Metareview: Killzone: Liberation

The second half of October is going to be an expensive month for PSP owners. October 31st will be an especially expensive time, with two of the PSP's biggest heavy-hitters launching simultaneously: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Killzone Liberation. The early reviews of Killzone are in, and so far, it's good:

• IGN (90/100) - "It seems wherever Liberation can go the extra mile, it does. It delivers on all fronts, from a thoroughly engrossing single-player campaign to an addictive multiplayer component. Liberation also shames most other PSP offerings through its presentation, which blends excellent visuals and sound with a clean and user-friendly interface. It has a few quirks, but in the end, they seem almost negligible. Definitely recommended to fans of the action genre, but also to anyone who dislikes bad games."

• Game Informer (73/100) - "Killzone is a franchise that has generated a lot of hype based on one average console FPS and a really wicked E3 video a couple of years ago, but Liberation is a PSP title that has some real meat on its bones... The basics here are all done well; I just wish there was a better auto-targeting system in place, a flaw that really limited my enjoyment of this game. Still, when portable versions of shooters so often feel like product for product's sake, it's good to see a company that's actually trying to do some quality work on the PSP."

• UGO (90/100) - "Gameplay-wise, Liberation is one of the best overhead shooters we've ever played... We would've liked to see a slightly meatier single-player experience, but the promised downloadable chapters and maps should help that. Mutliplayer, on the other hand, is top notch, and if you've got a couple friends with the game, it'll be a sure way to kill a few hours."

Meaty? Not meaty? Game Informer and UGO seem to disagree and the meatocity of the game, but one cannot forget that much more content will be made available later on in the year as free downloads, such as the highly coveted Infrastructure multiplayer. Our very own Chris Powell gave the demo an 8.5 earlier in the year, and it appears that the final version of the game is well represented by the demo. So, dust off your demo UMDs, and give the demo a spin. Chances are if you like the demo, you'll like the game.