Killzone 2 chars, cover system

Guerrilla Games has revealed a few more details about Killzone 2 in light of the game's impressive unveiling at E3 last week.

Guerrilla, speaking to Newsweek's Level Up blog, revealed that what we saw was the third level of the campaign, as Vektan forces launched from cruisers orbiting Helghan descend to the planet's surface as part of an invasion. The player controls Sev, a veteran of the Legion (special forces), and fans of the first two Killzone games (on PS2 and PSP) will be interested to note that Rico Velsaquez returns for a major role, while Lugar and Evelyn also feature.

Control-wise, there was confirmation that the in-and-out shooting of our demo level was a specific cover system, similar in some senses to Gears of War's. When you approach a surface, you'll have the option of pressing L2 to lock up against it and then lean around using the left analogue stick to fire, while hitting R2 without accompanying analogue movement will blindfire.

Guerrilla also revealed that the key to the game's unique visual approach is an array of post-processing effects that calibrate the game's use of light, shadow and colour. We found it quite mesmerising, and Level Up's comparisons to Call of Duty 4's similar effect are well-founded.

For more on Killzone 2, read the preview we keep linking, or check out the Killzone 2 gamepage for E3 trailers and new screenshots.