ChronotriggerJM
Member
So I bought this game for $9 when it went on that crazy sale a while back, and at the time I was feeling a tad bit fatigued on the genre and played through a few stages and set it down for a time. So fast forward quite a bit of time, and I decided to give this a proper run through. Holy Crap. This is a GREAT game.
I find that the huge sandboxed nature of the levels is extremely natural, and the level designs in particular are outstanding, and absolutely believable. Now I'm the type of person that generally stays with a certain play style, and typically won't deviate from it unless I absolutely have to, but in this game, there are 3 additional categories for how you can best a stage (after it's original completion so you can know what the criteria actually mean). And to even begin the stage you must have specific weapons equipped.
Precision (speed runs, headshots, extremely specific goals like "kill a person while zip lining", rescue all hostages, no civilian casualties) sort of stuff.
Covert (stealth gameplay, take out cameras, backstab people, go undetected for large portions of the stages).
Demolition (Multi-kills, destroy objects within the stages, explosive kills, brutal melee x number of opponents etc etc).
They all require extremely different methods of approach. The completionist in me demands that I get all the marks for the stage, so I find myself using weapons I would never normally use, discovering more within the stages that I might have otherwise missed, and just developing a huge appreciation for how approachable the level design lends itself to multiple strategies.
The Environments so far in (I'm 8 levels in), have all been very different, with greatly different atmospheres, and particularly great regarding use of color. Some actually decent world building type of stuff here, you really get a sense of the environments on some of these stages.
The A.I. is absolutely punishing at times, these enemies take advantage of the environment extremely quick, and I can't find myself in safe cover for more than a few seconds at any given time, and given that I like to play stealth builds, this can be problematic. Luckily, the A.I. in this game has that absolutely amazing ability to not know where you are at all times. If you can back away from an encounter, and weasel your way around the enemy (especially great for high mobility builds), you'll catch them off guard extremely often, watching them lob grenades and proceeding with caution to your last known location. Just awesome.
The weapons are truly remarkable. The Killzone series has never been a sloucher regarding weapon variety, and I'm happy to report that it's better than ever in this game. Every gun feels extremely different, they sound punchy as ever, and there are multiple types for the player to use at their disposal (Silenced, Armor Piercing, Incendiary, Explosive). And the "Vanguard Weapon's" in this game are all super weapons with an incredibly wide range of purposes that lend themselves well to whatever play style one might have.
And from what I can gather from the cutscenes towards the beginning and endings of the stages, this games actually got some very good music.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCwTCC-3zwhVomkDzgHKhtwK1d4-fyRcT
Oh and last but not least. GYRO AIMING, is here for every weapon that you line down the sights (should you choose to use it, which of course you should, it's awesome). I don't know why more FPS games on PS3/4 don't take advantage of this.
TLR If you are a fan of the FPS Genre, and you own a Vita (or don't I'd almost argue), buy this game. It's incredibly good, and the multiple playthroughs reminds me a bit of that original fun I had with Goldeneye as a kid. And pro-tip, for the people like me who like to perfect runs, don't restart the stage and watch the cutscene a million times while the game loads, just find some enemies and kill yourself, loading the checkpoint over is much easier
I find that the huge sandboxed nature of the levels is extremely natural, and the level designs in particular are outstanding, and absolutely believable. Now I'm the type of person that generally stays with a certain play style, and typically won't deviate from it unless I absolutely have to, but in this game, there are 3 additional categories for how you can best a stage (after it's original completion so you can know what the criteria actually mean). And to even begin the stage you must have specific weapons equipped.
Precision (speed runs, headshots, extremely specific goals like "kill a person while zip lining", rescue all hostages, no civilian casualties) sort of stuff.
Covert (stealth gameplay, take out cameras, backstab people, go undetected for large portions of the stages).
Demolition (Multi-kills, destroy objects within the stages, explosive kills, brutal melee x number of opponents etc etc).
They all require extremely different methods of approach. The completionist in me demands that I get all the marks for the stage, so I find myself using weapons I would never normally use, discovering more within the stages that I might have otherwise missed, and just developing a huge appreciation for how approachable the level design lends itself to multiple strategies.
The Environments so far in (I'm 8 levels in), have all been very different, with greatly different atmospheres, and particularly great regarding use of color. Some actually decent world building type of stuff here, you really get a sense of the environments on some of these stages.
The A.I. is absolutely punishing at times, these enemies take advantage of the environment extremely quick, and I can't find myself in safe cover for more than a few seconds at any given time, and given that I like to play stealth builds, this can be problematic. Luckily, the A.I. in this game has that absolutely amazing ability to not know where you are at all times. If you can back away from an encounter, and weasel your way around the enemy (especially great for high mobility builds), you'll catch them off guard extremely often, watching them lob grenades and proceeding with caution to your last known location. Just awesome.
The weapons are truly remarkable. The Killzone series has never been a sloucher regarding weapon variety, and I'm happy to report that it's better than ever in this game. Every gun feels extremely different, they sound punchy as ever, and there are multiple types for the player to use at their disposal (Silenced, Armor Piercing, Incendiary, Explosive). And the "Vanguard Weapon's" in this game are all super weapons with an incredibly wide range of purposes that lend themselves well to whatever play style one might have.
And from what I can gather from the cutscenes towards the beginning and endings of the stages, this games actually got some very good music.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCwTCC-3zwhVomkDzgHKhtwK1d4-fyRcT
Oh and last but not least. GYRO AIMING, is here for every weapon that you line down the sights (should you choose to use it, which of course you should, it's awesome). I don't know why more FPS games on PS3/4 don't take advantage of this.
TLR If you are a fan of the FPS Genre, and you own a Vita (or don't I'd almost argue), buy this game. It's incredibly good, and the multiple playthroughs reminds me a bit of that original fun I had with Goldeneye as a kid. And pro-tip, for the people like me who like to perfect runs, don't restart the stage and watch the cutscene a million times while the game loads, just find some enemies and kill yourself, loading the checkpoint over is much easier