It’s been almost eleven years since the last Killzone game was released, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon. Art Director Roy Postma, a Guerrilla veteran who has worked at the Dutch studio since its foundation, told The Washington Post in no uncertain terms that the developer believes Horizon’s themes are much more interesting for a bigger audience.
We were done with it as a team. As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of ‘Killzone.’ I think the themes that this story and the characters represent are relatable for all ages and people, like having a found family of friends and finding your place in the world.
While there is truth to the assessment, and Horizon has certainly brought much greater success to Guerrilla, Killzone earned its own share of fans, too, over the four mainline installments and two spin-offs developed for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita. Its unique ‘sci-fi Nazi’ setting could have warranted a much greater narrative development than what we’ve actually seen in the games.
Sony has been very active in remastering its previous games, and it would be interesting to see how many players would get a Killzone: Shadow Fall remaster for PlayStation 5 and PC. The game certainly still looks good to this day and would shine even brighter on the new hardware.
Meanwhile, though, Guerrilla is wholly focused on Horizon. They are about to launch LEGO Horizon Adventures, a spin-off action/adventure game targeted at a younger audience. This title, co-developed with Studio Gobo, will be launched right away on PC and Nintendo Switch in addition to PlayStation 5, and there’s also cooperative multiplayer for the first time in the franchise (while Guerrilla’s bulk is working on the full-fledged Horizon multiplayer game).
Next week, Nixxes will also release the controversial Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
