Killzone officially unveiled
Two shots, a few details, but where's the bombshell?
After months of net speculation about the title, which is being hyped to high heaven with a Halo on top in some quarters, Sony has finally announced that Amsterdam-based Guerrilla (formerly Lost Boys) is beavering away on a PS2 exclusive shooter called Killzone.
Killzone is evidently a very pretty shooter, or so the two screenshots Sony distributed seem to suggest. Let's call them crates and troopers. 'Crates' shows us that the game is capable of some very nice lighting effects, a decent draw distance and lots of detail - certainly more than the average PS2 owner is used to - and 'troopers', if it hasn't been touched up or isn't a CG moment or something, demonstrates a nice depth of field effect, and an almost Source engine-esque level of detail on the individual soldiers' uniforms.
We're told it's a single player game with a squad management element, in which four troopers from the Earth loyalist group ISA are sent on a "suicide mission" behind the lines of a separatist, militaristic faction called Helghast, which just struck humanity with a blitzkrieg-like attack.
We're also told that it has "full online gameplay", and that it draws inspiration from major 20th century theatres of war, from the trenches of the Somme past the street fighting of Stalingrad and into the jungles of Vietnam, and that it's "very much a war game where you are at the centre of a totally immersive experience".
Undoubtedly Killzone will reveal more of itself sometime closer to its Q3 2004 European release date, but to our minds this announcement is surprisingly low-key for a game that's being treated with reverence usually reserved for the likes of Doom, Halo and Half-Life.