[Vic Viper]

The game is squad-based and, although players only control one character, three more will provide covering fire. Each character boasts different abilities (one is handy with heavy weapons, for instance, while another specialises in stealth) and you'll be able to play through the game four times - each time with a separate character. Developers Guerrilla say that this will give the player different challenges and experiences.

There will be a total of 21 weapons in the game - each of which will also have a secondary fire function - including rocket-launchers, grenades, mini-guns and missile-launchers. In addition, there will be at least five fixed-position weapons.

The player's heath meter works in a way similar to that of Master Chief's shield in Halo: whenever damage isn't being taken, it gradually returns to full health.

The current version of the game already houses three playable levels set in slums, a shopping mall and a river bed. Apart from the occasional drop in frame-rate, it's looking very promising indeed. Visually, it offers some of the most detailed and aesthetically pleasing textures on PS2.

Killzone's structure is set around set pieces, of which there will be around two 'memorable moments' in each of the 26 levels. Set pieces unveiled so far include a gunship dispatching several abseiling enemy troops and another based around a collapsing bridge. The game will also support full online multiplayer games, although this has yet to be seen up and running.

The game, which is due to be released in autumn 2004, takes major 20th century theatres of war as its inspiration, from the trenches of the Somme to the street fighting of Stalingrad to the guerrilla warfare of Vietnam.

Set in the near future, in a period of planetary colonisation, it revolves around a savage conflict between forces that are still loyal to Earth (the ISA) and a separatist, militaristic faction who call themselves the Helghast. The game follows your squad of four soldiers on a suicidal mission behind enemy lines, as they fight to undermine and defeat the Helghast forces following their devastating Blitzkrieg attack on the human colony.

Adds Edge, "As the game takes place in the near future, you won't find any laser guns, aliens or warp holes. 'We wanted to come up with our own epic war,' says [commercial director at Guerrilla] Martin de Ronde. 'However, we drew inspiration from many 20th century conflicts because we wanted everything to be recognisable. To have weapons that fire green blobs may look nice as a special effect but it takes away from the gratifying aspects of war.