Quantcast
SGGAMINGINFO » Killzone: Shadow Fall review SGGAMINGINFO » Killzone: Shadow Fall review

Killzone: Shadow Fall review

On January 27, 2014 by Ash Meehan

SG Gaming Info takes a look at the PlayStation 4 exclusive launch title, Killzone: Shadow Fall.

The new console generation has arrived, and the main question is. Are the new consoles and their games worth buying? Well when it comes to the PS4 exclusive launch title Killzone: Shadow Fall I am leaning towards the no category. The game doesn’t offer any major change to the FPS genre, but it does offer an interesting sci-fi universe.

Killzone: Shadow Fall is the fourth main game of the PlayStation exclusive Killzone series. The overall series tells the story of a war between the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) and the Helghast. The events in this new game, Killzone: Shadow Fall takes place 30 years after Killzone 3. With Helghan destroyed the Vektans have given the Helghast refugees half of Vekta, the Helghast have named their half New Helghan. To maintain security between the two sides “the wall” a massive structure which spans the entire planet is built. But even with Helghan destroyed the peace between the Helghast and Vektans is only a tentative peace, with any form of violence threatening to reignite war.

Killzone-Shadow-Fall-reviewshot2

In Killzone: Shadow Fall you play as Lucas Kellan, a man who lost his father when the Helghast setup new Helghan, but before the Helghast could kill him Sinclair, a Shadow Marshall saves and raises him and by the time you start playing he has become a Shadow Marshall. Lucas’s job in Shadow Fall is primarily to sneak into New Helghan and see what the Helghast are up too, but when a pro-war faction of the Helghast attacks Vekta City everything begins to change. You quickly learn that not everything is as it seems as the Vektans talk of peace is nothing more than a ruse to buy time for them to make a bio-weapon to eliminate them all for good, but the Helghast have caught on and kidnap the scientist working on the weapon and force her to make one to wipe out all Vektans instead. In your journey you also encounter Echo a half Vektan/half Helghast who wants peace to be restored at any cost. After she saves your life you team up with her in an attempt to stop the both sides from going to war and using a deadly bio-weapon.

Shadow fall’s plot isn’t exactly perfect; plot twists etc. can be seen coming a mile away. The plot mainly tries to make you feel bad for the Helghast by showing you how they live in slum like conditions while the Vektans live in seemingly utopian society. If I had one major issue with the plot it would be Echo, her actions are honourable but the fact that Lucas is so willing to follow her and her plans is never properly explained. We get some dialogue, but honestly Lucas is convinced far too quickly especially for a person who has every right to hate the Helghast. I feel that issue could have been easily cleared up or addressed by some com chatter between the two in a mission.

When it comes gameplay Killzone: Shadow Fall is surprisingly fun. Sure the game is mostly about shooting, but I like how the game decided to break it up with sequences that involve you dodging objects while freefalling through space and the atmosphere (think Kirk dodging debris in Star Trek: Into Darkness). In terms of combat the OWL combat drone, a device that you control via the PS4’s touch pad is a great gameplay feature. You can command OWL to shoot enemies, make an EMP burst, deploy a shield, and deploy a zip-line. This drone is incredibly handy especially when you begin to get out numbered. If it wasn’t for the added tactical help of the drone and breaks in combat I would have said the combat was about average for a first person shooter, but the fact the game decides to add some downtime in between the constant killing has me enjoy the gameplay just a bit more.

Since this is a FPS, what is the enemy AI like? Well the enemy is mixed, sure I got killed a few times, but I did notice that I could easily kill them by commanding the combat drone to shoot them down. For you see the AI seems to attack the closest target, if the drone is attacking nearly all the enemies will be drawn to it, leaving them easy pickings and those who aren’t try and fail to hide in cover. The only time I could say I was overly challenged by the AI was when I was in a room that had a near endless supply of enemies.

Killzone-Shadow-Fall-reviewshot

Like any console FPS Shadow Fall does have an online multiplayer that features 24 player warzone, 24 player team deathmatch, classic warzone and extended warzone. Warzone is a collection of objective game modes where the first team to win 4 modes wins the game. The objective based modes are: search & destroy (attack and defence), capture nodes and beacon theft.

At first glance I didn’t think much of the multiplayer it seemed to me like a run of the mill progression/unlock focused shooter, but unlike numerous other unlock based FPS Shadow Fall doesn’t appear to have a steep learning curve or even a levelling system, a new player has every chance of doing as good as a veteran that has everything unlocked. The reason is the fact that most of the unlocks are weapon attachments, this means that both new and veteran players have access to the same weapons, so in this regard new players aren’t destroyed by veterans who have unlocked the most powerful weapon.

Another positive for the multiplayer are the classes: scout, assault and support. Each class has their own set of weapons and abilities to define the player’s role in combat; each class also has 4 editable loadouts. The number of loadouts is important because you can have a number of loadouts that are specific to certain situations. For example you can have a support class setup to be a healer by having a loadout with ‘revive drone’ and ‘support box’ abilities.

The only real major issue with the multiplayer is that some maps feel cramped as opposing teams always seem to fight in narrow chokepoints, which in maps built for 24 players just feels well weird to me, but that just could be down to the fact that I love to run and gun, using the whole map to flank, hide etc.

Now since this is a new generation title, let’s talk graphics. First off all I have to say is Killzone: Shadow Fall is visually stunning from a distance and up close, characters appear smooth with no noticeable issues and textures even while looked at up close still looked lovely. With all that praise I will say that the use of lens flare was incredibly annoying, there were times in the game where I was temporarily blinded by the game. While the game for the most part looks lovely there were some noticeable frame rate drops in single player and multiplayer. These drops mainly happened when there were a lot of particle effects from explosions etc.

Killzone-Shadow-Fall-reviewshot1

Should you buy Killzone: Shadow Fall? Rent

Killzone: Shadow Fall isn’t a game that will make you rush out and buy a PS4, but for those who have a PS4 it is a mildly entertaining game. While the singleplayer is largely forgettable, the multiplayer with its lack of progression system is incredibly fun for both new and veteran players.

Pros/Cons

+ Easy to pick up and play multiplayer
+ Gorgeous graphics
+ Good sci-fi setting

– Forgettable plot
– Subpar AI

Developer                 Publisher                       Genre    Rating     Platform        Release Date
Guerrilla Games Sony Computer Entertainment    FPS      18+          PS4         November 29, 2013

Author: Ash Meehan

Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*