Killzone Shadow Fall Review - The Road To Civil War

'Killzone Shadow Fall' PS4 Review: The Road To Civil War

November 25, 2013 by Maya Mayfield

Killzone Shadow Fall Review - The Road To Civil War | PS4.sx from PS4.sx

In the midst of other popular first person shooters out there like Battlefield and Call of Duty. The Killzone series  has never been  the first choice for most fans of the FPS genre. But it appears the tide may have turned for Guerrilla Games as they hit a sweet spot being the only decent shoot-em-up game released exclusively as part of PS4's launch title.

With Watch Dogs, and DriveClub delayed till early next year, it looks like the weight of PS4's exclusive launch titles now rests on the shoulders of Killzone: Shadow Fall.  From the recent polls showing how many Playstation 4 bundles were actually sold with Killzone at launch, we can safely assume that Shadow Fall is the most played title of the games series so far.
Previous story lines in the games series haven't been particularly memorable to say the least, so it was actually nice to come across a new instalment in Geurrilla games shooter-em-up worth investigating further. The game is ten chapters long, with over 10 hours worth of solid campaign to play through.

The story carries on from the previous series instalment, where you had annihilated most of the Helghast home planet, forcing your people the Vektans to share your world with the refugee survivors from Helghast. As  expected this coalition does result in a lot of conflict that could potentially destroy your planet, leaving both the Vektans and Helghast  World-less.

Visually, Killzone: Shadow Fall looks superb on the Playstation 4. The biggest change we noticed was in the lighting and texture, which in our opinion is a huge improvement from previous games in the series. From the opening sequence, you really do get a sense of being somewhere futuristic and off world, but not too unfamiliar to that of earth in a few hundred years from now. This culminates into eye watering cityscapes and skylines, lush environments, and the coolest looking weapons and armour on a shooting game so far. As gorgeous as these overall visuals maybe, the character's facial movements do appear inconsistent at times. Though it isn't very noticeable, it does let down the polish of Killzone: Shadow Falls overall impeccable graphics.

The sound of firing your weapon doesn't carry the same impact and punch as other shooters, and we just couldn't understand why Guerrilla games never expanded on providing more options of primary weapons. We think this was a big opportunity missed by Guerrilla games as you can only swap between your one and only primary and secondary weaponry, thus creating a lack of  gun diversity especially for a FPS. All that said, there is a lot of other fun destructive toys at your disposal to play with like your robotic companion THE OWL. Using the DualShock4 's new central touchpad feature, you will be able to flick up and down, left and right to pull up various functions on The OWL, like the  zipline, to a floating shield, or a bullet spray attack and an EMP stun shot.

One of the things we did enjoy about Killzone: Shadow Fall was the ability to play the game which ever way we wanted. Though the game is somewhat scripted, we did feel free to roam and engage the enemy from a distance with our sniper attack or a full on John Rambo assault. This type of play which forces you to stop plan and think before approaching an enemy zone does results in a far more interesting game. Don't expect a cake walk on this as there are some levels that will challenge you, even on medium difficulty level.  The game will frustrate even the most seasoned shooters among you, as some stages and boss fights will have you in a small room against a horde of enemy soldiers, as you try to protect your hack-bot as it locks down doors in the room stopping more enemies coming through.

CONCLUSION

Overall we thoroughly did enjoy playing Killzone: Shadow Fall, and thought the games visuals were awesome and very deserving of the next-gen, despite the facial lag in some places. The ability to free-roam and plan the way to attack an enemy does add a nice touch to a genre of shoot-em-ups so heavily reliant on script driven cutscenes and auto aiming assistance to carry you to the final credits. We think as a launch title on the PS4, Guerrilla games have done very well with Killzone: Shadow fall and hopefully this may be the silver lining they have been looking for to grab new FPS fans to support future instalments from the Killzone series.

OVERALL SCORE
Score: 4.5/5

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Killzone: Shadow Fall (PlayStation 4)