This is Killzone Shadowfall a Playstation 4 Exclusive.
Chaos has decended upon Vektan the home of the protagonist Kellan when they were invaded by Helghans living in New Helghan had enough of them and attacked.
If you haven’t played Killzone 3, the Planet of Helghan was destroyed by the ISA and it left the surviving Helghan homeless. The ones who survived migrated to Vekta but living separate from the Vektans with a big wall separating the two.
This game starts to look like a cold war with the two sides fighting each other in spy vs spy ways. In essence it’s Bad guys try to take over by any means even attempting to destroy the world, real basic Good Vs Evil story. How “Evil” the Helghan are is questionable. Once you meet the Helghan who are not soldiers you may just get a different opinion, is it a race of bad men or just an evil regime and the commoners have no say?
STORY:
On the story side of the game you meet Kellan a Vektan Shadow Marshal who loves to hide in the shadows to slit a throat. Reiterating what I said before, the planet of the Helghan was destroyed forcing the Helghan that lived to move to New Helghan a subsection of Vekta the planet which the Vektans control. They live behind a wall where the conditions are much worse than the Vektans. Still remembering it was the Vektans that destroyed their planet they are not happy and are willing to take revenge by any means.
The story overall is decent but when you throw the lack of consistency in the voice acting it gets rather stale faster when the voice actors do not show proper emotion.
The ending to the story also left a sour taste in my mouth.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is quite different to Killzone 2, and 3. No longer, you have that heavy feeling you did in the past games, the movement is a lot more fluid this time around. The heaviness was pretty cool in the past games but I also felt sluggish in my movements.
Killzone Shadow mixes in great guns with great gameplay and the cover system from previous games makes a welcomed return. In the single player campaign you will get to experiment with a variety of weapons such as a 3 shot electric gun which I just fell in love with
The main Campaign will also give you about 8-10 hours of gaming time on the Hardest difficulty which I beat it on.
I would also love to mention that Killzone has the best grenades I ever used in any game ever!
Graphics:
This game was basically shown to be a graphical beast and while the game sure does look amazing and more colorful this time around I couldn’t help but feel annoyed when I traversed areas which were full of color back to the dark gritty colors from killzone 2 and 3 when you travel to places like New Helghan. Aesthetically it suits the style of the game but I am real tired of the dark colors.
The graphics will be shown off constantly in this game, rather it be the lighting or the great cutscenes that show the beautiful vistas and lighting. Killzone Shadowfall was easily the best looking game of the Playstation 4 launch Titles.
My only real issue with the graphics apart from asthetics is the character models do not look really all that great, they felt lifeless to me and the female helghan you meet makes this even more prevalent.
Online:
This is where you’re going to be spending most of your time and where the game really shines. The multiplayer is much quicker paced this time around and there is a lot of fun to be had. No longer are you in a game where it constantly requires ranking up your character to unlock new guns and gear, the way you do that in this game is by choosing any gun on any of the three basic classes offered to you, Assualt, Engineer, and Scout. You’re thrown into the game with most things already unlocked allowing you to have fun and experiment right from the start.
The game modes offered online is Warzone or a 24 player Team Deathmatch. The Warzone is actually a series of modes within one whole game, during one sessions you may play through Team Deathmatch, Domination, or Capture the Flag type games and there is more than what I just said.
My only issue with the online portion of the game is the real lack of customization, I’m use to being able to show my individuality with cool Dogtags or calling cards in other games and there is a real lack of that here and it does not really allow me to express myself. There is some avatars you can change in the game but nothing significant enough you’ll want to spend hours just to unlock a cool dog tag that says “I’m awesome”
Pros:
• Gameplay is really fluid
• Cold War Theme
• Top notch multiplayer
Cons:
• Inconsistent voice acting
• Character models at times look lifeless
• New Helghan is reminiscent of the old Killzone color Pallet.
• Lack of personalization in the online multiplayer.
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.
Good review. Will get this game once I have bought a PS4.
Just bought this today. Only played about an hour of the story and I'm enjoying it. $20 at best buy
I have heard mixed reviews about this game. I personally loved the first three, and once i buy a ps4 plan on buying this immediately.
Killzone mp is BOSS!