Killzone Shadow Fall Review: Dressed to Impress.

Killzone Shadow Fall is arguably the PS4’s biggest launch game available and the PS4’s heaviest vocal point to consumers looking for their next gen experience. But is it the system seller we all hope for or just a filler experience while we wait for Infamous Second Son.

Killzone Shadow Fall takes you out of the mind set of an almost barbarian solider and puts you into the shoes of a more subtle character, Lucas Kellan, who is in Vectors shadow marshal, a black ops team. And after the events of Killzone 3 you are desperately needed to keep the peace between the two warring peoples, Helghans and Vectans, who now are forced to share a planet.
 

The story is a welcomed change with an interesting premise that kept me interested throughout the game. However within the chapters the game did fall prey to becoming a monotonous exercise of completing objectives one after the other but not caring why exactly your doing the tasks at hand.

One thing that is undeniable when it comes to this game though is the astounding graphics it has. In the first hour I had found myself stopping over 30 times just to stair, open mouthed, at the pure beauty this game has achieved; bringing you screen shots that can rival even the big budget films of today.

On top of this obvious graphical leap Killzone Shadow Fall has improved a lot of the series tropes that held back its predecessors from being truly amazing instead of just great. One major improvement is that the games settings and maps have thankfully moved away from the dreary rubble infested cities that became the last generations Killzone signature, to a more varied and vibrant approach; sending the series to more interesting environments such as the forest in chapter 2.

But with this new variation of environments comes a fall back that plagued my experience throughout the campaign. I never knew where the hell to go! Maybe its just my over reliance on maps or on screen icons helping guide me to my destination but in almost every single chapter it was never clear where I had to go next, making my character more clueless than badass and taking away from the cool atmosphere that the game had been steadily building up. Making my gameplay experience summarise as high octane, explosive action sequences spread out by intervals of me wandering aimlessly through the beautiful landscapes hoping the next corner would be the corner home.

The gameplay has also seen a welcomed improvement ditching the heavy feeling movement that; while did give the previous games a sense of realism, personally, made the character feel sluggish and never prepared for the challenges ahead. Instead Killzone Shadow Fall lets the player control a more agile character; playing more like 2012’s Far Cry 3 than its lineage.

This new, more agile character allows you to also have different approaches to some situations, allowing you to be stealthy as well as the usual run and gun badass Killzone has always allowed you to be. This new stealth approach while not as in-depth as say a Splinter Cell game is a lot of fun and gives you a refreshing view of how to tackle challenges in still an action hero way with even some portions of the game enforcing a more stealth style.

Now while this new style does not bog down the pace as some may have expected; the boring find the battery and put it in the socket ‘puzzles’ do. Adding even more frustration to the before mentioned problem of not being able to understand where the hell it is I have to go, really breaking the pace of some of the chapters creating lulls in the experience that could have easily been avoided. 

But don’t get me wrong this game still a first person shooter and shooting Helghast has never been more fun. Still with the tight controls you'd expect from an FPS, bringing you smooth combat, but now with an all new sleek primary weapon fully embracing the series’ sci-fi flavour, shooting lens flaring rays of blue light which you can combo with some seriously cool knife take downs.

In-fact I am very happy to see Killzone finally dive into its sci-fi theme, from its stunning art direction of futuristic cities and cold desolate space stations to the inclusion of drones which can always be seen zooming through the cities skyline and also incorporates Killzone Shadow Fall’s biggest new gameplay feature. Forget dogs, drones are now a man’s best friend; the drone, OWL, which will accompany you throughout the story has four abilities: shield, shoot, zip-line, and stun. All this is controlled by the PS4’s touchpad and is a great addition to the Killzone formula adding more strategy in a natural way both story and control-wise.

I personally have never been a big fan of multiplayer and usually only try it for an hour or so but with Killzone Shadow Fall I can’t stopping heading back into the online battles. With a really balanced set of classes (featuring strong abilities and weaponry to experiment with and master), some really great modes to play such as the classic Warzones and some made by the players, and a host of beautifully intricate maps its hard to get bored of the intense but awesome online of Killzone Shadow Fall. Trust me there’s no better feeling than throwing a grenade down a corridor and seeing your points sky rocket as you’ve just taken out half of the enemy team and saved the majority of your own.

Killzone Shadow Fall is an amazing start for the PS4, showcasing the raw power of the new hardware through new gameplay and graphical achievements that are only slightly held back by a few bad moves by developer Guerrilla Games.

Killzone Shadow Fall = 8/10

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