Killzone Shadow Fall review

LOCK AND LOAD

A multiplayer shooter without auto-aim should give highly-practiced players an advantage on paper, but Killzone’s three-class system makes player abilities and co-operation just as important as twitch skills and weapon choice.

The Assault, Scout and Support classes each have one core ability and a selection of secondary abilities. The Assault class can place a small force field in front of him to absorb incoming fire, and pair this with a speed dash (to get to key choke points first), a stun blast (to disorient foes attacking from any direction), or a combat drone (to increase your own firepower).

The support class can resurrect dead colleagues with full health and ammo, and can choose from abilities such as placing temporary spawn points or automated turrets. The scout can pinpoint enemies for himself and his team using a short-range sonar ability, as well as choose from a cloaking device, stun drone or emergency teleport -great for snipers who need to relocate in a hurry.

The multiplayer revolves around intelligent use of your class abilities, such as this shield

With all three classes working as a team you can dominate a disorganised enemy, even if they’re much quicker on the trigger. With shields in the right places, turrets covering your rear, scouts marking incoming enemies, support medics and a mobile spawn point, you can set yourself up in an almost invulnerable position.

The game won’t let you keep this up for long though, as the game type switches dynamically during a single round. One minute you’ll be playing search and destroy, the next domination, and the next team deathmatch. There are loads of multiplayer options too, and you can craft a warzone to your exact desires and put it up online for others to try. If it gets popular it can shoot up the rankings and appear on the recommended warzone list.

DANGER ZONE

Killzone’s problem is that what most intrigued and thrilled us at the beginning is quickly left behind. One early level has echoes of Halo, with multiple objectives spread across a forested area and many ways to make best use of your toys to achieve them. We replayed it numerous times, but there’s nothing quite like it further on. The game is also too quick to leave the divided Vekta behind with its cultural collision and moral complexity.

Killzone looks fantastic, and plays well, but doesn’t quite live up to its potential

Killzone Shadow Fall could have been a game to match the original Halo, five stars and awards aplenty. However, it fails to live up to its own opening act – maybe the developer simply ran out of time with an immovable deadline looming. It’s still a good game and an undoubted technical achievement, with an intriguing multi-player element; but the single-player campaign left us hankering for a sequel before we even finished it, and not in a good way.

That said, if you have a PS4 and like shooters then you should still buy Killzone Shadow Fall. It’s not quite worth buying a PS4 to play, but it’s still a very good game.