Sony’s PlayStation 4 event was more about games than it was about hardware, and luckily, we got to see some new entries in a few of our favourite franchises this evening.
The first title we got a glimpse of was Killzone: Shadow Fall, under development at Guerrilla Games. The Hellghast have returned to fight again in the next iteration of the franchise, which appears to diverge from the original trilogy’s storyline.
Managing director at Guerrilla Games said that the game actually makes references to the Cold War in the way that it plays out, as one side fights for their right to exist, while the other fights for survival. The game takes a much more emotional turn as it seems like the story is based around the much more human-oriented fight for a home and the lengths people will go to survive.
Of course, this wasn’t just a logo flashed on-screen at Sony’s event; we got to see real-time footage of the game. It started with an overview of a stunning metropolis that was very reminiscent of Halo 2‘s nine-minute gameplay demo at E3 2004. Just from that, we knew the city was about to be attacked. We were right, as not more than a minute and a half into the demo, a massive explosion erupts from the base of a tower you’re standing next to, and all hell breaks loose.
We saw some moments of duck-and-cover gameplay, some shooting, and then a very intense and high-flying journey through the skies above as your character grabs a rope hanging from an aerial vehicle overrun by baddies. You plant a C4 charge on the ship in mid-air, jump away, and detonate.
All we can say is take a look for yourselves, because this looks like one wild ride. Oh look, we’ve embedded the video for you:
The second title we saw, inFAMOUS: Second Son, is under development at Sucker Punch, the studio who created the series in 2009. Sucker Punch is a studio that always delivers top notch games. All their GameRankings scores are within the 80 percent range (we’re count 79.89% as “within the 80 percent range”), and there’s good reason for it.
Their latest title, inFAMOUS: Second Son doesn’t look to stray too far from the studio’s desire to produce quality titles, as Second Son embarks on a journey that looks to bring in more than just one super-powered protagonist. The game, a PlayStation 4 exclusive (duh), isn’t a true sequel to inFAMOUS 2, but it is a full-fledged game by all accounts that we’ve seen and heard.
Sucker Punch Productions’ Nate Fox took the stage at the event to show off a trailer for the game after launching into a small monologue about how the government is watching you. It had a bit of a Watch_Dogs spin to it, but that game showed up later in the evening anyways, so we’re not sure it matters much.
Fox set the scene as he asked how you would stop a group of people if they had superpowers in a world where the government was trying to monitor and suppress them. The trailer then shows off some very basic scenes, though they didn’t seem to be in-engine or real-time. However, given that we were watching brand new hardware via a not-so-perfect live stream on the web, we’re not entirely sure we can call that one or not.
Neither Sony nor Sucker Punch have come out and said whether Second Son will be a launch title for the PlayStation 4 or whether it will be available as a digital download alongside a physical release. We expect we’ll hear plenty more when E3 rolls around in a few short months. Until then, take a look at the trailer for the game below.