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While the main arm of the ISA's military assault the city directly Alpha Squad is sent in to go behind Helghan lines. As Sergeant Tomas Sevchenko it's your job to bring the war to the enemy's doorstep, knock on their door and then kick it down without even waiting for an answer. It's not going to be easy, but with this guide your chances of survival will be improved considerably.

MISSION ONE: CORITH RIVER

THE NEW SUN
The game starts as Sev regains consciousness after a restful slumber on the battle cruiser The New Sun, and checks himself out in a mirror. The time for sleeping is at an end. The time of kicking as has just begun.

Start by following Corporal Dante Garza to the launch bay and note how full of life he is. It would certainly be wrong for anything unfortunate to happen to him. After meeting Sergeant Rico Velasquez and Killzone: Liberation's Evelyn Batton and Colonel Jan Templar, the main character from both Killzone and Killzone: Liberation follow the waypoint (by pressing on the D-pad) and enter the dropship just in time to watch a cut-scene that's as good a homage to a similar scene in Aliens as you are ever likely to see.

An unexpected level of enemy resistance has forced Alpha Squad and the Nemesis armoured convoy to land far from their original drop zone. Move on to the right and round to the left and prepare to shoot some Helghast located on the building to your front as well as to your left. Your main target is the bridge, so after making sure you are safe from attack from all angles pick up the nearby Rocket Launcher and shoot the middle of the bridge and trigger an almighty explosion. Pretty, isn't it?

CORINTH SANDS

The beach is covered with anti tank obstacles which also provide impenetrable cover. Take cover behind one of these obstacles and wait for the two Helghast APCs to unload their platoons of soldiers with a grenade ready. Chuck it when the enemy are still in a group and mop up any stragglers with your gun. The beach is now secured. If only Omaha was so easy...

STAHL ARMS WAREHOUSE

The Nemesis Convoy can't proceed until Sev and Rico have fought their way to the control room so they can open the city's flood gate. Follow the waypoint and take a boost from Rico and enter the flood gate complex where you'll find two M82 Assault Rifles. Look to the level below and you'll see a group of unsuspecting Helghast. Cook a grenade for two seconds by holding the throw button and throw it into the group. By cooking the grenade you are shortening its fuse and so be warned that it will explode in your hand if you don't throw it in time.

Shoot the red barrel to take out the other Helghast and mop up the rest with direct gunfire. Follow the waypoint and prepare to give Rico cover as he uses his impressive hacking skills to bypass a security lock.

Enter the room and you'll find some STA24 Rifles which, because they are very accurate at long range, should be used to kill the Helghast in the building opposite before you venture to the Flood Gate Control mechanism. Turn its wheel and wonder if it really was necessary to require you to use Six-Axis tilt control to do so. Follow the waypoint and pick up your first bit of Helghast Intel.

VERDRAN OVERLOOK EAST

The Nemesis Covoy is under attack, but that's OK because you'll find yourself near a heavy machinegun emplacement. Kill all the Helghast hat are near the convoy and notice how full of smoke and dust everything is getting. It's ok, because the gun's aiming reticule will turn red when it's over an enemy soldier so fire through the detritus and you will get some big fat kills. Follow the waypoint and join the convoy held up in the storm drain.

STORM DRAIN 11-34C

On your way to rejoin the Nemesis Convoy you will see your first Helghast Symbol. Shoot it. In the next room where you encounter Helghast there's some metal fencing that's obscuring another Helghast Symbol. Shoot it, and then follow the waypoint so you can meet Jeffries and his platoon of soon-to-be-dead soldiers in a dropship.

Watch them get totally wasted by a Helghast RPG fired from a nearby building and run and man a nearby gun emplacement. While it's tempting to shoot the Helghast in the building opposite directly, don't bother.

Just shoot out all the building's concrete supports and the building will collapse. Don'tget too excited, though - this is a set-piece and most other buildings are indestructible. This isn't Bad Company.

VERDRAN OVERLOOK WEST

Now follow the waypoint and go and see if any of Jeffries men survived the attack. You'll see one survivor, but he will get aced in a scripted scene so don't feel bad as there really was nothing you could have done. Well, you can get revenge, so kill the Helghast responsible and pick up the rocket launcher.

Fire a missile at the weak spot on the door marked with the Heghast symbol. Go through the door and look under the stairs where you will find another piece of Helghast Intel. Follow the waypoint like a good little soldier.

KOROVIS DAM

You'll need to defend the Nemesis Convoy from RPG attack. Take out all nearby Helghast and then take cover and take out all the Helghast hiding in the small building using the iron sight of your weapon to shoot the heads of enemies who are mostly protected by the gun emplacements they are using.

Pick up the Rocket Launcher and use it on the Helghast Tank, then discard it for standard arms. Mop up remaining infantry units with well-aimed small arms fire and move along the Dam. Beware that in the next room you will be attacked by Helghast shooting down from a blast hole in the ceiling, so look up and be prepared.

Go down the ladder and pick up another Rocket Launcher and use it on the Helghast Tank that will attack. Kill it with missiles and then swp it for an Assault Rifle that you will find on the floor. Fall back to Alpha's position and take control of the ISA Tank. Use its machineguns to wipe out remaining Helghast and take out the other Helghast tanks that attack, then reunite with Alpha and, with the local population oh Helghast dead, it's off to that bit of Killzone 2 that formed the demo released at E3 in 2005

MISSON TWO: BLOOD MERIDIAN

LANDING ZONE 33

You'd have thought that some form of reconnaissance mission would have saved everyone from suffering this next bit, but no. Helghast Arc Towers are causing a bloody nuisance to ISA armoured units by ruining them with lightning. Decent ISA soldiers are dying, so rendezvous with Captain Narville who will send you and Garza to take out the towers. Use an explosive charge on the door to the left and enter the corridor. Look to the left and you'll find more Intel. Follow the waypoint.

DAKUROL ALLEY

Keep on following the waypoint until you get to a junction where it suggests you should go to the right. Ignore this suggestion and go left where you'll find another Helghast Symbol to shoot. Return to following the waypoint and look out for a building with wooden shutters.

Open up with automatic weaponry on the shutters and get a grenade in there when there's enough room created by all the splinters. The Helghast behind the shutters will be trying to do the same to you. Helghan's are just to angry to bother opening windows. Move on through by following the waypoint.

HEAVY CANAL

You are about to encounter the toughest yet dumbest enemy units in the game - the Helghan Heavy Weapons Trooper. Ignore him at first, keep moving between cover and kill all the standard Helghan troops nearby and make sure you reload before attacking the big guy. You are meant to shoot him directly in his face which will, quite ridiculously, turn around to shield his face while exposing fuel tanks that he keeps on his back.

You can either take cover behind a pillar and attack his face, or cook a grenade and throw it right at him. This way you won't have to worry about a head shot since the grenade's splash damage will hurt him plenty, and you will save ammunition that you will need to blast him on the incredibly obvious weak spot on his back.

Alternatively you can try running to his rear straight away while he attacks other ISA troops, but the success of this tactic is all down to the random behaviour of your AI team mates.

WOLLAN'S VIEW

Follow the waypoint and turn the valve using the incredibly realistic Six-Axis turning mechanism. It's even more like 'being there' isn't it? Carry on following the waypoint down a corridor and up some steps and you will encounter a group of ISA soldiers facing Helghast taking cover.

Cook a grenade for two seconds and lob it at the Helghast and take cover yourself because you are about to get counter attacked by enemy units whose woolly hats make them look even more WWII than usual. Standard enemy units will attack from cover, but when you see ones with woolly hats on you should know that they are willing and able to charge straight at you, swapping between their guns to knives when they get close.

They specialise in back-stabbing, so kill them fast before they get too close or worse, behind you. Those knives cause plenty hurt. Kill 'em all and follow the waypoint.

VERUDAN ALLEY

You'll encounter a metal ramp and, worse still, Helghast the other side of it. Move while crouching and use the ramp as cover then run up it and get hold of a nearby RIFLE and use its long-range accuracy to slaughter the Helghast you'll see far away taking cover behind a wall.

Follow the waypoint and make sure you look left at a junction where the waypoint suggests you should go right and you'll find some Intel. You'll know you are close when you are asked if you would like to call the elevator. It's a rhetorical question, of course, since if you don't call the elevator you won't be progressing any further.

CABLEWAY HEIGHTS

When you exit the elevator you will see the Arc Tower in all its phallic glory. Run across the bridge and meet up with another group of your men and follow the waypoint as a band of brothers. Take cover and kill the Helghast that are hiding behind some air ducts and follow the waypoint and find another piece of Intel in a small room that features a short stairwell. Go up the stairs and prepare for some heavy resistance, but considering you are fighting the Helghast on their home turf what did you expect?

CABLEWAY ROOFTOPS

You will need to be ready to shoot at the glowing blue power nodes of the Arc Tower while simultaneously fighting a Helghast counterattack so it's important that you reload your weapon at the right time. Reload, then press the button on the control box. This will cause the Arc Tower to open up panels on its side and expose the blue conduits.

Unload a full clip into one of the blue bits, causing it to explode, reload and kill the attacking Helghast while the Arc Tower's panels close. Reload when possible so when the tower's covers open again you will have enough ammunition to finish the job properly or you will suffer the ignominy of seeing the damned thing open only to find you have a few rounds left. Watching the reload animation while the conduit mocks you with it's weak points certainly isn't fun.

Once the Arc Tower is ruined you will be attacked by an ATAC that will swirl in overhead and move with all the snapping behaviour of a fish, but a heavily armed and angry one. Calm down dear, the ATAC's initial attack only takes place in a cut-scene that heralds the end of the level. While watching the loading screen tilt the Six-Axis controls and see that the screen you are looking at is actually a 3D hologram. Now they really didn't have to do that.

MISSION THREE: VISARI SQUARE

PREFECT's OFFICE

Follow the waypoint either by dropping down through holes blasted in the floors or by taking the stairs should you want to come across more graceful. You'll have to engage Helghast across the street who stop their attack a lot quicker if you move between cover and push on up to their position. Follow the waypoint until you come to a room with a shattered ceiling and kill the Helghast waiting in ambush above, and then jump down the hole in the floor.

MALIK BACK ALLEYS

Once you fall through the hole you'll find yourself in a storage room where some Intel can be found. Leave the room following the waypoint and take care of standard Helghast troops as you do so. Follow the waypoint up a set of metal stairs and you will see a door blocked by electricity.

Blast the nearby blue power box and your path will be cleared. Go through the door and down some stairs and you will encounter Helghast hiding behind pillars. Grenades are a great way of getting them out of cover, or you can wait for head shots. Wipe them out (all of them) and move on through to the next section of the mission.

OSTOIA END

This very short section will see your waypoint suggesting that you take a ladder, but you can also drop down a hole in the floor where you'll find some crates that you can smash to reveal extra grenades. Either way you'll need to follow the waypoint and take a ladder so you can move on to the next bit.

UNION STORAGE YARD

At last you get to regroup with the Alpha boys and will have to fight together because you are about to face a mass of Helghast. Note that Alpha decide to take cover behind sandbags and you can to, but you also have the option to be a great deal more cunning.

There's a ladder near the sandbags that leads up to a level above Alpha's position. If you climb up there you can get he drop on Helghast who will attack after breaking through a wall. You can kill them in safety and when you start to hear a grinding sound look for a wall that is starting to spark and ready a grenade. When the enemy APC breaks through chuck the grenade and you will annihilate an entire squad of troopers.

If you took position above Alpha you can also run to the right and duck near gaps in the wall where Helghast will appear totally and be unaware of your presence. Alpha will eventually open the door to the left of their position, so run through it ignoring any other Helghast since you have your own mission to think of. Collect the Intel and move on through to a room with a ramp that leads out to a window.

THE SQUARE

You'll need to defend the square from counter-attack and can do so either by taking a ladder up the back of a small booth in the centre of the square where you'll find a Sniper Rifle, or by using either of the two Machine Gun emplacements, or by just taking cover where possible and running amok with standard weapons and grenades if you are playing on the easiest difficulty setting.

The booth also contains a very powerful Heavy Machine Gun that's particularly powerful and accurate if you fire it from a static and crouching position. Eventually a gunship carrying more Helghast will arrive, but just lob grenades onto their landing zone (as defined by the ropes that fall from the gunship) and mop up the rest, if any, with standard arms. Prepare for an assault from beyond the gunship's drop zone.

More Helghast are going to attack from a cable car. Kill 'em, and then get ready to fight a pair of Heavy Weapon Helghast that will come down either side of the square - right in front of the two gun emplacements you have access too.

Man the gun emplacement on the left and blast one in the head quickly, and then spray the tanks on his backs when they turn round in pain. Get to the right-hand emplacement and do the same to the other Heavy Weapon's Helghast that's attacking from the right. Well done, the Square is secured and the level is over.

MISSION FOUR: SALAMU DISTRICT

CANAL BANK

Blast the blue power node that's making electricity block the sewer entrance and enter. Move on through and you will hear some Helghast moan that Colonel Radec has had just had a trooper executed for uniform violation. Kill them from the cover of the sewer pipe and solve their problem for them, exit the pipe and turn right and shoot the explosives rigged to the laser tripwire or 'trip beam' if you will.

Move up the path and drop a grenade down to the level that you will get to via the ladder and you'll kill the Helghast below. The room you'll find yourself in contains a Helghast Symbol that should be shot and then climb the other set of ladders.

DUSHAN TOWER COURTYARD

The Helghast seem to place weapons depending on how they are planning to hide from attackers and so when you find the weapon rack that contains the Flamethrower you'll know that you are about to enter a scene that can act as a stage for a master class in its use.

Pick up the weapon and move on to a multi-levelled area. Helghast will land from a gunship and take up position above you, and will be protected by plenty of cover. Helpfully the Flamethrower fires a long arc of napalm that can get right up to the enemy's position and burn them to death.

It's certainly a much better way of dealing with them than attempting to use guns or even grenades. Follow the waypoint up through the tower and look for Intel hiding on a desk in a room near a window. Now Rendezvous with Garza and again notice how much of a character he really is. It really would be a terrible thing if he were to get hurt.

DUSHAN LOADING BAY

Should you have kept hold of the Flamethrower you will be able to use it to great affect and be able to burn the next set of Helghast to merry hell without them being able to shoot back. Look for them standing behind some sandbags and flame on! The same fiery death can easily be brought to the enemies in the machine gun nest located above your position, when they are all dead set a charge on the artillery and detonate it from a safe distance.

Follow the waypoint and use a gun nest to kill more enemies and move on to join Garza as he hacks a door lock. Ready your weapon, because as soon as that door opens you will face a bunch of Helghast who will attack immediately. You'll now find yourself in a communications room and hear a broadcast from Radec about a defence system.

In a room nearby you'll find another new weapon: the LS23 Shotgun. Take it if you like to make one-shot kills at close range and follow Garza up some stairs while being mindful that you'll encounter some waiting Helghast. Shoot them to death and plant the charges and detonate them. Now follow Garza and you will receive a message from Eveyln. Follow the waypoint down some holes in the floor, take some stairs and follow a corridor into the Corinth Shanties.

CORINTH SHANTIES

Garza will tell you of some 'dead good guys' and you'll find them underneath the corrugated iron shanty town. Move on and you'll find an ISA soldier who is still alive, but not for long. It's an ambush from above! Take cover and kill the Helghast and try and get as close to the machine gun nest that will begin to open up on your position.

Kill the Helghast, then take control of their gun and you will be ready to blast enemy troopers that will come from an enemy gunship with zero danger of personal pain. Blast them as they rappel down and kill the other Helghast in the areas. Once they are dead follow life-loving Garza and let him give you a boost up to a platform. Follow the waypoint and this time use a grenade to get rid of the explosives and laser tripwires.

SUBSTATION STRONGPOINT

You'll see Garza trying to get through to the rest of Alpha. Turn 180 degress around so you face the fascistic Helghast building with the red drapes and you will see another Helghast Symbol. Follw the waypoint and kill all the Helghast while you run for the substation's door.

Rig it with a charge, set it off and enter. You'll now face a simple set of Helghast, but your main task is to set four charges onto the substation's supports. Rig them all and run out of the substation. You don't have to kill any remaining Helghast since once you are outside you'll blow the charges and destroy the entire building.

[Look out for part 2 of this guide tomorrow