KZ2 Vs. KZ3: Controls

One of the most characteristic qualities of Killzone 2 was its control scheme, which underscored the weighty feel of the game's first-person animations. It was also Killzone 2's most divisive quality: some players loved the sense of realism it provided, while others believed it impacted the responsiveness too much.

For Killzone 3, Guerrilla's developers are aiming to keep the unique sense of weight in the game while ramping up the accuracy and responsiveness of the controls. We talked to Game Director Mathijs de Jonge to get a better idea of the considerations involved with the redesign.

"Our first priority when we started working on the controls for Killzone 3 was to listen closely to Killzone 2's players - what they liked, what they disliked, and how they felt things could be improved," Mathijs says. "Accuracy and responsiveness consistently came up as the top issues. At the same time, a lot of players were saying they loved the weighty feel."

That might sound contradictory, but one doesn't have to preclude the other. "For the most part, the unique sense of weight in Killzone 2 comes directly from the first-person animations, not from the control scheme," Mathijs explains. "The speed of movement and the way the camera bobs up and down are consistent with the view of a person carrying around heavy equipment."

When the team went back to the drawing board, they began by exhaustively analyzing every aspect of the underlying system, taking into consideration factors like input lag, acceleration and dead zone [the amount of movement on the analog stick required to produce a reaction in the game –Ed.] and how each affected the overall gameplay. Their findings were used to make improvements to the accuracy and responsiveness of the controls.

The results so far have been very encouraging. "Right now it's still a work in progress," Mathijs says, "but we're definitely getting there. We’ve recalibrated the dead zone to be more responsive and significantly reduced the input lag, resulting in far better accuracy. Best of all, we've managed to retain that sense of weight that set Killzone 2 apart from other shooters. I can't wait for people to try it out."

Can't wait to get your hands on the controls of Killzone 3 either? Let us know in the comments below!