written by Jih-Wei Peng
The Killzone games have had a long and tumultuous history as the Playstation’s flagbearer, sometimes stumbling out the gate, sometimes rising above and beyond the call of duty, but never quite achieving its original goal of being the Playstation’s Halo-killer. Yet after the gorgeous yet mixed release of Shadow Fall, it’s been all quiet on the Killzone front.
We now know of course that the reason for the silence was because Guerrilla Games had been busy developing their first non-Killzone game and knocking it clear out of the park as Horizon: Zero Dawn, and in the aftermath of their success Guerrilla has been furious expanding, more than doubling their staff. While no doubt some of those efforts are directed towards Horizon Zero Dawn 2, it’s probable Guerrilla is also taking a good, hard look at the series that had supported them for so long: Killzone.
Where exactly are they planning to take the series next? It’s impossible to say, and that’s honestly pretty exciting. Shadow Fall began shaking up the Killzone formula, to begin with, incorporating more open-world elements as well as taking the game from its traditional muddy trenches to a view of the civilian life of the Vektan-Helghan conflict, trying to bring the narrative away from the standard traditional narrowly-focused war story into an exploration of the societies that drove the conflict. Although their execution was questionable, to say the least, it marked a significant shift in thinking – and with the experience of Horizon: Zero Dawn under their belts, Guerrilla is likely ready to accommodate yet more radical changes to the series yet.
While it may be possible that Guerrilla will return to their roots with a more traditional shooter a la Killzone 2/3, this seems not only unlikely but even to some degree unsafe. Sony’s attempt to promote Killzone as a direct competitor to Halo never quite panned out, and in recent years Sony appears to have been focusing on their shift in strategy by turning away from direct competition with Xbox titles and instead carving out a new niche with more narratively driven games, such as Uncharted, Last of Us, and of course Horizon: Zero Dawn itself.
This makes sense – rather than trying to eke out a narrow edge of superiority on the same playing field, carving out a separate and distinct niche could allow Sony to make more of an impact and stand out more from its rivals under the Microsoft umbrella. Under such conditions, it’s hard to see a place for a traditional shooter like Killzone – but much easier to see space for a “narrative shooter” set in the Killzone universe.
And the thing is, Killzone has a surprising amount of space for such a transformation. While the actual execution of the Killzone narrative has traditionally been somewhat cack-handed, with flat characters, bland dialogue, and a plot that verged regularly on the edge of nonsense, the setting itself is fascinating and ripe for further development as Shadow Fall helped show.
For starting out as basically British Nazis in Space, the Helghast make surprisingly sympathetic victims of circumstance (in between the, y’know, being Nazis bit) while the ISA/VSA may be constantly on the defensive but it’s been shown that they played their part in making the Helghans what they were and keeping the fires of conflict stoked afterward. There’s also been a strong central theme throughout the series of how intractable conflicts can become when driven by the entrenched distrust and hatred of two sides which is maybe a little more topical than many of us might be comfortable with right at this moment, presenting Guerrilla with as many opportunities and risks.
The difficulty is of course translating that narrative potential into an entertaining experience, but here Guerrilla is helped out by the legacy of Horizon: Zero Dawn. They’ve demonstrated that they now have the writing chops to become top-notch storytellers, and the primary question is what story they want Killzone to tell now.
A further look into how conflicts become fixed and intractable in the public mind? The results of a long and exhausting war on societies bred to generations of conflict? A message of hope and an attempt to mend fences long since ruptured? A new force asserting itself in the eternal Helghast/ISA conflict? A look at the life of survivors on old, desolate battlefields who no longer care about the war? Possibly even a proletarian revolution as the common folk of both sides decide that the war is best going to end when the soldiers agree to peace whatever the generals decide?
The ending of Shadow Fall left a great many possibilities open, and long-time fans are no doubt eager to see what Guerrilla’s new writing team can do with what they have.
But Killzone isn’t solely a matter of narrative – its core strengths, after all, have been in visuals and gameplay. Killzone’s tradition of being fantastic showcases of Playstation technology is unlikely to change, but gameplay presents a more interesting question. The traditional corridor shooter format of older games is a bit dated nowadays, and once again Horizon: Zero Dawn presents some intriguing options, not to mention Shadow Fall.
While Shadow Fall’s initial open-world promise soon tapered off to more cinematic but linear sequences, a more sustained open-world focus could pay remarkable dividends as both God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn showed. If open-world RPG aspects can be successfully blended with the old strengths of realistic, weighty gunplay and aggressive gameplay, Killzone has a distinct chance of staking out a space for itself in the crowded shooter market.
Of course, this is all purely speculation. Guerrilla Games has thus far neither confirmed nor denied the existence of an upcoming Killzone game. But if they can take the lessons of Horizon: Zero Dawn and tie it into the existing strengths of the IP, Killzone may very well be able to fulfill its old promise as the Playstation’s flagship shooter and breathe new life into the franchise. Fans of the series can only hope, watch, and wait.
But not too long, one hopes.