion on these games. Thanks for a funny, detailed and clearly well thought out retrospective on a series I never took that seriously until now. :) and...yes I remember Animal Farm at school so *Raises hand* XD

Ok bois, who's talented enough to draw a Hellghast pinup girl? I have my hand ready on my card

When you make the "Antagonists" look THAT cool, and give them enough backstory to sympathize with them... you can bet your ass that most of the Community will cheer on the "Space Nazis". ...and the Allies are 40 shades of bland.

22:35 I always imagined the helghast were using this stairwell as a staging area. Massing up troops, and resting in a relatively (as they thought) safe location before pushing a pre-planned offensive.

Can I just say, if my voice sounds off at any point in the video, I did have a few issues during production which made this one of the biggest battles in editing: had to replace my old microphone part-way through the voice-recording stage, I moved flat halfway into production and had to battle room echoes and traffic noises in the new place along with optimizing the new recording equipment, *and* as it turned out after-the-fact, I had an active case of Covid-19 during at least some of the voice recording and (though my symptoms were mild) even I could tell my breathing was off for at least a few weeks, and long recording sessions were draining. Aside from that I just can't speak anyway, but hope you enjoy nonetheless.

First of all - excellent video. I just want to say that my favorite thing about Killzone is that, despite the fact that it is a work of fiction, it does away with the notion that people are comic book villains. They are in fact, humans, with real hopes, dreams, and motivations and aren't necessarily just pure evil just because. And conversely, the good guys in life often are all too human with their own motivations and flaws that might make villains sound reasonable all of a sudden. And that's the horror of it all - the villians in history are human like you and I. And should we disregard them as just cartoonish villains we're more likely to create more by accident, rather prevent history from rhyming and repeating. Good men too are just human, which can either cause you to feel ashamed in their shadow...or wonder in horror how no one realized what a monster they truly were...or how many other monsters they had a hand in creating.

Man every bit of Killzone just makes me fall in love with the series and Guerilla more and more and this video miniseries just brought back a nuclear payload of nostalgia

Just realized that General Metrac looks like Captain Angelos with that model quality.

that speech at the start has given me the chills since i was a kid

Those Half-Life scientist voice clips are completely unexpected and absolutely hilarious! You have one hell of a comic timing!

Brother, you did NOT need to go THAT HARD with that SMG trooper on 4chan bit. But I am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL that you did.

Ngl, I like when a historic (or an inspired one in this case) actually out bad stuff like racism, in a context that make sense, not for being edgy. It gives it a more grounded setting, rather than just "well, your people killed everyone I love but the worse thing I will say to you is ugly"

Death Korps of Kreig had to have been a big inspiration for helghast as well

I truly appreciate the dedication to Half Life ragdoll sound effects whenever possible.

The palace steps and Radec battle were insanely memorable. Almost every time I played that part of the game, it seems fresh and new each time. As if I am playing it for the first time. Killzone 2 is the best game in the franchise. With Liberation being Guerilla Games taking the limitations of a portable console and creating one of the most unique experiences I know.

I wish this series would get more love. So sick of scrolling past videos acting like the games are completely forgotten and lost to history.

This was perfect-I've loved Killzone for it's themes that didn't glamorize war and really wish we could go another game. Thanks for all of your hard work on your videos!

I just ended the last 2 hours of my shift at work with this playing in the background while doing end of shift reports, and this suddenly made me call my brother. See, Killzone: Liberation was the shit when I was younger, and my brother had fortunately got a PSP for his birthday and Killzone: Liberation was the game that came free. He and I played the game in turns, to the point we got stuck with the final boss fight. I was so fucking irritated back then for losing so much that I ended up breaking the joystick and the circle button of the PSP. Sadly, my folks had no money to fix it up and my brother was mad at me. Sure we eventually moved on but I never really got to say sorry. Just called him out of the blue, said sorry for the PSP and we both just laughed. I told him to watch this video to bring back the good times. Thanks for this, dude. Amazing upload, and I just love the edits with memes mixed into your commentary. And you know what? Now that you linked in the parallels of the world building in Killzone with the grit of World War II, Radek reminds me of what Steiner was supposed to be to Hitler at the closing days of Nazi Germany. Again, amazing video, bud. Cheers.

Stances regarding war and ill-prepared invasions against underestimated enemy still holds today. You hit it 100% accurate regarding allegory on human wars in general, as this whole allegory fits very well to our modern reality.

Also, anyone else struck by the similar premise, ending tone, and even plot beats of Killzone 2 to CoD 4? I’m not sure if it’s due to both games developing amidst that post-nine eleven cultural miasma, but they’re markedly similar. Even to the point where the despot detonates a nuke in the nation’s capitol as a last ‘fuck you’ to the invading force. Also also, it’s a little unfair to contrast Halo with Killzone in terms of depictions of war - in Halo humanity is being out-and-out exterminated by a technologically and numerically superior enemy, being the underdog is baked into the entire premise of the first game and the nuance and moral ambiguities only get introduced with the introduction of the enemy’s POV in the second game, something which pretty much causes them to defeat themselves. The humans don’t really have room to soul search since peace literally wasn’t an option. That said, the post-Bungie games would’ve been an EXCELLENT opportunity to explore the perpetrator/victim relationship immediately following a war, humanity having to come to grips with reorienting all its resources towards war to prioritizing new endeavors. Having to forge diplomatic relationships with the factions and species of the blokes that were just trying to kill them. It’d make for an excellent setting for a sci-fi game, full of potential for ambiguity and ethical exploration. BUT WE DIDN’T GET ANY OF THAT, DID WE? 343 really fumbled this fictional universe didn’t they?

99.99% of this was a perfect reminder of why I’m subscribed to your channel: it’s a long-ass wait between videos, but the quality definitely makes the wait worth it. Killzone and Killzone: Liberation were absolutely my jam in high school, but I never actually played Killzone 2. (Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins seduced me away from the Sony side...not to mention the 360 controller just feels *mwah* 👌) I mean, I know for a fact the only reason I ever noticed, let alone bought a copy of Jin Roh was because it had a Helghast on the cover. That being said, the remaining 0.01% that I have some...reservations...about. In regards to wartime dehumanization of the enemy, I think you were very close. Much closer than some people I know personally, in fact. But I think you might not have considered that the population can frequently go along with it quite willingly. I was in 4th grade when the twin towers fell. I watched it happen, along with my classmates, on a big-ass CRT TV the school janitor wheeled into the classroom. I grew up hearing the narrative of “this was a pointless war for oil”, how we were engaging in imperialism. But then another suicide bombing would happen, or a captured journalist would be executed, and I just wouldn’t care as much. Whether we had any right to be there or not, there was a part of my mind that refused to care, because “they started it”. In a free society, we are all able to interact with each other as individuals. But when violence occurs, individuality seems to get cast aside and we fall back into our tribal identities. It’s all well and good for some people to decry the bloodshed as meaningless, and at times they might even be right. But it’s incredibly difficult for people to disaggregate themselves back out into individuals while they still believe “justice” to be unfulfilled. And it’s entirely possible for both sides to simultaneously believe themselves to be the victim. Past a certain point, propaganda can become unnecessary, because the people will keep fighting out of their own legitimate grievances against the enemy.

My Death was but a mere sacrifice necessary for Helghans Glory..... Long Live Helghan

Helgast in Swedish would mean Entirely Ghost. Unless you go old norse-ish. Then it means Hell Ghost. oh. and everytime I hear Radec speak, I expect him to pester John about wormholes.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Rico is useless. Radec though, I love how they got Sean Pertwee back to have him voice a villain.

So, this is not a series I knew much about at all. Honestly can't say I really heard about it before I met you (which was like a billion years ago at this point, aaagh, make time stop) and even though I've never played any Killzone, I have to say I find it's world absolutely fascinating. It's a universe that genuinely feels lived in, particularly from a design stand point. Fashion, technology, architecture, everything has a history, a practical purpose, a reason for being the way it is and it makes it feel real as opposed to many generic sci-fi shooters with aesthetically mismatched faux-halo power armour wearing superheroes flying about blowing each other up with laser guns. The way these games try to engage players with their narrative on a deeper level and make them think about who's right and who's wrong is very unique, rather than simply have some Helghast bloke go "we're not so different, you and I" and giving a big speech about how his mother was killed and his dog stepped on, leaving it more or less up for the player to discover on their own is so... ballsy. Like, it's entirely possible to play the game and miss that stuff if you're not paying attention. Which I imagine happens a lot more these days as narratives have become a lot less subtle in recent years and thus people who consume media have in some ways become accustomed to everything being very surface level and easy to understand, with messages and morals basically being spelled out for viewers. I also love that the Jurassic park SNES music is just a standard feature on your videos.

Me and my Dad used to love playing Co-op in Killzone, it was great

This was good. Like really excellent good-ass GOOD. Solid af balance of meaningful discussion and great bits and cutaways which all landed btw. I knew Killzone was more interesting than I remembered and you've it abundantly clear that it definitely was. The GMod bits killed me, but your allegory vs. applicability epilogue was especially good and held some really eye-opening and well-said points on the topic. Proper excited for the next part

The m82 is probably my favorite assault rifle in a FPS, it just feels so real and it looks so awesome!

The first killzone was a classic ps2 game. Also i always loved the shotgun cause its alternate fire was to shot 2 bucks instead of one. Plus the sniper was so powerful you can shoot a guy in the foot and he'd die(in a weird way cause the enemy flips out weirdly)

Mate I just wanted to say thank you for this retrospective I can’t wait to see part 2

First of all, loved it. Second of all, I fucking loved "Visari and the Boys" so much that I went back to replay it and I noticed that it was the most replayed section.

They seriously need to make a game on the 1st extrasolar war.

Killzone deserves way better. Killzone 1 was super interesting for what it was. Liberation and Mercenary are also my favorite handheld games ever. 2 and 3 I put next to Halo 3 and Reach for the best shooters of 7th gen, and I even love shadowfall for what it is despite a bad story and lack of polish

Time to watch this about 4 times in a row.

I’m happy to see new people getting a glimpse of this series, its a hidden gem imo and should be in the spotlight again like many others.

Its been 10 years since I played Killzone Mercenaries. I still find myself saying "For Helgan" even knowing what they've done, because whenever I am met with a helghast character, I am met with respect, enemy or otherwise. The ISA/VSA do not share such sympathies, especially when they throw me to the wayside. My point is the Helghast have little left to lose, while the Vektans have a lot that can still be taken from them. I can't be mad when they kill civilians, only sad they couldn't find another way to lash out, there was no other option available to them when even the civies are unknowingly covering up a massive genocide. Edit note: Radec actually has both cloaking tech _AND_ invisibility, and uses them at the same time, he just uncloaks because he his suit can't keep both running for long and he wants you to see him gut you.

About their tactics on the beginning of the video, they were clearly using the famous Krieg tactics of "Drown the enemy with our bodies." They already had the gas masks after all, might as well use their attrition tactics too.

This retrospective is probably one of my favorites, because you give me new perspective to the series.

If I had to put a guess, I'd say the Helghast Miners are both. Some volunteered, some were volunteered.

For me, the first game was a serious shock. Coming from 007 (N64), Unreal Tournament 3 (Dreamcast), perfect dark (N64), and Halo (need I say) going into Killzone was a massive change. Difficult spiked, while combat became smoother and faster. Kills became more instant. Death inevitable. Granted, other games have their appeal, but before Killzone I was almost jaded... nearly calm through even the hardest settings and situations. Killzone gave me back fear, gave me back that rush of "what was that, where did it come from!?" And honestly, didn't get that feeling again until I got into online team deathmatch (cod/bf/warface/destiny, etc.) All in all, I won't say the game is good or bad in any capacity for others, however it was exactly the kick I needed for my fps play, and I still rely on those memories in extreme situations in games today.

Sums up Rico perfectly "WTF IS A SHAKESPEAR?"

Out of my entire gaming experience, Visari is easily thee most compeling main "bad guy" I have ever encountered. His grounded nature in our own historical precedents and the stellar voice acting puts him leaps and bounds beyond any stereotypical super villian antagonist. Then you add in the very "realistic" nature of the graphical and model design and Killzone to me is by far one of ,if not thee most memorable exsperinces I've ever had in gaming.

Not sure how I missed your channel, but this is some high quality content. I've never even played the Killzone series and you've got me invested.

The Killzone 2 opening mission reminds me of Clone Wars. "Good thing those bugs can't aim."

I played the first Killzone and Halo CE back when I was a kid on their respective consoles, and went back to play KZ2, 3 and Shadowfall as an adult, and as a fan of both series, I can honestly say that Killzone has the deeper story and lore, vastly superior and intricate compared to Halo, but Halo had the gameplay edge If they started doing KZ novels like they do Halo novels I genuinely think people would love them, and the games would’ve seriously benefited from having an expanded lore set in between the games As it stands I can only dream of the next KZ game, whereas I’m kinda over Halo I think KZ is just a more engrossing story for adults, and that’ll carry the games for adults (considering these are adult rated games iirc that’s not surprising), but it’s gameplay can be a grind in my opinion, even on easier difficulties, and the gunplay always felt off in my opinion, I can’t explain what it is about the gunplay, it just never felt right when I played them

*Shoots dude in head* "You have been re-educated" LOL

I discovered KILLZONE in mid-2011, thanks to walkthrough on YT. With my pals in history class, we used to watch the cutscenes and try to guess who was the caricature of whom : a game with Mussolini, Staline, Goebbles, etc... what a great game for refferences-hunters ! The more I watched about the franchise, the more I thought it was a parable of Germany (from 1918 to 1991) and modern-day USA, with a love-declaration to actioner movies from the 80's-90's.

Aww, I didn't see this pop up in my alerts anywhere. Damn you KZfaq! But as with your previous Retrospectives, this is fantastic. Can't wait for Part 2!

I just realized the isa comanders tell you to get shit done while staying back while the helgast comanders fight you directly

1:14:05 for some odd reason these animations looked adorable to me, like ''yay we gon' re-educate ya''.

Visaris speech was so charismatic and enthralling that I wanted to join there side

Cobar flopping around inside that mech was the funniest thing I've seen all day.

This is amazing! I'm so glad to see more content coming out! I'd love to see a "Resistance Retrospective" next following the war vibe!

Still my favorite game of all time. Thank you for making 5 hours of content for me to binge. You're a hero.

"Combat helmets, are they really necessary?" I love that little news reel ticker blurb.

Radec was one of those guys that you could follow until the end

Killzone 2: Kino Killzone 3: Marvel movie

"in and out, 3 week invasion, what could go wrong" That uhh... has a whollllle new meaning now XD

I got into this when I was still only playing shooters on PC and used my Playstation for RPGs and Driving games, never expecting a controller based FPS to be any fun. But there was a Demo Disc and that blew me away how precise and easy it could actually work. I also liked the setting, great design and attention to detail so I stuck with the series. To be honest, I never really got on with Horizon (I liked other open worlds better and rather played Monster Hunter when I wanted to go against big beasties) but I was very happy when Guerilla teamed up for Death Stranding. Looking forward to what comes next.

Finally! I adore your retrospectives!