Killzone: Shadow Fall Review - A Mixed Bag

It begins with you looking up at a man and he’s either a giant, or Guerrilla Games has messed up the height of the main character again. Luckily, it becomes apparent that you’re actually just a child at this point. Phew!

It’s an opening we’ve seen many times before, the long walk... followed by a QTE. Although it’s a good way of showing off lots of pretty things to look at, it’s not the best showcase of the game and outstays its welcome. 

After the heavily prescribed opening however, things pick up — and your character grows up. You’re much taller in this than you were in previous Killzone games. Most of the characters in the game are actually the same height as you! Some of the environmental details still feel giant in comparison to the character’s perspective though, but that’s presumably just a side-effect of the chunky visual design.

Gameplay predictably revolves around shooting people with glowing red eyes and trying not to be shot by the people with glowing red eyes — it’s not too complex. The weapons themselves are, for the most part, rather uninspired high-tech versions of existing firearms. They all feel satisfying to fire and headshots kill as immediately as they should. Some scenery is destructible too, which adds to the satisfaction of a frantic gunfight.

The default assault rifle’s secondary fire is magical, though. A tap on the d-pad stretches out the barrel, transforming it into a high-powered charge shot that’s deadly at range. A fully charged hit on an enemy sends their body careening through the air and it’s hard not to find a maniacal joy in seeing them spinning off like a meaty clay pigeon.

Bringing a tactical layer into the combat is the OWL, a personal drone that you can use to gain the upperhand in battle. It can be used to attack enemies whilst you flank. You can also use it to shock enemies, which is mainly useful in the later stages when used to take down enemies’ shields. 

The most useful function of the OWL is its zipline though, which can whisk you in and out of the fray in a few seconds, or get you to an advantageous position where you can pick your enemies off. On top of this, if your plans go fubar you can always rely on the drone’s revive ability — assuming you have the required adrenaline to activate it — which allows you to enter straight back into combat in a blur of slow-motion bullet hell.

The OWL can also send out a pulse which highlights the enemies around you, even through walls, to set up a stealth takedown or two. It’s a shame then that the stealth often feels like a bit of an afterthought. Obviously, Killzone Shadow Fall isn’t a stealth game, but the more open approach of the first few missions is begging to be skulked about in. Yet it’s only ever used to thin the numbers before launching a full assault. 

The first half of the game allows you to experiment with the new tools at your disposal, and it makes the game feel notably different from the rest of the series. The vibrant and lush green cliffsides dappled with sunlight soon shrink into the tight corridors of a ship docked next to the sun, reducing your options in combat. There are some neat touches in the tight corridors of the ship, like being able to shoot out the shutters — melting your foes with the heat of the nearby ball of gas and death — but it’s hard not to miss the freedom promised early on. And the game’s campaign never really recovers from it. 

One aspect that can’t be knocked though, is the game’s position as a technical showcase of what the PlayStation 4 can do. Particle and volumetric effects seem to be what next-gen is offering and Killzone Shadow Fall offers them in big, chunky spadefuls. Dust particles float through beams of light, lazily drifting through the air — even lighting up when the muzzle flash from your rifle reflects off them.

At one point in the game you find yourself floating through space and it’s hard not to just hang there, looking around at all the space debris and tiny details filling your screen; smoke looks dense, glass reflects, cloth billows — hell, even ventilation shafts and rocks look sexy. 

The campaign is a mixed bag then, always gorgeous, but never mechanically consistent and dropping in quality at the halfway point. The story is bobbins, as is the majority of the dialogue — especially from the main character, generoman, who acts as little more than a cipher.

Luckily the campaign isn’t all that’s on offer. The online battles, especially Warzone — with its objectives that shift every five minutes — are the best that’s on offer on PS4 currently. Most of the abilities and weapons are selectable from the off. This leaves the playing field even and allows player to focus on what’s important: shooting your friends in the face. In Killzone you can’t rely on twitch reflexes alone however, as this is a shooter that’s about tactics as much as aiming skill. 

Most of the Warzone objectives require defending a position, of course, which means the battlefield switches around a lot, changing the dynamics of each battle on the fly. You can put down holographic shields and hunker down, or activate your cloaking ability and wait in the shadows. Turrets can be placed, drones can be controlled, spawn beacons can be activated… with a team of likeminded people with headsets you can create an unstoppable force with the toolset available. 

The multiplayer can feel a bit overwhelming at first, without the comfort blanket of slowly building up your armoury and toolset as you play. There’s no one loadout for every situation, and creating a mixture for each class available is the best play. It really is the thinking person’s shooter. 

Although this review has felt rather negative towards the campaign, there’s a lot to like there, too — for the first half at least. And once you’re done with that you can always jump into the always brilliant online arena. As far as launch games for new consoles go, Killzone: Shadow Fall isn’t bad by any means. Just don’t expect anything revolutionary outside of dust particles in shafts of light and you’ll be fine.

Final Verdict

7 out of 10

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.