makingmusic476
12-03-08, 08:30 PM
You can find 12 720p videos over at Gamersyde (http://gamersyde.com/game_1306_en.html).
Comments from the guy who captured the videos (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13860362&postcount=5440):
[Aside from] Some slowdowns/frame drops aside and other minor issues which are clearly going to be fixed (like voice over), Killzone 2 is a rollercoaster of a shooter.
What I liked the most (technicalities aside as vids speak for themselves) is how non-linear the approach to firefight is. On the one side, you have the AI acting unpredictably so everytime you re-do the same fight, it actually plays out differently (Video 01 shows this quite clearly when I repeat the last section after dieing). On the other side, levels are designed so that you can change approaches to the same confrontation quite radically. You can see this in one of the Welcome vids when I go upstairs while Garza stays down near the stairs. I have three options there. Shooting from above. Use the turret. Turn the corner ahead and go down the stairs to hit the HGHs from behind. There are many situations with such tactical freedom.
I also liked the Lean & Peak mechanics and overall controls. Coming from two online beta phases I got used to the standard configuration and it kinda makes more sense with the L&P mechanic in place. Anyway, L&P works pretty well. You push L2 to crouch, and if you are close to something, you stick to it as long as you keep L2 presses. What I liked about this is that you never feel "trapped" when you are behind cover. On the one side, you are free to slide and peak in any direction you want. But you can also rotate 360° no problem (gun automatically points ahead when there is no wall). So I don't feel too "scared" about being attacked from the side. And being it a Hold rather than Toggle thing, you cannot **** it up when detaching yourself from cover to get behind another one. It works really, REALLY well. To the point that I seriously think I wouldn't mind having the option to use it online as well.
What I liked the less are changes occurred to some levels. Especially how Visari Square looks now. IMO, it's too bright and colorful. Blue pavement, orange lights and greenish structure in the background? I liked the darker version more. I hope GG is not too afraid of the B/W stigma and adding colors to avoid it.
As for my "quick fix", I'd suggest adding more flying drones. They are criminally underused IMO. In the first 6 levels at least. In Resistance 2, flying drones are very cleverly used to spice things up and force you to swap from ground-to-ground to ground-to-air combat. And move from cover to cover. Not so in KZ2. In the preview code levels. Perhaps **** hits the fan later.
Some shots from the footage:
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Singleplayer impressions from Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/04/hands-on-with-killzone-2s-single-player-campaign/):
The cynic inside of me didn't want to believe the hype. How could I forget that the original Killzone on PS2 was backed by an overwhelming hype machine, powered by vocal drones declaring it a "Halo-killer?" When it released in 2004, critics were impressed by the technical presentation but found very little substance in the gameplay. Four years later with an early version of the single player game, I wondered if Killzone 2 would repeat history.
Let me be as clear as I can. Killzone 2 is a fantastic game, easily deserving the hype its earned so far. Considering the expectations surrounding Killzone 2, that means quite a lot. From what I've played so far, Killzone 2 delivers on all fronts. The gameplay is incredibly visceral and nuanced; the graphics are unparalleled.
Obviously, a lot must be said about the visuals in Killzone 2. The debut CG trailer was supposed to be representative of what the PS3 could possibly do. While perhaps not as flawless as the original trailer, Killzone 2 is without a doubt one of the most beautiful games ever created. The attention to detail is quite impeccable: textures are crisp; character models move with complex, lifelike animation.
In spite of its clear sci-fi setting, the world of Helghan is grounded in realism. Weapons have a real sense of weight to them. Each bullet feels impactful, and important. Watch as the casings leave your gun. These aren't canned animation -- they are real objects controlled by the in-game physics engine. Enemies appear to feel every bullet, staggering when hit, rolling and dodging as they struggle to survive. The reload animations are slow and meticulously detailed. The flash off your gun's muzzle is appropriately blinding, adding to the visceral feel of combat. Gun nuts will notice the subtle differences between weapons: as some work much better at short range, others at long. These aren't the weapons you'll find in Resistance or Halo -- and that's what makes Killzone so refreshing.
While the assault rifles feel great, a special note must be made about the flamethrower and the sniper rifle. This is the most beautiful rendition of the weapon I've seen in a game so far. You can actually see it shoot sticky liquid fuel, a detail lost to most other shooters. The sniper rifle uses subtle, but clever SIXAXIS tilt controls. Keep your hand steady as you aim, or else your sight will become incredibly unsteady.
Other than being a first person shooter, comparisons between Halo and Killzone 2 seem thoroughly invalid. Perhaps a more apt point of comparison would be Call of Duty. With the exception of the occassional flying robot and massively armored supersoldier, Killzone 2 strangely evokes the harrowing feel of a modern war. However, the gunplay of Killzone is slower and more meticulous than the arcade-inspired controls of the CoD series. You won't auto-aim at enemies when using your sights, for example. You won't be single-handedly mowing down hundreds of enemies. Your aim and movement is noticeably slower than most other FPS.
An important mechanic to Killzone's core gameplay is its cover system. It may take a few minutes to get used to, but it won't be long until you're leaning around corners and shooting over cover. Just like in Gears, you are pretty vulnerable when out of cover. Of course, being in first-person, you won't be able to magically blindfire like Marcus and the gang. Peeking out to take a shot will leave you exposed -- and you will die in just a few hits, even in the default difficulty.
The enemies of Killzone 2 are just as varied and realistic as the weapons. It's hard to predict what will occur in a gunfight. The Helghast will take cover, throw grenades, and attempt to flank you. But don't be surprised if a more powerful enemy kills a few of his allies just to get a clean shot at you. Some enemies will rush at you with a knife -- an unfortunate proposition if you're not quick to react. There were more than a few times I was caught completely off guard, and enemies appeared behind me. (And no, they didn't randomly spawn there.)
The odds are overwhelmingly against your favor, and the viciously intelligent enemies certainly don't make it any easier. This is a challenging game -- perhaps one of the hardest in recent memory. A generous checkpoint system alleviates most frustrations, but this is still a nail-bitingly difficult game. Some of the game's uglier aspects are apparant later on in the game. For example, your AI partner can be quite the knucklehead, brashly rushing into enemy territory. Don't rely on your AI partner to cover your back. Killzone 2 is begging for a co-op mode. I want to use these weapons and get some crossfire tactics going.
February is still a long time away, and I'm confident that Guerrilla can fix some of the nagging issues I have. The shotgun, for example, could be a bit more powerful. Some of the objectives run a tad bit on the long side, with too many waves of enemies. But these are small issues in an otherwise thoroughly polished game. It's an incredible vote of confidence on Sony's part to send such a complete build of a product so many months before its release.
It's taken quite a number of words to detail the simple fact that Killzone 2 is a terrific shooter. Undoubtedly, there are still questions many of you may have about the game, and I welcome you to ask them in our comments section. I'll try my best to answer them (perhaps in a separate Q&A post?). PS3 fans have a lot to look forward to when February rolls around. Who knows? Perhaps next year we won't look for the next "Halo-killer," but rather the next Killzone-killer.
And some from IGN (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/935/935548p1.html):
By now, you've probably seen the E3 2005 trailer for Killzone 2, which highlighted an aerial invasion that quickly descended into a brutal warzone between the ISA and Helghast forces in the middle of a city. Bodies were immolated or ripped to pieces by gunfire, explosions destroyed aircraft and jeeps alike, and the chaos of battle was rather apparent. While the arguments online raged over whether or not the trailer was CG or gameplay footage in real time, everyone could agree on one fact: the bar Guerrilla Games had set was extremely high, but if they managed to accomplish that, it would be one of the most visually striking shooters ever made. Hermen Hulst, Managing Director of Guerrilla Games, mentioned during a presentation at their studios that the trailer was "clearly one of the benchmarks that we set for the project – the sheer intensity and chaos of the battlefield." As striking as it was, Guerrilla already has plans to eclipse this trailer with the final release of Killzone 2, which is scheduled to hit shelves in February 2009.
One of the ways that the developer plans on trying to do this is by immersing the player heavily into the chaos and intensity of the experience by focusing on the entire experience, while still tracking more than 100 different stats for both single player and multiplayer play. Whether that's the interaction the player will have in helping out their teammates, physically interacting with the environment with the use of the DualShock controller, or the mechanics of firing their weapons and having each bullet have a significant effect on the environment, Guerrilla is trying to refine the Killzone experience to highlight every facet of the "First Person Shooter" genre. This will involve plenty of destruction and action to go around, across a backdrop of a hostile world, a planetary invasion, and a gigantic sense of scale packed with tons of dramatic events.
As Hermen introduced this concept, a slide was projected that read, "Our War, Their Planet." This quickly gave way to a video with gigantic explosions that rocked the screen, large lightning strikes and fire storms, exploding bridges with aircraft flying through the smoke and dust ejected from the rubble, and other impressive set pieces. But unlike what's been shown in previous trailers, players won't constantly be fighting in trenches or in ruined cities. "In Killzone 2, we take the player on quite a journey across the planet, visiting a variety of locations, all of them with their own play style and their own gameplay scenarios," Hulst said. In all, the player will fight through ten separate scenarios on Helghan.
Speaking of the fight, the story of Killzone 2 is one of outright revenge on the part of the ISA against the Helghast. After the events of both Killzone and Killzone: Liberation, which focused solely upon the colony world of Vekta, the ISA finally decide to launch an invasion of Helghan and take the fight to Emperor Visari himself. Sending fleets of ships to strike at the heart of Visari's defenses in the capital city of Pyrrhus, the ISA plan to capture the emperor and force the warring Helghast to surrender. However, as they prepare to land, they quickly discover that the invasion is much harder than they ever expected. Not only do the planet's harsh conditions pose a threat, but the Helghast have new weapons that they're unleashing against the ISA, forcing adjustments to their plans to end the war once and for all.
This time around, players won't take on the familiar character of Jan Templar, who fought against the Helghast in the previous two Killzone games. According to Mathijs de Jonge, game director of Killzone 2, the team felt like they "needed a new player character. We were a little bit tired of Templar, and we thought, 'Okay, it would be nice if Templar has gone up in rank,' and so now in Killzone 2, he's a Fleet Commander. With Templar off the front lines, the action falls to Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, a Special Forces member of an elite squad known as Team Alpha. This platoon is sent in on extremely dangerous missions to accomplish everything from urban combat to demolitions and sniping. However, even with the new and different personalities of the team members, there will be a couple of familiar faces that will play a significant role within the game. For example, Rico returns as the head of Alpha Team, and players will fight alongside him during specific missions. Similarly, Evelyn Batton, a character introduced within Killzone: Liberation, will play a significant role in the overall game itself as Alpha Team makes their way through Helghast-held territory.
The early alpha preview build that I played was somewhat limited: the introduction movie as well as some transitions seemed to be missing, as did optimization with load times and other areas. It also only featured about five of the missions from the game, but it definitely managed to provide a sense of action and intensity that players will expect from the game. The first mission, Corinth River, was the exact same one that was shown at E3 this year, with Sev and his squad descending (or more accurately, crash landing) on their Intruder and launching into battle. This brought to mind something that Mathijs said about the pacing of the game and the speed they want to impart to the player. "The pacing is really important, especially in the first half of the game. We wanted to give the player the feeling that he's jumping onto a roller coaster that's already moving," he said. The landing was a hectic segment of battle, as Intruders around us were being blown from the skies thanks to flak bursts and anti-aircraft fire. In fact, one Intruder that was hit to the right of us sent unfortunate ISA soldiers tumbling directly past our heads, forcing us to duck. Blasting through Helghast that were eagerly awaiting to cut down our forces where we stood, I tried to lead the rest of the group through the rubble strewn streets and oft shelled drainage ditches.
Eventually, after destroying a bridge and clearing out two Helghan APCs, Rico sent me and Garza to secure a floodgate to allow a convoy of troops and equipment to advance. This, of course, was easier said than done, because the Helghast troops actively used cover, sought out better firing positions, and attempted to flank me in different areas. Mathijs pointed out that there were about 15 different kinds of Helghast troops, not counting end bosses, all of which have different kinds of tactics that they'll use in battle. "You might have a character that first throws a smoke grenade to cover his approach, then comes rushing through the smoke, using a submachine gun to attack the player and his buddies. When he gets really close, he'll draw a knife and start slashing at the player, which is a totally different enemy than, say, an assault trooper, who uses a lot of cover and tries to stay at a certain distance, trying to take careful shots from behind whatever cover he's in." What's more, the squads of enemies won't always be comprised of the same kinds of forces; frequently, they'll be a mix of different kinds of forces that you'll take on at once.
Rob Heald, an AI designer on the project, pointed out that the AI has really grown from the previous Killzone games to provide a much more dynamic AI that is much more threatening. Thanks to the PS3 and the processing power of the console, the AI can perform many more actions and consider multiple different options for their actions on the battlefield based on a situation. "What's going to be more apparent to players is a much greater range of animations and actions that the AI will be able to perform. That ranges from anything from being able to deal with the environment, like jumping over cover or opening doors to dealing with a much more dynamic and destructible environment, like cover that can be destroyed and how they respond to that," Rob said. This means that the game's AI will make intelligent decisions on where an enemy happens to be instead of standing around, including scanning for locations where an enemy has disappeared behind cover and where he might reappear, and will make decisions on whether they'll attempt to flank you or toss grenades, as well as communicate to their allies about where threats are located.
Fortunately, this will extend over to the ISA troops as well, and will primarily be based around the weapon styles that each character has. Generic troops will perform specific actions and will engage the enemy based on what they see, akin to the Helghast, but named characters will act more in character with their firearm. "You'll see Rico being very rash – he's all about laying down suppression fire and shooting from the hip, and on the other end there's Natko, who's the shotgun guy, so he's all about staying in cover and approaching enemy for close quarter combat," Heald mentioned. This weapon focus was intentionally designed by the team to give your secondary allies more of an impact within the game instead of just being there. "They respond to how you're playing – if you get several headshots in a row, they'll comment on it. My favorite one is that if there's an enemy behind you that's targeting you and they spot it, they'll call out and say, 'Hey, he's behind you!' So that really imparts that you're playing with a team of guys," Rob said.
One of the other elements with the AI that Rob highlighted was the focus on dynamic levels of AI. He highlighted this by pointing out a segment that occurs within the third mission of the game, in a section known as Visari Square. At one point, players will have to take the square away from the Helghast that are stationed there, but will quickly have to rearm themselves to defend their positions as the Helghast attempt to capture the location back. Rob pointed out that battles like this will feature a large amount of your AI getting dynamically pushed back if the Helghast start to gain a foothold on one side of the plaza or another, forcing the player to attempt to respond to the threats if they want to lock down the route and cut off enemy advances. On the other hand, if you effectively clear out segments of the Helghast with accurate shots, your allies will push forward, re-establish positions on turrets and behind barricades, and force their targets to seek fire. Devices like this will keep the action of the game much more fluid and realistic.
Speaking of devices, Guerrilla is also trying to get players more invested in gameplay by using the DualShock to replicate the actions of the character. By holding both the L1 and R1 buttons and turning the wheel counterclockwise, I was able to manipulate pipe controls and open gates, allowing my forces to advance. This wasn't the only pantomiming segments that I wound up doing. On a later mission, I had to approximate the arming of an explosive by twisting the controller in different directions before pulling back towards me to arm the charge. I could then run to safety and detonate the charge when I wanted to, which was an interesting way of using the motion sensitivity of the controller. This was particularly important when trying to eliminate mortars that were shelling my forces, because I could set a couple of charges and destroy the supports of the mortar itself, causing it to crash to the ground and shatter.
As I moved through each level, I was definitely struck by the scale and the sparse detail of the Helghan world, which was filled with harsh locations focused more on utility, military strength and production than artistry or culture. According to Jan Bart Van Beek, the Killzone 2 art director, his team focused on drawing inspiration from different totalitarian or dictatorial regimes from the 20th century to influence the Helghan style. " We looked at Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, but also Mao's China – all of these kinds of totalitarian, large super economies and their architecture," Jan said. But they didn't want to simply bring over a blatant copy of a historical culture to the Helghan world. "We started looking at places like Hong Kong, which is still rich but poor at the same time, and is still developing. We liked the idea of some gigantic economic state that is slightly on the edge of poverty but still very well controlled," Jan mentioned. That seemed to tie in with the look of some of the structures in different sections of cities, which were cobbled together from different materials and almost appeared to be shanty like, as if the inhabitants constructed the buildings from whatever they managed to put their hands on. Because the Helghast focused more on ramping up their military complex as a central part of their culture, other aesthetics were obviously abandoned.
In many ways, the same could be said for the Helghast themselves and the many variations of troops that populate the game. Whether it's the sleeker, hooded look of the Nomad-like Helghast scout, who appeared to have sniper rifles, or the traditional Assault soldier, who could pack a machine gun or a rocket launcher, everything was designed for maximum damage in battle. Even the Helghast medics, Jan pointed out, weren't medics in the traditional sense. Instead of focusing more on trying to save lives, the medics had more scalpels and saws for amputations, so in combat, they'd be more likely to hack a limb off that was damaged instead of trying to save it so they could send a soldier back out into the field.
But even apart from these artistic details, Killzone 2 features loads of additional visual touches that the team intentionally put in to make the gameplay feel much more realistic. For one thing, a large amount of time was spent on making the destructibility of each environment have a significant impact within the world. Hermen pointed out a demo video from 2006 that focused on Guerrilla's attention to blowing up walls, blasting bullet holes in cover, and other destruction within a location. At the same time, they also focused on getting the animations for bullets or other damaging attacks right for characters, building out a new hit response system for bodies that would appropriately rag doll and would combine kinetic motion with bullet impacts. The result of these inverse kinematics is that each character that is shot, whether Helghan or ISA, will twist and move uniquely based on the number of times they're shot and where they're hit in the body.
This stood out to me as I moved through one section with an assault on an anti-air tower and watched as an ISA solder was shot as he was providing covering fire. The force of the bullet spun him to the ground, and bullets from his gun raked the wall next to him. It was a visceral and realistic response, one that felt appropriate and intense with the action in front of me. But more than these larger details are attentions to smaller items that many players would potentially miss. Items like dynamically burning cloth, swelling and flowing water, dust and smoke particles – according to Hulst, every aspect of the game, from the audio to the animation has to be right to help immerse players in the various missions that players will fight across.
However, I found that this was just the surface of some of the technical elements that have been included within Killzone 2. According to Arjan Brussee, Development Director at Guerrilla, the development team built out a deferred rendering engine, which combines up to eight separate buffers within a section to create a final image for the screen. He demonstrated this by turning on and off the Z buffers, specular lighting, texture buffers and other layers to show off the various elements that made up the composite image, and finally showed what the entire stage would look like when combined. On top of this, Arjan pointed out, lighting and motion blur effects within the game are performed as a full screen pass to blend all of these effects together. Arjan stressed that the game's engine was so detailed that, "each pixel has velocity. It's not just a special effect, but this is used for particles, it's used for explosions, and it's used for motion blurring for character movement, which adds an extra sense of depth."
There's much more to the Killzone 2 engine than deferred rendering and screen passes; in fact, Arjan mentioned that every composite that is rendered within the game is placed solely upon the SPUs to lock in the framerate at a solid 30 FPS. During small battles, one or two SPUs will pick up a majority of the action, but during heavy firefights with large explosions and numerous characters onscreen, all six SPUs will pick up the load and balance everything accurately. Surprisingly, even within the heaviest firefight onscreen, Arjan pointed out that the largest load on each one of the SPUs didn't exceed 60%, which ensured that the framerate remained consistent throughout the game. On top of this, Arjan pointed out everything from light bloom and internal lens reflection effects to true geometric particles that fly from walls and collide with the ground realistically based on the direction of an explosion.
What's more, each light that's shown in a level, whether it's the individual lights on an ISA outfit or from the Helghast goggles, are true lights that will illuminate their environment. This means that as the Helghast move, for example, their glowing faces will actually cast beams of light that will fall on the walls and other objects around them. On one map, he indicated more than 200 individual light sources that behaved as true lights along with the other finer details, rendering and screen passes from before. Arjan also pointed out that "every single polygon within the game as a texture id, so when it's shot in the game, it responds accurately to the particular bullet." That includes ray tracing of every bullet hole, but it also includes loads of detail that might be easily missed by players as they run and gun their way through these battles like dynamically burning cloth, swelling and flowing water, and dust and smoke particles.
Apart from the visual elements and SPU usage to make the game look incredible, Guerilla has also put in a lot of work to make sure that the aural presentation is incredible as well. Mario Lavin, audio director on Killzone 2, pointed out that the action within the game will be supported by adaptive music within 7.1 surround sound. What that means is that each individual music loop within the game will respond seamlessly to the action onscreen. For example, during calmer moments, there will be a much more ambient soundtrack playing, but during firefights, there may be a driving percussion track to set the pace of the action. Lavin likened the system to the dynamic performance of a DJ, who can feel the right moments to pick up the rhythm of a track and when to slow it down.
According to Lavin, Joris De Man, the composer of Killzone 2's music, wanted to make sure that there were different themes and colors attached to each loop, because he wanted the music to affect how a player approaches the game in certain moments. On top of the music presentation, De Man and Lavin wanted to make sure that there were plenty of ambient sound effects and reverberations that made the game stand out. As a result, Mario recorded effects like wind in different arrangements to help his team present a claustrophobic or open area feeling to each area. This carried over to balancing the sound for every weapon so they sound completely different when fired in outdoor or indoor situations. When you combine this with some of the other elements, such as Brian Cox stepping into the role of Emperor Visari, the overall sound of Killzone 2 is truly engrossing.
So, with all of these details regarding the single player, how does this affect the multiplayer aspects of the game? Well, you may have checked out some of the details from our recent article on the released multiplayer beta, but I found out more details from Angie Smets, senior producer and Eric Boltjes, senior online game designer, who pointed out that the final game will come with eight multiplayer maps and five gameplay modes for anywhere between two and thirty two players. Multiplayer has been designed from the ground up to be just as intense as the single player game, but with much more customization, primarily because of three elements: the badge system, bots that can be included within any game, and new clan elements.
At the start of the game, players will start out as a basic private. You won't have any specific abilities or weapons to make you stand out from another private, but you'll be able to do enough damage to get some kills and gain some accolades. This allows players to ease their way into the game. Once they've scored enough points, they'll advance to the next rank. There are twelve ranks in all, with a player being able to max out as a general, but certain ranks will unlock different character classes, which will let you attempt to specialize in different jobs. Once you unlock a badge, you're not completely powered up and ready to go. According to Eric, you'll only unlock one of the two abilities for the class. If you want to unlock more abilities and options for that particular class, you'll need to sink more time in on the battlefield as that particular class. "We reward the player for playing what he wants to play. So if you play as the medic, then you also unlock stuff for the medic. So if you use the medic's special abilities, you unlock the medic's secondary abilities," Eric said.
There are six specialized classes in all (not counting the basic soldier class, which will help you unlock the other basic elements for the other classes), but regardless of which class you choose to play as, the designers made sure that many of the abilities were tailored for more teamwork and team oriented play. There will be some solo badges as well, such as the scout badge that leads to the sniper class. Regardless of which class you choose, you can mix and match the abilities of the badges that you've unlocked for your character. For example, Eric mentioned that you can mix the repair badge of the engineer, which helps you fix turrets that have been placed by your allies with the proximity mines from a saboteur to make a subversive, and dangerous, opponent.
No matter what configuration you place your soldiers in, you'll find that you'll go through dynamic missions, which will put you through five different mission types, like capture the flag or team deathmatch. What makes Killzone 2 stand out is that all of these missions can be varied within one map at any point in time. Players can choose to have the game randomly select a mission type at random, or can tailor specific options as well, so if you happen to be a large fan of Deathmatch, you can constantly play that mode. Angie did point out that there are also a lot of rules that can be established along with these mission types, so if you want to play with a specific kind of weapon or class only, you can set that in your options before you start playing. Depending on what mission you're playing and whether you're alive or dead, you can also change your badges (and thereby your class) at will to best accomplish your goals within that particular match type.
While the maps aren't scalable to fit the number of players, there are a number of maps that are tailored more towards some smaller parties. However, I was also told that the designers have created a number of presets that will let you leap into a match quickly, establish different rules for each match as even toss in a large number of bots to help fill in the rosters. This seemed like a great way to let newcomers practice their skills as well, and we were told by multiple designers that the AI is truly incredible. In fact, Rob pointed out that the AI routines that distinguish them from the single player shell, and will actively search out sniper's nests if they're in the middle of a fight to pick off opponents. The bots themselves are designed from the ground up to be able to do everything that a human can do. While they will definitely emphasize team play, even the most experience players have been challenged by the bots that have been designed by the team.
The last significant elements with the game come in the form of squads and clans. Squads are 4 player groups that allow friends or newcomers to come together and play a round together. This will come with different advantages, such as squad specific headset channels for secure communication, as well as telegraphed health and abilities for every squad member and the ability to spawn together at a specific point. The next step up is the inclusion of clans, which allows larger groups of players to come together and fight across maps. Players have to be at least at Corporal rank or higher to establish a clan, but the coolest element tied to the clans is the Clan Valor system, which will be tied to the rankings of the clans. Each clan that plays the game will inevitably gain a specific amount of points based on how they play, which will help determine their rank. If your clan wants to rocket up the online standings, they can wager a specific amount of their clan's valor points against another clan, with the winner taking all the points. This means that some battles will be for much more than the obvious bragging rights associated with large clan battles or tournaments; entire online standings can be made or lost with this system, which will help separate the casual players from the hardcore Killzone 2 fans. This sounds like an extremely unique concept, but one that will help keep players fighting across the maps of Helghan for many months after the game's release. At least February 2009 is only two months away, so PS3 owners won't have long to wait to leap into the battle against the Helghast.
And here are some in-depth multiplayer impressions written by myself a few weeks back:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1086110&highlight=
Comments from the guy who captured the videos (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13860362&postcount=5440):
[Aside from] Some slowdowns/frame drops aside and other minor issues which are clearly going to be fixed (like voice over), Killzone 2 is a rollercoaster of a shooter.
What I liked the most (technicalities aside as vids speak for themselves) is how non-linear the approach to firefight is. On the one side, you have the AI acting unpredictably so everytime you re-do the same fight, it actually plays out differently (Video 01 shows this quite clearly when I repeat the last section after dieing). On the other side, levels are designed so that you can change approaches to the same confrontation quite radically. You can see this in one of the Welcome vids when I go upstairs while Garza stays down near the stairs. I have three options there. Shooting from above. Use the turret. Turn the corner ahead and go down the stairs to hit the HGHs from behind. There are many situations with such tactical freedom.
I also liked the Lean & Peak mechanics and overall controls. Coming from two online beta phases I got used to the standard configuration and it kinda makes more sense with the L&P mechanic in place. Anyway, L&P works pretty well. You push L2 to crouch, and if you are close to something, you stick to it as long as you keep L2 presses. What I liked about this is that you never feel "trapped" when you are behind cover. On the one side, you are free to slide and peak in any direction you want. But you can also rotate 360° no problem (gun automatically points ahead when there is no wall). So I don't feel too "scared" about being attacked from the side. And being it a Hold rather than Toggle thing, you cannot **** it up when detaching yourself from cover to get behind another one. It works really, REALLY well. To the point that I seriously think I wouldn't mind having the option to use it online as well.
What I liked the less are changes occurred to some levels. Especially how Visari Square looks now. IMO, it's too bright and colorful. Blue pavement, orange lights and greenish structure in the background? I liked the darker version more. I hope GG is not too afraid of the B/W stigma and adding colors to avoid it.
As for my "quick fix", I'd suggest adding more flying drones. They are criminally underused IMO. In the first 6 levels at least. In Resistance 2, flying drones are very cleverly used to spice things up and force you to swap from ground-to-ground to ground-to-air combat. And move from cover to cover. Not so in KZ2. In the preview code levels. Perhaps **** hits the fan later.
Some shots from the footage:
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Singleplayer impressions from Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/04/hands-on-with-killzone-2s-single-player-campaign/):
The cynic inside of me didn't want to believe the hype. How could I forget that the original Killzone on PS2 was backed by an overwhelming hype machine, powered by vocal drones declaring it a "Halo-killer?" When it released in 2004, critics were impressed by the technical presentation but found very little substance in the gameplay. Four years later with an early version of the single player game, I wondered if Killzone 2 would repeat history.
Let me be as clear as I can. Killzone 2 is a fantastic game, easily deserving the hype its earned so far. Considering the expectations surrounding Killzone 2, that means quite a lot. From what I've played so far, Killzone 2 delivers on all fronts. The gameplay is incredibly visceral and nuanced; the graphics are unparalleled.
Obviously, a lot must be said about the visuals in Killzone 2. The debut CG trailer was supposed to be representative of what the PS3 could possibly do. While perhaps not as flawless as the original trailer, Killzone 2 is without a doubt one of the most beautiful games ever created. The attention to detail is quite impeccable: textures are crisp; character models move with complex, lifelike animation.
In spite of its clear sci-fi setting, the world of Helghan is grounded in realism. Weapons have a real sense of weight to them. Each bullet feels impactful, and important. Watch as the casings leave your gun. These aren't canned animation -- they are real objects controlled by the in-game physics engine. Enemies appear to feel every bullet, staggering when hit, rolling and dodging as they struggle to survive. The reload animations are slow and meticulously detailed. The flash off your gun's muzzle is appropriately blinding, adding to the visceral feel of combat. Gun nuts will notice the subtle differences between weapons: as some work much better at short range, others at long. These aren't the weapons you'll find in Resistance or Halo -- and that's what makes Killzone so refreshing.
While the assault rifles feel great, a special note must be made about the flamethrower and the sniper rifle. This is the most beautiful rendition of the weapon I've seen in a game so far. You can actually see it shoot sticky liquid fuel, a detail lost to most other shooters. The sniper rifle uses subtle, but clever SIXAXIS tilt controls. Keep your hand steady as you aim, or else your sight will become incredibly unsteady.
Other than being a first person shooter, comparisons between Halo and Killzone 2 seem thoroughly invalid. Perhaps a more apt point of comparison would be Call of Duty. With the exception of the occassional flying robot and massively armored supersoldier, Killzone 2 strangely evokes the harrowing feel of a modern war. However, the gunplay of Killzone is slower and more meticulous than the arcade-inspired controls of the CoD series. You won't auto-aim at enemies when using your sights, for example. You won't be single-handedly mowing down hundreds of enemies. Your aim and movement is noticeably slower than most other FPS.
An important mechanic to Killzone's core gameplay is its cover system. It may take a few minutes to get used to, but it won't be long until you're leaning around corners and shooting over cover. Just like in Gears, you are pretty vulnerable when out of cover. Of course, being in first-person, you won't be able to magically blindfire like Marcus and the gang. Peeking out to take a shot will leave you exposed -- and you will die in just a few hits, even in the default difficulty.
The enemies of Killzone 2 are just as varied and realistic as the weapons. It's hard to predict what will occur in a gunfight. The Helghast will take cover, throw grenades, and attempt to flank you. But don't be surprised if a more powerful enemy kills a few of his allies just to get a clean shot at you. Some enemies will rush at you with a knife -- an unfortunate proposition if you're not quick to react. There were more than a few times I was caught completely off guard, and enemies appeared behind me. (And no, they didn't randomly spawn there.)
The odds are overwhelmingly against your favor, and the viciously intelligent enemies certainly don't make it any easier. This is a challenging game -- perhaps one of the hardest in recent memory. A generous checkpoint system alleviates most frustrations, but this is still a nail-bitingly difficult game. Some of the game's uglier aspects are apparant later on in the game. For example, your AI partner can be quite the knucklehead, brashly rushing into enemy territory. Don't rely on your AI partner to cover your back. Killzone 2 is begging for a co-op mode. I want to use these weapons and get some crossfire tactics going.
February is still a long time away, and I'm confident that Guerrilla can fix some of the nagging issues I have. The shotgun, for example, could be a bit more powerful. Some of the objectives run a tad bit on the long side, with too many waves of enemies. But these are small issues in an otherwise thoroughly polished game. It's an incredible vote of confidence on Sony's part to send such a complete build of a product so many months before its release.
It's taken quite a number of words to detail the simple fact that Killzone 2 is a terrific shooter. Undoubtedly, there are still questions many of you may have about the game, and I welcome you to ask them in our comments section. I'll try my best to answer them (perhaps in a separate Q&A post?). PS3 fans have a lot to look forward to when February rolls around. Who knows? Perhaps next year we won't look for the next "Halo-killer," but rather the next Killzone-killer.
And some from IGN (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/935/935548p1.html):
By now, you've probably seen the E3 2005 trailer for Killzone 2, which highlighted an aerial invasion that quickly descended into a brutal warzone between the ISA and Helghast forces in the middle of a city. Bodies were immolated or ripped to pieces by gunfire, explosions destroyed aircraft and jeeps alike, and the chaos of battle was rather apparent. While the arguments online raged over whether or not the trailer was CG or gameplay footage in real time, everyone could agree on one fact: the bar Guerrilla Games had set was extremely high, but if they managed to accomplish that, it would be one of the most visually striking shooters ever made. Hermen Hulst, Managing Director of Guerrilla Games, mentioned during a presentation at their studios that the trailer was "clearly one of the benchmarks that we set for the project – the sheer intensity and chaos of the battlefield." As striking as it was, Guerrilla already has plans to eclipse this trailer with the final release of Killzone 2, which is scheduled to hit shelves in February 2009.
One of the ways that the developer plans on trying to do this is by immersing the player heavily into the chaos and intensity of the experience by focusing on the entire experience, while still tracking more than 100 different stats for both single player and multiplayer play. Whether that's the interaction the player will have in helping out their teammates, physically interacting with the environment with the use of the DualShock controller, or the mechanics of firing their weapons and having each bullet have a significant effect on the environment, Guerrilla is trying to refine the Killzone experience to highlight every facet of the "First Person Shooter" genre. This will involve plenty of destruction and action to go around, across a backdrop of a hostile world, a planetary invasion, and a gigantic sense of scale packed with tons of dramatic events.
As Hermen introduced this concept, a slide was projected that read, "Our War, Their Planet." This quickly gave way to a video with gigantic explosions that rocked the screen, large lightning strikes and fire storms, exploding bridges with aircraft flying through the smoke and dust ejected from the rubble, and other impressive set pieces. But unlike what's been shown in previous trailers, players won't constantly be fighting in trenches or in ruined cities. "In Killzone 2, we take the player on quite a journey across the planet, visiting a variety of locations, all of them with their own play style and their own gameplay scenarios," Hulst said. In all, the player will fight through ten separate scenarios on Helghan.
Speaking of the fight, the story of Killzone 2 is one of outright revenge on the part of the ISA against the Helghast. After the events of both Killzone and Killzone: Liberation, which focused solely upon the colony world of Vekta, the ISA finally decide to launch an invasion of Helghan and take the fight to Emperor Visari himself. Sending fleets of ships to strike at the heart of Visari's defenses in the capital city of Pyrrhus, the ISA plan to capture the emperor and force the warring Helghast to surrender. However, as they prepare to land, they quickly discover that the invasion is much harder than they ever expected. Not only do the planet's harsh conditions pose a threat, but the Helghast have new weapons that they're unleashing against the ISA, forcing adjustments to their plans to end the war once and for all.
This time around, players won't take on the familiar character of Jan Templar, who fought against the Helghast in the previous two Killzone games. According to Mathijs de Jonge, game director of Killzone 2, the team felt like they "needed a new player character. We were a little bit tired of Templar, and we thought, 'Okay, it would be nice if Templar has gone up in rank,' and so now in Killzone 2, he's a Fleet Commander. With Templar off the front lines, the action falls to Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, a Special Forces member of an elite squad known as Team Alpha. This platoon is sent in on extremely dangerous missions to accomplish everything from urban combat to demolitions and sniping. However, even with the new and different personalities of the team members, there will be a couple of familiar faces that will play a significant role within the game. For example, Rico returns as the head of Alpha Team, and players will fight alongside him during specific missions. Similarly, Evelyn Batton, a character introduced within Killzone: Liberation, will play a significant role in the overall game itself as Alpha Team makes their way through Helghast-held territory.
The early alpha preview build that I played was somewhat limited: the introduction movie as well as some transitions seemed to be missing, as did optimization with load times and other areas. It also only featured about five of the missions from the game, but it definitely managed to provide a sense of action and intensity that players will expect from the game. The first mission, Corinth River, was the exact same one that was shown at E3 this year, with Sev and his squad descending (or more accurately, crash landing) on their Intruder and launching into battle. This brought to mind something that Mathijs said about the pacing of the game and the speed they want to impart to the player. "The pacing is really important, especially in the first half of the game. We wanted to give the player the feeling that he's jumping onto a roller coaster that's already moving," he said. The landing was a hectic segment of battle, as Intruders around us were being blown from the skies thanks to flak bursts and anti-aircraft fire. In fact, one Intruder that was hit to the right of us sent unfortunate ISA soldiers tumbling directly past our heads, forcing us to duck. Blasting through Helghast that were eagerly awaiting to cut down our forces where we stood, I tried to lead the rest of the group through the rubble strewn streets and oft shelled drainage ditches.
Eventually, after destroying a bridge and clearing out two Helghan APCs, Rico sent me and Garza to secure a floodgate to allow a convoy of troops and equipment to advance. This, of course, was easier said than done, because the Helghast troops actively used cover, sought out better firing positions, and attempted to flank me in different areas. Mathijs pointed out that there were about 15 different kinds of Helghast troops, not counting end bosses, all of which have different kinds of tactics that they'll use in battle. "You might have a character that first throws a smoke grenade to cover his approach, then comes rushing through the smoke, using a submachine gun to attack the player and his buddies. When he gets really close, he'll draw a knife and start slashing at the player, which is a totally different enemy than, say, an assault trooper, who uses a lot of cover and tries to stay at a certain distance, trying to take careful shots from behind whatever cover he's in." What's more, the squads of enemies won't always be comprised of the same kinds of forces; frequently, they'll be a mix of different kinds of forces that you'll take on at once.
Rob Heald, an AI designer on the project, pointed out that the AI has really grown from the previous Killzone games to provide a much more dynamic AI that is much more threatening. Thanks to the PS3 and the processing power of the console, the AI can perform many more actions and consider multiple different options for their actions on the battlefield based on a situation. "What's going to be more apparent to players is a much greater range of animations and actions that the AI will be able to perform. That ranges from anything from being able to deal with the environment, like jumping over cover or opening doors to dealing with a much more dynamic and destructible environment, like cover that can be destroyed and how they respond to that," Rob said. This means that the game's AI will make intelligent decisions on where an enemy happens to be instead of standing around, including scanning for locations where an enemy has disappeared behind cover and where he might reappear, and will make decisions on whether they'll attempt to flank you or toss grenades, as well as communicate to their allies about where threats are located.
Fortunately, this will extend over to the ISA troops as well, and will primarily be based around the weapon styles that each character has. Generic troops will perform specific actions and will engage the enemy based on what they see, akin to the Helghast, but named characters will act more in character with their firearm. "You'll see Rico being very rash – he's all about laying down suppression fire and shooting from the hip, and on the other end there's Natko, who's the shotgun guy, so he's all about staying in cover and approaching enemy for close quarter combat," Heald mentioned. This weapon focus was intentionally designed by the team to give your secondary allies more of an impact within the game instead of just being there. "They respond to how you're playing – if you get several headshots in a row, they'll comment on it. My favorite one is that if there's an enemy behind you that's targeting you and they spot it, they'll call out and say, 'Hey, he's behind you!' So that really imparts that you're playing with a team of guys," Rob said.
One of the other elements with the AI that Rob highlighted was the focus on dynamic levels of AI. He highlighted this by pointing out a segment that occurs within the third mission of the game, in a section known as Visari Square. At one point, players will have to take the square away from the Helghast that are stationed there, but will quickly have to rearm themselves to defend their positions as the Helghast attempt to capture the location back. Rob pointed out that battles like this will feature a large amount of your AI getting dynamically pushed back if the Helghast start to gain a foothold on one side of the plaza or another, forcing the player to attempt to respond to the threats if they want to lock down the route and cut off enemy advances. On the other hand, if you effectively clear out segments of the Helghast with accurate shots, your allies will push forward, re-establish positions on turrets and behind barricades, and force their targets to seek fire. Devices like this will keep the action of the game much more fluid and realistic.
Speaking of devices, Guerrilla is also trying to get players more invested in gameplay by using the DualShock to replicate the actions of the character. By holding both the L1 and R1 buttons and turning the wheel counterclockwise, I was able to manipulate pipe controls and open gates, allowing my forces to advance. This wasn't the only pantomiming segments that I wound up doing. On a later mission, I had to approximate the arming of an explosive by twisting the controller in different directions before pulling back towards me to arm the charge. I could then run to safety and detonate the charge when I wanted to, which was an interesting way of using the motion sensitivity of the controller. This was particularly important when trying to eliminate mortars that were shelling my forces, because I could set a couple of charges and destroy the supports of the mortar itself, causing it to crash to the ground and shatter.
As I moved through each level, I was definitely struck by the scale and the sparse detail of the Helghan world, which was filled with harsh locations focused more on utility, military strength and production than artistry or culture. According to Jan Bart Van Beek, the Killzone 2 art director, his team focused on drawing inspiration from different totalitarian or dictatorial regimes from the 20th century to influence the Helghan style. " We looked at Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, but also Mao's China – all of these kinds of totalitarian, large super economies and their architecture," Jan said. But they didn't want to simply bring over a blatant copy of a historical culture to the Helghan world. "We started looking at places like Hong Kong, which is still rich but poor at the same time, and is still developing. We liked the idea of some gigantic economic state that is slightly on the edge of poverty but still very well controlled," Jan mentioned. That seemed to tie in with the look of some of the structures in different sections of cities, which were cobbled together from different materials and almost appeared to be shanty like, as if the inhabitants constructed the buildings from whatever they managed to put their hands on. Because the Helghast focused more on ramping up their military complex as a central part of their culture, other aesthetics were obviously abandoned.
In many ways, the same could be said for the Helghast themselves and the many variations of troops that populate the game. Whether it's the sleeker, hooded look of the Nomad-like Helghast scout, who appeared to have sniper rifles, or the traditional Assault soldier, who could pack a machine gun or a rocket launcher, everything was designed for maximum damage in battle. Even the Helghast medics, Jan pointed out, weren't medics in the traditional sense. Instead of focusing more on trying to save lives, the medics had more scalpels and saws for amputations, so in combat, they'd be more likely to hack a limb off that was damaged instead of trying to save it so they could send a soldier back out into the field.
But even apart from these artistic details, Killzone 2 features loads of additional visual touches that the team intentionally put in to make the gameplay feel much more realistic. For one thing, a large amount of time was spent on making the destructibility of each environment have a significant impact within the world. Hermen pointed out a demo video from 2006 that focused on Guerrilla's attention to blowing up walls, blasting bullet holes in cover, and other destruction within a location. At the same time, they also focused on getting the animations for bullets or other damaging attacks right for characters, building out a new hit response system for bodies that would appropriately rag doll and would combine kinetic motion with bullet impacts. The result of these inverse kinematics is that each character that is shot, whether Helghan or ISA, will twist and move uniquely based on the number of times they're shot and where they're hit in the body.
This stood out to me as I moved through one section with an assault on an anti-air tower and watched as an ISA solder was shot as he was providing covering fire. The force of the bullet spun him to the ground, and bullets from his gun raked the wall next to him. It was a visceral and realistic response, one that felt appropriate and intense with the action in front of me. But more than these larger details are attentions to smaller items that many players would potentially miss. Items like dynamically burning cloth, swelling and flowing water, dust and smoke particles – according to Hulst, every aspect of the game, from the audio to the animation has to be right to help immerse players in the various missions that players will fight across.
However, I found that this was just the surface of some of the technical elements that have been included within Killzone 2. According to Arjan Brussee, Development Director at Guerrilla, the development team built out a deferred rendering engine, which combines up to eight separate buffers within a section to create a final image for the screen. He demonstrated this by turning on and off the Z buffers, specular lighting, texture buffers and other layers to show off the various elements that made up the composite image, and finally showed what the entire stage would look like when combined. On top of this, Arjan pointed out, lighting and motion blur effects within the game are performed as a full screen pass to blend all of these effects together. Arjan stressed that the game's engine was so detailed that, "each pixel has velocity. It's not just a special effect, but this is used for particles, it's used for explosions, and it's used for motion blurring for character movement, which adds an extra sense of depth."
There's much more to the Killzone 2 engine than deferred rendering and screen passes; in fact, Arjan mentioned that every composite that is rendered within the game is placed solely upon the SPUs to lock in the framerate at a solid 30 FPS. During small battles, one or two SPUs will pick up a majority of the action, but during heavy firefights with large explosions and numerous characters onscreen, all six SPUs will pick up the load and balance everything accurately. Surprisingly, even within the heaviest firefight onscreen, Arjan pointed out that the largest load on each one of the SPUs didn't exceed 60%, which ensured that the framerate remained consistent throughout the game. On top of this, Arjan pointed out everything from light bloom and internal lens reflection effects to true geometric particles that fly from walls and collide with the ground realistically based on the direction of an explosion.
What's more, each light that's shown in a level, whether it's the individual lights on an ISA outfit or from the Helghast goggles, are true lights that will illuminate their environment. This means that as the Helghast move, for example, their glowing faces will actually cast beams of light that will fall on the walls and other objects around them. On one map, he indicated more than 200 individual light sources that behaved as true lights along with the other finer details, rendering and screen passes from before. Arjan also pointed out that "every single polygon within the game as a texture id, so when it's shot in the game, it responds accurately to the particular bullet." That includes ray tracing of every bullet hole, but it also includes loads of detail that might be easily missed by players as they run and gun their way through these battles like dynamically burning cloth, swelling and flowing water, and dust and smoke particles.
Apart from the visual elements and SPU usage to make the game look incredible, Guerilla has also put in a lot of work to make sure that the aural presentation is incredible as well. Mario Lavin, audio director on Killzone 2, pointed out that the action within the game will be supported by adaptive music within 7.1 surround sound. What that means is that each individual music loop within the game will respond seamlessly to the action onscreen. For example, during calmer moments, there will be a much more ambient soundtrack playing, but during firefights, there may be a driving percussion track to set the pace of the action. Lavin likened the system to the dynamic performance of a DJ, who can feel the right moments to pick up the rhythm of a track and when to slow it down.
According to Lavin, Joris De Man, the composer of Killzone 2's music, wanted to make sure that there were different themes and colors attached to each loop, because he wanted the music to affect how a player approaches the game in certain moments. On top of the music presentation, De Man and Lavin wanted to make sure that there were plenty of ambient sound effects and reverberations that made the game stand out. As a result, Mario recorded effects like wind in different arrangements to help his team present a claustrophobic or open area feeling to each area. This carried over to balancing the sound for every weapon so they sound completely different when fired in outdoor or indoor situations. When you combine this with some of the other elements, such as Brian Cox stepping into the role of Emperor Visari, the overall sound of Killzone 2 is truly engrossing.
So, with all of these details regarding the single player, how does this affect the multiplayer aspects of the game? Well, you may have checked out some of the details from our recent article on the released multiplayer beta, but I found out more details from Angie Smets, senior producer and Eric Boltjes, senior online game designer, who pointed out that the final game will come with eight multiplayer maps and five gameplay modes for anywhere between two and thirty two players. Multiplayer has been designed from the ground up to be just as intense as the single player game, but with much more customization, primarily because of three elements: the badge system, bots that can be included within any game, and new clan elements.
At the start of the game, players will start out as a basic private. You won't have any specific abilities or weapons to make you stand out from another private, but you'll be able to do enough damage to get some kills and gain some accolades. This allows players to ease their way into the game. Once they've scored enough points, they'll advance to the next rank. There are twelve ranks in all, with a player being able to max out as a general, but certain ranks will unlock different character classes, which will let you attempt to specialize in different jobs. Once you unlock a badge, you're not completely powered up and ready to go. According to Eric, you'll only unlock one of the two abilities for the class. If you want to unlock more abilities and options for that particular class, you'll need to sink more time in on the battlefield as that particular class. "We reward the player for playing what he wants to play. So if you play as the medic, then you also unlock stuff for the medic. So if you use the medic's special abilities, you unlock the medic's secondary abilities," Eric said.
There are six specialized classes in all (not counting the basic soldier class, which will help you unlock the other basic elements for the other classes), but regardless of which class you choose to play as, the designers made sure that many of the abilities were tailored for more teamwork and team oriented play. There will be some solo badges as well, such as the scout badge that leads to the sniper class. Regardless of which class you choose, you can mix and match the abilities of the badges that you've unlocked for your character. For example, Eric mentioned that you can mix the repair badge of the engineer, which helps you fix turrets that have been placed by your allies with the proximity mines from a saboteur to make a subversive, and dangerous, opponent.
No matter what configuration you place your soldiers in, you'll find that you'll go through dynamic missions, which will put you through five different mission types, like capture the flag or team deathmatch. What makes Killzone 2 stand out is that all of these missions can be varied within one map at any point in time. Players can choose to have the game randomly select a mission type at random, or can tailor specific options as well, so if you happen to be a large fan of Deathmatch, you can constantly play that mode. Angie did point out that there are also a lot of rules that can be established along with these mission types, so if you want to play with a specific kind of weapon or class only, you can set that in your options before you start playing. Depending on what mission you're playing and whether you're alive or dead, you can also change your badges (and thereby your class) at will to best accomplish your goals within that particular match type.
While the maps aren't scalable to fit the number of players, there are a number of maps that are tailored more towards some smaller parties. However, I was also told that the designers have created a number of presets that will let you leap into a match quickly, establish different rules for each match as even toss in a large number of bots to help fill in the rosters. This seemed like a great way to let newcomers practice their skills as well, and we were told by multiple designers that the AI is truly incredible. In fact, Rob pointed out that the AI routines that distinguish them from the single player shell, and will actively search out sniper's nests if they're in the middle of a fight to pick off opponents. The bots themselves are designed from the ground up to be able to do everything that a human can do. While they will definitely emphasize team play, even the most experience players have been challenged by the bots that have been designed by the team.
The last significant elements with the game come in the form of squads and clans. Squads are 4 player groups that allow friends or newcomers to come together and play a round together. This will come with different advantages, such as squad specific headset channels for secure communication, as well as telegraphed health and abilities for every squad member and the ability to spawn together at a specific point. The next step up is the inclusion of clans, which allows larger groups of players to come together and fight across maps. Players have to be at least at Corporal rank or higher to establish a clan, but the coolest element tied to the clans is the Clan Valor system, which will be tied to the rankings of the clans. Each clan that plays the game will inevitably gain a specific amount of points based on how they play, which will help determine their rank. If your clan wants to rocket up the online standings, they can wager a specific amount of their clan's valor points against another clan, with the winner taking all the points. This means that some battles will be for much more than the obvious bragging rights associated with large clan battles or tournaments; entire online standings can be made or lost with this system, which will help separate the casual players from the hardcore Killzone 2 fans. This sounds like an extremely unique concept, but one that will help keep players fighting across the maps of Helghan for many months after the game's release. At least February 2009 is only two months away, so PS3 owners won't have long to wait to leap into the battle against the Helghast.
And here are some in-depth multiplayer impressions written by myself a few weeks back:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1086110&highlight=