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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#3: Metal Gear Killzone 4

As we noted in our review, playing Killzone 2 is at times rather like repeatedly head-butting a rhinoceros. There's that wistful aerial intro to lull the player's suspicions, but the second you venture anywhere near enemy territory the entire universe goes for your throat - and not just in the abstract, decreasing-health-bar sense, but with sickening realism, jolting the camera around, splashing it with gore, draining the colours away as you near death. All well and good if you're up for the challenge, but we can't help wondering what the game might have been like had Guerrilla's touch been a little lighter, a little lower key - if the onus wasn't quite so firmly on your ducking everybody's bullets and firing out twice as many in return.

Perhaps if we had a protagonist with more on his CV than Elementary Homophobic Wisecracks and Advanced Bullet Retardation? You don't have to look far for a substitute. Step forward the Scout, the sneakiest of Killzone 2's multiplayer classes, fashionably clad in one-piece light-bending camouflage togs, a sniper rifle on his back, a serrated knife tucked into his boxers and an evil glint in his eye.

To our and we're sure most people's minds, this debonair individual is tailor-made for Sam-Fisher-esque, now-you-see-me-now-your-neck's-broken shenanigans. Does this cut absurdly against the franchise grain? We're not so sure. Besides all the angry Cockneys in gasmasks, you might recall the original Killzone featured a ladylike ISA assassin and softly-spoken Helghast double-agent. Hidden away deep in the history of this interplanetary conflict, there's the faintest whiff of Tenchu.

Imagine a city-wide persistent conflict comparable to that of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, with the Scout - a tooled-up, highly trained dealer of death - pitched slap bang into the middle. The battle unfolds freely on all fronts, squads stumbling into ambushes, convoys coming under fire, engineering teams building and rebuilding fortified walls, but you're the chap with his thumb on the scales. You might borrow a few tricks from the Saboteur class and mine all the intersections, or snipe from on high (but watch out for those all-seeing drones). Friendly arses might require saving, or you could go on an infiltration spree and purge an ISA cruiser from the inside out.

Acts to Follow:

• Splinter Cell - Sam Fisher's a bit of a tramp nowadays, but in his prime there was nobody to touch the man for athletic stealth carnage.

• Assassin's Creed - Take the population of ancient Damascus on a very rainy day, give them all assault rifles, shell the city steadily for eight hours and you've got - well, we're not sure, but it sounds like a nice playground.

• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Not as elegant a brand of hide-and-seek as Sam's, but just as entertaining.

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