Guerrilla: Story telling in FPS games is something devs can't "neglect"

Guerrilla Games' Hermen Hulst has said that the firm is working on making the story wider for Killzone 3, by making it less "constrained" than Killzone 2.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Hulst said that story telling in FPS is becoming something that developers can no longer afford to ignore.

"We get a lot of mail, a lot of ideas from the community, within story, dialogue, and characters and all these elements obviously are tied into each other," he said. "I think it’s very important, in particular after releases like Uncharted 2 that really raised the bar on storytelling. It’s become an area that you just can’t neglect, you really have to pay attention to it.

"We’re actually trying to go a lot wider. On Killzone 2, I think a lot of it was constrained, setting-wise, since it was based in the urban areas, the first half of the game. This game we’re actually setting ourselves up so we can actually explore the Helghast culture a lot more. We have a very rich backdrop in the universe that we created and the story’s very rich; there’s a lot of stuff in there. And we feel that we haven’t really fully explored all of that.

"So in this game, we’re mostly visiting various areas of the planet. We’re also giving you a flavor of the Helghast culture by replacing the one nemesis with two guys that are actually competing for power, because of that almost like civil war that’s happening in the background. You get to experience a lot more of what those guys are like. So actually we’re trying to make it richer rather than narrower".

Hulst goes on to say that this time around, the tables have turned on the player, and in Killzone 3, gamers will find they are outgunned - giving it an "Inglorious Basterds" kind of feel.

"Every game needs to be a great experience in its own right," he said. "You try to set it up with a great introduction to the game in the opening, in order to establish the mood. And the mood for this game really is that the tables have turned.

"In Killzone 2, you were part of this invasion fleet and you felt overpowered, you were sent in there, you were gonna take him out in about a month.

"This time around, you’re outgunned, it’s much more like Inglorious Basterds almost. A couple guys that need to scavenge for weaponry of the enemy. It has a different feel to it".

You can watch Hulst for yourself in a video posted yesterday showing off the jetpack trooper.

Killzone 3 releases next year for PS3, and is rumored for May.