The worst thing about Killzone 2 (aside from the fabled controls) was the characters. The awful, awful characters. With the sequel out in around a month, I've been wondering whether they've actually managed to produce an interesting cast this time. We know the controls are fixed (the beta was awesome), but I've been worrying about the re-appearance of Rico and company.
 
It's not much to go on, but this shortened story trailer appears to have rectified some problems. The characters seem a little more rounded and the voice acting is a big step forward. It's still far too early to say for certain, but I thought this was a really impressive trailer.
 
Can't wait for the game.
 

No

If it has Rico and he doesn't die, it'll be the worst game I've ever played.

I really hope this game has a good story and interesting characters. I quit playing the KZ2 campaign because the characters were just cookie cutter soldiers and the game gave me no reason to care for them or to care for what was going on. I also hated the fact that I felt like Sev was 4 feet tall.

" If it has Rico and he doesn't die, it'll be the worst game I've ever played. "

That's an epic trailer though. I am excite!

Killzone 3, is at the moment a kernel of shit from what Killzone 2 did storywise. 
What I would've loved would be that the game switched you to playing as several Helghast for years, maybe even generations leading up to the point we are now. 
As far as I'm concerned, I have way more sympathy for them and would love to see some Helghast  soldiers fleshed out as real people having to deal with these stupid assholes invading their planet by the time we catch up with the time line of Killzone 2. 
Of course, I learned that asking for any pathos and character development from Guerilla is moot when they were more excited about the loading screens for Killzone 2.

" Killzone 3, is at the moment a kernel of shit from what Killzone 2 did storywise. What I would've loved would be that the game switched you to playing as several Helghast for years, maybe even generations leading up to the point we are now. As far as I'm concerned, I have way more sympathy for them and would love to see some Helghast  soldiers fleshed out as real people having to deal with these stupid assholes invading their planet by the time we catch up with the time line of Killzone 2. Of course, I learned that asking for any pathos and character development from Guerilla is moot when they were more excited about the loading screens for Killzone 2. "

I just saw it as an even more savage French or Russian Revolution. 
The ISA brought this shit on themselves. 
Of course, flip the coin again and you can draw parallels to the Helghast being Nazi's by "kinda annexing" Vekta as if it was Poland. 
The Killzone universe had some great potential to tell a compelling story. Too bad it's been marred by haphazard and shoddy writing.

Brian Cox.

JUST KILL RICO! I hate that motherfucker, everything goes wrong because that guy is a fucking moron.  
Also, the helghast are the good guys.

The new Generals will never be as good as Visari and Rico is a total twat, but it does look alot better than Killzone 2, looking forward to it.

Looks cool! And the story seems really interesting.

If you mean "oh they're ripping off that dude with the scars from Avatar now, that's interesting" then yes I believe they'll have interesting characters.

 All I got from that was ''HEY I CAN DO THE MODERN WARFARE TRAILER THING TOO!!1111'''.
 
But the game itself looks good. Killzone 2 was great, hoping they can work some magic again.

Nah dawg.

As a video game trailer lover I gotta say that trailer doesn't really do much for me. I think it may have actually lowered my already low expectations.
 
That said, I am curious to see what they do with multiplayer and how it plays with the Move.

didn't care about KZ2, but when i saw this trailer i got it and going to play it. I am SP guy and this type of stuff works on me. KZ3 seems to have more serious and interesting story then KZ2. Lets hope KZ3 can be for KZ2 what was Uncharted 2 for Uncharted 1. Jump from very good game with potential, to excellent GOTY material

Looks like they invested in some better mocap, the facial animations in KZ2 were pretty horrible. I am looking forward to this, despite KZ2 having some pretty horrible character development, i still enjoyed it. 

the game has outstanding motion capture and voice acting. theyve really stepped their game up in those departments so yes its going to have a much better campaign story-wise. gameplay wise i LOVED kilzone 2 so i cant wait to see whats next.  
 
mp is where killzone 2 shined and thats really what i am looking forward to playing the most. 

I can certainly wait for it.

Malcom Mcdowell helps.

The trailer is not much to go on, and Rico seems like his douchebag self, though I think that was him getting punched. Which is nice.
 
On the other hand, this video reminded me how much I loved the British Nazi Helghast.

My impression is that they've got a fairly weak base story/characters/universe and are adding as much production value as they can to try and make up for it. I don't know if the main characters are supposed to be hatred-inducing to tell a grittier story, but it doesn't work when I the player am forced to make the short-sighted, fairly clearly bad decision to not kill/incapacitate/court marshall Rico even after he murders another soldier. (Remember that scene in the mech? That guy didn't get back up.) I'd like to think the writers can get their heads out of their asses and stop pidgeonholing me with this stuff for KZ3, but I doubt they will.

I still hate how the Helghast are portrayed as the bad guys.

" If you mean "oh they're ripping off that dude with the scars from Avatar now, that's interesting" then yes I believe they'll have interesting characters. "  

" Killzone 3, is at the moment a kernel of shit from what Killzone 2 did storywise. What I would've loved would be that the game switched you to playing as several Helghast for years, maybe even generations leading up to the point we are now. As far as I'm concerned, I have way more sympathy for them and would love to see some Helghast  soldiers fleshed out as real people having to deal with these stupid assholes invading their planet by the time we catch up with the time line of Killzone 2. Of course, I learned that asking for any pathos and character development from Guerilla is moot when they were more excited about the loading screens for Killzone 2. "

" My impression is that they've got a fairly weak base story/characters/universe and are adding as much production value as they can to try and make up for it. I don't know if the main characters are supposed to be hatred-inducing to tell a grittier story, but it doesn't work when I the player am forced to make the short-sighted, fairly clearly bad decision to not kill/incapacitate/court marshall Rico even after he murders another soldier. (Remember that scene in the mech? That guy didn't get back up.) I'd like to think the writers can get their heads out of their asses and stop pidgeonholing me with this stuff for KZ3, but I doubt they will. "

Rico needs to die.

What, Scholar Visari (Brian Cox) wasn't an interesting character? 

I think KZ2 was such a drag because the first game was so character-focused, what with the past between Templar and Lugar and then the conflict between Hakha (which I can't remember how to spell) and Rico. I'm also thinking that maybe Rico was more tollerable in the first game because he had Hakha to keep him in check. I like Sev, but he certainly never does anything to balance the stupid of Rico.
 
I do have hopes that Sev will be more fleshed out this time around, because I think he had potential. The two new Helghast leaders look interesting as well. I've always really liked the universe that Killzone takes place in, so here's hoping the story in KZ3 will be worthy of the potential.