Killzone Shadow Fall
Introduction
On July 22nd, Guerrilla gave a tiny 21 days notice for the shutdown of the last two remaining Killzone along with Rigs, a VR game. The termination of online services will mark the death of the Killzone franchise since the trilogy on the PS3 has already been shutdown a few years ago. Unless we get a remaster, it won't be possible to play Killzone online for the foreseeable future. Killzone Shadow Fall has always been on my hitlist, ever since I got myself a PS4 a few years ago. Even with the ridiculousness of the time given by the devs, the shutdown notice gave me a good reason to bump this game up as my top priority in order to get it done in the 21 allocated days.
Story and Gameplay
Shadow Fall being my first Killzone, I had to dig some YouTube videos to get a little bit of briefing on what happened in the previous entries so I won't be totally lost when playing this game haha. From what I gathered, Killzone takes place in a fictional world where a nuclear war has rendered Earth uninhabitable. Worlds governments along with private firms formed an international alliance in order to try and establish human colonies in some other planets. The Alpha Centauri system was selected, made by two planets : Vekta, a rich Earth-like world, and Helghan, a wasteland. When some private firm tied to Helghan decided to try and buy ownership of Vekta as well, sanctions were imposed for unfair business practices, which ultimately led to a war. The colonists were driven out of Vekta and exiled. In response, they established their own civilization on Helghan. The harsh environment and atmosphere killed many and forced the survivors to use respirators and air tanks to be able to breathe. But the human body is so great that eventually, the population mutated into pale skinned humanoids with increased strength, stamina as well as intelligence and adapted to the environment. Convinced of their superiority, the Helghan consider the human race to be beneath them and dream of one day reconquering Vekta and expanding their empire to the neighboring star systems.
At the end of Killzone 3, a petrusite detonation has rendered the Helghan planet uninhabitable. Helghast survivors were granted refuge on Vekta, allowing them to colonize half of the planet. A wall was built to separate both civilization from each other due to the resentment they still bear over the previous wars. Both Vektans and Helghast routinely perform covert operations against each other hoping to gain a strategic advantage over their counterpart and finish the war each claims the other started. Killzone Shadow Fall takes place 30 years after the events of Killzone 3 and will take you to Vekta, New Helghan which is the other side of the wall, but also the Helghan planet, the original homeworld of the Helghast and what remains of it.
The first thing that struck me when going through the campaign was the level design. The environments are stunning and colorful, whether it's a city, a forest or a space station. The landscapes are diverse and gorgeous, which wasn't always the case when looking at previous entries. With 30 years separating it from the lore of the previous Killzone titles and new hardware driving it, Shadow Fall was the perfect time to freshen up the series, and it was done well by Guerrilla. That variety makes you enjoy the story even more. The plot is full of cold war nuances, the result of living in the same planet I guess. Much like the Helghast rely heavily on a Nazi-like imagery, the setting evokes a post war Germany influence with two sides split by a wall in between them.
As you control a Shadow Marshal, which is basically a high ranked covert assassin and special operatives in the Vektan military, you're provided with an OWL, a robotic drone that can be dispatched to assist you in attacking or stunning enemies, deploy an energy shield or can be used as a zipline to access further areas. You can also use it to hack alarms and computers, preventing enemies from calling reinforcements or opening doors to allow you to progress through the story. The OWL can also heal you using adrenaline packs whenever you get killed in combat as long as you have one in your inventory. This final trump card incorporated in the Killzone repertoire by the devs is a truly useful one. It wasn't present in any of the previous Killzone entries and it comes in handy when you're looking to clear out rooms full of hostiles, especially in the highest difficulty settings.
On the other hand, there were some times where I felt like Shadow Fall was insisting on doing things it's not very good at to begin with. There is some 0 gravity and free falling platform sections that all share a thing in common : they are bad simply because they don't control well and they are very frustrating especially when you're playing on Elite Mode in which death means restarting the whole chapter from scratch.
Enjoyment and challenge
Killzone Shadow Fall was overall pretty enjoyable. Not having played the previous Killzone games took a bit away from it but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. The game aged pretty well graphically for a launch title. Even when you look past the gorgeous visuals, Killzone Shadow Fall is a competent shooter in terms of both campaign gameplay and multiplayer offerings. The campaign was interesting to go through. The multiplayer grind was alright I would say, not as bad as people made it to be. I thought 21 days was ridiculously short but the online took me less time that I had anticipated. The coop DLC was pretty fun, I didn't even need to boost it, I mainly played with randoms on my way to the 50 wins trophy. I had a lot of fun with it while playing with randoms without voice chat or any coordination so I would assume it would have been a much better experience with a group haha.
After Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Killzone Shadow Fall is another enjoyable game that unexpectedly made it into my milestone list. I was at 19 plats and was looking for a good candidate for #20. Albeit the multiplayer is dead, Killzone Shadow Fall is now immortalized in my profile 😂 :
Enjoyment : 7/10
Challenge : 6/10
Killzone Shadow Fall is gone but immortalized