Killzone 2's Successor

As Killzone 2 finally hits stores today, we take a look at what Guerrilla Games could do next.

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#2: Company of Killzones

Picture the scene: you're a colonel aboard one of those megalithic ISA cruisers. You put a bundle of queued commands into effect, and a dozen Predator dropships burst from the flight bays of your sleek, silver fortress, arcing round into loose formation, the soldiers on-board gesturing crudely to one another. The view stays locked to the assault force as it descends from the pastel-coloured fluff of Helghan's upper atmosphere to the grubby smog which hangs over the city below.

Killzone Wars? Halo's done it.

A blast of lightning from one of the infernal defences disintegrates a couple of Predators: you call in a barrage from your cruiser with left trigger, toppling the source of fire in a cloud of rubble. Shots ring out wildly from Helghast troops stationed atop a nearby tower, but two of your Predators have been upgraded with air-to-surface missiles, and the grunts are swiftly obliterated. The surviving craft touch down on a rooftop, battle-hardened squads leaping from their flanks to storm the lower stories.

We'd absolutely love to see Guerrilla do a Killzone RTS. The nuts and bolts of the project are right there in Killzone 2's diverse selection of troops and weapons: assault squads to take and hold positions, assassins to stick it to unsuspecting grunts, flamers to carpet chokepoints with napalm, medics to administer sticking plasters and engineers to set up automated defences, to name but a few permutations. Vehicles are thinner on the ground in comparison to Halo 3, but you've still got tanks, APCs, jeeps, all-conquering walking mechs and airborne drones.

Then factor in that cluttered, multi-elevation, highly destructible urban environment. Tanks could bust through walls to overwhelm enemy outposts. Buildings could be garrisoned by your troops, or rigged with explosives to prevent the enemy doing likewise. There are emplaced guns to be exploited, bridges to be blown up, trains to be commandeered, refineries to overrun. It'd be a blast, Guerrilla. You know it would.

Given the whole planetary invasion premise, we think a resource-chugging, click-the-tank-hut-six-times-a-second style RTS wouldn't be appropriate. The player should be limited, instead, to a few persistent squads which gain experience and upgrade along the same lines of Killzone 2 multiplayer, with more and different kinds of unit being awarded as you complete objectives. Each mission might have a squad cap determined by the number of Predator dropships on hand, with the troops you leave on-board your cruiser available as reinforcements once the Predators refuel.

We also think it should be on consoles only. Killzone is a console franchise, and there are now plenty of successful precedents for RTS on console. Deal with it, keyboard jockeys.

Acts To Follow:

• Ground Control - Massive Entertainment's squad focus and experience system re-wrote the book on real-time tactics back in 2000, and is still relevant today.

• Halo Wars - otherwise known as How To Do Pad Control In An RTS. Big ups, Ensemble, big ups.

• Tom Clancy's EndWar - otherwise known as How To Do Pad Control In An RTS And Voice Control Too. Brian Cox impersonations would of course be mandatory when playing the Helghast.

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