Guerilla Games Eric Boltjes Talks Up Killzone 2 Multiplayer Stats

August 12, 2008

The only thing better than killing Helghast aliens, is killing them with your friends online. I sat down with Eric Boltjes, senior multiplayer gameplay designer at Guerilla Games, to talk about the 32-man thrillkilling the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive will bring when Killzone 2 hits early next year. Hit the jump to check out what Boltjes had to say about new online maps, a new badge mechanic and a ranking system that will prevent noobs from getting slaughtered online when Killzone 2 opens up planet Helghan for business.

Das Gamer: How much customization will you include for online gamers?
Eric Boltjes: What we really tried to do is make it customizable for the player, so we gave the player as many options as possible. He can make his own custom experience. So when he creates games, he gets to decide which maps he wants to play and which missions he wants to play. But it goes really deep, so you can even decide different things like how fast can you revive somebody and how many flags do I have to capture. Players have a lot of options to create their own custom games, basically.

Can you talk about the online maps?
Eric Boltjes: We have eight different maps of completely different themes. We have indoor maps. We have outdoor maps. But all of the maps are skilled, so some maps are for up to 12 players and some maps are for 24. Other maps are for 32 players, so there’s a lot of variation in different environments and the different levels we have for multiplayer.

Will vehicles play any role in the online game?
Eric Boltjes: There are no vehicles in online multiplayer; however, there are vehicles in single player. We’re also planning downloadable content down the line so vehicles could become part of that.

What type of ranking system does Killzone 2 employ?
Eric Boltjes: We’ve got something very interesting that we’ve called a “badge system.” Basically, badges are character classes, and they’re specifically tailored towards a type of play style. So for instance, if your style is more towards a sniper play style, we have badges for that, the same goes for gamers who are more into team play. What makes Killzone online multiplayer so unique is that we allow the player to combine two badges together to create his own custom play style.

How does that work?
Eric Boltjes: Each of these badges basically has two special abilities tailored towards that play style. When you take two badges together–for instance an engineer and a medic–you basically get one of each of the two abilities, and when put together you get to define your own play style. So you can really play the way you like it. That’s quite a unique feature for multiplayer online.

Did you take a look at some of the online gaming experiences that have come around lately like Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War when designing your game?
Eric Boltjes: We look at a lot of other games–and of course we respect our competition as well–but what we really try to do is just make Killzone stand on its own. We also listen to what the feedback was on Killzone 1–what the fans wanted and basically what we wanted. We combined that into quite the unique experience.

What’s something the Killzone community was really clamoring for?
Eric Boltjes: We have stuff like clans, for example, in-game. That was a feature that the community really requested after Killzone 1, and it’s something that not a lot of other games do in-game.

What has PlayStation 3 opened up to you in terms of online gameplay?
Eric Boltjes: PS3 allowed us to do everything that we couldn’t do in Killzone 1, because we had high ambition. The PS3, with all of its memory capacity and the hard drive, just allowed us to take the steps that we wanted to take originally, and even build along further than that. We have bigger environments, higher player numbers, more features in-game, and graphically, we went all the way, as well. We wanted to make sure that multiplayer looked just as good as single-player, graphic-wise, so the PS3 allows for all of that.

Have you been developing the online multiplayer separately from the campaign game?
Eric Boltjes: Well, we see them as being equal and important parts of the development cycle. We do have - not separate teams - there’s a lot of crossover between the different departments. But we did really make sure that online got at least as much attention as single player did. For us, it is just as important a feature of the game as single player is.

How do you handle online gameplay that’s balanced between seasoned veterans and newbies to the space?
Eric Boltjes: What we tried to do is make sure that every player, whether newbie or hardcore, has an easy way into the game. And then we have this whole progression system, where you are unlocking features as you play. So we really made sure that the more advanced features are slowly introduced to them as you play, while still trying to maintain what advanced users want - the really in-depth features.

How do the in-depth features work?
Eric Boltjes: Basically, Killzone online multiplayer has 12 different ranks, each unlocking new features. There are also 46 different ribbons and medals that you get for performing special features, like shooting somebody in the head five times, reviving a team member 10 times, etc. You get medals and ribbons for that and that unlocks new features, as well. What this does is the player, as he plays and progresses, learns more about the game and unlocks everything. It keeps him interested while slowly introducing him to the game.

What’s the online experience from the get-go?
Eric Boltjes: When you try to join the game in Killzone online, you have two options: Quick Join and Advanced Join. Quick Join basically makes sure that it checks your profile; it checks your rank, and we make sure you get thrown into a game with only people of similar rank. We make absolutely sure that if you’re a newbie, you don’t get thrown into a game with generals and get your ass kicked all the time. But we also have Advanced Join, which gives the player a lot of options to find the game that he wants to play. There may be a specific map that he wants to play, or a specific mission mode, anything like that. He has the option to filter that out. You can either go for the safe route, or try to find a game you want to specifically want to play yourself.

–John Gaudiosi