Killzone: Shadow Fall

The 6th and final game in the Killzone series, Shadow Fall was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as a launch title for the PS4. Taking place after 30 years of the events of Killzone 3 (I really don't know if that's anyone's favorite and I really don't care), the remaining Helghast take refuge on Vekta, as the ISA (now known as the VSA) give the Hegs needed weapons. The Helghast than force Vekta civilians out of the their new home, New Helgan. The player takes control of Lucas Kellan, who became a Shadow Marshal 20 years after his father was killed by the Helghast. When a mysterious group known as The Black Hand bombs the VSA HQ, it is up to him and a Helghast Agent, Echo to stop The Black Hand from placing Vekta into ruins. Depending on your view, the game at least tries to be different from previous entries (which was with Killzone 1, where Vekta was invaded by the Helghast, and with Killzone 2 and 3, where the ISA attacks back on The Helghast) where it tries to become Chapter 2 of the series.

Sony was sued back in August of 2014 over the resolution of the game not running as advertised, as there were reports by Digital Foundry that the multiplayer mode running at 920 by 1080 resolution, and Guerilla Games had to make an article on the Killzone.com website that was shutdown as said above, to explain the issue regarding the 1080P resolution. The lawsuit was dismissed in May of 2015.

The biggest issue with this game here that it focuses on pretty graphics and nothing else. Like, really, Sony? Really, Sony? Really, Sony? REALLY, SONY! While the game graphically succeeds very well, it is a hindrance on the gameplay and can lead to issues with the game, and it can lead to it being dubbed as a tech demo more than a actual game, which is a issue with most launch titles. This game is also comparable to anything with Tom Clancy's name on it, especially Ghost Recon (which isn't probably any better than this game). But the beautiful graphics for a launch title (aside from the bad character design for New Helgan citizens) don't mean this is a crappy game. The environments are really good too. Chapters such as Chapter 2 (which takes place in the forest) Chapters 5 and 6 (takes place in New Helgan) and the devastated Helgan (which was (spoiler) destroyed by ISA solders in the ending of Killzone 3) in Chapter 8 are some examples.

Out of all the places the VSA could have settled the surviving Helghast, they choose Vekta-the planet that the ISA and Helghast spent years fighting over, and whose inhabitants have the best reasons to hate the Helghast. This is one of the most stupidest intros I have ever seen, after Portal 2's (which isn't really any better, as I never liked those games since they were atrocious) and Ghost Recon's. And to make things even worse, instead of organizing an orderly evacuation of Vektans from the portions of the planet allotted to the Helghast, the VSA give the Helghast weapons and allow them to commit literal ethnic cleansing against the Vektans. I am not happy, Sony. Not happy.

The campaign, with its moments there and there, is really weak, like anything from Ubisoft (especially with Tom Clancy's name on it), with a very uninteresting, convoluted, poorly written story and bad writing, with tons of continuity errors in the story which hurts the series, and most of the characters are incredibly unlikable. Not annoying, but unlikeable and forgettable. Most notable is Sinclair and almost every VSA character but Lucas Kellan. This is most likely because remember the game was rushed to be a launch title for the PS4. Why do we have to rush everything enjoyable these days? A example when Lucas escapes New Helgan with the help from Echo, Sinclair reacts very negativity to it, and doesn't even support Lucas from the end of Chapter 7 onward. There is even a sequence where Sinclair is talking to Lucas while he grows up. But you never get to play in those sequences and let Lucas's character be more developed. Also, Sinclair is very cold-hearted and he is really mean spirited like a parent towards Lucas (best seen at the end of Chapter 9 where he kills him). Lucas Kellan is at least an okay protagonist aside from a lack of character development. Echo is also rather a decent character and she is less cold hearted then Sinclair, and she is the only likable Helghast related character.

The rest of the characters aren't any better, either. Tyran is a bland and very unlikable antagonist, and his actions are deeply flawed, his terrorist group name (The Black Hand) is too a generic name just like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and HAWX; compare The Black Hand to Rainbow Six (the only good franchise to bear Tom Clancy's name), whose name sounds more interesting and meaningful. Lady Hera Visari is very hypocritical. She states she and The Helghast want peace, yet her father, Scolar Visari attacked Vekkta 32 years before the events of this game, and she turns a blind eye to terrorism committed by the Helghast against the VSA.

In addition some of the voice acting is weak it makes the voice acting of Ghost Recon no better in comparison. Lucas's voice acting is rather poor, much like the Ghosts. Massar's voice acting is downright terrible in that she sounds like an old bag lady instead of a thirty-five year old. But otherwise, it's decent voice acting.

The character design for the New Helgan citizens looks terrible. Also, for some reason they speak with American accents while the soldiers still use cultured accents. On the other hand, the design for the Helghast soldiers in the game is really awesome. The game makes an effort to develop the Helghast beyond "generic evil empire" by having the player encounter Helghast civilians and giving you the chance to help them at several points.

What doesn't even help are various plotholes, like why are The Helghast violently murdering people who... weren't evacuated yet? Why were they shooting at Vektans in the first place? Did Kellan's father refuse to leave? He didn't seem like the type to put his son in danger by refusing to go until they were threatened. And why don't the VSA do anything about it? Lucas wields an overpowered suit (which you never use much) with shoulderpads that shoots rockets that could only be used when flying....despite being a shadow marshal, which is supposed to be a stealth operative. The bioweapon you were chasing throughout the game and they were developing a bioweapon? So how did The Black Hand deploy a bioweapon intended to murder living beings and bring down a bunch of Vektan and Helgan ships and leave them to their deaths in the final mission? Why didn't they ever name the weapon? Most importantly, how did Kellan get that kind of hardware through a Helghast checkpoint? And how did Tyran even survive the explosion in Chapter 5? These have been haunting me for a while now, and after all these years, I still don't know the truth. It's the same problem with conspiracies.

The mission structure is very insecure, as the missions do a poor job of telling you the objective. Some section are tedious to get past through and the hard difficulty (the start of Chapter 7 where you need to glide down to the core the ship, same thing with gliding through the ruins of planet Helgan). And let's not forget about Chapter 8: the worst of the campaign with you dying out of nowhere in the gliding section. That will include robotic Helghast weapons that can kill you very easily on the other sections (not too much on the easiest difficulty thankfully). An update, however, toned Chapter 7 & 8's difficulty down. Clown closets (endless waves of enemies come nonstop until you push forward) are also been removed. There are at least some nice easter eggs such as in Chapter 1 which is the Dark Trolls poster (a reference to the Dark Souls series) and a holograph of one of the Machines from Horizon Zero Dawn.

The game is very arbitrary about what you can and can't use as cover, which makes firefights very difficult. Even a Helghast enemy type has a shield, which is very annoying, especially on the hardest difficulty! Same thing to spider mines. And the OWL, if anything, is at times badly implemented. You can at least carry two primary weapons for great gunplay, although it limits firepower that can be carried. While Killzone 3 allowed the player to equip one sidearm, one primary weapon, and one heavy weapon, this game only allows you to equip the LSR44-which can't be swapped out for another weapon-and one other weapon, which limits the amount of firepower you can carry.

The ending, if anything, is atrocious. Sinclair shows up out of nowhere and shoots Kellan, who falls dead with one shot despite taking dozens of bullets in gameplay without dying. And Chapter 10 has you controlling Echo and assassinating Sinclair when the war is still going on, thus the game ends in a cliffhanger. Ever since there have been no other games in the franchise. If you can get past its poor story and some its issues, the gameplay is still decent in single player.

Pay-to-win micro-transactions were in the game. Thankfully, they were removed in the Valor update. In speaking of, Valor grants players booster items that give them a decent advantage. But they were only bought with real world money. There's good DLC, most notable is the Intercept expansion, with co-op, a new mode in the series. Cosmetics (aside with a few expectations from such as of the voice overs and tons of OWL skins) are awful, with multiplayer customization being abysmal for your VSA and Helghast troops. You can get paid cosmetic items from the cosmetic mystery box for free, even if most of them are bad.

The online multiplayer is fun, as it is heavily improved from Killzone 3 (which servers for that game has been down as of March 29, 2018). It is even a great offering for PS4 users when the game came out. Unfortunately, the servers were shutdown on August 12th, 2022. Only the singleplayer and offline botzone (multiplayer with bots offline) only remain. The Ability to make or manage a clan is also not possible as of early January 2021, as Killzone.com was shutdown. And despite the Intercept Expansion is now unplayable thanks to servers being shutdown. While the multiplayer is fun, it can fell lifeless at times due the mode removing death sounds and screams from the previous game. The 10 multiplayer maps are fun to play on. Additional maps have also been released for free, which is nice. Even some of the voice-overs in multiplayer are great, with it reaching from Rico Velasquez and Radec's voice overs (even their voice actors reprise their roles) to a built-on-war VSA/Helghast voice-over that shouts out profanity, though sometimes the cursing is censored by bleeping.

Some of you may enjoy it, other's probably won't. I am not saying that everyone is going to hate this game, because not everyone will.