Killzone Shadow Fall Review
Hey folks Brandon here and it's PS4 time and it's time I review the last exclusive. This game is made by the good people of Guerrilla Games. They are only known for the Killzone series. Now some people may know and you will find out know I loved the shit out of Killzone 3 so I was proper excited for this game. Sadly I can say I was rather disappointed with the result of Killzone Shadow Fall.
The story is a direct sequel to Killzone 3. Helghan is destroyed and the Helghast are now living on Vekta good ole Berlin wall style. You play Lucas Kellan, who was being violently kicked out of New Helghan. After seeing your father shot in front of you. Many years later you become a Shadow Marshall, which is a fancy title for special forces. The rest of the game is you behind enemy lines investigating or hunting down targets. The game has almost none of the original characters from the series being that this all takes place 20 years after Killzone 3. So no more bromance from Sev and Rico, know this game lacks the Bro that the shooter series previously had. I also must say a change they make that I do hate is that they took out the cut scenes. They technically still have "cut scenes" but they are all Call of Duty style. Those aren't bad but I did miss seeing the story being told from different points of view and not just my bland character. They also got rid of any good villains. The villains they have are your cookie cut out of what a shooter villain should be. I can't even tell you their names cause they might as well been some masked space Nazi. You character is also very bland. I felt like he was supposed to be on the set of Call of Duty and just walked onto this one. There are set pieces which I thought were good but nothing quite as amazing as Killzone 3. The ending does take a turn I didn't entirely see coming. It was actually a bit confusing until I sat and thought about it for a minute.
The games graphics are good not blow me out of my seat fantastic just good. The environment and guns and character models in cut scenes all look great. The biggest flaw I saw in the graphics was the human faces outside of cut scenes. They weren't atrocious but in comparison to the rest of the game they didn't hold up.
The sound was interesting. The voice acting was done well enough to get the story across. The guns and explosions all sounded fantastic. The real elephant in the room was the sound that would come from the controller. It would only come out when you picked up an audio log but it would sound so damn creepy. They weren't scary sounds just the fact that it is coming out of the controller was something I wasn't used to so it gave a ominous feel.
Now like any game you are wondering Brandon does the gameplay. Well little one I shall tell you, it is the best controls of any of the Killzone games. The previous ones had really sensitive aiming in them which made them a bit hard to control. This one feels as good as any of the shooters today. The touchpad controls this very useful drone that can do a number of things from attacking the enemy to reviving your ass if you get downed. On normal I did feel like the challenge was perfect not too easy nor too hard. It was a perfect balance but the biggest problem I had was how the game was structured. Since you have to be this covert ops guy you don't fight in any big battles it is always you VS a group of Helghast. The problem is the entire series is about a war and what I loved about the previous two games is I felt like I was in war. This one just was copying Call of Duty Ghost with just about everything except it was set in space. You get a variety of weapons and the game changes enough to keep from ever getting repetitive so those are all pluses there.
Now this is going to sound strange coming from me but if you own a PS4 get this game for the online. The online supports 24 players being on either the humans or space Nazis side. You start out with a butt load of different premade classes to choose from and you can customize any class to your liking. The game will have a big learning curve but from a guy who is not used to multiplayer I must say I enjoyed the shit out of this, and I wasn't half bad at it either. You do unlock more weapons and goodies but I don't see a need because the weapons they give you are badass. You get a bunch of different versions of Warzone. You get team death match, capture points, hide and seek, classic, and many more I can't think of at the time. The absolute best part of multiplayer is how it ends. It ends with what I imagine the best players on the winning team executing a member of the losing team. I see it a get all funny inside, sadly I wasn't ever one of the executioners.
Overall the single player is a shell of what Killzone 2 and 3 were but the multiplayer is the reason to stay. Honestly it was the multiplayer that saved this game so I give it a 3.5-5, yes the .5 is because I had such a blast with the multiplayer.
The story is a direct sequel to Killzone 3. Helghan is destroyed and the Helghast are now living on Vekta good ole Berlin wall style. You play Lucas Kellan, who was being violently kicked out of New Helghan. After seeing your father shot in front of you. Many years later you become a Shadow Marshall, which is a fancy title for special forces. The rest of the game is you behind enemy lines investigating or hunting down targets. The game has almost none of the original characters from the series being that this all takes place 20 years after Killzone 3. So no more bromance from Sev and Rico, know this game lacks the Bro that the shooter series previously had. I also must say a change they make that I do hate is that they took out the cut scenes. They technically still have "cut scenes" but they are all Call of Duty style. Those aren't bad but I did miss seeing the story being told from different points of view and not just my bland character. They also got rid of any good villains. The villains they have are your cookie cut out of what a shooter villain should be. I can't even tell you their names cause they might as well been some masked space Nazi. You character is also very bland. I felt like he was supposed to be on the set of Call of Duty and just walked onto this one. There are set pieces which I thought were good but nothing quite as amazing as Killzone 3. The ending does take a turn I didn't entirely see coming. It was actually a bit confusing until I sat and thought about it for a minute.
The games graphics are good not blow me out of my seat fantastic just good. The environment and guns and character models in cut scenes all look great. The biggest flaw I saw in the graphics was the human faces outside of cut scenes. They weren't atrocious but in comparison to the rest of the game they didn't hold up.
The sound was interesting. The voice acting was done well enough to get the story across. The guns and explosions all sounded fantastic. The real elephant in the room was the sound that would come from the controller. It would only come out when you picked up an audio log but it would sound so damn creepy. They weren't scary sounds just the fact that it is coming out of the controller was something I wasn't used to so it gave a ominous feel.
Now like any game you are wondering Brandon does the gameplay. Well little one I shall tell you, it is the best controls of any of the Killzone games. The previous ones had really sensitive aiming in them which made them a bit hard to control. This one feels as good as any of the shooters today. The touchpad controls this very useful drone that can do a number of things from attacking the enemy to reviving your ass if you get downed. On normal I did feel like the challenge was perfect not too easy nor too hard. It was a perfect balance but the biggest problem I had was how the game was structured. Since you have to be this covert ops guy you don't fight in any big battles it is always you VS a group of Helghast. The problem is the entire series is about a war and what I loved about the previous two games is I felt like I was in war. This one just was copying Call of Duty Ghost with just about everything except it was set in space. You get a variety of weapons and the game changes enough to keep from ever getting repetitive so those are all pluses there.
Now this is going to sound strange coming from me but if you own a PS4 get this game for the online. The online supports 24 players being on either the humans or space Nazis side. You start out with a butt load of different premade classes to choose from and you can customize any class to your liking. The game will have a big learning curve but from a guy who is not used to multiplayer I must say I enjoyed the shit out of this, and I wasn't half bad at it either. You do unlock more weapons and goodies but I don't see a need because the weapons they give you are badass. You get a bunch of different versions of Warzone. You get team death match, capture points, hide and seek, classic, and many more I can't think of at the time. The absolute best part of multiplayer is how it ends. It ends with what I imagine the best players on the winning team executing a member of the losing team. I see it a get all funny inside, sadly I wasn't ever one of the executioners.
Overall the single player is a shell of what Killzone 2 and 3 were but the multiplayer is the reason to stay. Honestly it was the multiplayer that saved this game so I give it a 3.5-5, yes the .5 is because I had such a blast with the multiplayer.