As the PlayStation 4’s poster child, Guerrilla’s Killzone Shadow Fall has a lot to live up to. In the absence of another first party first person shooter, Sony’s reliance and focus on the Dutch studio’s ability to continue to cater for a dedicated fanbase is at least single-minded, their focus direct and unwavering. Killzone as a brand doesn’t hold the same sway as something like Halo, but its individuality can’t be denied.
In Shadow Fall, that sense of uniqueness is compounded by a myriad of new mechanics, manifested via a new physical input method: the DualShock 4’s touch pad. It’s not easy to get to grips with: despite the swiping becoming second nature quickly, the outcome of each directional push never really obvious, and that’s something that’s made worse by a set of d-pad inputs that aren’t signalled or prompted.
The issue with Killzone Shadow fall is that the game tries to do too much too soon. The touch pad essentially acts as an input device for a small floating droid known as an OWL, which can be sent into battle to fight, used to distract guards, hack terminals or fire off a zip-line. That’s all well and good, but there’s no real clear on-screen indication of what’s what, and in the heat of battle it’s far too easy to forget which swipe does what.
And the d-pad – which is used to change weapon type, activate a health pack or scan the environment – suffers from a similar problem. Extended use might alleviate this issue, of course, but a short demo period wasn’t nearly enough to get familiar with the multiple commands.
When you do get it right, Shadow Fall makes a great deal of sense. The OWL, a floating droid at your every whim, is capable of taking on a couple of enemy soldier and highlighting their location via the short-range scanner. Used as a distraction it’s brilliant, the Helghast aiming at a hovering hunk of metal rather than the player character, charged with – in this demo at least – rescuing a group of downed survivors.
The level playable was impressively open-ended, both in terms of the physical environment and the multiple ways in which the player could opt to progress. Do you take out an enemy with a sniper round from a distance; or do you tackle him from above with a zip-line? The forest environment offers plenty of places to hide, but once th Helgan know where you are, simply crounching behind a rock won’t save you – the game displaying much improved AI that seemingly hunts in packs rather than individually, and they’re deadly.
But is it fun? It’s hard to say – the demo segment was perhaps poorly chosen: it might look pretty (and it does) but it requires an understanding (and memory) of everything the game offers in terms of new features and some sense of what this mysterious OWL droid is capable of. Playing the game like a standard first person shooter got me killed twice in a row, and wrestling with the swipe pad hinted at solutions that never worked on a first attempt.
The extra features are smart, at least: healing yourself also provides a short-term slice of slow-motion, the ability to see through walls and spot enemies echoes that of The Last Of Us but comes with a quicker pacing and much more limited use; and the OWL if nothing else hints at a tactical series of decisions that simpy aren’t communicated with a standard controller and little thought and energy.
So whilst Shadow Fall looks the part (and it is pretty) I think it needs some work in the controls, and although it’s possible to play the game like all the other Killzones, it’s best tackled as a shooter with a brain rather than a mindless blaster. It’s good, and definitely good looking, but there’s work to do before the game releases later this year.
matthangzhou
I think this will be my first ps4 purchase. I think a lot of the things you mention would become second nature through continued play.
gaffers101
I do love the Killzone games, but I’ve stopped playing FPS games recently, maybe Shadow Fall will draw me back in.
JBoo
LOOKS LUSH :P + No KZ game so far has let me down so all will be well when the game comes out i am 100% sure of it ;)
teflon
Always a problem with games as complicated as they are these days. Dropping a person into a level half way through a game, when they’ve unlocked a myriad of weapons and skills for you is so hard to get a handle on for someone trying to preview it.
I felt the exact same thing for Dishonored, when I had that back at Gamescom, but once I was able to play from the beginning and master the powers and controls as they developed, it was so much better.
TSBonyman
I’m not surprised at there being issues getting used to the touch-pad controls but i am a little surprised that the D-pad would be an issue as it sounds like a fairly standard FPS implementation. I’m not having a go Alex btw, just curious to know more about that. :)
I know i’ll be buying this game as i’ve enjoyed all the others in the series but i will be a little concerned about being forced to use a mechanic that has been introduced to show off the touch pad.
I understand that the bot could probably only be controlled using the pad so it probably can’t be mapped to buttons/sticks but still, i hope the game gives enough leeway with it’s open-ended approach that i might never have to use the bot.
Cheers for the hands-on report!
Nate
“It’s best tackled as a shooter with a brain rather than a mindless blaster.” That sounds like a good thing to me! I imagine you are eased into the use of the OWL in the full game through tutorial sections rather than having it all dumped on you like the demo. My only query was whether the touch controls were responsive enough?
Vandix
I’m pretty sure the controls will grow on us… Can’t wait to play it.
I really hope they made the MP like KZ2 and not like KZ3, hate that lobby system…
colmshan1990
This sounds better than what I was expecting from Killzone (assuming the problems regarding controls was just the demo throwing you in at the deep end without explaining how to use all the features anyway).
If I can manage to get a PS4, this could well be bought with it.
The Von Braun
Interesting piece.
Reminded me of when Killzone 2 came out, i personally loved the ‘haeavy’ feel to the controls, took time to adjust to, coming as i did from ‘twitchy’ type FPS games, but it made the game feel that bit different, but sooo many folks seemed to hate it, never bother to adjust the sensitivity in the options screen and took to the net demanding it be ‘fixed’, cue the ‘High Precision’ patch.
I’m very glad to hear the developers are trying a lot of new features, as the original reval, made game look very generic, hopefully with an opening level to introduce you to the controls etc, continued playtesting and listening to feedback during the beta stages of the game development, everything will shape up ok.
Just NO teleporting foes this time please (a la Killzone 2), ta.
Broonba
A great read Alex. ;)
As Killzone will be a day one purchase alongside the PS4, I’m hoping that the control shenanigans will be eased by learning them early on (tutorial like) and as such will become second nature as you get further into the game. On the graphics front, the game is looking damn tasty. Here’s hoping the multiplayer will be good also.
A wee bit off-topic……..is there a list anywhere of all the games that’ll be available at PS4’s launch??