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Killzone: Shadow Fall |OT| Nothing Stops This Rain

Where's Danner?

Danner was silent the whole time and didn't seem to have a personality of his own (since YOU, the player, were Danner) unless I missed something in my playthrough. I wish he at least grunted or something whenever he got hit.

End game spoilers: I did like what Danner did regarding
the kid. Saving him and not selling out to anyone at the end did show he had a heart.
 

stevil

Junior Member
I finished the campaign and enjoyed it. I'd rate it a solid 8/10. While different in many respects, I found the campaign more or less on par in terms of quality and entertainment value w/other 'AAA' FPS campaigns such as Halo 3/Reach/4, Crysis 2 and 3, and the various COD campaigns, and better than that of KZ2. In some ways it was most similar to the first Crysis, although not as good in my opinion.

My experience didn't exactly mesh up w/that of many others as I found the difficultly on normal to be similar to those other games too. Actually, if anything, I think I found most of the other games listed to have more frustrating moments. Probably the worst part of the game was reading this thread as I went through it, which made me fear/negatively anticipate what was coming ahead, when I never really found anything to be overly difficult once I finally arrived at those places. It seems if you didn't fully leverage the OWL or take advantage of some strategically placed weaponry, the game was much more difficult than it was otherwise.

Anyway, solid launch title.

Oh please, there was nothing amazing about the AI in KZ2 at all. It's typical linear corridor shooter AI that just takes cover and pop and shoots and shifts position. Even Halo CE had more impressive AI than anything in any of the KZ games.



Thats not at all why people calling it old school, its because of the non linear design of the games various areas, and that a player has to actually explore to figure out how to get to the next section. Old school shooters like Doom, Duke3D, and so on were all about exploration in non linear maps where you had to usually find an objective to proceed. You often didn't have constant combat in those games either, huge sections of Doom involved searching back and forth to find a path out. There was also some slight platforming/puzzle elements in SF, which again gives feeling of more old school design. The game has many segments that are guided cinematic action though of course, but they at least give you freedom to play and not constantly have NPCs screaming at you to "COME ON MOVE FORWARD!"

It was different from many of the other blockbuster shooters like COD which is pretty much a guided cinematic, with many playable scenes being nothing more than holding up on the movement stick the entire time. It's funny in Ghosts there are combat segments that are cinematic but you still got enemies and they give you shooting control, yet it has no purpose as you don't die from taking the enemy hits and it's again, a guided cut scene. You don't get lost or have any exploration to do.

I came here to say the same thing, I was amazed by the negativity for this game that it it to difficult, that you will get lost, free fall has bad controls etc. The game is so much better than kz3. It has an old school shooter feel with a bit of deus ex mixed in. But than again my first FPS was Wolfenstein....
But I guess if you just want to be moved from shootout to shootout you will be disappointed

Is it a perfect game? Nope but a solid 8 for sure. As a side note if you look at the facial expressions they are very well done, makes me look forward to the next quantic dream game.
 

KiraXD

Member
Is there anyway to disable the OWL HUD?
I dont want to turn off everything in the HUD... but i dont really want the OWL commands just sitting there in the middle of the screen around my reticule... do they go away at all or just sit there above, below or to the side of the reticule... it feels off balance when i have it set to the left or right...
 

Kimppis

Member
I finished the campaign and enjoyed it. I'd rate it a solid 8/10. While different in many respects, I found the campaign more or less on par in terms of quality and entertainment value w/other 'AAA' FPS campaigns such as Halo 3/Reach/4, Crysis 2 and 3, and the various COD campaigns, and better than that of KZ2. In some ways it was most similar to the first Crysis, although not as good in my opinion.

My experience didn't exactly mesh up w/that of many others as I found the difficultly on normal to be similar to those other games too. Actually, if anything, I think I found most of the other games listed to have more frustrating moments. Probably the worst part of the game was reading this thread as I went through it, which made me fear/negatively anticipate what was coming ahead, when I never really found anything to be overly difficult once I finally arrived at those places. It seems if you didn't fully leverage the OWL or take advantage of some strategically placed weaponry, the game was much more difficult than it was otherwise.

Anyway, solid launch title.

Are you me? :D Yeah, the game is actually easier than KZ2 and KZ3 on normal, imo. Firefights are usually smaller-scale and the OWL is actually useful. I think the difficulty is near perfect.

I can understand some of the criticism, like that the pacing is kinda "flawed" (liked it myself), the story is a mess and some parts might be underwhelming to some. But SF is not hard by any means and it's pretty easy not to get lost. The objective marker is good enough and the levels are quite linear.
 
Is there anyway to disable the OWL HUD?
I dont want to turn off everything in the HUD... but i dont really want the OWL commands just sitting there in the middle of the screen around my reticule... do they go away at all or just sit there above, below or to the side of the reticule... it feels off balance when i have it set to the left or right...

It is about time GG and other devs started doing something about all this HUD crap. Now this isn't really a criticism aimed at GG but come on folks. This overscan bullshit has got to stop someday. Let us do what we want with the HUD and actually use the good 20% of our screen that lies blank where HUD stuff could go.

Still looks like they are using 720p spots on the HUD or some crap. I only laugh when I see what Dark Souls people had to play with on their screen lol. Who the hell makes an HUD that big and acts like that is okay? Friggin' icon is the size of a small fist in Dark Souls ffs. Thank lord DSFix saved us there.

As for campaign this ranks a solid whatever. I honestly don't know and don't care. The KZ games have all had ups and downs. What I am not going to do is put KZ2 on a pedestal when that easily had some of the worst sections and worst bro man dialogue of them all. KZ2 was mostly fun. But it was also just a bunch of firefights and slow moving linear sections. I'd say it made corridor realism pretty decent. But it didn't wow me or anything and from what I remember it didn't wow many critics either. So in reality they are all about the same to me but SF has better art direction and gfx by a mile.

KZ3 had some of the coolest actors and setups but sadly did jack with them for the most part.
 

Skerj

Member
So, I'm on chapter 6 and I'm trying to figure out just when does the game actually get as bad as I've been led to believe? I've been having a blast thus far and outside of the checkpoint system being total ass, I've enjoyed the rather open nature of some of the areas. I'm someone who doesn't like being funneled through hallway after hallway (however disguised they might be) of the shooting gallery that I've done through a lot of these games. Just give me an objective and let me decide how I'll get there and I will investigate every nook and cranny along the way. ..I have been.

Really digging this direction though, reminds me a bit of Crysis 2 in that it's linear as all hell but they at least provide enough leeway in some spots to determine how you're going to proceed. I hope for the next one they continue on this path and blow it open, make stealth actually viable or at least provide no illusions that it should even be possible, and it'd be nice to have the zipline be bi-directional. Playing on Hard so the Owl has actually been useful throughout the campaign, haven't used the stun as much as I thought I would though.
 

Kimppis

Member
So, I'm on chapter 6 and I'm trying to figure out just when does the game actually get as bad as I've been led to believe? I've been having a blast thus far and outside of the checkpoint system being total ass, I've enjoyed the rather open nature of some of the areas.

In my opinion, never. Chapter 7 might be the worst, though, but nothing too bad. Do you mean checkpoint placement or that it doesn't save the game after every checkpoint? If the latter, I agree.

Playing on Hard so the Owl has actually been useful throughout the campaign, haven't used the stun as much as I thought I would though.

Yeah it's pretty useful already on Normal in my experience. Stun becomes almost necessary in chapter 7, I think.
 

njean777

Member
Well something weird has happened with this game, I played through the whole campaign on hard mode and it didn't give me the trophies for chapter 1 or 2 but ended up giving me the trophies for all the other chapters, then it failed to give me the trophy for beating the game on hard mode. This is the first time I have ever seen something like this happen.
 
So, I'm on chapter 6 and I'm trying to figure out just when does the game actually get as bad as I've been led to believe? I've been having a blast thus far and outside of the checkpoint system being total ass, I've enjoyed the rather open nature of some of the areas. I'm someone who doesn't like being funneled through hallway after hallway (however disguised they might be) of the shooting gallery that I've done through a lot of these games. Just give me an objective and let me decide how I'll get there and I will investigate every nook and cranny along the way. ..I have been.

Really digging this direction though, reminds me a bit of Crysis 2 in that it's linear as all hell but they at least provide enough leeway in some spots to determine how you're going to proceed. I hope for the next one they continue on this path and blow it open, make stealth actually viable or at least provide no illusions that it should even be possible, and it'd be nice to have the zipline be bi-directional. Playing on Hard so the Owl has actually been useful throughout the campaign, haven't used the stun as much as I thought I would though.

Well, beyond the obvious trolls most of the complaints are ordinary and quite small in the scheme of things. If you are having fun up to that chapter I seriously doubt you need to pay much attention to them. The usual bickering about random whatever and -4 points for lazy level design, story, and it's too hard is basically what half the thread is about.
 

jjasper

Member
So, I'm on chapter 6 and I'm trying to figure out just when does the game actually get as bad as I've been led to believe? I've been having a blast thus far and outside of the checkpoint system being total ass, I've enjoyed the rather open nature of some of the areas. I'm someone who doesn't like being funneled through hallway after hallway (however disguised they might be) of the shooting gallery that I've done through a lot of these games. Just give me an objective and let me decide how I'll get there and I will investigate every nook and cranny along the way. ..I have been.

For me personally the game took a dive in quality after chapter 6. I really liked everything up until then but after that it kind of just became an exercise in frustration and got away from what made the game enjoyable.
 
lol...i've killed myself with grenades so many times because i can't seem to figure out the correct trajectory. i dont think its the usual parabolic curve.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've killed my self from my own grenades from the most ridiculous of circumstances.

Oh please, there was nothing amazing about the AI in KZ2 at all. It's typical linear corridor shooter AI that just takes cover and pop and shoots and shifts position. Even Halo CE had more impressive AI than anything in any of the KZ games.

No; KZ2 had fantastic AI; some of the best that I can recall from any FPS.
 
This game finally clicked for me. I wasn't really digging it when I started playing and took a break from it and just played AC4 all the way through. I came back to it over Thanksgiving break and started to feel real comfortable playing. Now I'm constantly using the owls different abilities and using the adrenaline slow mo when getting overwhelmed by a number of enemies. A big thing that has helped me a lot is constantly using the radar to spot enemies that are in proximity, giving me time to plan my attack. I am enjoying the game a lot now.
 

MDSLKTR

Member
Done with the campaign, will go back at it in a couple months with a fresh perspective, that's how all the killzone games grow on me over time (I disliked KZ2 and 3 first time I played them only to love them to death years after).

What I hated:
- I get that the shadow marshal must have his signature weapon on him all the time but why can't I have 3 weapons slots like in KZ3? Or at least let me keep the pistols (and why do we barely find any during the campaign? don't keep them exclusive to the mp section)
- Chapter 6, absolutely terrible chapter. Broken and frustrating stealth, no owl, framerate shits the bed at the end of the mission. Hope it get's patched.
- Chapter 8, beautiful graphics but not a single helghast to shoot in them :(
- WHY DO HEADS DON'T EXPLODE ANYMORE

Absolutely loved everything else. Can't really rank all the games in the franchise yet but I do hope the next killzone takes the mercenary progression system with the purchases and the contracts.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I think GG has talked before about how the KZ storyline is loosely inspired by history. There's a break down I read once showing the parallels of the storyline with WW2 where Helghan is Germany and Vekta is a combo of France and America.
Yes, the whole series' antagonist/protagonist relation dynamic is heavily inspired by pre, during and post WW2 history of our own. In case of KZSF there's an obvious parallel with the Berlin wall and the cold war.

Now off to read a summary of the story.
Overall it was enjoyable, it lacked some epic fights though, so if I had to rank KZ2>KZ3>KZ:Shadow Fall. In lieu of a launch title it is ok.
End of Ch6 was one of the best fights you could hope for, I think. I really loved it (didn't notice any framerate problems like the poster above either, it was actually quite smooth...) End of Ch9 as well, but I'm not sure if I'd find it as enjoyable if I didn't start it off with a Voltage gun.
 

WJD

Member
Multiplayer UI is terrible. So cluttered.

Actual multiplayer gameplay is decent enough, but it's not going to set the world alight - looking forward to getting BF4.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Just started the campaign. Guy quietly stuns a guard after 3 of his bros went in a building, other guy runs up and all I hear is BANG BANG. Are you serious dude? Somehow the others didn't hear that but still that was so fucking pointless.
 

Derrick01

Banned
I'm enjoying this first level but stealth seems flawed. I was near a base of sorts and I ziplined down to an enemy to melee him but I guess he wasn't fully turned around so he spotted me before I melee killed him and I think it alerted the whole base. I don't think there was anyone else near him, just underneath, and he didn't fire a shot or even yell before I got him.

If it didn't do that it would have felt pretty badass pulling off what I did. This game seems to be mechanically deeper than 90% of shooters but it's not going to do a whole lot of good if 1 guy sees you and everyone in a mile radius becomes hostile and knows where you are.
 

Ricker

Member
There is no stealth in this game lol...

Can't beat that last battle in chapter 9,I will keep trying now and then but I had my fill for now.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Finally finished it and ultimately really enjoyed it.

The end of Chapter 7 mixed with the beginning of Chapter 8 was the point where I liked it the least, but outside of that, the rest of the game was excellent. At times, it truly felt like a nice blend of Halo and Crysis with its own unique flavor, of course.

The much maligned falling sections were hit or miss. The first one, in Chapter 7, was actually really cool and easy to complete. The second one, however, was definitely frustrating initially but once I inverted the flight controls and understood how to control it, I had no issues. It's just such a sudden scene and the game offers the player no chance to really understand how it works before sending you into a building.

The mission variety was pretty top notch, I'd say, as they moved back and forth between lots of different gameplay styles.

It's also quite a striking looking game. This easily stands as one of the finest looking shooters I've seen to date. Just a perfect blend of materials, lighting, shaders, and effects. If not for the inconsistent framerate this would stand as the best looking shooter I've played on any platform to date.

I'm enjoying this first level but stealth seems flawed. I was near a base of sorts and I ziplined down to an enemy to melee him but I guess he wasn't fully turned around so he spotted me before I melee killed him and I think it alerted the whole base. I don't think there was anyone else near him, just underneath, and he didn't fire a shot or even yell before I got him.

If it didn't do that it would have felt pretty badass pulling off what I did. This game seems to be mechanically deeper than 90% of shooters but it's not going to do a whole lot of good if 1 guy sees you and everyone in a mile radius becomes hostile and knows where you are.
Keep in mind that there are alarm terminals that you need to disable to prevent everyone from being alerted. Keep an eye out for those and use the OWL to "hack" them.

There is no stealth in this game lol...
That's not actually true. There are number of areas throughout the game that allow you to take out enemies using stealth.
 

Derrick01

Banned
There is no stealth in this game lol...

There is to a degree. We're obviously not talking Thief here but up until that guard semi-spotted me and apparently alerted everyone else (which may or may not have happened, I might have missed someone else nearby or a camera) I hadn't been spotted in the level yet.

What I thought was cool was I only had 1 objective but I decided to go pretty much the exact opposite way which led to a very tight mountain pass that eventually led up to a brand new objective which was then placed on my list. I felt like I had actually explored on my own and found something of worth, although I'm sure they would have eventually told me to go up there.

Keep in mind that there are alarm terminals that you need to disable to prevent everyone from being alerted. Keep an eye out for those and use the OWL to "hack" them.

Yeah once the alarm went off I was trying desperately to find it, but these guys were alerted before that happened. As soon as I took the guard out I heard the guy below shout something and come sprinting up the stairs at me.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
I got past the much maligned Chapters 7 and 8 last night. And they weren't too bad at all. I think reading about them was far worse than actually playing them. 7 was kinda bland and, yes, 8 has that frustrating freefall section (took me about 20 tries but at least it was short with multiple checkpoints), but overall I dug them. Chapter 8 is GORGEOUS, so that helps.

Story is really bad. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time. That doctor has to be one of the worst video game characters (both in execution and conception) I've seen in a while. But this is a fun, often intense, campaign. And so far I've found it to be no more frustrating than KZ2.
 

NHale

Member
Multiplayer UI is terrible. So cluttered.

Actual multiplayer gameplay is decent enough, but it's not going to set the world alight - looking forward to getting BF4.

The multiplayer UI is more than enough to most people to never play the game. It's a complete mess.

Unfortunately terrible multiplayer UI's are becoming a trend. COD: Ghosts, BF, Medal of Honor: Warfighter all have UI's that need a tutorial to navigate. UI's need to be simple and clear, not puzzles with options hidden behind 4 buttons.

KZ: Mercenary multiplayer UI compared to this mess feels like something made by the Gods.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
There is to a degree. We're obviously not talking Thief here but up until that guard semi-spotted me and apparently alerted everyone else (which may or may not have happened, I might have missed someone else nearby or a camera) I hadn't been spotted in the level yet.

What I thought was cool was I only had 1 objective but I decided to go pretty much the exact opposite way which led to a very tight mountain pass that eventually led up to a brand new objective which was then placed on my list. I felt like I had actually explored on my own and found something of worth, although I'm sure they would have eventually told me to go up there.

If you go toward one of the other objectives before it's active you can deactivate all of the alarms in the area before tackling the rest of the mission. I thought that was a cool benefit for not following the objective markers.
 

TEH-CJ

Banned
Can someone please explain something to me that has really irked me. What do I adjust the gamma settings to?

am I supposed to slide it all the way to the left? do I leave it at default?

thanks.
 
Can someone please explain something to me that has really irked me. What do I adjust the gamma settings to?

am I supposed to slide it all the way to the left? do I leave it at default?

thanks.

Brightness setting. If the game is too dark/light for your TV/monitor you can move the slider to adjust accordingly.
 

Rising_Hei

Member
Finally, just completed it.

The mark sucks and sometimes you don't even see that robot you're supposed to use or you get your ass pwned -_-

Stealth also sucks, it is not very well implemented... the game works better when it's not triying to make you stealth.

Patch the mark to being clearer... but i don't see how could that fix chapter 10... it wasn't very fun to run around not knowing where my objetives are because the area was so crowed and full of detail... that's not a problem, but when the slightest mistake makes you start from 0... argh

Chapters 1-6 were amazing and 7-9 weren't that bad. I also liked the story... very uncommon to get an end like that
 
Contrast adjusts the maximum luminance. Brightness controls adjusts the black-point of your system. Gamma controls the overall brightness of an image. Images which are not properly corrected can look either bleached out, or too dark.
 

Vizzeh

Banned
Contrast adjusts the maximum luminance. Brightness controls adjusts the black-point of your system. Gamma controls the overall brightness of an image. Images which are not properly corrected can look either bleached out, or too dark.

The amount of people playing with dark or pissy images is gotta be shocking, would be nice if the console included a step by step Image brightness/contrast correction program to fine tune. I obviously use decent software, but not everyone is enthusiastic to look or know that there is something wrong, unless its fixed for them.
 

NeoROCK

Member
Beautiful graphics.

I hate the gameplay direction though.


I started playing today. Didn't even have a gun for the first 30 minutes or so. All cinematics, and then sneaking around with a knife. Not cool. Not a good way to start a game (poor design). Then I killed a few enemies with my knife and I couldn't even take their guns. WTF? Very boring. I feel like I'm going to have to force myself to continue playing this again.

The instructions in the top right hand corner are in a tiny font and almost impossible to read. I'm sure it was fine on their monitors when they were developing the game, but do they even test their games on TV's themselves?

The OWL.... I don't want it. Can I just shoot some Helghast scum and blow stuff up already!? Maybe the game gets better later on, but my first impression right now is negative.


Guerrilla Games really needs to move onto a new IP and possibly find some new designers and directors.
 
Now that I'm done with the campaign I've been playing some MP. It's decently fun, although I really wish they would have locked the FPS at 30 instead of allowing it to fluctuate so wildly between 30-60. It feels like I'm playing a game on my PC with the settings too high.
 

Chorazin

Member
Beautiful graphics.

I hate the gameplay direction though.


I started playing today. Didn't even have a gun for the first 30 minutes or so. All cinematics, and then sneaking around with a knife. Not cool. Not a good way to start a game (poor design). Then I killed a few enemies with my knife and I couldn't even take their guns. WTF? Very boring. I feel like I'm going to have to force myself to continue playing this again.

The instructions in the top right hand corner are in a tiny font and almost impossible to read. I'm sure it was fine on their monitors when they were developing the game, but do they even test their games on TV's themselves?

The OWL.... I don't want it. Can I just shoot some Helghast scum and blow stuff up already!? Maybe the game gets better later on, but my first impression right now is negative.


Guerrilla Games really needs to move onto a new IP and possibly find some new designers and directors.

Wow. You get the OWL, which let's you get the gun, then you get the ammo, then you go shoot dudes. It's like, 5 minutes, maybe 10 if you get lost.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Beautiful graphics.

I hate the gameplay direction though.


I started playing today. Didn't even have a gun for the first 30 minutes or so. All cinematics, and then sneaking around with a knife. Not cool. Not a good way to start a game (poor design). Then I killed a few enemies with my knife and I couldn't even take their guns. WTF? Very boring. I feel like I'm going to have to force myself to continue playing this again.

The instructions in the top right hand corner are in a tiny font and almost impossible to read. I'm sure it was fine on their monitors when they were developing the game, but do they even test their games on TV's themselves?

The OWL.... I don't want it. Can I just shoot some Helghast scum and blow stuff up already!? Maybe the game gets better later on, but my first impression right now is negative.


Guerrilla Games really needs to move onto a new IP and possibly find some new designers and directors.
Judging 12 hour games based on 15 minutes of play time is awesome.
 

viveks86

Member
Beautiful graphics.

I hate the gameplay direction though.


I started playing today. Didn't even have a gun for the first 30 minutes or so. All cinematics, and then sneaking around with a knife. Not cool. Not a good way to start a game (poor design). Then I killed a few enemies with my knife and I couldn't even take their guns. WTF? Very boring. I feel like I'm going to have to force myself to continue playing this again.

The instructions in the top right hand corner are in a tiny font and almost impossible to read. I'm sure it was fine on their monitors when they were developing the game, but do they even test their games on TV's themselves?

The OWL.... I don't want it. Can I just shoot some Helghast scum and blow stuff up already!? Maybe the game gets better later on, but my first impression right now is negative.


Guerrilla Games really needs to move onto a new IP and possibly find some new designers and directors.

Whoaa! Looks like you don't need this game at all. Just play this GIF on your TV and pull the trigger button indefinitely. Satisfaction guaranteed!
killzone2-1.gif
 

NeoROCK

Member
It's 10-15 minutes of play time, excluding cutscenes.

... well that was one of my main complaints. Cutscenes, cinematics, etc.... 30-40 minutes in before you even see a gun.

Its just poor design IMO.

and that double melee kill they teach you was fucking rad

I already did that in Far Cry 3 a few months ago so it wasn't nearly as rad to me.
 
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