AGN: Thanks for joining us today guys. Our first question right off the bat is; four years in development, you've got about a week to go before the game's released, it must be a massive relief for you about now.

Steven Ter Heide: Absolutely. To get the finished product in your hands after working, like you said, for four years on it, is just unbelievable – it's really good.

Eric Boltjes: I know, it's really great. You spend four years of your life working towards this moment and so it's really, really great that we're finally here.



AGN: It always comes up in many interviews with you guys but there was a bit of fallout with the first Killzone, then coupled with the expectations for the second one after it was unveiled; how difficult has it been to strive for that goal? Did it feel like you always had someone looking over your shoulder?

Steven: Not so much like there was someone looking over our shoulder - of course we're our own biggest critics. We know that with the first Killzone we were a bit over-ambitious and we tried to do too many things that were new to us and we were still a relatively young company, and it was our first ever title and this is now our second title and it's massive. But coming into this we knew we needed to do better and knew we could do better and obviously we learnt a lot from the development of the first Killzone; we knew the things that were very strong about it - the things we wanted to keep and build on. But at the same time there were a lot of things we knew we had to improve.

Now with the trailer, we knew the expectations were really, really high and at some point "unrealistic" I would say, but it was a kind of motivation as well, we knew we had to live up to this promise we'd made and so at the same time it was kind of a push for the team to prove that we could actually do this.

AGN: So you were setting a benchmark for yourselves, but we're wondering what the mindset behind doing such a thing is?

Steve: What we did with that trailer was use it as a piece for communicating our vision for the game internally to the team, that's what its original purpose was. We did it to show the visual quality, the theatre of war and intense action type of stuff we wanted from everyone, but of course it was part of the PlayStation presentation which gave access to the general public and then all the questions started coming in and so we decided to lay low for the next two years and work on achieving that level and show people that we were capable of delivering that vision. One of the good things we took away from that [video presentation] was that a lot of people bought in, they were anxious to get their hands on the game because they liked what they saw. So that's the really good thing for us because then we knew we were onto something, at least. Of course the pressure is there, but then there always is pressure.

AGN: So it seems Sony fanboys (and girls) are the new Nintendo fanboys, and they're rabid when it comes to your game - both good and bad. How do you cater to that audience and take their feedback? They're quite passionate about the product, but you guys need to maintain a critical point of view, so how have you taken their response against that of the rest of the gaming community following the flow of reviews we've seen over the last little while?

Steve: Well I think, with the original Killzone we really listened to the community and one of the things we wanted to do, for instance, with Killzone 2 was make sure the multiplayer aspect was really well integrated - we listened to what they were asking for in terms of the customisation they wanted...

Eric: Yeah, with Killzone a lot of people were asking for the ability to create their own [multiplayer] games in Killzone 2 multiplayer, so we looked at that request and looked at what kind of features they would want and what came back was that they just wanted to be able to choose what kind of weapons they wanted and what kind of missions they were playing, so we just took all that feedback and looked at the best way to incorporate that within a consistent mode while giving all these options to the player, and so it was great having all that feedback early on, because it meant we could build it from the ground up.



AGN: We have a lot of old-school PC gamers on our site. How do you go about inviting them across to your product? Because there's a lot of stuff in your multiplayer component - it's probably the most ambitious console multiplayer out there...

Eric: We have a lot of features that tailer to, as you say, the more "hardcore" players out there. We have full clan support, with plenty of customisation which something very similar to what you get with most PC games, we also have tournaments; you know, you can set up different tournaments with different clans so there's a whole layer of extra competition that I think PC gamers will love as well, so I think that will appeal to them.

AGN: Now you mentioned you spoke to the community and listened to their feedback, did you also look at other games for inspiration? Clearly you guys are gamers yourselves, and you can see elements such as the XP system which is similar to Call of Duty, and the clan stuff which you know, is kind of that Battlefield element, is there any one particular game you looked at or did you just reach out and take the best of what you thought worked?

Steve: There's definitely not any one particular game, of course, like you said we are gamers so we look at what else is out there, but we also go to the movies and we took a lot from Hollywood films such as Starship Troopers and Blackhawk Down and we read a lot of books, so our inspiration comes from a number of different sources, but we take all of these things and then ask what makes it Killzone, you know, what will fit into our vision and within our universe. So we take these different elements and ask 'what if this happened in the Killzone universe?' and then we look at how that specific mechanic would work, so we don't necessarily have a single source for inspiration per se.

AGN: Actually, in saying that, the small clip we were privy to in your presentation earlier (a very old render of Guerrilla - then called Orange - Games' original vision), despite looking tired and old by today's standards, still had a very cinematic quality to it - a very Hollywood blockbuster feel. So has it always been your goal to maintain this, because it has rung true here with Killzone 2, so were going for the same thing with a grittier, more urban feel, or was it just a balls out big explosions, lots of bottlenecks type of deal to keep the player constantly on their toes?

Steve: (laughs) It's exactly that - we wanted blockbuster. But we looked what that exactly means, you know? What do these big blockbuster action movies have in common? What is the one thing they have that they all do so well?

AGN: Explosions!

Steve: Exactly! The over-the-top explosions, the over-exaggerated movements - it's those kinds of things (that they have in common). This is what we call the "Hollywood realism", you know how things are supposed to work, but with Hollywood realism it's a little bit louder, more explosive and that sort of thing and so what we were trying to aim for is to make the player feel like they're part of a movie and I know that's a very tired thing to say and a lot of other titles do that but we looked what it exactly means to do it...

Eric: Yeah, especially from first-person mechanics as well; I mean your fire your weapon, you hit an enemy, he dies but we can't have him just fall over, that's boring. So the Hollywood realism sees them flying through the air, or violently back against the wall; blood everywhere. It's about adding that extra kick to it.

AGN: You're right. Goldeneye on the N64 was one of the first games to utilise a proper hit point system on enemy bodies and it worked so well yet so few games still do it, you know, Call of Duty did it quite well and it's one of the stand out things for me with Killzone 2 that you guys did it also.

However, we did want to ask you about your control system. I struggled with it a bit at first. You guys have a lot going on in the game and there are equally a lot of control functions, so to begin with, why did you choose to maintain a first-person view, even for the cover system?

Steve: Well that goes back to the cinematic feel. We wanted the player to be at the centre of the action and really immersed in the game, so we wanted to remove as much of the HUD as possible and keep everything in first-person as much as possible so that it's really you who's doing everything. So even with the cover system we said let's not go to third-person, because as soon as the camera snaps out you break that immersion, you see a guy sitting there and you question okay there's a guy sitting there - is that me?, and we wanted to avoid that. But we had a lot of people saying you can't do that; look at all these other games that use third-person cover systems really well, so one of the designers actually taped a camera to his head and behind the kitchen table acted out a cover situation so we could see it in the first-person and when we saw the tape we realised we could actually do that.



AGN: So, not to continue bringing the game's name up again, but Call of Duty had a really simplified control system - one that was intuitive and easy to use, but you guys have a much more complicated set-up, did you intentionally maintain that complication for a more tactical feel and experience over a more arcade experience, or was it just to have more in your game for players to be able to do?

Steve: It really comes down to the mechanics. We have different play mechanics than other games, so we wanted to make sure the controls are suited to utilising those mechanics. But in development, we get so used to the controls and become blind to what the defaults are that it's hard to tell what fits for everybody, so we do a lot of play-testing and it's almost a scientific approach to game-design, so we take the feedback from our testers and work out who likes what functions where on the controller and try to offer players as many variations on the controls as possible, so everybody can get to grips with the game. We did that rather than just having a single default set-up or one or two options because you're not going to be able to please everybody.

AGN: So how hard was it finding a balance between single-player, which is a much slower affair, and multiplayer with the controls?

Eric: I think multiplayer has different requirements; single-player is essentially 90 degrees, the player is always facing one way and we can build levels with that in mind and maintain a more linear, action-oriented approach. But multiplayer is 360 degrees, so you have to be able to turn faster, react quicker, but as a basis we used basically the same system for multiplayer as we have for single-player and then looked at player requirements for multiplayer and applied those coupled with the customisation option the players were always asking for - you can really tweak the controls for multiplayer the way you want them.

AGN: So what do you say to those who were maybe out off by the first game, how do you get people to go out and pick up a PS3 for your game? Give us your best spiel...

Steve: I think what people will get out of it, first of all , is sweaty palms; it's a rollercoaster ride from start to finish - the action just grows and grows. And we think that's a really important factor. As far as the PlayStation 3 is concerned, you pop the disc in and you can see what the system is capable of, your HD TV is capable of, what your 7.1 surround sound system is capable of - it really is just a spectacular sight.

And so I think on those points the game is really, really strong. Then we have the multiplayer with the strong features we've mentioned: It has a broad range of features that will satisfy both the newbies who want to get into online gaming but are scared to test the waters, you know, we have bots to kind of help them, and at the other end of the spectrum we have the leaderboards with 100+ stats so the competitive junkies can get their fix as well. So there's just a broad range of mechanics and features on offer - really something for everybody.

Eric: Exactly, I think also if you liked that slower pace of Killzone and that atmosphere, then definitely give Killzone 2 a try: It's just that, and so much more.



AGN: Okay so the first game is long gone, you've spent the last four years on this title with less than a week before it's released - what's next? A massive holiday? Are we talking Killzone 3? Or something entirely new?

Steve: There will certainly be something new from us in the near future, but we can't talk about future products just yet, we have to kind of empty our heads, go on holiday and relax. But a lot of the guys are already working on downloadable content (DLC), that's upcoming as well. We're also going to be listening to what the community has to say post-release and try and support their requests, suggestions and the like through our DLC. So for some guys it's going to be a well-deserved break, for other guys they have to get down to working on downloadable content, so if they're watching (or reading), we need it - get to work.

To check out the actual video, hit this link. You can read our review here, while more information and media can be found on our Killzone 2 game page.

Big thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment Australia for the interview time and actually flying the guys over.