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.
GB: "Say what you will about the state of the industry, but even as games evolve, their graphics remain a key aspect. Even some of the biggest flops this year sport some gorgeous visuals, as publishers and developers push the boundaries of what’s possible, pouring years of time and money into their work."
Quantum Break and Ryse are two that I was really surprised did not get an FPS boost option when played on the Series X|S. when i started playing both on the XBO, I thought they are both good, but after playing them also on my steam deck (in 60fps) I just cant go back and play the base games on XB. They really benefit from that faster frame rate.
Driveclub is another i wished had a HFR mode on PS5.
Most games this gen are the exact same except now we get faster loading through SSD and a res and fps bump. Graphically not much has improved, hell most last gen games are being relabeled and resold as “remastered” with the aforementioned updates.
I haven’t seen or played anything on either platform that couldn’t be run on last gen. Guess the law of diminishing returns is really showing itself these days.
Most games from 20 years ago are basically the same as today, with resolution and fps upgrades. The AI is still just as braindead as it always has been, worlds are full of static, boring characters that do the same thing over and over.
Smh another reason why graphics haven't improved that much is because most devs too caught up on cross gen. Ps4 was/still a dope console but time has moved on we're halfway close to a ps6 reveal and devs still will be making games on last gen in 2025. Then theres Microsoft purposely got the Xbox series s that causes more devs to try to pull strings as much as they can smh. It's a mixed bag of stuff, the only ones I see pushing hardware is sonys studios and even some indie games look better
Hugely disappointingly, it seems that Guerrilla Games, developers of the Killzone and Horizon series, may be done with Killzone for good.
1 was fine, overhyped as a " halo" killer
2 was a graphical beast at the time, and felt heavy
3 was good a refinement of 2 but not much else. weird audio issues environment were to quiet
shadow fall was pretty but bland
Shadowfall had great Multiplayer though. Too bad the campaign was meh at best. It did have the occasional great moment sprinkled in.
I played through 2/3 multiple times. I played through the original once, but it felt pretty lukewarm for me. I couldn't be bothered to beat Shadow Fall. I got a couple hours in and just went "I'm done". Never touched it again. It was awesome on the tech side, being a launch title, but it didn't even match up to the first game when it came to actually having fun playing it.
3 in 3d was an amazing experience to be had.
Although not many experienced it as intended for good reasons.
You forgot the ai advancements on the playstation 2 killzone one you could have a full team of bots doing everything even playing the objective that was a big thing.
In killzone 2 they always flanked you and when available used the high ground.
Playing killzone 2 no hud 5.1 audio was/is awesome
I dont mind if someone else takes up the mantle for the KZ franchise. We are several years removed from the first game. It certainly could use a remake to gauge interest in the rest of the series. I know it has its fans... Im thinking of how a proper reboot can rekindle that old dormant flame and bring in a new generation of fans in the process.
You forgot killzone mercenaries on the ps vita but it was the worst selling sony game for awhile there.
Would like a new IP before Horizon 3. Just because games take so long to make these days.
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.
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.