GC 2007: Killzone 2 Blowout

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

S, August 24, 2007 - The rocket launcher in Killzone 2 is pretty awesome. We had only had the Sixaxis controller in our hands for a few minutes when we ran across the behemoth and hoisted it onto our shoulder, but as we ducked down a dark alleyway and lightning crackled overhead, we couldn't wait to use the thing.

Killzone 2 doesn't happen on Vekta, the setting of the first console outing and Killzone: Liberation. Instead, you take the fight to the enemy's home world of Helghast. This puts your team at an immediate disadvantage. After living on the godforsaken rock for years, the Helghastians have grown accustom to living in survival suits and harnessing the constant lightning for their massive anti-aircraft cannon.

That cannon just shot down our friends -- troops from the Legion. Now, we have a rocket launcher and the flashes in the sky have illuminated some of the Helghastians shooting up our friends in the distance.

It's time to take names.

We kick the rocket launcher into scope mode -- pretty much your traditional R3 fare with a green tint and enlarged reticule -- and point it at the pair of enemies pinning our reinforcements down. We pull the trigger, the launcher kicks back, and the rocket lurches out, hangs in the air for a split second and takes off to slam the villains into the afterlife.

We wish we could tell you we stopped and basked in the eerie smoke trail the rocket left on the screen, but suddenly a dozen ****ed off Helghastians began shooting every weapon they had at us. This is war.

It's been a banner morning in Leipzig, Germany. Far from the show floor over run with German teens and a myriad of soccer videogames, sits Sony's private meeting rooms. In the last on one on the left, Guerrilla Games Director Mathijs De Jonge and Guerrilla Games Producer Steven Ter Heide are holding Killzone 2 court, and there's rarely an empty seat in the small space.

At first glance, their presentation might not seem that. Each time a new group enters the space, Mathijs and Steven queue up the same Killzone 2 demo folks saw at E3 and stop when they beat the mini-boss packing that badass machine gun tethered to his back.

It's awesome stuff, but we've seen it before, right?

Not like this. With the standard presentation of the carrier going down, shooting from behind cover and basically blasting anything that gets in front of your sights finished, the pair restarts the demo and takes the intimate audience through a play-stop-explain format.

To begin with, they pause the game during its intro as the transport begins its bumpy descent. As Mathis mans the sticks, Steven takes the camera out of the action and down to the ground level. Once there, it becomes clear it's the same 3D environment players are about to blast through.

"There's no trickery going on," Steven says. "This allows us to have a seamless transition from the cutscene to the game."

Next, the duo lets Sev, Killzone 2's main character, get to that first firefight on the ground. Both sides start shooting, one of your men is set on fire, and things are starting to go to hell.

Steven pauses the game. Time to talk lighting.

With all the craziness that's going on in the typical Killzone 2 screen, Mathijs and Steven don't expect you to notice what's going on with the 500 different light sources around the level -- and that's a good thing. You're supposed to be caught up in the seamless experience. But with the game paused, Steven clicks off the cross-processing filters and harsh sunlight floods the once dark arena. Parts of Killzone 2 are extremely dark and hard to see in, and that's on purpose. Guerrilla is trying to change the feeling of environments through light or the lack thereof.

Video here on IGN

You don't need to look far to see the theory in action. On the outside, Sev ducks and shoots as lightning erupts overhead and casts creepy shadows on the ground and gives glimpses of the evil ahead. Inside, Sev stops at the entrance to a room, and a Helghastian hops over a railing in the distance -- the light source is coming from a bright room behind him and casts a sinister shadow on the empty wall. Later on, Sev runs into a foe in a pitch-dark room -- the bad guy's menacing eyes give him away -- and as Sev unloads his assault rifle into the man's chest, muzzle flashes illuminate the bullets piercing the foe and his pitiful flails.

When they restart the game, Mathijs walks us through Sev's new cover-based combat techniques. Now, players can approach cover and press one of the right shoulder buttons to latch onto the object. From here Sev can blindly fire by hitting the shoot button, pop out with a press of the joystick and break off the defensive maneuver with another button tap. The enemies and NPCs will use the same techniques, which brings up a good point -- the opposing forces aren't dumb in Killzone 2.

If a Helghastians is pressed up against a concrete pillar or wooden crate and you've punched enough holes in the obstacle to make it useless, don't expect the bad guy to sit there and take it. These guys will react and move in tactical, group dynamics.

Don't think you can ignore your team, either. As a member of the Legion, you'll need help thinning out the hordes of bad guys on the prowl. When your commander -- Rico from the first Killzone -- goes down, you'll have a limited window of time to get over to him and use you medical pistol to pop a shot of health into the wounded soldier.

Getting shot is a big part of Killzone 2. In fact, it's with those grisly deaths in mind that Guerrilla developed its "Hit/Response System." Using a blend of motion capturing and physics, each type of enemy is going to have a different reaction when shot and that reaction will depend on what weapon is doing the shooting.

For instance, let's look at that mini-boss with the suped-up machine gun. This guy's name -- as of now -- is The Heavy. He's the biggest human you're going to see in the game and he's covered in armor. If you shoot him in the right arm with a machine gun from close up, he's only going to take a stutter step back to the right. Meanwhile, if you pull the same CQC move on a regular solider, he's going to get knocked back way further than our mini-boss, and that's a pretty extreme example. That regular ol' guard is going to react differently to shots depending on where they're coming from, where he's being shot and what type of weapon is being used. This isn't as simple as big guys don't move as much as little guys.

One of the cooler physics inclusions? You'll notice a handful of gas containers around the level. If you shoot these things, gas will begin spraying out of the bullet hole and push the container in that like a rocket. It's a valuable way to take out the enemy, but if you misfire or the enemy hits the tank first, expect that bad boy to come flying at you.

After the detailed breakdown was over, Mathijs surrendered the controller to IGN. This game plays well. From the moment we picked it up and began using it's double analog control scheme, everything felt natural. We blew away some guards, hurled a few grenades and tried out the brand new jump function. Jumping was left out of the original game in an effort to keep it based in reality, but even here it's being grounded -- you can't fire while in the air and can oly leap over small obstacles.

So, yeah. We walked and ran through the levels, picked up weapons and basically had a ball. Our shots tore up tables, put holes in the wall and ran as smoothly as everyone's been expecting them to.

Once Mathijs and Steven opened up the floor to questions, the specs of Sony's golden game started to come into focus. Killzone 2 will run at a steady 30 fps in 720p. On the gameplay side, the duo said Sixaixis will be implemented in the game but weren't allowed to elaborate, and although the team couldn't talk about multiplayer, they said the medic gun would be in there for players to help each other and described the mode as a "considerable" component that would use Home and Killzone.com.

For the final question of the meeting, someone asked how much of the Blu-Ray disc the game would use. Mathijs and Steven chuckled. The E3 level everyone had just seen clocks in at 2 GB.

Guerrilla expects to pretty much use the whole disc.

Source: http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/815/815430p1.html

:woot: :woot: :woot:

Edited August 24, 2007 by Audioboxer

[Dirk]

I am looking forward to this game. I don't know why though but 30fps at 720p makes me a sad man.

[TDQuiksilver]

I am looking forward to this game. I don't know why though but 30fps at 720p makes me a sad man.

If you have to have your 60fps shooters it all it's mega glory, hold off for UT3. But really, this game ought to be fun. I'm really anxious for the multiplayer.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I just watched the E3 2007 trailer in HD and I must say, this game is really shaping up. I want a PS3 so bad now. But damn, I had no idea they could pull off visuals like that.

[American Ninja]

Man Killzone 2 is going to rock! :)

[Emn1ty]

It is still disappointing to only see 5 shades of grey for graphics. What happened to bright and vibrant shooters?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

It is still disappointing to only see 5 shades of grey for graphics. What happened to bright and vibrant shooters?

If you watch the 25 min presentation I posted ( https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=583654 ) you will hear the developers confirm other enviroments. Also other weather effects!

[BajiRav]

Did they mean it when they say that it will use the "whole" of BD ? :o

It is still disappointing to only see 5 shades of grey for graphics. What happened to bright and vibrant shooters?

You need bungie for that. :p