Killzone 2

Hands-on with Guerrilla's multiplayer mode

More Images

We haven't had the pleasure before, so it is with a twinge of excitement we sit down in Guerrilla's booth on Sony's GC stand for a few minutes hands-on with Killzone 2. Of course, the singleplayer portion is expected to take on the Halo's and Call of Duty's of this world, but we're here to take to look at one of the most important additional elements of the game: the multiplayer.

This is the first time the multiplayer side of things has been shown off publicly, we're told, and senior online game designer Eric Boltjes seems excited to be getting people playing his labour of love. Guerrilla have been focussing on creating a user-friendly and easy to get into multiplayer experience, which offers the best of this style of gameplay while at the same time looking as visually arresting as the singleplayer mode does.

Teamplay will be a focus, and the developers have clearly been eying genre leaders like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, when it comes to this part of their game. In Boltjes' brief introductory talk we're told the game will feature AI bots for the first time. These will be available for battling online, but also off-line, allowing players the chance to practice and learn maps outside of the competitive experience. This will of course make for some interesting multiplayer possibilities too.

Apparently, Guerrilla are investing a lot of time making a complete multiplayer experience, and as such we're told that many of the mode's innumerable features and customisations will be unveiled to the player gradually; ensuring newcomers aren't overwhelmed by the sheer weight options that are planned.

In total, the mode will incorporate eight maps of varying sizes, with 12 player ranks offered in addition to 46 ribbons. 100 statistics will be collected (bring on the leaderboards), and special badges will empower players with unique abilities. Cleverly, players will have the option of combining two kinds of different badge, resulting in unique, multi-skilled characters. During the demonstration, Boltjes created a cunning medic-engineer, with various other combinations possible.

Additionally, a new function called Squads will enable players to create four-player teams on the fly. These groups will then be able to share health bars, abilities (from badges) and also respawn together. Through features like this, Guerrilla hope to inspire strong teamplay, complete with plenty of tactical depth.

Beyond the Squad system, Guerrilla are also paying special attention to their clan support features - in the hope of further enhancing the community that will inevitably surround their new opus. Beyond the ability to chat with team-mates, there will also be a clan 'Valour' system, allowing rival clans to bet on the outcome of clashes. Clan tournaments will also be available, allowing up to 256 clans to duke it out in epic competitions. We're also promised sizable leaderboards (based on those vast quantities of stats in part, we'd imagine), while Killzone.com will allow players to send each other messages, view statistics, and generally get the boss hot under the collar when you should be filing last month's petty cash receipts.

With Boltjes' revelations about this new multiplayer side of the game dispatched, it was left to your humble reporter to try his hand at a multiplayer bout, via a standard team match. My first impression of the action is that it is visceral in the extreme; think Call of Duty 4 taken another step or two further. The action is heavy on subtle touches and atmosphere enhancing effects - Guerrilla clearly staying true to their promise of making the multiplayer fun feel like the singleplayer game.

Realistic blood splatters onto the screen, while motion blurs as you swing around in the heat of action through the game's incredibly detailed, multi-level environments. Your character's motion seems a little slower than in games like CoD4, but this could be a result of the effects, while the weapons on offer seem to be very satisfying to use against real-world competitors. The levels I experienced were claustrophobic, and seem designed to encourage cautious play - sight-lines abound across the game's dystopian environments. That said, when you do get into a fire-fight, all hell breaks lose, with players coming together in tight spots for fun-filled fights to the death.

As a self-proclaimed veteran of Infinity Ward's groundbreaking FPS of last year, I was concerned that Killzone 2 might simply offer too disparate an experience for me to enjoy it. However, Guerrilla have clearly spent a very long time testing, tweaking and balancing, as I felt fairly comfortable surprisingly early on. The frenetic action certainly seems to be on a par with any other genre favourites you'd care to mention, so Killzone 2's multiplayer fate presumably lies with the hands of Guerrilla's 'extras', the smaller details that Boltjes seems to be lavishing plenty of attention upon.

I lost both my multiplayer bouts, suffice to say, but was left with an overwhelming impression of a highly slick and polished online/multiplayer mode that Guerrilla are clearly investing in en masse. We'll bring you more on Killzone 2 as its February launch looms.

By Luke Guttridge

• Killzone 2
• Platform: PlayStation 3
• Publisher: Sony
• Developer: Guerrilla
• Release Date: Feb 2009