Price: £14.99 Players: 1-4 Widescreen: Yes Online: Yes Multiplayer between PSPs: Yes Killzone Liberation takes place just two months after the events of the original game on the PS2. Now, that in itself was an okay first-person-shooter but to just make a straight-forward sequel would be rather boring. It had to be different... and this one manages that perfectly. Once again, you're fighting against the Helghast, all of whom look like they've had gasmasks welded to their face like the Doctor Who two-parter from 2005, The Empty Child, but whereas they eventually found the answer to resolve their issues, the only way to deal with this lot is to blast them squarely back to hell. The main difference here is the change in viewpoint to an isometric top-down perspective as you go through the four chapters, each of which are broken up into several chunks to work through - so you're easily going to get your money's worth here, particularly now it's a Platinum release - and you'll unlock various chapter games and challenges on completion of each one. I'll shortly be describing why the gameplay is highly satisfying, as well as being very difficult at times, but the most important button presses to remember throughout this game is that 'R' and the Square button allow you to duck behind things and come back up at the right time so you can avoid being spotted. And that's the key to playing Killzone: Liberation: the Helghast aren't psychic so won't know you're there unless you draw attention to yourself. If the status goes red then they've spotted you. If it's yellow then they're not aware of your presence, but if it's orange then they detect a threat so be careful.

In this game you can shoot, throw grenades, and use C4 explosives to blow up certain things (this is easy to do, just get to the point with a circle going round it, hold the action button until the meter fills up and then you've got four seconds to escape before kablammo!). Pick up health, ammo and explosives along the way, but avoid pressure mines, which sounds obvious but you'll be amazed the number of times you get caught out as one of the benefits of the long levels with adequate checkpoints is that you go back over old terrain to nip and retrieve ammo and health that you didn't pick up earlier (even though in some locations there is a fair bit of this around), so be observant when you're running about thinking all is well just because there's no baddies left over there. Killzone: Liberation is hugely entertaining, even if it does contain a fairly standard set of missions to accomplish. A lot of thought has been put into making the AI have more of the "I" in this game. However, I do take issue with the occasional pillocks who stand behind explosive barrels. That said, if you really want to be cruel when someone's coming for you, fire one or two shots to knock the baddie over, watch them get up, fire another shot, and so on. Hahahahaha! And while you may have guns at your disposal - more of which can be bought inbetween completed sections - it's sometimes it's more satisfying when up close to smack 'em in the face, or wait until they pass one of the aforementioned explosive barrels - so it doesn't seem so much like an obvious set-up - and fire a few shots to set it off, which looks superb with the resulting rag-doll physics. It's not all fun and games, though, and sometimes they fight back... At one point on chapter 2, I crouched behind a rock, but on coming up to shoot at the enemy, just as I was winning I took a round in the shoulder and this pushed me back onto a landmine I'd forgotten about. Case closed! :(

Other random observations about this game: it's not all just about running around. You can drive tanks and hovercrafts, but despite all your heroics, it's a shame you can't jump over anything, which means there's always got to be a way round. You can also command other soldiers who sometimes tag along, and this is more easily done than it looks from the picture on the right, which is highlighting at the press of a button all the options available to send your men. In addition to this, I loved the little creepy crawly mechanoid things which spend most of their time 'asleep' until they detect you walking past. Once they get close, they're not easy to avoid as they're very versatile, but if you can get your timing right, you'll give them a nudge just when one of the enemy is about to pass by - and if you've scarpered in time then, yes, they'll do your job for you in adding one to the descending flightpath of Helghast headcount... Brilliant sound separation as SFX are heard through the appropriate sides of the headphones depending on which side of the screen they happen, and there's also a lovely 'splosh' sound as when a baddie gets blown into the water. For those seeking online mayhem, there's ad-hoc multiplayer options in the form of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assault and Capture The Flag. Overall, this is a brilliant game that really shows what the PSP is capable of, and also reminds me a lttle bit of the rather difficult at times but still engaging Licence To Kill game on the Atari ST, based on the Timothy Dalton Bond movie from 1987. In fact, looking at the way it plays, it makes me wonder why we can't get the unsurpassable Ico on this. I'd love to play that on the handheld. There'll be a lot of trial-and-error as you make your way through this game, so make like the old man on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon track, The Great Gig in the Sky and chant, "I'm not frightened of dying - any time will do, I don't mind."

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2007.