This thread is a little self indulgent, but I wanted to make it to express how impressed I am with the work Guerrilla Cambridge is putting into Killzone: Mercenary. Since I write, I got access to the preview level code that lead to the recent hands-on previews, and I've since poured a stupid amount of time into it just to oogle at the graphics and learn more about how it plays. What makes me more impressed is that I'm really not overly fond of the Killzone franchise, outright disliking it at times, so to enjoy Mercenary so much is really something.So, I thought I'd compose a list of the things I'm impressed with, and what jumps out at me as cooler than the usual Killzone stuff. Most/all might not be new to people here, but given the Vita's...limited market penetration, I figured Killzone fans who've missed out on the latest media blitz might be interested in knowing which direction the franchise is going in the portable world, contrast to the PlayStation 4's Shadow Fall.And so, without further adieu...Though it's not always applicable, Mercenary divides its encounters into zones, and for most of these encounters you will arrive without any alerts tripped. Zones might be a series of rooms, or an open area. Each area is populated with patrolling Helghast of various rank, and security cameras scanning a limited field of vision as indicated by a blue cone. You can track the location of all Helghast on your radar.What's cool is that generally Helghast are defaulted to a non-alert state when you enter an encounter zone. This makes a playstyle of stealth actually viable. If units see another soldier die, hear a weapon, or see you directly, you run the risk of them entering alert status and putting the entire area on standby for combat. In this case, you gotta to play Mercenary like a traditional Killzone shooter. However, if you watch patrol paths, use silent weaponry and melee, avoid or take out security cameras, and time your movements through a level, you can make your way through many encounter zones without engaging in any head-to-head combat at all.Even those zones/levels are quite small (portable hardware, and all), I've discovered that there are multiple paths through stages, optional rooms to visit, and vantage points to discover. For example, after clearing one of the first areas in the preview level, you can choose two different paths to take on your way to the next area; the upper floor of an arc tower, or the lower floor and barracks. It's simple, but also means you'll have two different encounter variations depending on which you choose.What impressed me more however was how the level opened. The moment you arrive at the base the main door is locked down, so your first simple objective is to find the control switch. It's on the floor above you and guarded by a single troop, easy to take out quickly and quietly. I would assume this is what most players would do, as that's the way the game leads you. And unless you use loud weaponry, you can take him out silently and open the door without alerting the troops on the other side.But you can take another path and ignore the door entirely. Walking to the back side of where you arrive via sky elevator there's a pipe to climb just off a on a ledge.The pipe takes you to the roof of the base, avoiding the switch, and giving you a high vantage point to snipe the next area from.You can zipline down to take the sniper out on the left, or even jump across crane platforms to take out a sniper on the right.In both cases you land on the roof and out of the sniper's view, allowing you stealthily take one or two out via melee. And in conjunction with point one, this vantage point is useful for both play styles. As stealth, it's far easier to take out the snipers and troops, either with a silence weapon or making your way to each sniper base and taking them down with melee. For balls to the wall combat, you've got yourself high ground and cover to mow down bad dudes.It's a gimmick, but levels have hidden intel to collect (in the preview level it's six) to expand the lore, and reward you income. Some of this intel is hidden behind a simple touch-based minigame terminal. Find the terminal, complete the game, you've got intel.Other intel however is hidden behind high ranking soldiers, and the only way to get it out of them is to interrogate. It's a simple touch QTE, but in order do complete it safely you'll need to isolate areas of grunts and sneak up on the high ranking intel general and grapple him undetected. The radar shows who is higher rank.This is far from unknown, but cool none the less. First time every level will operate as standard. But on replay you'll be able to pick one of three alternate challenges, some requiring stealth, others action, and so on.Normally in a shooter you're forced to salvage weapons and stick with whatever a level offers. Not so in Mercenary. Like the merchant in Resident Evil 4, levels in Mercenary are littered with loadout crates connected to an arms dealer. Accessing these crates lets you buy and equip new weapons, items, armours, and so forth. Weapons are self explanatory, items act as backup equipment, and armours let you pick a balance between damage resistance, noise suppression, and speed. The result is that you can essentially play any level with whatever loadout and equipment you're most suited to as a player.Utilising the dark arts, Mercenary makes use of an awesome reflection shader for surfaces. Faked or not, it is at the very least somewhat real time, and looks incredible.Remember how in F.E.A.R. bullet holes in walls appeared to have depth based on the angle you looked at them? Mercenary has that too.Except they're not activated based on killstreaks, but instead a power cool down. These powers are like your back-up equipment. Sky Fury kicks you to an orbiting drone, letting you reign down explosives via the touch screen. Vulture Radar gives you X-Ray vision for troops. Manty gives you a stealth drone to fly around and stab people with. Ghost gives you a cloaking device. Karapace, an energy shield. Different equipment for different play styles.More or less everything you can do in the mainline series, you can do here.