The Rise and Fall of Killzone

The summer of 2003 abounded with talk of Ford’s supposed “Ferrari Killer,” the 2004 GT40. A faster, quicker-to-brake counterpart to the Ferrari 360 Modena, the Ford’s high-performance race car certainly dressed to impress. But a Ford was still a Ford matched against Ferrari. At the same time, another killer of a premiere brand lurked in the shadows, awaiting its chance to pounce on the competition. Sony’s Killzone played terminator in this scenario, its prey the game-changing Halo: Combat Evolved from Bungie and Microsoft.

Months of rumors about the so-called Halo killer generated enough hype to reach a fever pitch before Sony even formally unveiled its new first-person shooter. Premature reports described the game as the perfect cross between Halo and SOCOM; claims of advanced technology, spectacular graphics, and destructible environments heightened the anticipation tenfold. More importantly, PlayStation faithful were thrilled with the prospect of its purported online multiplayer capabilities.

Killzone’s official announcement amplified the anticipation, yet its eventual deployment fell short of the unrealistic expectations. This would ostensibly become the status quo for Killzone going forward—marketing cycles that promised generation-defining experiences but arguably amounted to shooters of the slightly above average variety. In this way, Sony’s flagship FPS series never competed with that of Microsoft’s in a traditional sense. It carved out its own niche, with six adventures launching across a nine-year period. But in the end, Killzone was still Killzone matched against Halo. And it hardly helped that the former battled false advertising claims on more than one occasion.

This is the rise and fall of Killzone.

0:00 Intro
2:16 Killzone
13:12 Killzone Liberation
18:24 Killzone 2
28:34 Killzone 3
35:25 Killzone Mercenary
39:40 Killzone Shadow Fall
45:32 Outro

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[GVMERS]

Thanks for watching our documentary! What was your favorite Killzone entry and what are your hopes for a new one? :)

[PoyoPancakes]

Killzone 2 will always have a spot in my little gaming heart. It was so raw and visceral. And the multiplayer was so much fun.

[phyla.]

Killzone 2 had multiplayer features which were pretty innovative at the time. When playing a map, the game mode shifted dynamically, while the game also offered a clan system, server browser, squads and voice chat. Good memories.

[arthurbulhoes]

With the way things are at this point, it's more likely Halo will kill itself instead of a rival franchise doing so

[Pewpewpew]

Damn this one certainly hurts. The villains of this franchise were intimidating. Loved the games. :’)

[chaz__]

Still can’t believe KZ2 came out in 2009. What a stunning game that is, even by today’s standards.

[mjd]

I miss this series so much maybe wasn't the " Halo Killer" that Sony wanted but was a very solid and fun game

[GlazeonthewickeR]

Absolutely crazy how good Killzone 2 still looks and moves.

[velzekt]

How the hell are GVMERS' documentaries not legendarily known yet for how amazingly well put together they are?

[conorcahill]

Killzone was one of those silent assassins. It was glorious, but without the attention. But perhaps it didn't need it. It made its own mark on the video game industry. It introduced us to the next level of gameplay in the future. Killzone 2 was a BEAST of a game.

Hopefully, Sony and Guerilla Games will make another one in the future. I don't think it's dead yet.

[ShiftJay]

I don't care what people say about the Killzone franchise. It always has a special place in my heart. I remember playing the multiplayer of the first one as a kid with bots so much I memorised where all the weapons and ammo were located on each of the maps lol. And of course Killzone 2 (and 3 somewhat) multiplayer was legendary. That high-pitched sound every time you killed someone was just 👌.

[SourRobo]

My biggest problem was having the Helghast on the cover but not actually playing them in the game. I thought they looked way cooler than the actual characters you played as.

[jutce]

I played Killzone 1 so many times I can still recite Scolar Visari‘s opening speech by heart.
I loved Killzone as a franchise! I played every mainline game. Shadowfall was good, but it fell short. It’s the only franchise that you play as the (in lore) bad guys. The Helghast were so cool!

[madmyc]

All of the killzone games had their high points. Kz2, kz3 and shadow fall were simply amazing games in my view. I wish we got more of these games

[emaheiwa]

Being in the Army, I really liked the dialogues between the characters in KZ 2 and 3. The way they spoke felt so real.. 👌

[trevorbowen]

This is still one of my favorite game series. If I had the money, I'd love to buy the franchise and start a team to remake the old games for modern consoles

[Nick]

Fantastic work guys! Adding this to the watch list to finish this evening. Gonna have to replay all of these sometime in the near future :)

[KZfps]

Killzone is underrated. As the comments show, the 2nd game is beloved and a lot of the popular modes in multiplayer games have their foundational roots in the Killzone series

[warfighter]

KillZone always sparked my interest due to just how cool it’s villains looked. Thank you for covering this!

Sidenote, wicked intro!

[AshPrimeDCFC]

Loved these games. The enemies, the setting and story. A real sluggish and gritty shooter. I hope we get another entry at some point, but since we're coming up to a decade since the last release, it's not going to happen.