Polygon: Killzone Shadow Fall Review: Stalemate

That absence of meaningful evolution might be Killzone: Shadow Fall’s biggest sin. For all the next-gen bluster of its visuals and the repeated blunt-force attempts to ram a message home, Guerilla’s first shot on the PS4 retreads shooter cliches, and poorly. In a launch lineup crowded with shooters, Killzone: Shadow Fall sits at the bottom.

[tuglu_pati]

This guys are pushing it. A 5? GTFO

[Detoxx]

I'll be playing BF4 on my PS4, so I don't care.

[4Sh0w]

Damm a 5 really? I got to believe its a lot better than that. Don't flip out people its just one review, I already saw a couple 8's which is good.

[xHeavYx]

I saw it coming,Polygon is full of it. z That also game TLOU a 7.5 and were part of the "I demand a PS4" meltdown

[badz149]

LOL @Polygon not even trying to hide their hatred towards anything Playstation! I don't really care though as it's expected for them to give a low score! they are so predictable as this score can already be seen coming from them from miles away! oh well, you can't expect any less from a MS sponsored site, right?

just look at this Metacritic for TLoU:

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

out of 98 reviews, they gave the 2nd lowest score and is 1 among just 3 (OUT OF 98!!) who gave TLoU less than 80! the average review is at 95 and even user review fares around 91! so...why are they even trying to justify their review again? what this shows is not how bad the game is, but rather how out of touch they are in terms of game reception compared to other people. so, it makes them pretty much irrelevant and just a showing of pure stupidity!

[MrDead]

Look who sponsors Polygon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Anyway one or two negative reviews won't dissuade me for the Killzone greatness.

[Gazondaily]

Oh Polygon......

Let's see them apply the same 'standards' for other titles. If they aren't consistently harsh (or stupid) then I think people will bury them.

[mikeslemonade]

I guess review sites are finally using the full rating scale. I'm tired of sites just using the 6.5-10 scale.

[badboy776]

I'm watching Poloygons PS4 Livestream. These guys are Terrible Reviewers!!!!!!!

[solidjun5]

@septic

I agree. I want to see them apply the same standard. Time will tell.

[DonMingos]

They didn't like The Last Of Us either and that is probably the best game of this entire gaming generation, so if they didn't like KZ too, than that must mean it is an epic memorable game, just like TLOU.

Anycase:

Story Quality: WTF
Do you like this site? NO

We have to get rid of this biased hit seekers on n4g

[FamilyGuy]

There's a pretty good chance that Polygon will again have the lowest score for a PS Exclusive. At what point will this site be evaluated and removed from the list of credible gaming websites?

They continuously prove themselves to be incredibly bias against Sony exclusives so why are we still listening to this bs site?

[DOMination-]

The game looks fantastic visually but looks a bit"last gen" in terms of gameplay. All the new FPS can have that criticism aimed at them though so I don't mean to single this out. The game still looks pretty solid though, a 5 is kinda taking the piss a bit.

[Freak of Nature]

It's at about 7.5 overall thus far. So 5 is looking like a blow below the belt at this point.

Ouch! a 5....

[Conzul]

if polygon has taught us anything, it's too add 3 points to their score every time. I mean, hello TLOU, right? That puts Shadowfall at 8, just like ign.

About right.

[OrangePowerz]

As a Killzone fan the games have never been the best games on the planet, but a 5 is a joke. But what can you expect from Polygon who complains also that the console is mainly focused on games and they try to come get that stupid "it doesn't have games" going again Xbox fans have been gping on constantly during the PS3 time.

[Back-to-Back]

Killzone 2 has a 91 on metacritic. WTF

[OrangePowerz]

I think Killzone 2 is a great game and so far the best of the series. I wouldn`t say it`s close to Half Life or the first Modern Warfare, but it doenst` have to be to be a great game. You can have good games, great games and amazing games. Killzone 2 I would put into the great games category and there is nothing wrong with it. Even if Shadow Fall is only a good game it wouldn`t deserve a 5/10.

[whybag]

Did you see some of the reasoning for the score?
"Somewhere in all of this, there must have been a story worth telling, and like shafts of light in a ruined building, these bits occasionally shine through. But more often than not, they’re buried in muddy shades of grey."
"Enemies tend to cower in cover or, later, flank from every direction using shielded Helghast with shotguns or worse. Body shots aren’t useless, but they’re not very effective, making Shadow Fall a game of obligatory, boring headshots, often from a distance under walls of gunfire."
So the story has too many shades of grey (cause politics never does that), and "Wah, I'm not one-shotting everybody!" I'll have to play it to see if the story is bad, but these reasons seem pretty specious.

[Snackel]

Ouch KillZone with a Metacritic score of 72 and Knack 59! This is our exclusive launches. This is not going good!!! Come on Sony I thought you are all about the games, show us gamers some respect!

[Dee_91]

If anyone wants to read this obvious hit seeking site review, here you go

Killzone: Shadow Fall is developer Guerrilla Games’ latest attempt to find a niche for the their AAA shooter franchise.

The original Killzone was impossibly positioned as a competitor to Halo; Killzone 2 and its infamous “target render” reveal video was caught between impossible expectations and the somewhat subdued reality; Killzone 3 squeaked out to little fanfare tied to the PlayStation Move; and Killzone: Mercenary is best known as the closest-to-a-console-shooter on the PlayStation Vita.

Now, with the launch of the PS4, Killzone: Shadow Fall presents the best opportunity for a new beginning for the series. But that opportunity slips from Guerrilla’s grasp once again, this time under the weight of a poor campaign without a team to root for.

Killzone: Shadow Fall takes place 30 years after the ISA forces of Vekta functionally rendered the planet of their enemies the Helghast uninhabitable. Perhaps taken aback at the sheer horror and devastation they inflicted, the Vektans have resettled part of one of their biggest cities with the Helghan survivors, where tensions simmer and eventually bubble over.

There’s some grasping in Killzone: Shadow Fall’s premise toward higher social commentary and exploration of real world political drama, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There are also strong echoes of the post-WWII socialist/capitalist divide of East and West Germany during the 70s in the sorts of maneuvering and secret police actions of both the ISA and the Helghast.

Somewhere in all of this, there must have been a story worth telling, and like shafts of light in a ruined building, these bits occasionally shine through. But more often than not, they’re buried in muddy shades of grey. Killzone has always flirted and later actively courted an early-20th century sort of nihilism with regards to humanity’s predilections to endless, aimless war. Shadow Fall completes that cycle. Despite the beauty of Vekta and the extraordinary technical wizardry on display, the game does its absolute best to paint almost every character as an awful, irredeemable person engaging in an awful, hopeless cycle.

As the story progresses, every offense by one side is one-upped by the other, further muddying the ugly history of the entire conflict even further. Well sure, the Helghast are nightmarish neo-Fascists, but they evolved that way after being used as human chattel by the Vektans and abandoned on a merciless planet. The Helghast violently arrest and murder anyone caught on their side of the giant demilitarized zone that separates the two societies, but the Vektan’s ISA forces are also coming up with ways to wipe out the entire Helghast race.
1/3

[Dee_91]

2/3

This literally does not stop — even as the credits roll, Killzone: Shadow Fall finds another parting shot to underscore the ultimate pointlessness of the Helghast/Vektan war.

It didn’t matter that Killzone: Shadow Fall’s script was full of awful, overwrought dialogue, plot holes, or general stupidity, or that the voice acting was frequently painful. If Guerrilla was trying to tell me that everyone in the conflict depicted across the Killzone series was irredeemable, then they succeeded. But it also did an excellent job of murdering any investment I tried to place within the characters or the plot. By the end of the game, I didn’t actively want any one side to win or lose. I just didn’t care.

The tone and presentation are so oppressive that it’s almost an afterthought that Shadow Fall’s biggest problem is its deficit of fun.

The basic gunplay isn’t much of a departure from previous games in the series. Aiming and shooting in Killzone has always been a more laborious process than in its first-person shooter contemporaries. Some of this is due to basic latency between the input on the controller and the game’s response to that input, but there’s a sense that Guerrilla has embraced this, whether it was originally intended or not. Weapons in Killzone: Shadow Fall tend to be large and loud and onerous. It’s part of Killzone’s sensibility.

This isn't the problem. Instead, Guerrilla can’t seem to find an effective, functional combat loop. Enemies tend to cower in cover or, later, flank from every direction using shielded Helghast with shotguns or worse. Body shots aren’t useless, but they’re not very effective, making Shadow Fall a game of obligatory, boring headshots, often from a distance under walls of gunfire.

[Dee_91]

3/3
Attempts at stealth are undermined by enemies’ improbably wide cones of vision. And, despite repeated instances where Shadow Fall’s x-ray sonar ability showed me enemies running in place against walls, they still managed to find every hole and opening to shower me with bullets. Theoretically, you can crouch behind a barrier and hit the left trigger to pop up over it to take shots at Helghast in the distance — but somehow, every piece of cover in the game manages to leave your head exposed to enemy fire.

Death frequently contributes to Shadow Fall’s campaign length. The game has an infuriating, trial-and-error approach to forward progress. The UI is disinterested in suggesting the next objective or mission-critical moment in a variety of circumstances. On one level, locked sections of a research vessel are accessed by picking up fuel rods from elsewhere on the ship and slotting them into place — something Killzone: Shadow Fall never told me.

Toward the end of the game, I died and reloaded somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen times in the umpteenth holdout fight against an overwhelming Helghast force. The solution? I had to make a break for a docked bomber and use its guns on the Helghast until they retreated, which, again, the game never bothered to tell me.

Some of this is due to questionable art design, as enemies are often incredibly difficult to make out against environments — a problem that also includes basic UI elements like objective markers, which frequently blend into any given scene, regardless of setting or lighting. Playing Killzone: Shadow Fall often felt like translating a foreign language under a hail of gunfire.

The game constantly fails to find any sort of trajectory or direction, and it suffers as a result. In Guerrilla’s attempts to depict the horrors of a divided society, they often crush the life out of the game with extended "playable" cutscenes showing awful though pedestrian moments in day-to-day New Helghan. But, ironically, the parts of the game where I was able to wander through and soak up the often stunning environments that make up Killzone: Shadow Fall were the moments of the campaign I enjoyed most.

Multiplayer at least manages a level of competency that escapes Shadow Fall’s story component. Thanks to a pretty steady 60 frames per second and the revelatory new Dualshock 4, it controls better than any previous Killzone game has — while still retaining Killzone’s inherent style and identity.

But Shadow Fall’s multiplayer stages feels cluttered and not as navigable as I would have liked. It seemed like I was always bumping into some invisible piece of geometry and getting killed for the trouble, or jumping against a railing that my soldier refused to vault. And, similarly to the campaign, there’s not really anything new, interesting or ambitious about Shadow Fall’s multiplayer — the constantly evolving objective-based play of Warzone matches has been around since Killzone 2.

That absence of meaningful evolution might be Killzone: Shadow Fall’s biggest sin. For all the next-gen bluster of its visuals and the repeated blunt-force attempts to ram a message home, Guerrilla’s first shot on the PS4 retreads shooter cliches, and poorly. In a launch lineup crowded with shooters, Killzone: Shadow Fall sits at the bottom.

[Dee_91]

TLDR ?
He didn't like the art direction and he sucked at playing the game
therefore
5/10

[Clunkyd]

Not a surprise coming from polygon.

[hutness]

Sooo...basically, they're saying Call of Duty: Ghost is a much better game...Gotcha. -_-

[Neonridr]

5 is a little low. Everywhere else it's been 7's and 8's.

Still would like to play it for myself to make up my mind.

[evilunklebud]

I was hoping for more. Along the lines of KZ2.

[thewildbeard]

Same here. I'll play it first but I find my opinion on some games differs very much from Polygon. The Last of Us for example. They gave it a 7.5 but I just found that funny.

[evilunklebud]

that was pretty laughable, but with kz4 they seem to be a little closer to the average score... so far.

[syne49]

I am really surprised . Can you hear how surprised I am? Its Polygon for goodness sakes.

[Activemessiah]

Not even gonna bother reading that.

[Axonometri]

Polygon, who were you talking to in that dark alley? ...what was it that you exchanged?

[sAVAge_bEaST]

What hat? full of MOney...

(Polygon is a MS mouth piece, and it has become glaringly apparent, over the course of the last month

Geiss, & Penello, BFF's on twitter.. Geiss admitting to qetting a 3quarters of a Million. $750,000$ for a "documentary".

Polygon, is just a Microsoft propaganda outlet.

[SlyFamous02]

It would seem the FPS genre is on its way out.

[mcstorm]

I was just about to say the same thing. I am no longer excited about FPS games I have played way too may this gen and the reason I got a WiiU and pre orderd an xbox one is because they had the games that get me excited about gaming at this moment in time.

This is the 1st review I have seen of KZ on the PS4 here but the ones of COD and BF seem to follow the same line as this one.

Lets hope the new IP's like Titan Fall can fill the excitement on the FPS front as to me the ones from this gen are no longer doing that.

[jatakk]

Wow, that's pretty harsh and depressing!

[gamertk421]

I'd like to plead the fizzith!

[russellmorris52]

Love how all these dudes who havent played the game yet are already downplaying this score , i understand because its polygon, but you havent played it yet they could be right.

[DarthJay]

This is what I expected. This franchise has always been over-hyped. I still have it sitting here on my desk and plan on playing the hell out of it in less than 48 hours, but still.

Greatness waits, I guess.

[superterabyte]

Over-hyped by whom?

[AlphaGamingNerd]

LMFAO they gave it a 5 because they sucked at the game way to go polygon

[ltachiUchiha]

They gave state of decay a better score then the last of us. Its all opinion but ill let the critics do the talking for me.

[ltachiUchiha]

Anyone surprised by this review? This site & Biogirl reviewer obviously prefer the other platform over the anything playstation. Killzone SF day one for me.

[jhoward585]

Now I see what they mean about most journalist picked the x1 over the ps4.

[isa_scout]

These guys are just about the biggest trolls in the industry. First TLOU and now Killzone. They need to be banned from posting shit on N4G like HHG. It's truly sad that their reviews go on metacritic.

[Statix]

Has it ever occurred to the people at Metacritic that Microsoft having paid them $750k to launch the site may possibly indicate an EXTREME conflict of interest? Instead of counting their reviews as part of the average just because they have a pretty site layout?

[grassyknoll]

Polygon gave Sim City 9.5... Awful site.

[majiebeast]

Dead Space 3 also a 9.5, Halo 4 also a 9.5 im beginning to see a patern.

[grassyknoll]

I not bothered by the score (if from another publication), but Polygon are untrustworthy. Wouldn't buy / or not buy a game on their say so

[Mugen90]

Yeah...I don't trust Polygon reviews. I still can't get over the fact they gave Saints Row 4 a 9 and it has to be the worst game I've played this generation (buggy and boring), Ghosts a 6.5 when obviously its pretty decent (I would give it a 7.5/8, still lots a fun in that game). I have a few more examples, but you know what I mean.

[XINTSUAI]

Is Polygon, is from Sony.. What did you expect?
A site that is maintained by Microsoft.

[misterssippi]

No bueno

[Lucreto]

That absence of meaningful evolution might be Killzone: Shadow Fall’s biggest sin.

I see Polygon giving Forza a 10 even with absence of meaningful evolution

[OrangePowerz]

Forza is different because pre backed lighting, no weather effects, no night races with only 200 cars and a small amount of tracks is truly next gen.

[Ron_Danger]

Polygon reviews at it again. It's always such a treat to click on a comment section for a Sony game reviewed by polygon cause it's always littered with MS fanboys acting like Polygon has any form of journalistic integrity.

If you were given 3/4 of a million dollars, you'd be a little biased towards whoever gave you that.

I've been a White Sox fan my whole life (I live in the western subberbs of Chicago), but if the Cubs gave me $750,000, I'd switch sides in a heart beat.

[Malice-Flare]

the fact that they supported EA in their online DRM makes them not credible, as was their documentary sponsorship by MS...

there are some "journalists" that deserved to be banned from all media...

[Brazz]

WTF !!!! Hell... ok, the question is... why sony still let these microsoft puppets review their games? Polygon review on Sony big hits = bullshit!!! they only give good score in sony minor hits to mask their "bullshit"! they are completly at microsoft side!

[The_Villager]

A lot of damage controlling going on up in this comment section. Calm down people it's just one review.

[OrangePowerz]

Oh look it's Polygon again. They lost all credibility for me with the 7.5 for The Last of Us.

[Sadist3]

Killzone always sucked anyway, nothing surprising here.

[Neezaam]

Why do Polygon even receive any playstation review copies?
They should be banned for there money hatting bias journalism. Gamers should make a stand against them, they have showed there hand to many times and we as consumers should not accept it.

[Master-H]

Didn't expect any lower rating from a polygon review of a PS exclusive after that TLOU fiasco tbh. knack and even Infamous and DriveClub will get similar ratings from Polygon i'm hundred percent sure, regardless if the games are good or not.
lol at xbots clinging to this rating and ignoring the other higher ones like it's the definitive go-to accurate rating of the game.

[Belking]

Next gen graphics but last gen gameplay. Anyone could of seen this coming.

[Master-H]

Still beats Dead Rising 3..current gen graphics with current gen gameplay (with even less frames per second)..

[killaarmy]

This is no surprise, there has never been a great killzone game and that's a fact, don't let pretty graphics dictate the game play truth be told its not a great game period

[arronax-1]

No, what isn't a surprise is that you created this bullshit account just to troll for a few seconds.

[curtis92]

If MS are republicans, Polygon is Fox News.

[BABY-JEDI]

Day 1 buy for me. Thanks Polygon for your magical take on FPS. Can't wait for your completely unbiased 10/10 XB1 reviews.
; )
Money talks BS walks

[Gore-Content]

An outstanding comment. Bubble for you.

[worldwidegaming]

Read the reviews and id have to say if you were expecting something new that 5/10 might be on point. (people should have a trusted site to believe in) If all you care about is new new new and graphics then the score goes up! Might even be a 10/10 for killzone fans!
Imo, games like this need a character to back! TLOU and uncharted have great characters and thats what killzone needs to do.. They need to reinvent themselves which even the higher score reviews pointed out.

[Gore-Content]

Aaaahh, f*cking Polygon. You know, if you don't pay them attention and visit their website, they will eventually die.

[baraka007]

If I had a gaming site and was trying to get ppl to come to it I would give all xbox and ps4 exclusives a 5 or worse. I bet these sites get a million more hits than the ones that gave this game an 8.

[SpinalRemains138]

Lmao!

A 5! HAHAHAHA.

I've seen the game first hand, and its the best looking console game ever made. A 5?

Way to be stealthy about it, Polygon. Hahaha

[Kaze88]

I really don't think that KZ: SF is that bad in any department, eventhough i never liked much of KZ games they still were "ok" 7/10 games to me. There's noway anyone would publish a 5/10 first party game on their system. But this is what happens when a gaming site like Polygon is founded by the competitor (MS).

[EffectO]

Mediocre game gets mediocre review score.Knack is even bigger disaster.
What happened to creative,risk taking PS1/2 Sony?

[mochachino]

I doubt the game is great but a 5 his horrible in game reviews but the site is sponsored by Microsoft so I doubt they are honest.

[KingKevo]

Okay, yet again Polygon shows how stupid it is and they keep doing it and I'm sure the industry and other outlets might say that 'it is ok if it their/the reviewers opinion'. Well, it's NOT.

They do it for clicks, money and attention and I think it's about time to never visit Polygon, to use an ad-blocker while doing so (if you consider using their site for whatever reason) and to really put up a fight against them.

Polygon sucks, their are dumb and should get the fuck out of the business. I hope the site will die in the near future. They can kiss my a**!!!

[skoorydook]

I'm all for different reviews but did this lot really just complain about cliche and give COD a good score, not saying they have to like the game but come on

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Polygon- a prime example of what's wrong with the industry..

Geiss and Penello -BFF's on twiter, given $750,000 for a "documentary" by M$..

Polygon, should just rename itself to Xbone.Online.

[gamedebater]

The reviewer said Killzone is bad because

Singleplayer:
1.The A.I is bad
2.He died alot
3.Story has plot holes

Multiplayer:
It's nothing new
Maps are convoluted

In other words:
Buy the game, it will be the most unique FPS this season 9.0

[bromtown]

Not to sound like a raging fanboy, but Polygon are on the Microsoft payroll, Gies in particular is massively pointless as a journalist due to his complete lack of integrity.

Expect the Xbox One reviews to be completely amazing with no faults whatsoever, for future reference, they gave the PS4 itself 7.5/10 and it's universally known that it's the stronger of the two - if they give it higher than the PS4 that should tell you all you need to know about Polygon.

[jacksjus]

KZ never recieved high scores and I always found the games to be surprisingly much better than the scores given. A 5/10 is ridiculous though.

[ironmonkey]

Still getting it I got all the killzones. Lets see what this fuck gives dr3 plagued with fps drops and bad textures and poor resolution when it releases.

[DomceM]

Regardless if polygon gave the game a below average score of 5, the overall score on metacritic is 74 as it stands right now.

I was thinking of preordering this bundle so I am glad I decided to wait and not get anything just yet.

KZ2 was the best killzone game imo, and their attempts to CODify it have failed.

[izumo_lee]

Really?... I mean really? Seriously really?

I don't know why Polygon just won't become a Xbox only site cause clearly there is an agenda towards anything PlayStation. Save us the time from having to read what you guys pull out of your @$$.

There is opinion & than there is pure fanboyism. Gee I wonder what category Polygon falls under.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I have no doubts this game is better than a 5/10. IGN gave it an 8 and they have been pretty pro-Sony of late but never the biggest Killzone fans so it feels like somewhat genuine score. My prediction, KZ:SF will avg right around 8 which is not terrible at all.

[Deltaguy]

LOL told you people you can't polish a turd!

[Twinblade]

Do not take these guys serious when it came to reviews. Remember, they gave last of us a 7.5 and gave Gears of War judgement a 8.

[Lysander91]

I don't believe in these conspiracies of paid off reviewers, but Polygon is really making me reconsider that stance.

I don't really think that they are paid off, but there seems to be certain biases that all of their editors hold that greatly affect their review scores. Sometimes I think that all of their reviewers are different personas of Arthur Geis.

[turgore]

Game sucks but still not as bad as knack. Sony totally messed up their launch lineup.

[NeloAnjelo]

Is anyone surprised that Polygon has given a PlayStation game a bad review? Look at their track record.

I'm sure some Kinect bull crap will be rated higher.

[cell989]

lets compare the scores of other games they reviewed and you start to see the pattern

[SoulSercher620]

Fail review. Obviously paid off by Microsoft.

[cell989]

this website is always doing this to get the hits, I never take them serious

[Mister_G]

Multiplayer review held at a press event? Not really the best place to test it.

I'll make my own mind up, on the 29th :)

[Obscure_Observer]

I do agree, that 5 seems unfair. Look at the video, that reviewer sucks on FPS games.

He was complaining about be killed several times. WTF? He act all Rambo on Killzone and expected what?

Now Implying that Polygon is on MS payroll is... paranoid. It´s the worst argument that gamers can use to justify a bad review.

Same goes to MS Fanboys. Let´s just be adults for a change

[Relientk77]

Polygon giving a PlayStation game a low score? no never lol

[90Supra]

*Looks over at copy of KZ:SF*

"Don't you dare be a fuckin' 5 outta 10..."

[Edsword]

Don't worry it's not. More like an 8.

[Edsword]

Stupid review by a stupid site. Hey look at us we gave KZ the lowest rating we are so hardcore! Watch them give Ryse a 9.5.

[Hakoom]

lol just watch it give all xbox games a 9 and 10

killzone <3
cant wait to play it