DF Retro: Killzone 2 Ten Years On - An Iconic PS3 Tech Showcase

[Music] [Music] [Music] the road to Killzone 2 was almost certainly a difficult one fraught with unrealistic expectations defined by an infamous pre-rendered trailer yet despite the odds developer guerrilla games managed to produce one of the most visually striking games of the generation even today Killzone 2 stands head and shoulders above many games released for PlayStation 3 in terms of both technical ambition and artistic vision now more than ten years after its original release we returned to the battlefield for a retrospective on the seminal PlayStation 3 release on this episode we'll explore the visual Majesty that is Killzone 2 while discussing the history of guerrilla games the infamous pre-rendered teaser trailer and more so grab your DualShock and let's lock and load [Music] halo combat Evolved released in 2001 alongside the original xbox this first-person masterpiece forever altered the console space by proving that a dual analog first-person shooter could work and work well going beyond even rares seminal Goldeneye for Nintendo 64 hailer delivers near flawless control mechanics a remarkable single-player campaign and multiplayer so good that it helped kick off online multiplayer on the Xbox before the arrival of Xbox Live and in its wake much to the chagrin of developers everywhere the concept of the Halo killer was born this is arguably the moment in which the first person shooter became a central pillar of console gaming and many a developers scrambled to deliver their own take on the formula but despite the Halo killer label thrown around by fans and press alike this was never the intention of Dutch studio guerrilla games when it started the original Killzone project Killzone was of course one of two projects in development for PlayStation 2 at the time the other being shell shock NAMM 67 a third-person shooter and guerrillas only multi-platform release at least under the gorillas name you see gorilla itself as the result of a merger between smaller Dutch developers such as orange Games who was responsible for jazz jackrabbit published by Epic Games these developers joined forces under the Lost Boys Games named the gaming division of the Dutch multimedia corporation Lost Boys their history includes some rather bizarre releases such as the lost ride for Philips CDI and FMV rollercoaster game and Tiny Toon Adventures Dizzy's candy quest for the Game Boy Color The Lost ride is especially fascinating though firstly there's the developer name itself it was made by formula game development which was a separate division of Lost Boys games generally focused on portable titles except in this case where they made a game for CDI it uses the same logo except it's green the lost ride itself then is a full motion video game centred on a crazy roller coaster with a mounted gun on the top the twist it's randomly generated yes basically the can select from many different FMV sequences to construct its world when you begin the game at various junctions you can change your direction and more impressively the video is warped in a way to allow you to move the camera slightly left or right using the controller you basically fight enemies while navigating the maze it's not a great game mind you but it's weirdly ambitious for the CDI and is a very very late release for the system now when the company was sold off and renamed guerilla games in 2003 though their focus shifted towards more violent gritty experiences such as Killzone with lots of pre-release hype behind it the original Killzone eventually released in 2004 to average reviews but for those that played it there was this spark that suggested the potential for something greater the atmosphere was thick and the visuals rather ambitious for the platformer animation on weaponry was remarkably robust and the game even featured multiple playable characters and online multiplayer unfortunately Killzone is ultimately let down by a remarkably choppy framerate and often poor mission design shellshock NAMM 67 did not exhibit these performance problems but it was far less inspired and ultimately forgotten a small footnote in the history of the company I suppose but for many the Killzone aim in guerrilla games itself only really took center stage at e3 2005 with the review of PlayStation 3 this now infamous trailer showcases a level of detail and fidelity unlike anything we could imagine at the time and for good reason the trailer was completely pre-rendered and according to gorilla was never intended to represent the final game they barely had a single triangle displaying on ps3 dev kits at the time but thanks to a comment made by a Sony exec at the show people were led to believe it was real as a result as trailer potentially made development of the game even more stressful for the team with public expectations centered around a piece of media that simply did not represent what could be achieved and thus Killzone 2 and guerrilla games went underground to work on the game then two years later after this infamous debut the team returned to centre stage [Music] it was III 2007 and kills her to received its first proper reveal with a new look at the game running on actual PlayStation 3 hardware no it did not match that original pre-rendered trailer but the team got a lot closer than anyone could have imagined in terms of pulling off the look and feel in fact from an artistic point of view I'd say the team exceeded expectations Killzone 2 looks tremendously impressive but even after its long absence from the spotlight and wouldn't release until nearly two years later in early 2009 and only then did we finally have the opportunity to experience the game and yes gorilla delivered something very special [Music] the date is February 27th 2009 and after years of anticipation Killzone 2 is unleashed the result a technical showpiece for the PlayStation 3 platforms sporting large environments with a focus on post-processing dynamic lighting alpha effects and animation it was phenomenal these days describing something as dark or gritty is typically met with a raised eyebrow but Killzone 2 really pulls it off there is this overwhelming sense of dread throughout the game thick billowing clouds fill the skies flashes of lightning briefly illuminate the surrounding city streets power lines violently whip overhead and particles float effortlessly through the ash filled air as you take control a carefully designed camera Bob simulates movement through the environment while strategically applied depth of field is used to accentuate the weapon model every motion of your hands is perfectly realized and precisely executed every reload is perfection it looks remarkable in motion even today the presentation is complex and there are a lot of elements here used to create the world of Killzone - lighting animation and effects work all work in tandem to create something truly striking one of the key design goals when creating Killzone 2 then was to deliver realistic and distinctive lighting enabling a huge number of dynamic lights per scene to achieve this the team developed an engine designed to utilize the PlayStation 3 Hardware effectively this means leveraging the SPU's to aid the underpowered RSX whenever possible while keeping memory requirements reasonable the SPU's are used for things such as particles skinning triangle calling image based light generation and more when Killzone 2 shipped deferred rendering and games was still relatively new and this game highlighted some of the benefits by utilizing a separate buffer known as the G buffer to store information pertaining to different passes such as depths normals albedo and the like some new possibilities for rendering are opened the primary advantage centers on decoupling scene geometry and lighting lights are slowed when using pure forward rendering as each light requires an extra pass thus more processing time the deferred approach used here allows the artists to peck each area with lots of dynamic lights without a huge performance cost as a result these lights are everywhere every single enemy and friendly includes individual point lights affixed to their combat attire while explosions and gunfire produce huge bursts of light all around the battlefield lights can be included all over and it greatly contributes to the unique look and feel of Killzone 2 of course deferred rendering does not play nicely with transparency so for things like smoke particles and fire a second forward past is used after the lighting pass again it's a very forward-looking approach and what I love about the dynamic lights and kills into is that many of them can cast shadows no matter where you are in the world the muzzle flash from your weapon will always cast shadows from both dynamic and static geometry same is true for the flashlights available on the shotgun muzzle flash shadows are still relatively uncommon in modern games today and would mostly disappear in Killzone 3 so it's nice to see this in a 2009 release the world however relies on a mixed solution for lighting with static scene geometry utilizing pre computed light Maps this tried-and-true method of world lighting works especially well here the time of day is never dynamic so artists were able to generate very dramatic scenes the approach to baked lighting also takes care of ambient occlusion on static objects this is a game that lacks real-time screen space AO which was only just starting to appear in console games in 2009 but it doesn't feel flat in the same way as games such as insomniacs resistance 2 which makes for an interesting comparison as resistance to is another Sony published shooter that arrived to market just prior to Killzone 2 and there's this huge contrast between the visuals in both games resistance to while impressively large and scale still utilizes very flat lighting and somewhat weightless animation it just doesn't feel that fluid to play the third game would hugely approve upon these elements mind you but Killzone two's approach to lighting animation and post effects was a huge leap from games like resistance 2 at the time in all of this action is viewed through a very dynamic first-person point of view every gun shot is punctuated with a burst of light as the barrel snaps back and shell casings fly off to the side every weapon has a remarkably detailed reloading animation and the level of detail visible across each weapon remains impressive to this day actions such as climbing ladders receive detailed first-person animation while one section even has you commanding a mech across the battlefield complete with a detailed cockpit that sways and moves realistically as you stomp around the battlefield Killzone 2 introduces aiming-down-sights to the series as well something that had only just started to become popular following games such as call of duty 4 and the original Crysis it's worth noting that aiming-down-sights did not even appear in the original 2005 pre-rendered CGI trailer they simply zoom the camera in a bit while retaining the same viewpoint on the weapon the animation used for scoping in and out and kills them to looks phenomenal and the application of depth of field around the weapon further enhances us the weapon model is also designed to situate itself properly based on proximity to certain surfaces when using the bespoke cover system for instance your character adjusts his rifle based on position in the scene there are other camera effects used to enhance the overall presentation as well lens flares are used in conjunction with bright sources of light while dirt and debris collect on the camera Killzone 2 does seem to lack full body awareness mind you which would be added in Killzone 3 but it still conveys the sensation of being anchored to the world and at the very least your character can still cast shadows across the environment speaking of characters the rest of the cast appear rather detailed for a 2009 first-person shooter though they don't hold up quite as well as the weapon models from a 20-19 perspective the main issue lies in the texture work and shading which are both somewhat behind the times but it still works well within the artistic design of this game the smooth animation of friendly and enemy characters adds tremendously to the presentation per object motion blur is used on everything to enhance fluidity the shutter speed is rather low but it remains mostly artifact free again while per pixel motion blur had been around for a while most implementations during this era still exhibited plenty of artifacts kills are enthused post-processing pipeline is much cleaner overall in terms of the end result really though what makes Killzone 2 looks so great in motion goes beyond individual animations and effects it's the sheer volume of interactive objects in the world and the way they work in conjunction with the combat as they say the Devils in the details [Music] if there was ever a game worthy of an animated gif its Killzone - there's a lot of fine detail packed in this game so how about a few examples these little canisters when hit can fly around the room until they explode for instance or these storage containers full of tanks which can be blown apart causing tanks to spill out onto the scene ready for explosion or the way in which objects blow around the scene during the fast moving train section how about these filing cabinets or this table [Music] or what about the Selective destruction we're a layer of geometry is applied to certain objects that can be blown apart during combat it's limited but adds a lot to the experience there's also these nice Sparks and other effects which bounce realistically off surfaces same goes for debris which is generated from shooting at stone dirt and other materials or how about the superb blood particles used to accentuate every hit with a bullet there's just so many little things like this throughout the environment that react to the surrounding combat and it really comes together to create a very cohesive experience this is further enhanced by the enemy behavior and animation inverse kinematics are present for one thing allowing proper foot placement on sloped surfaces enemies react realistically to they can flee for cover and generally behave in interesting ways compared to Call of Duty where foes would function as pop-up targets most of the time the Helghast are active and move around during combat you can also of course shoot off enemy helmets and the way they react to heavy gunfire is just excellent there's a real sense of weight to the enemies lacking and many other shooters from this era there's plenty of other cool visual effects included throughout the game as well the scanline filter applied to various screens throughout the game is gorgeous revealing individual RGB elements in each display there's the reflective mirror at the very start of the game or these fake light chests this was made prior to things like screen-space crepuscular rays or true volumetric lighting which would have been too demanding at this point I believe though Naughty Dog did come up with a neat solution for uncharted 3 here instead they used simple 2d textures positioned in such a way to give the impression of light streaming through windows texture wise Killzone 2 may use relatively low resolution textures throughout the game when looking closely but it does include parallax occlusion maps in many areas throughout the game such as this the handling of water is also rather interesting with certain elements of the reflection seemingly being handled with an image space notice how this disappears when the reflecting object is occluded from view [Music] moreover Killzone 2 runs at a full 720p with 2x msaa sure it's the quincunx variety of course but in this case the slight blur is actually beneficial helps produce a smoother more filmic overall image and speaking of filmic film grain is heavily used throughout the whole game is just a poster child for what can be achieved using cinematic post effects the compositing of the overall scene is really just amazing for its day honestly I could go on and on about aspects of the rendering pipeline it's just such a rich looking experience but I think you get the picture by now it's a huge accomplishment in terms of bringing deferred rendering to the forefront and its use of cinematics special effects in compositing and in its overall art direction there's just nothing else quite like it however even with visuals this impressive that original 2005 trailer always sat in the back of people's minds so we have to do a quick comparison now it's not easy to draw a comparison here due to the wide variation between them obviously the pre-render features much higher geometry crazy particle density and more all the things that you could do with an offline render now the real game could never match this and gorillas never claimed that it could but it's cleared this trailer weighed heavily on the team and a lot of work was poured into producing something that still felt comparable since it shares none of the technology the big change you'll notice from the visuals is the shift in art direction the overall trailer more closely resembles the brighter tones of Killzone 1 in some sections such as this area beneath the bridge wind up looking rather awkward even the darker tone and introduction of bright point lights in the final game is a real improvement I feel in terms of art direction I also prefer the general design of the weaponry and animation the CGI even has weird rendering glitches in it and this frame characters appear behind the transport in the next frame they're sitting on it it's very strange for a pre-rendered cinematic really beyond that there just isn't much reason to compare the two since they really share no technology but it is interesting to see how guerilla approached their real-time render in comparison then there's the 2007 trailer this is the point where the game really compared to the final game I feel that the overall presentation has improved the lighting appears flatter and the game is hugely desaturated while things like textures are often of lower resolution that said certain sections such as the smoke trail here do look somewhat more appealing in the demo but clearly the game has improved overall from this original demo up through launch that's not to say everything is quite perfect though as impressive as the game looks the framerate is not always on point basically kills into targets 30 frames per second and often reaches it but heavy combat sequences such as this bridge see dips into the upper 20s there's also an occasional 16 millisecond spike along the frame time graph but at the same time we got to keep in mind that this is the PlayStation 3 and many other shooters from this generation save for something like Call of Duty struggled to hit and maintain 30 frames per second the reality is last generation games were typically worse on average at holding a stable framerate when compared to modern consoles like ps4 and Xbox one I know that seems a little crazy but it's true so with that in mind performance isn't half bad thankfully Killzone 3 is an improvement in this area so for all the visual talk then how does Killzone 2 hold up well revisiting the game is an interesting experience this was a title developed during the height of the Call of Duty craze where campaigns were often very linear and highly scripted sections Killzone 2 somehow falls right between something like Call of Duty 4 and say halo it's not nearly as scripted as Call of Duty and you have a lot more agency to move around the battlefield during combat but it lacks the wide-open feeling of halo that main halo comparison comes from the fact the enemies are extremely agile and you can often get up right in their face to attack them Call of Duty is all about pop up targets at a distance halo is about close quarters combat and Killzone 2 strikes an interesting balance between the two it's nowhere near as refined as halo but it plays pretty well provided you can get over one of its major flaws the input leg there is a ton of input latency in this game perhaps resulting from the deferred rendering setup here which can often incur a significant penalty in that area either way it doesn't feel responsive to play and despite the description of the controls being heavy it can be somewhat of a chore at times this was addressed fully in Killzone 3 which is very responsive all around but alas Killzone 2 is still somewhat sluggish to play speaking of Killzone 3 while this goes outside the scope of this episode I did spend some time playing it for comparison's sake and it's rather interesting to see the types of changes made between the two there's a real shift in focus from the heavily post-processed super dark look of Killzone 2 to something a little brighter there's more color in the image the MSAA has been replaced with MLA a which results in more aliasing and shimmering things like muzzle flash shadows are mostly missing here and more a lot of the smaller details featured in Killzone 2 have been eliminated in pursuit of a larger game world and more complex mission design it's an absolutely gorgeous game in its own right and the team made a lot of positive steps in the right direction including massively reducing input latency but it's lacking that certain spark that makes Killzone 2 feel so unique it's just not quite the same and it's kind of a shame that kills in two exists solely on PlayStation 3 early on this generation many ps3 games received ports to newer machines a 60 frames per second collection featuring Killzone 2 and 3 for the ps4 would have been an amazing remaster to receive for now though Killzone 2 lives only on PlayStation 3 and there it will likely remain it's not a perfect game and its initial reveal was somewhat misused by Sony deceiving fans worldwide but guerrilla games managed to triumph over this and deliver one of the most unique shooters of the generation I didn't even have a chance to touch on the game's unique multiplayer modes the servers for which have long been shut down Killzone 2 is a great package in a game well worth revisiting all these years later it still looks amazing but that's all for me for now I hope you enjoyed this slightly more modern but still rather retro look at Killzone 2 sure it's a little different from the usual episodes but let me know if you did enjoy it and if so be sure to LIKE subscribe ring the notification bill and follow me over on Twitter and until next time stay retro [Music]

Channel: Digital Foundry

Views: 517,469

Keywords: Sony, Guerrilla, Guerrilla Games, Killzone 2, Killzone, Killzone 3, retro gaming, retro, frame-rate, framerate, frame rate, performance, input lag, deferred shading, deferred lighting, E3 2005, E3 2007, Killzone 2 trailer vs gameplay, digital foundry, graphics comparison, head to head

Id: MC-hiXr69kY

Length: 26min 5sec (1565 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019