Anybody played both KZ:SF and Mercenary?
I found it interesting that SF has a 73 on Metacritic, and Mercenary has a 78, the latter I feel being too low for this game.
Obviously the console version has better graphics, frame rate and performance in general but I'm curious if the gameplay of the Vita version stacks up to the console version. Personally I was really impressed with the mission structure of Mercenary's campaign. I also like its multiplayer even though yes, vanguards are overpowered. Warzone in particular I think is really solid mode.
Curious to hear some opinions.
Having only started ShadowFall I feel like it's probably the better game, but Mercenary is amazing for the platform not deserving of being called a 'lesser' title and both titles are pretty unique despite being very similar. I especially appreciate that they were both designed with the same goals in mind. Making the IP less linear, more customization, as well as trying to include civilians, optional objective, and what have you while encouraging stealth as an option. Seeing how GGC achieved this on the Vita is great, especially given the power delta between the two.
One thing Mercenary could really use more of (which Shadowfalls has) is complexity to the mission structure, including having more elaborate optional objectives. It feels like the amount of side objectives and alternate routes keeps tapering off in Mercenary. This seemed more an issue of development time than one of technical limitations. You have a TON more abilities in ShadowFall as well.
One of my main issues with how Mercenary works though is how different both games are when you're spotted. In Shadowfall enemies will often have an alarm they can reach, but if they don't have that in the level, your encounters are often limited to a squad or so. In Mercenary the very minute you get spotted every soldier agros, and not only that, reinforcement waves will come in until you've completely cleared an area. This is actually just annoying, at least to me. I wish you'd have more of an MGS style cooldown when you go into hiding (that at places guards on 'suspicious' and maybe having slightly more cautious patrol patterns than pretending nothing happened) as well as the ability to defuse a Helghast that spots you without him immediately turning every unit to red status.
ShadowFall seems to have a better story (especially characters), but that's to be expected.
I haven't touched MP with Shadowfall, but MP in Mercenary is quite good. I wish they'd add some modes though like demolition and/or capture the flag. Maybe these modes don't work very well with the maps they have set up, or the number of players but wasn't the big update suppose to help them 'deliver future content'? I hope we get more content in MP and maybe even a map or two set in the Shadowfall period.
