On The Gamely -- Games On The Daily! : November 2013

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 9.5

Verdict: Killzone: Shadow Fall will not do anything to encourage non-Killzone fans to sign up, but there are certain aspects of it that are refreshing in a crowded genre.

You’re going to look at this review and think, “Wow, a 9.5? Seriously?” It probably won’t help that I’m really considering giving it a 10 because while I know it has its flaws, I’m so willing to overlook them because they aren’t huge and I have such a good time playing. While I won’t apologize for that, I will explain a few things that will hopefully clarify how I approached this game.

Firstly, I am a Killzone guy. If anybody actually watches On The Gamely, I think I’ve mentioned it in every video so far. I believe that a lot of gamers have a shooter or two that they gravitate towards, and Killzone is mine. There’s where my bias is. Some will close this review right now because of that, but games in a series are made for fans of the series, with hopes that they’ll bring in new fans. It’s why I can’t criticize an open Call of Duty fanboy for thinking a Call of Duty is a 10. They like the mechanics of the series just like I like the mechanics of Killzone. I believe reviewers should be honest about their biases but with that said I will try to do a good job in making this review appeal to both Killzone fans and people who aren’t familiar with it.

I also put more emphasis on the multiplayer aspect of Shadow Fall than the campaign. Some people would give equal weight to both, while some would give campaign more. To me, Killzone is my multiplayer shooter so while this review does take the campaign into consideration, the final score is more dependent on the multiplayer. I would do the same thing for Battlefield 4 if I were reviewing it because to me, that’s a series that focuses more on multiplayer. I would say even Call of Duty should be approached like that. But I know other people have different opinions on what I’ve said in this paragraph. A solid single player experience can only help, but a solid multiplayer experience matters more to me.

So let’s move on now. I’m breaking the review up into a few different sections, which is something I rarely do but it makes it easier for me to gather my thoughts this time around.

Single Player

Killzone: Shadow Fall puts you in events that are largely influenced by the Cold War. You have your two rival groups, like always, but there is a wall separating them. I’m a huge fan of this kind of thing, so right from the get-go, I was intrigued by what they’d do with this. How would they handle potential social commentary? Would they nail a dystopian-type vibe? Would it be fun to shoot the Helghast once again?

Killzone has never had real interesting characters that you could truly feel for. But a lot of shooters don’t. This game isn’t like The Darkness, where I was so invested in the characters that I actually felt sad. Killzone has always offered a more general look at things – less about the individuals (though certainly there are individuals), and more about the war between two sides. That doesn’t forgive not having characters you can cheer for, but it does put it in context. I will say that Shadow Fall is the closest I’ve gotten to really caring about the individuals. So that’s a plus.

The series has also always had an extremely interesting story but wasn’t told well in the game. Seriously, if you read about the story, it’s got depth and intrigue, but the games don’t go into a lot of detail. It’s not as simple as “Good vs Evil,” but the games haven’t really done a great job showing that. Shadow Fall also did a better job of immersing me in the world, offering some really great audio logs, comic book pages and just better story telling in general. It’s a step up from the other games in the series in this regard as well.

There are a couple major changes to the campaign this time around. It’s less of a corridor shooter (which really isn’t a bad thing… not all games have to be open) this time around, as Guerrilla Games went a more Crysis route. Now you can approach a lot of the situations more freely, whether that be stealth or guns blazing. I think the game tries to get you to focus on only taking on a few enemies at a time, because things get hectic when they know you’re there. Offering more choice to the player is a welcome change for the series, and makes the campaign better. It also gives us a few different things to do besides shoot, like free fall which gets intense or float around in areas with zero gravity.

The other major change is the OWL. It’s a little drone that changes up the strategy in the game. You can drop a shield in front of you, use it to stun enemies, order it to attack enemies or use it to zip line to areas. You use it by selecting what option you want with the touchpad and then press L2 to deploy it. I’m not really convinced on the touchpad in general, but they didn’t complicate the matter which is nice.

The AI is a bit of a problem. Sometimes the Helghast do stupid things like duck into cover right in front of me, or just run around like idiots. It’s not terrible, as most of the time they are smart enough to flank me, drop a turret, teleport or get into proper cover, but I can get behind people saying the AI is an issue. Small, because consistent AI in games seems to be a problem in the industry overall, but it’s there.

The campaign has a good length, being over 10 hours. Some people complain about this, but this is where we are for the genre. Unless you’re playing an open-world game or an RPG, these are the type of lengths you get. So you get no complaint from me there, especially since there is a robust multiplayer mode packed in.

Multiplayer

Here we are, the multiplayer – the thing I mainly come to Killzone for. Even in the first one me and a friend played that first and spent hours playing it that day. So does it live up to the standards set in the previous games? For the most part, yeah.

I want to get the negatives out of the way so I can gush. I don’t know why Guerrilla Games made such a crappy post-match UI. It boggles my mind why they wouldn’t include your deaths. It has your kills and assists, but no deaths? Kill/death ratio has always matter more than how many kills you get, at least to me. They had a good UI for Killzone 3, and they over-complicated it for this sequel.

This may only bother me, but I like it showed you where your party members were in Killzone 3. It allowed me and my older brother to find each other more easily.

I also don’t understand why there is no chat in-game. It doesn’t matter to me because I have no desire to talk to most people and a lot of people just act like knobs, but at this point, how can you make an online game that doesn’t include this feature?

Am I the only one who hates the base camp suicides? I know, only an idiot would run into their base, but I’m an idiot. I just wish they would have done it differently, like put up a wall that you can’t go through instead of giving you insta-death. Sometimes you just run up by mistake. If you’re going to have this kind of system and not one that changes the spawn points, just do it differently.

I am hoping that Guerrilla Games hears the complaints regarding some of these and release a patch that changes this. These three things add up and dampen my experience a bit.

Killzone: Shadow Fall offsets these issues by doing things a little bit differently than most shooters that it’s competing against. I have this issue where I don’t know if I like the multiplayer in Killzone 2/3 better than this, and it’s because of these changes. I appreciate them, I just am not sure which I would prefer. With that said, I like both and I respect what was done here immensely.

Instead of a typical experience system where you level up after matches, this operates on a challenge system, meaning you do certain things like kill 25 people with a certain grenade or gun, or stun so many enemies, etc, in order to advance, unlock things or improve your abilities. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this before the game came out because I felt like it could make me do stuff I didn’t want to do just so I could “level up.” Luckily, they handled this really well. The challenges make logical sense and it hasn’t really affected me that much. It does make me think a little bit more about how I want to approach my loadouts, and that’s a nice change. I can now say that my fears about that are cooled down, and like I said, I respect Guerrilla Games for driving down a different road for this one.

They also overhauled the classes. From Killzone 2 and 3, they changed them up, but Killzone: Shadow Fall is a lot different. Sure, you still have abilities that you know and love/hate from previous games like Snipers going invisible, or air-support drones, but they give you three classes that are really customizable this time around. The classes are Support, Assault and Scout. This was another aspect I was unsure of. I don’t like every change they made, but there are some that I do.

I enjoy the shield, for example. A lot. It changes up the gameplay severely, and I don’t think I have really mastered it by any means. It’s a blast seeing two opposing sides in a small room with shields all over the place. It just adds to everything. I don’t know if I’d say it makes it more “tactical” but it offers you something different to worry about.

I was unsure of abilities like the Scout being able to teleport to a random spot, especially since the Scout is basically the sniper class and those bastards can already go invisible. But I feel like they handled it well by giving each class an ability they have to use and then a second one that they can choose.

I miss certain abilities like being able to camouflage yourself as an enemy, and I don’t know why they took that out, but they did a good job of balancing the classes. All three are viable options, and all three have certain advantages and disadvantages. There are nit-picky issues for each like why certain guns don’t have a silencer, but maybe that’s only my problem and nobody else cares. I still think I’d prefer the class system that they gave in 2 and 3 more, but I do really enjoy this too. Like I’ve said before… Shadow Fall is a lot different. I respect both ways, and I’m unsure most of the time of which I’d prefer.

The maps may be the best of the series. Only Killzone 2 can rival them. I’ve enjoyed pretty much every map to some extent, with some I love. They even sort-of brought back my favourite from Killzone 3 (the Boulevard), but changed things and named it The Remains. Levels like The Park, The Slums, The Remains and The Forest rival the best maps in the series, and even the weaker ones are good. There is variety in all of the maps, and there are a good amount of them (10 total, but not everyone is available in Deathmatch, which is a choice I’ve never understood).

If I were a different type of player, I would lament the fact that Killzone games have never offered much in the way of multiplayer game types. I’m generally only a guy who plays one or two game types anyway so it doesn’t really bother me, though I wish they had “Capture The Flag.”

With Shadow Fall, they changed it up though and this is a vast improvement. The classic Warzone mode shows up again, only this time you can customize the experience. So maybe you only want to play one of the different types that the Warzone offers… well now you can. Not only that but you can change what abilities are allowed, guns, etc. Whatever you want, it’s there. Warzone is still fun and chaotic, but now it’s nice to have those choices.

So as you can see, multiplayer wasn’t just a fine-tuning this time around: it was an attempt to rearrange Killzone and give us a different experience while maintaining just enough elements to keep the franchise familiar.

General Things

To end the review I’m just going to touch on a few things that are more general in nature.

The game is beautiful. Obviously it’s a launch title so games will come out with better graphics, but damn it’s impressive. There was a moment late in the campaign that I just looked on in awe. Everything is fluid, the animation is solid, and it’s just a brilliant piece of technical wizardry. Some have said that this is all the game offers, but I obviously disagree. The game is a wonder to look at.

The game still feels like Killzone. I can’t quite remember just how heavy Killzone 1 and 2 felt, but I think that those may have been a little heavier. The feel of real weight is what appeals to me, and it’s nice that they didn’t entirely get rid of that.

The last thing I’m going to touch on is the music. They do a great job of making everything atmospheric, or foreboding. When the action kicks it up a notch, the music does it accordingly. It’s a pleasure to listen to the sounds during the campaign. I think this will go on to be an underrated soundtrack.

In closing, Killzone: Shadow Fall is a shooter that tries to do things a little bit differently than most games in the genre and especially other games in the series. It has flaws, and maybe I just respect when people try to do something different more than others, but I don’t find any of the flaws to be that glaring. Or maybe I’m just a fanboy.

So let me know what you think about this review or the game. I really feel like I could have said more to justify my stance, but I always look forward to the views of other people.

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 5.5/10

Verdict: Knack suffers from a lack of real innovation, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s also not a terrible game. It’s average in almost every way, but average does not mean bad. Still, there was a great premise here that should have been explored with more depth.

Knack isn’t a game I would normally be keen on playing. It only looked like a decent platformer, mostly forgettable but not boring, yet I was a little eager to play it only because it is an exclusive PS4 launch title. My original prediction of what the game would offer ended up being correct, and I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion. Knack is fun, and due to it being one of the only exclusives on a new console, it’s a “Should-Play.” Years down the road I can’t see anybody playing it. I don’t even think it’ll go down as an underrated game, or overlooked, but you never know I suppose.

You play as Knack, a monster-thing created by a doctor by using relics. Because you are awesome, you can grow or shrink, depending on how many relics you have. It’s a cool idea, and at its core Knack is a neat concept done unimpressively. It’s a shame because there are some interesting things they could do with the character Knack that they refused to do. Instead of crafting a memorable game, they didn’t reach the potential of the idea, and instead gave us an average character platformer.

The main problem is that the levels just aren’t that fun. They aren’t boring, but you just kind of go through the motions the entire time. The levels are linear, and the platforming – outside of a few sections – is wholly unimpressive and predictable. You run, stop, hit a couple enemies, move on, jump a little, beat up a few people, move on. That’s the entire game.

That wouldn’t even be a bad thing if the mechanics were solid. While actually hitting enemies is satisfying enough (the slow-mo on final punches adds some oomph), it’s just very limited it what you can do. You can do a jumping attack, or punch. You just punch with the same combo over and over and over and over. There really isn’t much in the way of variety. There are power-ups that you can get, but it’s such a long, drawn out process that you may find yourself completing your first one (as each power-up has multiple things you have to find in order to get it) farther into the game than you would like.
Even when they attempt to mix things up a bit, by giving you different Knacks like "Stealth Knack," it's just not enough. For example, Stealth Knack is only used to get past beams, and all you do is press a button to activate him. You can't actually sneak past the enemies, so what's the point? Splint Cell this section is not.

The developers wanted it to be simplistic and accessible, which I get, yet the game is actually pretty difficult. I hate to admit it but I died quite often while playing. Aside from the fact that making a challenging game sort-of shits in the face of making a game accessible, it’s not how hard the game is that makes it a tough slug sometimes. If you die, there just isn’t much incentive to play through the same mediocre parts again and again, since the checkpoints usually will put you back a fair amount (though the checkpoints are by no means in terrible positions). It’s for that reason that Knack sometimes feels like a tough slog.

So by now you may be wondering, why is this a 5.5 if most of it is average? Well that’s the thing… so many people view a 5 as a bad rating, but I literally view it as average. Mediocre. Decent. Okay. Whatever you want to say. I give it a .5 because even though the attempts at humour don’t really work, and the game adds nothing new to the action-platformer canon, the visual style is pretty.

It doesn’t show you the technical brilliance of the PS4, because the art-style chosen doesn’t really require that. It’s not photo-realistic, it’s not attempting to be. I liken the visuals to a Pixar movie. In fact I often wondered what it would be like if you just gave Knack to Pixar to begin with and made it a movie instead, because there is a charming story that you could tell here that they didn’t in the game. It’s cute, the visuals are fitting, it’s colourful and the environments aren’t fantastic by any means, but they’re done well.

This game doesn’t just remind me of Pixar. If you spend any time at all with it, you’ll see similarities with Ratchet & Clank and Crash Bandicoot. At first I felt it was a bit of a rip-off, but then after actually researching the developers, I was shown that the lead designer worked on those games, among others, and has a wonderful legacy, especially within this genre. Knowing that disappoints me a little.

I read a comment on either Gamespot or IGN (you’ll notice I often mention them because they are two of the four game sites I check out on a regular basis), where someone said that this game is unfairly crapped on. This person went on to say that if this was released during the Playstation 1 days, it would get an 8 or higher. Good point. I agree a little.

If we weren’t so familiar with this genre, Knack would seem more innovative and wonderful than it does now. I can’t really argue that because someone who has played games for twenty-plus years is harder to impress than someone who just started.

However, often nostalgia gets in the way of quality. There are way too many games that I go back and play and they just aren’t as fun as they used to be. Not because games have moved on, but because the game design just wasn’t all there. There’s a reason old Mario games are still fun today despite how far we’ve come. There’s a reason a game like Spyro or Crash Bandicoot remains fun… it’s because the mechanics are strong. It’s because the level design is interesting. Knack lacks any degree of importance when it comes to these things, and instead offers an all right experience.

So if you’re looking for a game for your PS4, by all means, go ahead and play this. It offers a 10 hour or so campaign, and though I never played the co-op, I’m sure that would be enjoyable as well. But this will not stand the test of time, and it will not go down as anything other than a decent launch title, the type of game you expect when a system first comes out. That’s my opinion, at least. It’s also my blog!

On The Gamely -- Games On The Daily!

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

On The Gamely Episode 3 - PS4, Xbox One, Final Fantasy X and X-2 Remake, and More!

Monday, 25 November 2013

PS4 Launch Party - Oh Man This Is A Long Killzone: Shadow Fall Review

Saturday, 23 November 2013

PS4 Launch Party - I Don't Have A Clever Title, So Here's A Knack Review