My first dive into a Next Gen game really gets me excited to the future of the Playstation 4 as developers unlock the true potential. Visuals are absolutely stunning as you gaze across the crystal clear Vektan planet, along with the depth of colors, reflections, and textures make it all inviting. The game ran smooth outside of some rouge hiccups during intense combat situations. Also, the music is pretty damn good. Sometimes I would just stand still and let the soundtrack swarm me with warm fuzzy feelings, and inject me with adrenaline. The gunplay is pretty good too, with a lot of the weapons feeling pretty powerful knocking your foes around like ragdolls.
The new controls utilizing the Playstation 4’s touchpad didn’t really add anything new to the gameplay although it made switching between your OWL’s 4 functionalities seamless…if they were used. I barely used the Attack and Shield function as the game wasn’t that difficult. The Stun blast was used more frequently towards the end and was quite useful. Lastly, it deploys a zipline for hard to reach terrain, or faster travel, but its usage felt very much scripted. The gameplay as a whole screams generic FPS and doesn’t do anything special to help differentiate itself from other games that are out on the market. Although KZ:SF does a nice job changing your environments and setting, there isn’t a whole lot of memorable set pieces that make you want to push forward in excitement thus making my experience quite dull, especially when tethered to a completely forgetting story. The games never have done anything outside the box, really. I hate the fact that I play as the “Good” guys. The story of Killzone: Shadow fall is set up after the inhalation of the Helghast's home planet. In one big awkward apology, the ISA decides to give half the planet back to its original owners. A huge wall is built splitting Vekta in half, and all the Vektans living in that area must evacuate. After some time the Helghans begin to revolt and attempt to take back what’s rightfully theirs. From the beginning you play as a young Kellan, who is trying to escape to their side of the wall with his father. Sadly, they are spotted and his father is killed. Kellan is then saved and recruited by the evil ISA.
At least in Killzone: Shadow fall you play as someone who has a brain, and finally “gets” it, so I don’t feel like a complete douche. Sadly, the game does a poor job to develop the main character, making him not really worth caring about. He eventually is given aid by another underdeveloped character….Echo (I had to look that up) who is a half bred freak child from the two races. She is the one to have Kellan open his eyes to what is really going on, as they end up betraying their own kind in an effort to make things right. Their actions are noble but neither of the two have any defining moments that make them stand out. You are rooting for the cause, but a snail and a turtle could have yielded the same results. Actually, I think I would’ve liked that better…coming soon, Killzone: Turtle and Snail.
I digress, anyway, at least there’s the Multiplayer, which to me, is the only reason I continue to play it. It’s very competitive, addictive and fun. There aren’t a lot of maps, or different modes but it still does a good enough job at keeping you interested. With a game mode like Warzone that randomly selects other game modes in a battle of best out of 4, it’s easy to enjoy yourself. There are 3 loadouts and each has a set of 4 customizable slots, which comes in handy when you want to adjust your strategy on the fly. Battles can be very intense, and chaotic in some nicely designed maps that provides some good balance for both factions.
Killzone: Shadow Falls isn’t that killer IP that makes you want to own a next gen console. Outside of its multiplayer, visuals and soundtrack, and its a completely forgettable experience that ends way too abruptly, leaving nothing but a sour taste in your mouth, there wasn’t much there. Even the added gameplay towards the end did nothing for what should have at least put a smirk on my face. The game is all beauty but lacks the brains to be anything but ordinary. One day maybe Guerrilla will create a game where you play as the “Evil” empire and become a Helghan warrior. That’s something that would be cool.
It's been 10 years since Killzone: Shadow Fall arrived for PlayStation 4 early adopters, and there's no sign of another sequel.
Sadly it was dumped by Guerrilla to focus on Horizon games only. Mainline, VR and Multiplayer.
lmao sadly? Are you pretending to have actually played the series lol Sorry bud, no Killzone on Xbox.
They brought out 4 main games and 2 spin offs: one on PSP and one on Vita. That's a decent run for any series. I also understand that Shadow Fall wasn't a success commercially despite it coming out at PS4 launch, and as a big Killzone fan even I couldn't get into it, so I think Sony/Guerrilla could see it was time to move on.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love another Killzone game in the vein of KZ2 but it's just not happening. Hell, I'd even take a remake or remaster of the first 3 games.
I'd hardly say it was "dumped" though, it spanned 3 console generations and 2 handheld generations.
@obscured:”Sadly it was dumped by Guerrilla to focus on Horizon games only. Mainline, VR and Multiplayer”
Happily it was dumped by Guerrilla to focus on Horizon games only. Mainline, VR and Multiplayer( edited to reflect the writer true feelings and allegiance)
Kill zone was a FPS far ahead of its glitched competitors with nauseating bad camera angles, 10 years old screaming curses like a drunk sailor and bot aiming assist.
“Sadly”?
The Horizon games were among the best games of all time. Killzone Shadowfail wasn’t.
True, but damn the memories of KZ2 multiplayer. Still no MP as fun as that to this date.
And Sony as a whole dumped the FPS genre so they wouldn't have products competing with COD and (until purchase) Destiny.
I loved the KZ2+3 campaigns and MP in 2. There could be so much more done with the franchise. Horizon although good, I wish they'd go back to this wonderful IP. Take a break from Horizon please.
Agreed dude, I would absolutely love a reboot of the series, one can only hope that either resistance or killzone makes a return.
Have nothing but great memories, especially of the first 3 games, but all 4 were show stoppers graphically.
To making it a successful reboot they have to change that buttons layout! Make it playable like the cod button layout. Otherwise I’ll skipping it again.
And that's the reason why many fps games failed. Instead of being original and catering to it's fans, they tried to make it like cod. No, kz doesn't need cod button layout. It needs to be like it was on kz2 or balanced liked kz3.
I think Kill Zone would do great in Sony's LS push. As well as MAG reboot and bring back Resistance into LS.
Killzone games were so polished. The gameplay was just simple joy. MP was one of the best experiences.
I remember KZ3, just staring at how awesome they animated the water and then getting wasted because of it.
The Amsterdam-based studio reflects on its humble beginnings, beloved franchises, and growth through the years.
Up there with the top tier in the industry. Love Guerrilla Games - Horizon Burning Shores is simply STUNNING.
Same. They nailed it with Horizon. The trouble is I also want a new Killzone! Can't I just have it all?!
I have yet to play Burning Shores as I just started Forbidden West (bought at launch, just unwrapped last weekend LOL) and playing on PS5.
man...I still can't believe the graphics especially now I'm playing it on my LG OLED. that graphics and with stable performance backing it up, GG really is the master of their craft!
32.7M sales in the Horizon franchise! With 8.4M coming from Forbidden West alone! Truly a hugely successful game and franchise as a whole. Looking forward to Horizon III
One year after realease HZD sold 7.6 million.
https://www.noobfeed.com/ne...
So not a drop off.
Unless you're saying a HFW should have sold as much now as HZD sold in 5 years?
It's been 3 games, this includes Call of the Mountain. Also no, its a great improvement over HZD.
lol you are comparing:
HZD: 28 February 2017 - May 2023 (6 years+)
HFW: 18 February 2022 - May 2023 (1 year+)
We will see if it surpass original number.
@shane, 2 full main games, 2 DLC add ons, 1 VR spin off game, oh and a an official LEGO set.
Not too bad for an ip that's only been on market for 6 years
Wow, very impressive. I didn't know the numbers were so high for Forbidden West. Still playing through it myself
Yooo, when I first saw that Killzone 1 footage at E3, my friends my brothers and I were like, Holy shit! When it came out, it didn't look exactly like it, but we sunk so many hours into 1 & 2.
I even liked Killzone: SF, it was a spectacle to look at, and even today it looks good. I hope they make a new one. Can you imagine how that will look, and they can get some modern FPS pointers from Bungie.
Such a wonderful studio. They deserve all their success.
The Decima Engine is absolute 🔥 I'm just mad they have abandoned Killzone.
They are probably working on mutiple projects. One of them is Horizon 3, but another is a multiplaer game and probably somehting else.
In August, online servers for several PlayStation games will shut down, leaving their multiplayer functions unplayable.
whrere on earth is the next killzone, im soooOOO thirsty for some proper weighted, (but still fast when running/sprinting) fps gamplay, it felt sooso so good on ps3, with that, lets be honest, very small, quite uncomfortable sixaxis dualshock controller, that was just too small for western sized hands, ok for japanese kids i suppose was the point>??
now with PS5 controller, it would be totally masterfull.
I hear you. I want some NEW Killzone, especially on PS5, with the PS5 DualSense controller with that ever so impressive DualSense of an experience Haptic feedback!
Knowing how far Guerrilla has come since Horizon: Zero Dawn, Killzone can only benefit greatly from their ever growing talent!!
I think Sony has given up on their exclusive shooters. They haven't released a remaster for the Resistance series or a new SOCOM game either. I don't think Guerilla is in a rush to make Killzone since they have Horizon now too :(.
All I want is for them to build Killzone 2 with multiplayer included from the ground up, keep the gameplay the same, and I'll be happy.
GG with KZ3 and Shafowfall haven't been able to match KZ2 so I don't really have faith in another sequel.
Unfortunate that KZ2 came out during COD era where every game that didn't pay like Modern Warfare was deemed garbage. KZ2's multiplayer is definitely an all time great.
I'd love KZ2 multiplayer again. I also think they could easily incorporate a mode to compete with Battlefield style game modes
KZ2 was one of maybe a handful of games I actually put time into online. What a blast!! And the campaign was excellent as well. I certainly miss that dark world. Still ashamed I never buttoned up that Platinum.
A remake of Killzone 2 with the same grittiness and feel on PS5 would be f*cking incredible. The SP and MP were just perfect. I played the sh*t out of that game. Would happily pay a lot of money for that.
Honestly, I don't like FPS games. They're not for me, but I do agree that there was something about KZ2 multiplayer that even someone like me enjoyed.
Sony really needs to get better about tearing down servers. I don't like that they shut them down.
@Michiel1989
"since when was kz2 deemed garbage?"
As with anything, things don't get the appreciation it deserves until way after it's release.
KZ2 got a lot of flak for it's weighty controls that many mistook for input lag. People didn't like that it wasn't a twitch shooter like CoD. You also had people saying things like "it feels like you're controlling a midget", "enemies take too long to die" (you can't pray and spray in kz2. You have to shoot in bursts for your shots to be more accurate), people complained about the sniping, etc.
This led to a lot of changes in KZ3 that turned the vets off like reducing the amount of variables for bullet damage, getting rid of spawn grenades, etc.
@DarXyde
I don't think there's much Sony or any other company in that position can do much different about it... Keeping servers running simply cost money, these gomes don't generate none anymore, so eventually they need to pull the plug.
KZ2 was definitely better then KZ3, but the third one still had strong suits. It’s been many years but I remember something about Shadow Fall being made by a team at GG that did NOT do KZ2 and KZ3 multiplayer which is why it felt different. I remember when I found that out it made a lot of sense about Shadow Falls multiplayer feeling so off.
Horizon zero dawn sold more copies than all of the killzone franchise combined including spin offs on handheld. I guess that's the reason why won't see killzone from guerilla soon. There is at least one more mainline horizon coming out and their second team is working on horizon VR I believe. So it's gonna be a while unless another studio takes over.
I've been playing a lot of Killzone 2 on rpcs3 with a duelsense combined with the ability to remap controls to a modern standard and bump the game to 60fps it shows that we really need a remaster to probably the best killzone game to date although shadowfall technically beats it in the graphics department art style was so different that they are incomparable
Killzone went to the same place as Socom and Mag, more money in 25 hour single player games with no servers to maintain. Socom was literally the reason I bought a PS2, Resistance FOM the reason I bought a PS3, all gone now.
Killzone has never been weighted correctly, the jumping never worked.
A new properly-weighted shooter in the Killzone series would be great. More like Killzone 1 and 2 than SF.
I think the issue comes from the fact that the Helghast side is sympathetic while looking like Nazi stormtroopers. The Trump age has led artists to avoid this look entirely.
The sixaxis felt fine in my hands since they're small, but the ps5 really made me feel the difference. So ergonomic.
Killzone 2 was/is so good and it still looks good today. The multiplayer was fun as well. If they make a new Killzone I hope it is the style of Killzone 2.
I wish Sony didn’t abandon Resistance and Killzone. Those are some of my favorite series on PlayStation. If they’re not gonna make anymore, then maybe a remastered collection of each could be negotiated.
KILLZONE 2 was my reason for buying a PS3. If a new KILLZONE or RESISTANCE was coming out in 22 I would try to buy a PS5 immediately.
SSOD2 would be big for Sony. The only reason they would be interested in it is if they can turn it into a live service game.
In which I can see that happening.
For anyone trying to understand @Lightning77’s comment, they had a typo, this should clarify:
SOD2
Superoxide dismutase 2, mitochondrial, also known as manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase, is an enzyme which in humans is encoded by the SOD2 gene on chromosome 6.
After 5 killzone games including portable Sony felt it needed a break I wouldn't say its abandoned however I believe we may randomly get a ps5 remaster with improved lighting to test the waters and eventually a full blown new game after all you can't just leave shadowfall on that ending
Horizon is priority now its a mega franchise for them maybe after Horizon they might revisit.
I refuse to play for online play but there is one game that would make pay for it and that's Resistance Fall of Man. That's the only game that would make me throw my principles out of the window without feeling ashamed of myself.
Remember in the mid 2000’s when nearly every developer started to do FPS or linear third person? Now nearly every developer wants to do open world exclusively because it’s the easiest type of game to leave things out and then expand upon the world with DLC.
So many fond memories of both Shadowfall and Mercenaries Vita online! Shadowfall's SP may have been weak, but the MP was still a ton of fun. I had a lot of time in both, and it's especially tough seeing the Vita's best mp experience get shut down.
RIP my old friends.
In my opinion, I thought the single player games was really decent too and was treated quite harshly by the critics, but then, I think the Killzone franchise as a whole was kinda under rated by the critics. I always enjoyed the story in these games and I liked the slower, more deliberate gunplay too.
I remember getting my PS4 on day 1 and the first game I installed was Killzone Shadowfall, my workmates and I would play it for hours on end, the mode whish switched between game modes was brilliant.
Very fair review. I was really disappointed with this game. Seems like it was rushed out for launch, because I know Guerrilla can do a lot better.
By your scores, the game should be a 7 for average. I think 6 is pushing it.
I consider 6 an average score. It wasn't good nor bad.
You should buy a calculator with all that money you make from your amazing blogs. How did you get 6 as an average from those scores?
*Looks at Overall score*
"6.0 (out of 10/ NOT AN AVERAGE)
*Looks at comments*
*Looks back at Overall score, then again at comments*
....I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
OT: Very fair review, I do agree this seems to be a step down from previous installments but still not a bad game overall.