Killzone 2: Exclusive Guerilla Interview

Another meaty Killzone 2 feature - we talk to Guerilla's Eric Boltjes and Angie Smets to get every last drop of detail...

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By Kikizo Staff, December 22, 2008

We've had a busy few months for multiplayer gaming, whether it's fending off hordes of bug-eyed alien monstrosities or scuttling through Far Cry 2's flammable underbrush, playing aerial football with home-made biplanes or crooning our tuneless hearts out over a wine-stained living room carpet. Kikizo's leisure hours hit saturation point with the arrival of a Street Fighter IV build, what's more. But somehow there's always time for another round of Killzone 2, Guerrilla Games' blood, tears and sweat-stained love letter to fans of the headshot you didn't see coming.

We've had our dirty fingers all over the game, from initial developer interviews through to the latest single and multiplayer builds, and frankly we'd be surprised if a better shooter makes berth in 2009. Halo 3: ODST and F.E.A.R. 2 have their work cut out for them. In another exclusive interview, Kikizo recently collared Online Multiplayer Producers, Eric Boltjes and Angie Smets, for a chat about 'intentional' release date changes, play-testing, voice chat support, Shuhei Yoshida as head of SCE World Wide Studios, and loads more.

Killzone 2 Coverage Center
•   Killzone 2: Exclusive Guerrilla Interview 1: Steven Ter Heide (Producer) & Mathijs De Jonge (Director)
(Sep 7, 2007)
•   Killzone 2: Multiplayer Beta Hands-On Preview: Extensive playtest of the latest multiplayer build (13 Nov, 2008)
•   Killzone 2: Singleplayer Hands-On (Dec 9, 2008)
•   Exclusive Guerilla Interview 2: Eric Boltjes and Angie Smets (Online Multiplayer Producers) (Dec 22, 2008)
•   10 Ways to Not Get Owned in Killzone 2 (Jan 23, 2009)
•   Discussion: Killzone 2 Surpasses Target Renders (Jan, 2009)
•   Killzone 2: The $545 Press Kit Exposed! (Jan 23, 2009)
•   Killzone 2: The Review (Feb 2, 2009)
•   Feature: Killzone 2 Successor (Feb 27, 2009)

Kikizo: In a nutshell, what are the guiding principles of Killzone 2 online?

Boltjes: When we started out we gave ourselves four simple goals. The first one is that everyone can play Killzone 2 online. We wanted to make sure the player can play the game just the way he likes it, and we wanted to inspire team play, while at the same time creating a community that goes beyond the game itself.

Kikizo: The multiplayer mode has been in development from the start, right?

Boltjes: Pretty much, yeah. We've been playing and testing online for about two years now. Obviously there were humble beginnings, mock-up levels without the features... At the same time we were developing the single player, and we really treat multiplayer as just as important as single player, because we really think that multiplayer keeps people playing.

Kikizo: Have you had to alter deadlines drastically during the project, or have things panned out pretty much as projected?

Smets: We always said we'd show off the game when it was ready. With Killzone 2 the ambitions we had were obviously very, very high, so we thought we'd try and increase the quality of the game as much as we could, before we came along to show it.

Kikizo: When I was shown the campaign mode last year I said it was closer to the original target trailer than people expected. It's good to see your multiplayer modes maintaining the same technical standards...

Smets: When we started the game we already knew the online component would be really big for us - it's half of the game, and we definitely wanted it to look as good as the other half of the game. It wasn't easy, I'll admit that, getting a game with 32 people out there that has the same quality of graphics... there were quite some challenges there on the technical side of things. But it's really cool to see us achieving that, very satisfying.

Kikizo: Why did you decide against split-screen multiplayer?

Smets: That has to do with the choice we made on the development of the engine, the graphics, the level of detail we wanted to offer and everything. From the beginning it wasn't really part of our plans.

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