Killzone: Mercenary dev talks PS Vita optimisation, AI tech

Killzone: Mercenary isn't developed by Guerilla Games - it's Guerilla Cambridge to be precise - but that hasn't stopped it from being a technical powerhouse on Sony's PS Vita hardware. It's no secret that the game closely apes the visuals of Killzone 3, but the developer has now confirmed that it uses the same AI tech, as well as divulging fresh campaign information in a new interview.

Speaking with PS Blog EU, development lead Piers Jackson commented on Killzone: Mercenary's technical similarities to Killzone 3.

"In some regards we’ve tried not to shrink it at all", he explained, "we’ve tried to get a full Killzone experience running on PS Vita. The system is incredibly powerful – we’ve got graphics that are comparable to Killzone 3 running on a handheld.

"It’s optimised in a lot of locations but the core AI system is based precisely on Killzone 3. We’ve had to replace a few of the audio and rendering systems but the back-end leading into them is pure Killzone engine architecture. We’ve also got certain things in the renderer that are unique to our system – we’ve added reflection mapping on the floor and particle systems can actually be lit as well.

"There may be a few areas we’ve had to tone back a bit, but we’re pretty convinced that we’ve come up with something that touches most of the technical features from the main Killzone engine."

How similar are Killzone: Mercenary and Killzone 3? Well VG247's own Pat Garrat had a chance to play the game last month. Here's everything he had to say about it, as well as the debut trailer.