Let me start by saying that Killzone: Shadowfall is an absolutely gorgeous looking game. Quite possibly the best looking launch title for either system. The game takes place several years after the events of killzone 3, and an uneasy peace between the ISA and Helghast is being maintained between the two factions. The story is serviceable but it wont be winning any awards. You place a as shadow marshal Lucas Kellen and follow is exploits as he carries out his missions on his road to discovering more about the helghast and their intentions after the peace is bought bought to an end.
Playing as Kellen you’ll get to experience what its like on both sides as the wall as well as see that the ISA and Helghast while very different are also very much alike. Most killzone games have portrayed the Helghan as purely the enemy, but shadowfall shows the Helghast in a different light and shows that sometime circumstance dictate actions. Echo is a Helghast female you meet early in the game and becomes a key figure later in showing this side of the Helghast and she looks to become a mainstay in the franchise.
Guerrilla Games brings some new additions to killzone and the game also serves as a sort of tech demo for the PS4 and its new features. The Owl combat drone is one of these new additions and serves as companion to you throughout the game. It as 4 basic functions that you can use by swiping the PS4’s touch pad either up for attack, right for a zip line, down for a shield, or left for a stun that can also disable enemy shields. At 1st it can seem a bit complicated but after playing with the controls for a while it’ll become like second nature using the touch pad and it works well freeing up the other buttons for actions.
While the previous killzone titles were straight forward, shadowfall gives you a bit of freedom optional objectives which you can choose to complete to make your life easier such as disabling all the alarms in a area or gaining access to a special weapon or ignore you can ignore these missions and it potentially come back to bite you if your not careful. Shadowfall also offers multiple ways to complete an objective by using stealth which can be achieved by taking various routes or go in guns blazing. There is also some destructibility, so for instance you could blow a hole in the wall next to you to get to enemies rather than heading through a doorway to be ambushed. The destructibility is only marginal though it isn’t on the same level as battlefield 4.
The multiplayer portion of Shadowfall proves to be quite fun with different gameplay modes, classes, abilities, weapons, and team based gameplay. Running around solo might net a person a highscore if they are good enough but most likely can cost a team the match if you have enough lone wolfs on your team and the opposition is working together. The warzone mode alternates objectives in each match to keep the game play fresh and keep players on their toes. One second you could be playing teamdeath match only for the game to switch to capture and hold or a capture the flag type mode. Warzones can also be customized by a player to suit his or her preferences, almost any combination is available from just knives with cloaks or nothing but medics with turrets and air support.
Verdict and Rating below
