Despite it being so late that even the homeless people are finding a place to sleep, we hightail it over to Sony’s mystery (read; Killzone 2) event at the kinda trendy Sushi Roku joint on Ocean Avenue.
Fashionably late as I was (try 11.30pm), what I was there to see was how Guerilla Games has progressed with the game that has set tongues wagging for two straight E3 shows. The first was when it was shown at E3 2005. It blew away most of the attendees, until “Framerate-Gate” struck Sony and cast a pall over all the games Sony displayed. The second – last year’s E3 – Killzone 2 was noticeable by its absence, helping in its own small way to add to a very mediocre reception for the PlayStation 3 in the show it was meant to own.
So all up, it was a pretty bold move by Sony and Guerilla Games to have a little celebration and screening of K2
right after the Microsoft conference. Gutsiest move I ever saw, Mav (well, almost - there was that whole 'let's make a karaoke game for the PS2 thing). After a half hour schmooze session, around midnight I slid into the final group getting to see the game, and got escorted to an adjacent hotel.
“I see what you did there”, one of our group laughs as we walk past a lifesize Helghast model into a nice little mini theatre. I’m constantly struck by how American gamers seamlessly blend online with reality. It’s kind of admirable in a way, a total lack of carefactor if someone doesn’t get the joke or thinks they’re a dork. Sure, most of us know people like that, but I reckon the yanks have the numbers on us – they all seem to do it. Then again, we Australians learn sarcasm from an early age, so we're kinda even. And we do better in the Olympics (per capita).
Anyway, sitting there minding my own business it wasn’t surprising to hear the main topic of conversation was the Microsoft Pre E3 conference. And I don’t know if the guys were putting on a show for the (obviously PlayStation centric) Guerilla Games team, but their opinion was harsher than mine, at least the dudes I shamelessly eavesdropped on.
Banter out of the way, when things kicked off, they kicked off well. The GG team ran us through an entire level – from intro cinematic to them kicking the hell out of the end level objective. The staffer on the controls warranted a special mention because he survivied the whole thing without dying once. He was playing pretty kamikaze at one stage, so I previously had assumed he was in invincible mode. Not so.
Killzone 2 looks solid. In fact, taking the whole level into account, it looks better in action than Halo 3. But then, the rap against the original Killzone wasn’t with the visuals – they were great back then as well. It was with the crap AI and lack of multiplayer. What we saw in the game didn’t necessarily convince that AI was fantastic. The standard Helghast run when you pitch a grenade at them, but its still shooting gallery stuff. But the overall sense of action is just so full on you don’t really care.
The first sensible thought I remember having was “this is way better than Resistance: Fall of Man”, which is a bit rough, but from my perspective, completely on the money. It looks hardcore – loads of metal, scenery you can shoot the crap out of, and textured and full-screen anti-aliased to within an inch of its life. The gun models looks simply exquisite. And the play vibe is very reminiscent of Halo once again. You’ve got your AI squad mates who battle on, and in Gears of War style you can revive fallen friends. Despite the hectic pace – and this is probably faster than Halo – you still need to use cover - or at least, our brave demonstrator did.
Halo isn’t the only arguable source of inspiration here. Coming up against the heavy gunner enemy – an imposing armoured foe that takes lateral thinking to overcome – evokes strong comparisons to BioShock’s Big Daddy. There’s worse places to take inspiration from, if indeed they have (and let's face it, we'll never know). It could just as easily be that heavy gunners can be modelled only so many ways as well.
At the level’s conclusion, Guerilla then discussed what had transpired, but only after they made a point of demonstrating that the cinematic opening – a hectic plunge through the skies in an open air dropship – was all rendered in real time. So we did the pause, pan and zoom routine just so there was no question that this baby was entirely done on the fly.
Guerilla then pointed out the annoying pauses in gameplay that occurred intermittently – sometimes a one second pop, sometimes 5+ seconds – will not occur in the final game, and that the entire game is built to stream seamlessly. Good because this game wouldn't last five minutes otherwise.
Streaming is a good route to take if you have the storage space. More storage space equals the ability to compress your data less. The less you compress your data, the less time wasted uncompressing it, making your action potentially more flowing. At least that’s the not-so-subtle message delivered by Guerilla when they praised the fact that this game is only possible on Blu Ray – with its much larger disc capacity. Each level apparently weighs in at two gigabytes.
Killzone 2 definitely did enough to impress. It looks grittily full-on, and there’s more variation in single player this time around. The team promised a comprehensive multplayer experience as well, something that would steadily be detailed via the Killzone website as time goes on – and doubtless through games websites worldwide.
It’s fair to say Killzone 2 puts both Guerilla and Sony back in the FPS game. Its early days to be drawing comparisons with Halo 3, but with K2 potentially having the visual edge, and maybe H3 (once again potentially) having the AI lead, the winner on pure critical terms may come down to who can execute better online. Now there’s an interesting challenge for Guerilla Games. Either way, we’ve seen enough to declare that Killzone is back, baby!
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