Killzone: Shadow Fall Campaign Review
The PS4's go-to tech demo.
Review by Isaac Handelman
Note: This review pertains only to the single-player component of Killzone: Shadow Fall. Multiplayer was not tested and will not be addressed in this review, nor will its quality in any way affect the score.
Review by Isaac Handelman
Note: This review pertains only to the single-player component of Killzone: Shadow Fall. Multiplayer was not tested and will not be addressed in this review, nor will its quality in any way affect the score.
If you purchased a PlayStation 4 at launch, then there’s a good chance that you picked up Killzone: Shadow Fall alongside it. It’s difficult to blame a PlayStation fan for that decision; the launch pickings were rather skim, and Shadow Fall stood as the single recognizable first-party Sony brand present at the console launch. Shadow Fall is the first next-gen iteration of one of Sony’s first-party franchises, and as such, it has some mighty big shoes to fill. Do Guerilla's efforts live up? Well, yes and no.
Shadow Fall’s story, placing Shadow Marshal Lucas Kellen front-and-center, starts off strong, setting the stage for a more personal, emotional narrative than the series is known for, still with strong ties to the science-fiction conflict fans are yearning for more of. Kellen’s position tasks him as a peacekeeper of sorts; he performs various covert military operations, under the command of his mentor Sinclair, all with the goal of balancing the fragile relationship between the Vektans of Vekta City, and the Helghan immigrants, who have migrated to the Vekta homeworld and now reside in the adjacent New Helghan, separated by a gargantuan wall.
The premise is far-fetched, and the narrative, though built on promising supports, soon crumbles under the weight of Shadow Fall’s ham-fisted dialogue, generic characters, and abundant use of narrative cliches. By the time I had reached the fifth of Shadow Fall’s ten missions, I no longer had the slightest bit of interest in the narrative, and would likely have resorted to skipping cutscenes were they not so visually impressive.
The good news is that the game is absolutely the most visually stunning game currently available on PlayStation 4 (and quite possibly the prettiest console game yet, though I can’t personally speak to the visuals of the Xbox One’s launch offerings). Yes, Shadow Fall is a true visual marvel, rivaling high-end PC graphics showcases like Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 in terms of its visual prowess. The game is a sight to behold from the moment it begins, showcasing brilliant facial animation and character models, explosive, highly detailed particle effects, and sleek, shiny, reflective metallic surfaces, from guns to buildings, that show off the impressive lighting effects Guerilla has pulled off. The framerate does take some noticeable dips during Shadow Fall’s most hectic moments, but it remains surprisingly smooth throughout the majority of the game’s duration.
The game’s visual design takes a turn for the worse during the game’s latter portion. Though early stages showcase sunny vistas, lush flora and fauna, and the majestic skyline of Vekta City, Kellan soon takes on a mission that forces him over the wall into New Helghan, and from that point on, Shadow Fall becomes a much more typical Killzone game, both in terms of style and substance. On the other hand, Shadow Fall’s most visually arresting mission comes late in the campaign, during a section heavily focused on crumbling buildings and gravity-altering beams that lift rubble into the air in spectacular fashion. By and large, though, after the first chunk of the campaign has passed by, the second half becomes far less visually interesting, reverting to the drab color pallette of earlier entries.
During the first half of the campaign, Guerilla Games provides players with a new element not previously found in Killzone games: choice. Players can choose how to tackle some of the situations they are presented with, most notably in Shadow Fall’s second mission, which promises a level of openness and non-linearity that most of the campaign’s remainder fails to live up to.
Central to Guerilla’s plans to give players more freedom is the OWL, a small robotic companion available to players with a swipe of the touchpad that carries with it abilities to attack or stun enemies, throw up a shield or zipline, and hack various computer terminals. The touchpad responds flawlessly to player input, and I was soon using the it to switch effortlessly between the functions of the OWL. If this implementation is anything to go buy, this new DualShock 4 feature should prove to be quite useful in giving developers another reliable avenue for player input. Guerilla does a good job of encouraging players to utilize the OWL’s numerous functions as well. I found myself using the drone’s attack mode far more than any other functions, to be sure, but its shield is an indispensable tool with the potential to get players out of some otherwise fatal situations, and certain enemies can only be taken down after they’ve been stunned by the OWL (this occasionally proves to be outright annoying, as the robotic companion takes time to recharge, which may lead to some instances where the player has no choice but to hide behind a wall and wait for an arbitrary meter to fill up before returning to the fray, should they not have enough ammunition to stun the enemy with their weapon).
The OWL’s other two functions, however, are mostly abandoned by Guerilla after the game’s second mission barring scripted sequences where the player has no choice what to grapple to or which terminals to hack. That seems a bizarre choice on the part of the developers, but it’s one that they continually make as Shadow Fall’s campaign progresses, and it’s one of the most aggravating things about the game. The basics of shooting are as responsive and smoothly ironed as would be expected in this day and age, which is good, because the element of choice that seems so intoxicating at first proves soon to be an afterthought as the campaign goes on; furthermore, Guerilla inexplicably forces players to carry their signature Shadow Marshal rifle with them at all times, filling one of the two available weapon slots, and severely limiting player opportunity to experiment with the game’s creative arsenal.
The game’s other utilization of new DualShock 4 functionality comes in the form of the LED on the top of the controller reacting to the player’s level of health (green means full health, yellow indicates damage, and red means dead). The feature is nifty, but I never found myself actually referencing the color of the controller’s light to measure how long I had to live. Still, it doesn’t detract from the experience in any way, so it serves purely as another example of how intent Guerilla was to show off the capabilities of Sony’s new console.
Guerilla’s inexperience in crafting open-ended gameplay scenarios becomes annoying more than once, as some early levels are laid out in utterly perplexing ways, making finding ones’ way to the objective needlessly difficult, even with the use of waypoints. The open-endedness of the levels is most prominent in the aforementioned second mission, but remains present through some of the campaign’s first half. As the story progresses, the levels grow in linearity and become more typical of the genre. In some ways, that benefits the game, as Guerilla’s higher level of experience crafting linear levels shines through in stages that feel more focused and confident, but it also make the latter half of the experience somewhat predictable. Later levels are straightforward and showcase a visual style similar to previous Killzone games, albeit of a far higher quality. The loss of freedom allows Guerilla to stop worrying about the incorporation of elements they aren’t experienced with and lets the developer do what they do best: provide a visual showcase for PlayStation hardware behind a highly polished shooter experience.
Ultimately, despite Guerilla’s many attempts to expand the brand for a new hardware generation, the things Shadow Fall does best are the things that Killzone has been doing well for almost a decade. Owners of PlayStation 4s will get their money’s worth from the game, which provides a predictably solid shooting experience and an impressive showcase for the graphical might of Sony’s new console. Just don’t expect the game-changer that Guerilla seems to have originally been intended Shadow Fall to be. The developers abandoned that notion half-way through the game, and it’s best you go into the experience with the knowledge of what you will be playing: a souped-up, unbelievably pretty Killzone that is still, for better and for worse, Killzone through and through.
Shadow Fall’s story, placing Shadow Marshal Lucas Kellen front-and-center, starts off strong, setting the stage for a more personal, emotional narrative than the series is known for, still with strong ties to the science-fiction conflict fans are yearning for more of. Kellen’s position tasks him as a peacekeeper of sorts; he performs various covert military operations, under the command of his mentor Sinclair, all with the goal of balancing the fragile relationship between the Vektans of Vekta City, and the Helghan immigrants, who have migrated to the Vekta homeworld and now reside in the adjacent New Helghan, separated by a gargantuan wall.The premise is far-fetched, and the narrative, though built on promising supports, soon crumbles under the weight of Shadow Fall’s ham-fisted dialogue, generic characters, and abundant use of narrative cliches. By the time I had reached the fifth of Shadow Fall’s ten missions, I no longer had the slightest bit of interest in the narrative, and would likely have resorted to skipping cutscenes were they not so visually impressive.
The good news is that the game is absolutely the most visually stunning game currently available on PlayStation 4 (and quite possibly the prettiest console game yet, though I can’t personally speak to the visuals of the Xbox One’s launch offerings). Yes, Shadow Fall is a true visual marvel, rivaling high-end PC graphics showcases like Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 in terms of its visual prowess. The game is a sight to behold from the moment it begins, showcasing brilliant facial animation and character models, explosive, highly detailed particle effects, and sleek, shiny, reflective metallic surfaces, from guns to buildings, that show off the impressive lighting effects Guerilla has pulled off. The framerate does take some noticeable dips during Shadow Fall’s most hectic moments, but it remains surprisingly smooth throughout the majority of the game’s duration.
The game’s visual design takes a turn for the worse during the game’s latter portion. Though early stages showcase sunny vistas, lush flora and fauna, and the majestic skyline of Vekta City, Kellan soon takes on a mission that forces him over the wall into New Helghan, and from that point on, Shadow Fall becomes a much more typical Killzone game, both in terms of style and substance. On the other hand, Shadow Fall’s most visually arresting mission comes late in the campaign, during a section heavily focused on crumbling buildings and gravity-altering beams that lift rubble into the air in spectacular fashion. By and large, though, after the first chunk of the campaign has passed by, the second half becomes far less visually interesting, reverting to the drab color pallette of earlier entries.
Central to Guerilla’s plans to give players more freedom is the OWL, a small robotic companion available to players with a swipe of the touchpad that carries with it abilities to attack or stun enemies, throw up a shield or zipline, and hack various computer terminals. The touchpad responds flawlessly to player input, and I was soon using the it to switch effortlessly between the functions of the OWL. If this implementation is anything to go buy, this new DualShock 4 feature should prove to be quite useful in giving developers another reliable avenue for player input. Guerilla does a good job of encouraging players to utilize the OWL’s numerous functions as well. I found myself using the drone’s attack mode far more than any other functions, to be sure, but its shield is an indispensable tool with the potential to get players out of some otherwise fatal situations, and certain enemies can only be taken down after they’ve been stunned by the OWL (this occasionally proves to be outright annoying, as the robotic companion takes time to recharge, which may lead to some instances where the player has no choice but to hide behind a wall and wait for an arbitrary meter to fill up before returning to the fray, should they not have enough ammunition to stun the enemy with their weapon).
The OWL’s other two functions, however, are mostly abandoned by Guerilla after the game’s second mission barring scripted sequences where the player has no choice what to grapple to or which terminals to hack. That seems a bizarre choice on the part of the developers, but it’s one that they continually make as Shadow Fall’s campaign progresses, and it’s one of the most aggravating things about the game. The basics of shooting are as responsive and smoothly ironed as would be expected in this day and age, which is good, because the element of choice that seems so intoxicating at first proves soon to be an afterthought as the campaign goes on; furthermore, Guerilla inexplicably forces players to carry their signature Shadow Marshal rifle with them at all times, filling one of the two available weapon slots, and severely limiting player opportunity to experiment with the game’s creative arsenal.
The game’s other utilization of new DualShock 4 functionality comes in the form of the LED on the top of the controller reacting to the player’s level of health (green means full health, yellow indicates damage, and red means dead). The feature is nifty, but I never found myself actually referencing the color of the controller’s light to measure how long I had to live. Still, it doesn’t detract from the experience in any way, so it serves purely as another example of how intent Guerilla was to show off the capabilities of Sony’s new console.
Guerilla’s inexperience in crafting open-ended gameplay scenarios becomes annoying more than once, as some early levels are laid out in utterly perplexing ways, making finding ones’ way to the objective needlessly difficult, even with the use of waypoints. The open-endedness of the levels is most prominent in the aforementioned second mission, but remains present through some of the campaign’s first half. As the story progresses, the levels grow in linearity and become more typical of the genre. In some ways, that benefits the game, as Guerilla’s higher level of experience crafting linear levels shines through in stages that feel more focused and confident, but it also make the latter half of the experience somewhat predictable. Later levels are straightforward and showcase a visual style similar to previous Killzone games, albeit of a far higher quality. The loss of freedom allows Guerilla to stop worrying about the incorporation of elements they aren’t experienced with and lets the developer do what they do best: provide a visual showcase for PlayStation hardware behind a highly polished shooter experience.Ultimately, despite Guerilla’s many attempts to expand the brand for a new hardware generation, the things Shadow Fall does best are the things that Killzone has been doing well for almost a decade. Owners of PlayStation 4s will get their money’s worth from the game, which provides a predictably solid shooting experience and an impressive showcase for the graphical might of Sony’s new console. Just don’t expect the game-changer that Guerilla seems to have originally been intended Shadow Fall to be. The developers abandoned that notion half-way through the game, and it’s best you go into the experience with the knowledge of what you will be playing: a souped-up, unbelievably pretty Killzone that is still, for better and for worse, Killzone through and through.
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