Killzone Shadowfall Review

The Helghast look amazing, shame they can't shoot

PlayStation 4 launched with a decent line-up, many new IPs, but also a couple older ones. Killzone Shadowfall is a great game at showing just what the PlayStation 4 is capable of, however is it just that? A shiny new game with brilliant graphics but nothing else? That's what I'm here to discuss in this review.

My experience was very odd with this game. I planned to review it the week of launch. However I couldn't bring myself to finish the game, stopping after the second mission, thinking to myself I've seen this gameplay too much in other games, just another shooter. I decided to pick it up again after a couple months and try again. This time successfully finishing the game, I'm glad I did finish the game, it turned out to be an enjoyable experience. Not one that was ground-breaking, but still fun.

I won't lie, this game won't be remembered in a couple years as more games come out for the console. As Shadow Marshal Lucas Kellan, you’re tasked with keeping the peace between the Vektan natives and the Helghast refugees.  It's actually interesting, we get more of a view of the Helghast people and their views on the situation. It's interesting to see the almost justified reasons to hate the Vektan.

Level design is varied, with missions varying from open forests to large space ships. However, it feels like the first half of the game had more attention than the second half, as the game began to feel like a grind as I made my way through. Enemy AI is awful, I breezed through the game on hard as the AI reacted like a snail to my bullets. By the end, the enemy are pretty much all the same, with the odd robotic enemy thrown in.

The OWL, which is a little robotic buddy which can do a variation of things, attack, defence, zipline and stun. All of these are used with the PlayStation 4 touchpad, which is a great use of the new featured on the new controller.

Onto the multiplayer. Multiplayer is a mixed bag, the gameplay can be rather bland at time. Not being better than some of the existing multiplayer shooters out there. It feels tacked on, with very little innovation. It's a shame, multiplayer can be a saving factor for many shooters. With very little unlocks, my choices feel very light for how I can customise my loadouts.


Final veridict - 5.5 - Altogether, the game's not great, but I would say PlayStation 4 players should give it a try. Certainly Killzone Shadowfall is a great example of the potential of the PlayStation 4's power. However I feel like the game was rushed out for the console's release, which is certainly evident of the second half of the game.  With tacked on multiplayer which doesn't do anything new for the genre.