Killzone 2 Preview
July 11,2008 - It's been three years since attendees of E3 2005 were floored by the visual spectacle of the original Killzone 2 trailer, a display of graphical muscle that set lofty expectations for Guerrilla Games' highly anticipated shooter. With few details known, it's still hidden in the shadows on the eve of E3 2008. We've yet to personally sit down with Killzone 2, but it may be a good time to glaze over the details we do know before the avalanche of information likely drops next week.

Ditching the multiple protagonists mix of the original Killzone, the new adventure focuses solely on the adventures of Sev, a member of Legion, a special forces unit for the Interstellar Strategic Alliance (ISA), that has been deployed to the Helghan capital city. If you're new to the franchise, then a quick history lesson may be in order. The Helghast are human descendants who colonized a planet called Helghan some time ago, and the conditions of the planet caused these people to mutate into something not particularly human. A hatred for humanity developed, wars started, and all of this has led to the events that eventually set the scene for Killzone 2.

In the opening scene of the game - one very familiar to fans of the trailer - a weapon developed by the Helghast called the Arc fires lightning into the sky which eventually takes down ISA's aircraft. This is far from a coincidence, however, as the Helghast have apparently developed ways to manipulate the weather to their advantage and that development will play a large part in the game, according to Guerrilla Games.

By all means Killzone 2 plays to the conventions of contemporary first-person shooters, replete with big guns, vehicles, computer-controlled allies, and a cover system Guerrilla affectionately calls "lean and peak." In fact, while you can choose to play the game as a run and gun shooter, it seems as though the environments were specifically designed for a more "stop and pop" style experience - sliding from cover to cover and tactically disposing the Helghast swarms.

Relying on the conventions isn't necessarily a bad thing, as some of the best shooters in recent years are, for the most part, typically standard, excelling in areas such as artificial intelligence, level design, pacing, story, and presentation. From the demonstrations we've seen, it appears at first glance that Killzone 2 may deliver in a lot of those areas. Enemies, for instance, dodge fire, change cover, and chip away at your cover. There seems to be a true effort to create a chaotic battlefield bathed in incredible visuals, special effects, and a realistic physics engine that causes enemies to drop in fully reactionary ways to shots from certain angles from different types of ammunition rather than canned death animations.

Until we get our hands on it, however, or at least see more demos, it's difficult to gauge how Killzone 2 is shaping up. From what we've seen it does look like it will be a good shooter at the least, and has the potential to be what everyone wants it to be. On the surface, it appears Killzone 2 isn't necessarily doing anything to revolutionize the genre, so it all comes down to whether its 130-man team can excel at the aforementioned areas: artificial intelligence, level design, pacing, story, and presentation. If they can, then we may have a gem come February 2009. If not, then we may have something teetering on the brink of mediocrity.

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