killzone

The Killzone series of six video games were released from 2004 to 2013 on Sony's Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, and Playstation 4. The series was the breakout hit for its developer, Guerilla Games Studio.

In contrast to its primary competition in the form of Halo and Mass Effect, Killzone was noted for having a far more grounded take on future warfare. The entirety of the story is confined to a single star system rather than spanning the whole galaxy, energy weapons are almost (but not entirely) non-existant, and both major factions - the protagonist Interplanetary Strategic Alliance and the antagonist Helghast - are human. The Helghast's glowing orange goggles, initially a gameplay conceit for visibility on the PS1's limited hardware, gave them a signature recognizable even to those unfamiliar with the Killzone series, as well.

In 2015, Guerilla Games previewed a new game unrelated to previous projects, called Horizon: Zero Dawn, that would wind up being one of the best-selling games on the Playstation 4. The wild success of the Horizon series dealt the effective end to Killzone.