Killzone: Shadow Fall Review

Killzone for many years has been the playstations flagship game and Shadow Fall is no different. A launch title for the Playstation 4 Shadow Fall displays graphical finesse on a high level.

The plot for this game is argueably the best one out of the killzone franchise. Not to say that the other installments did not have any story elements what so ever but it's something that has improved over time. Killzone 2 for example had a story that went along the lines of we are invading their planet and capturing their leader, that is the entire storyline. Killzone 3 however improved upon this by leaps and bounds by adding more characters, environments and and a little bit more complex story... but not by much.

It is no secret that the franchise has been mimicking real world history but in space. Killzone one to three (get it?) is a world war two space simulation with the ISA being the allies and the Helghast being Nazis. The opening of Killzone 2 is a sort of D-day if that helps paint a clearer picture and the end is when the allies kill hitler.. no wait. 

Shadow Fall moves on from that and brings the player into a Cold War era. With Helghan destroyed the surviving Helghast are given a new home on Vekta. This comes at a price however as a wall has to be built through the major city, Vektans on one side and Helghast on the other. This is where the appeal of this games story comes into play as instead of fighting a war as a soldier the player is a special agent fighting a shadow war. Every action taken is a chess move against the enemy shrouded in secrecy and denial. Paranoia is also shown on both sides of the wall and is a big driving factor in how the story develops.

HEADSHOT!

The gameplay remains largely the same as any other FPS as its hard to change that formula. There are features of the Dualshock 4 controller that are small additions but work to help you get used to the different controller. The main one being the touchpad being used to swap between modes for the OWL. There are four directions the user can swipe with each being a different mode like Attack, Stun and so on. In regards to the gameplay the OWL is a great little companion allowing the player to access more areas with its zipline and take on more enemies.

The other small addition is the light that the controller uses is linked to the game. When the player is doing good the light is green, when in trouble it turns to flashing orange and lastly when at deaths door the light turns red. A small addition to the gameplay but its a nice way to show off the new tech.

Not everyone may know that the dualshock controller has a speaker in it. This plays into the game as well as any audio tapes collected by the player can be heard from the controller. At first an experience that caused me much distress as I had a stranger screaming about shift logs right in front of me. 

The environments open to the player are quite well designed and detailed. The one pictured below is one of the biggest areas in the game with the player needing to complete certain tasks before leaving. Of course in terms of size this is the best map as the ones that follow are quite linear and easy to traverse if not annoying. This isn't to say that they are bad maps, when it comes to detail and how everything looks there is a near Blade Runner-esque feel to everything. 

I can see my house from here!

Designers of this game really took the PS4s improved hardware capabilities to make a much better game that any other in the series. Although with this being said did Sony have much faith in the game when you consider that a majority of people bought the game with a bundle with the console obviously being the main attraction.