Killzone: Shadow Fall Review

The essence of Killzone: Shadow Fall (also known as “Killzone: Kingdom of Shadows”) is ridiculously simple. If you think that for $20 you are buying yourself a cool shooter, then you are only right about a third of the way. K:SF is a bright, colorful demonstration of the capabilities of the PlayStation 4. It’s a bit longer than the advertised two minutes, and you have to pay for this entertainment.

No, I mean Shadows Fall is, of course, a full-fledged game, but it’s hard to take it seriously. Partly because from the start you just want to start shooting to get into the action, but instead they show you LOOK AT THESE FACES AND FIREWORKS. The whole prologue is dedicated to this.

The gist of it is that first they show us the tragic childhood of the main character, or rather, the episode of his father’s death. The essence of it is that for several loooong moments, the polygonal father will look at his son up close, as if showing the seriousness of the situation and giving instructions, but in reality, LOOK AT THESE TEXTURES AND ANIMATIONS. Then there will be a beautiful night city with lights, and then the same thing will happen with the second adult character. There you are sitting in improvised cover, and the future special forces soldier advises you to be careful, hinting at the deadly danger waiting around every corner, but in reality, LOOK AT THESE TEXTURES AND ANIMATIONS.

It seems to me that I have already bought a PlayStation 4 and even bought this new Killzone with its graphics. Yes, I also want to enjoy these graphics, okay, but not in the format of an already purchased product’s commercial. Give me the same thing, with faces and fireworks, but with action right away.

The introduction really throws off the pace, and when it’s time to shoot bullets and laser beams, you don’t want to do anything but continue to contemplate. Sunsets, sunrises, trees, streams… especially since at the start of the first real mission, you have no weapons or ammo.

But then you reach the first supply crate (they don’t let you take the guns from the debut combiners, or Helghasts, for some reason), and… and the PS4 demo continues! Next up are the features of the controller. Which is now cool with its lights and touchpad. The cute little light on the back panel is mainly for aesthetics in games, but for the first ten minutes, when you just realize that the lights duplicate the character’s health indicators, it’s also fun to keep an eye on this new indicator.

And the touchpad is partially responsible for giving orders to your drone partner. Yes, there is one. It can: perform trigger tasks that (don’t) let the hero move forward, shoot enemies, deploy a force field, and release a rope for crossing gaps. What exactly the drone will do is selected using the touchpad. Swipe down – select the rope, swipe left – select the shield or something else. Overall, it’s convenient, you get used to it right away. The touch controls, praise Sony and the Killzone developers, don’t distract or annoy. Although it doesn’t really affect the game much, but that’s not the point.

The drone itself doesn’t evoke any particular emotions. Whether the character himself throws ropes, sets up shields, or hacks computers, it doesn’t really matter. There was one button, and there is still one button.

And that’s how you play. You try to dominate – they push graphics at you, you try to admire the graphics – a pack of soldiers attacks you. And the gameplay? The gameplay is standard linear-console. Good, yes, it’s fun and dynamic. Somewhere in the middle, the shooting may lag a bit, but then it quickly returns to the right rhythm.

Not just another M-16 against terrorism, and that’s really great.

The plot in the latest Killzone is reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed. No one talks about the fact that it’s all a video game simulation. But there is an opinion that the local writers have hit a similar dead end. There was the first KZ, and there were the Helghasts, alien humanoids with space-modified fascist armor from Jin-Roh. Okay, cool, let’s kill them all for the Greater Good. Well, let’s also tell a story about some war. Great.

The problem is that the further it goes, the more water is poured into this mill, and in Shadow Fall, parallel to the old shooting of enemies, there is a storyline that says “Helghasts are also humans.” They lost their planet, they have to negotiate with their blood enemies, there’s a fate of one, here’s a half-breed (female, yes, fantasize further). And they have their own truth, even though in the prologue the protagonist’s father was shot in front of his eyes, and he doesn’t question the universal justice. Or does he?

Sorry, why all this fuss at all? Just make a simulator, I don’t know, cyber hippies from the future, reconciling people with the infamous Helghasts. Or calm down and stop adding fifth, sixth, seventh, and so on wheels to the action. Seriously, the less I knew about the Halo, Gears of War, and Assassin’s Creed hype, the more enjoyable it was to play them. But, alas, the further we go, the more soap there is in our sci-fi shooters.

**

For a starting exclusive on PlayStation 4, Killzone: Shadow Fall is not that great. Maybe I’m just old. Maybe it just didn’t work. I have an excellent tech demo for the console in my hands, which would look simply stunning as a free app for the hardware itself. Such a bundle would not have such a price. So that you could immediately show your friends the graphics, let them play with the touch buttons, and let them appreciate how the console records videos for you. And a full Russian translation, with voice acting. This, of course, is not the latest trend, and your comrades will definitely remind you of that. Still, it’s much better than just buying FIFA 14. What else would you take, Assassin’s Creed IV? But you already have it on your computer, and it’s twice as cheap. Go and check it out yourself. Just give me the console, I’ll turn it off now.

For the described happiness, Killzone: Shadow Fall deserves a perfect score. As a starting release for the new generation console, it deserves a five just for being a regular, albeit well-made, shooter.

What’s our main rating for “neither fish nor fowl, but objectively, a decent game”?

A PS4 is a great console, but there is currently nothing to play on it.

P.S. Normal screenshots will be available as soon as I figure out how to extract them from the console itself. It seems like there should be a workaround using the Facebook name.