Killzone: Liberation is the continuation of the original Killzone for PSP. A such the story, characters, weapons, and such have stayed mainly the same. But don't be fooled, though the first Killzone was mediocre to say, this nice little hand held title shines as one of the best action/shooter game available for Sony's PSP.

==== ====
STORY
==== ====

The Story Begins two months after the events of the first Killzone. You assume the role of the franchise's hero, Captain Jan Templar who is sent back out onto the frontlines to rescue a stubborn Sgt. Rico Velasquez. After Templar rescues Rico they are sent off to destroy former ISA weapon bays that were taken from them during the invasion. After doing such, the young captain is ordered to rescue important ISA VIPs that are being held up by Colonel Cobar, also known as "White death" due to the number of people he has killed, many Helghans are afraid of him. Colonel Cobar is under direct command by one man, and one only. This man is none other than General Armin Metrac.

Though my little intro on the story my seem a little thin, the actual Killzone: Liberation Story is an interesting one, just not very filling for veterans of the series.

==== ====
GAMEPLAY
==== ====

This game features a top-down isometric view in contrast to the original Killzone game for the PS2, which was a first-person shooter. The resultant game can be seen as a mixture of a shooter and a dungeon crawler. As such, this new view gives you a heads up in the battlefield, so you are able to plan ahead before you make your attack!

By collecting various pickups in the form of money cases, the player unlocks new weapons to use in the game. These weapons can be found in various weapons caches in certain levels. After enough money is amassed, the V2 upgraded weapons become available. The weapons in the caches are also converted into the V2 upgraded versions. Some of the unlockable weapons are: The Helgast Assault Rifle, a machine pistol, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, a revolver, a crossbow and a chaingun (The ISA assault rifle is the default weapon). After downloading chapter five updates for the flamethrower and rocket launcher are available to unlock.

One of the many problems that people faced in the first killzone was the fact that the AI was just plan DUMB. This is very apparent for when you walk up to a helghast soldier's face and he just stands there. But in Killzone: liberation, the AI is surprisingly very complex. The enemy will actually move and flank you; they will take advantages if opened to them. The AI has really improved a great deal, so much so that you will find yourself having a hard time playing on the Hard difficulty against Colonel Cobar, you will die a minimum of 20 times(took me 44 tries to kill the guy!!)

I would also like to mention the inclusion of vehicles this time around! Yes that's right, during the course of the campaign you will find yourself behind the wheel of a hovercraft with machine guns and RPGs, a Heavy Tank, and a Dune Buggy with dual machine gun turrets. You will also strap yourself into a Jetpack that comes with a high powered rifle with unlimited ammo!

Killzone: Liberation also offers up the standard multiplayer matches, such as: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF, and Assault(defend and destroy.) These matches can be played via locally with six other players or played with eight players via the infrastructure download.

There is also a co-op option, but co-op cannot be played over infrastructure.

==== ====
GRAPHICS
==== ====

The first Killzone may not have been the best game around, but it did do something right, and that would be in its graphics. What i mean by graphics is the art direction of the game. The art direction brilliant and really gave you the feel of being on a war torn planet. Killzone was one of the better looking FPSs on the PS2 at its time.

Killzone: liberation remains true to this. The art direction remains the same as the first, and has never looked better. The PSP is an amazing machine, for Killzone: Liberation not plays well, but looks good too!

==== ====
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
==== ====

Killzone: Liberation does support downloadable content, such as infrastructure mode so you can play online, and a whole new chapter to play on campaign or co-op!

==== ====
CLOSING
==== ====

Killzone: Liberation is a great title for the PSP and really improves on all of Killzone 1's faults. The only problem with this game is the fact that not many people have heard about it because of the fact nobody has a PSP, but seriously, if you have a PSP, you should check this out! Anyone at all that is interested in an intense shooter for on-the-go, should pick this title up.