henke on 23/9/2016 at 05:40
I remember standing in a games shop a year ago, turning over a boxed copy of this in my hands. "This might be fun, but probably not 29 euros worth of fun." Then, half a year ago. "Hmm, PS Store sale, Killzone Shadow Fall for 15 euros? Mmmmnaaah." Last week. "9 euros? Mmmmyeah ok." I've never played any of the Killzone games, nor heard anything especially glowing about this, so I went in with very low expectations. I'd heard it was very pretty, and it is, but that's not especially important. What was a pleasant surprise tho, is that it actually plays really well.
Here's footage from the first 3(or 5?) missions/levels:
[video=youtube;GplZciHWmsg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GplZciHWmsg[/video]
Both the shooting and the stealth feel quite good. Almost FC3/4 levels of good. Almost. There are some minor annoyances, like never quite being able to tell if a meleekill is going to do the rifle-butt-smash or a full animation. The OWL-drone is fun. Very handy for flanking/stunning enemies. It also has shield and zipline modes, but I've practically never used those. The levels have a nice amount of variety to them as well. The first proper mission is in a big, open outdoors area, the second one is on a creepy deserted spacestation, and after that you're back in the city, doing a SWAT-style hostage rescue mission. The story is... pretty bleak.
Will write more once I've finished it, but as for now, this is an unexpected delight! :thumb:
EvaUnit02 on 24/9/2016 at 09:28
Quote Posted by henke
I've never played any of the Killzone games
It is the worst game in the mainline series, followed by KZ2. Killzone 2 & 3 in particular rigidly stick to the formula established by CoD. Shadowfall tries to be a bit different with larger levels with some exploration required to solve basic as hell door opening puzzles, but IMO it was a failure. It just a bunch of boring busy work full of backtracking to pad out a short campaign. The gameplay mechanics like the Owl powers are fun, but they aren't enough to make up for the busy work missions.
Killzone HD for PS3 probably the best one IMO. The downbeat, gritty atmosphere of being in a war works really well, it's communicated by both the art direction and sound design. Even levels that place in the middle of a sunny day feel oppressive due to the art direction. Having four playable characters with slightly different playstyles keeps things fresh (they dropped this for all subsequent games).
Killzone 2 I really hated. It's relies heavily early CoD games' worst level design gimmicks. Eg respawning enemies until you pass the invisible marker or achieve the objective. Levels where you to defend an area against respawning waves of enemies until the invisible timer hits zero. The art direction is nothing but shades of brown and level settings are almost exclusively industrial complexes, there is very little variety.
Killzone 3 I particularly liked. They addressed the variety complaints from Killzone 2 and streamlined/polished its gameplay systems. It is a very good CoD clone. Eg its obligatory "All Ghillied Up" stealth mission is very memorable, taking place in lush jungle environments where you can use Helghan's fauna and flora against your enemies.
Killzone: Liberation is a cool little Cannon Fodder-esque game, give it a go if you have a PSP or Vita. I watched some parts of a Let's Play of Killzone: Mercenary. It looks like very polished CoD clone, I would totally get it if was on something other than a dead on delivery console like Vita.
twisty on 24/9/2016 at 12:11
KSF was included as a bundle alongside Destiny, Second Son & FIFA14 when I purchased the PS4 a couple of years ago. I played it up until the mission where you get the Owl device and thought it was really good, particularly as I wasn't expecting it to be for some reason. While I was really enjoying it up to that point, I stopped paying it was because my son, who was almost 4 at the time, kept playing it when I wasn't there and I didn't think it was that appropriate for his age group so I hid the disk. Time to give this another shot.
henke on 16/10/2016 at 18:06
Finished this today, despite it being a bit of a drag in the later half. It's ok. It looks good and occasionally will make you feel like a total badass. Story isn't particularly engaging tho, and the gameplay occasionally feels a bit wonky, and not quite as tight as other games in the stealth-action super-soldier FPS genre like Far Cry 3/BD/4, Crysis 1/2, CoR:EfBB, Dishonored, DXHR or Wolfenstein:TNO. But sure, if you've already finished all of those, and you find this for 10 bucks? Give it a go.
