#KILLZONE SHADOW FALL VSA PS3#
#KILLZONE SHADOW FALL VSA SERIES#

You do feel like you’re really in there, the cities have design and substance, and even though you’re guided down routes you don’t feel like it’s just a fancy corridor, it gives the impression it could be a real place.

If you’ve played Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight you’ll have an idea of the scale of some of the levels, particularly as you’re making your way deeper into the heart of some of the New Helghan areas. The draw distance is fantastic and we know from some of the early game presentations that the backdrops are rendered relative to the player so that they are more realistic, which really shows as you’re making your way through the levels. This is a significant leap on from the last game simply down to the graphical detail and scale of the environment. The other technical aspects of the game are excellent too. The brutal melee returns for combat duty, whether you’re sneaking up on an unsuspecting guard or hitting the buttons in a panic because you’ve run out of ammo, the animations are as fluid and gruesome as ever. It’s a nice touch not having a health meter on screen, and equally impressive that the pad colours actually graduate from red, through amber and back to green instead of just blinking between the three. You know you’re getting hit because not only does your screen turn red, but your trigger fingers do too because of the shifting colour of the light bar on the controller. If you’ve never actually been killed in a game by a literal hail of bullets, stick around to the latter part of the story and you’ll get the chance, the Helghast don’t hold back. The AI are still top notch and will suppress and flank you if they can, and if they can’t they’ll just come in force and with greater firepower. It can feel slow and cumbersome if you’ve just come from a Call of Duty/Battlefield game, but it’s more solid and measured than either of those, and to me feels more precise and under control. The gameplay is true Killzone pedigree, it has the heft and weight you’ve come to expect from the games. You’ll wish for silenced weapons or sniper rifles in some sections though, or the nice cloaking devices your enemies are sometimes equipped with, because it’s all too easy to slip up and trigger an alert, and if you’re in the wrong place your minutes are numbered. This departure from the usual “go to X, shoot Y” formula works pretty well, especially as the levels are quite large so it gives you space and perspective to work with. This isn’t an open world and the tasks usually have to be performed in certain order, but it’s reminiscent of the stealth vs. Besides the OWL, you now have freedom to approach objectives from multiple angles. The new touchpad on the controller comes into its own here, you swipe in the cardinal directions to select a function, then hit L1 to activate, all nice and easy and gives you 4 more controller options to make things more complex. The OWL is a lovely piece of technology that acts as transport, backup, shielding, stun device and medic, and feels like a replacement for your absent team mates, but one that doesn’t get in the way. It’s still a first person shooter, but you’re now resolutely on your own instead of being accompanied by a squad, though you are given an OWL. Once you get into the first proper mission you realise how Killzone Shadow Fall is different from the others.

It’s fairly predictable that you’re going to follow in Sinclair’s footsteps and become a Shadow Marshall, and after a nice backstory/history/training montage you begin in earnest as an elite soldier saving his planet from the enemy. Things start off for you as a small boy escaping the purge of Vektans by the Helghast as the two societies are segregated with the installation of the wall, then being rescued and taken under the wing of a Shadow Marshall called Sinclair. This next chapter starts 30 years after the conclusion of Killzone 3, Helghan is uninhabitable after the events of the previous game and the survivors offered a home on Vekta where things have been tense but peaceful because the two civilisations are separated by a 200 metre high security wall. This has competition in the form of Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4, and considering both are cross-generational games they’re still impressive, so how does Killzone Shadow Fall measure up?

#KILLZONE SHADOW FALL VSA PS3#

We’re in a bit of a pattern here with FPS games coming out at launch on a new Sony console, the PS2 had Timesplitters, the PS3 had Resistance, both of which were excellent games to start a generation off with.

#KILLZONE SHADOW FALL VSA SERIES#

This is the sixth game in the Killzone series from Dutch developer Guerilla Games, and what I’d term one of the first true next generation games to hit the shelves (there are plenty of new titles out there, but very few that have only been developed for latest platform).

Killzone shadow fall vsa