Killzone: Shadow Fall E3 Interview

Killzone: Shadow Fall is set to be a launch title for Playstation 4 later this year. Bengt Lemne caught up with Guerrilla Games co-founder Hermen Hulst and found out how the sci-fi shooter is shaping up at this year's E3.

We talked at length about what it was like to work with the new console, and the PS4's new controller, but the one thing that kept coming up in conversation was the villains of the piece, the Helghast.

Hulst explained some of the new features that we're going to see in Shadow Fall: "We're definitely keeping what made Killzone great in the first place, we've got the iconic Helghast, but we've also on a system level, we have systems like the hit responses; the way those enemies react to your bullets, all of that has been polished."

He continued: "The brutal melees that we introduced in Killzone 2, we extend that by having what we call "the death from above" where you can drop off a zip-line onto an enemy, those kind of systems. So all these core systems that we had before, we're building on that. And I think visually, we will visit some areas that are very familiar to people that are close to the franchise. So we're not breaking away from it, we're just showing a new perspective. It's a new take on the war. We're now living close, side-by-side to the enemy."

These enemies, the Helghast, go someway towards defining the franchise. Hulst explained how their reputation has impacted the design of the player-character: "They've become iconic. It's the red eyes, they stand out. They're easy to see, obviously, they're a haunting enemy. What we're trying to do with this game is create a player-character that is really able to stand up to these ferocious enemies. So you're now a Shadow Marshall, the best of the best soldier. We want you to be on par, kind of like a one-man SEAL team 6 if you will, who can do deniable operations, who can hold his ground in all-out combat. You can only balance that against an enemy like the Helghast, they're tough."

Another key element of the franchise is multiplayer, although Guerrilla aren't in a position to talk about that just yet: "Multiplayer is just as important [as single-player]. It's going to be great, it's a little early to give you any details on it, but that's going to be a couple of months away probably."