I honestly sat there thinking, 'Fuck me, this is it.' This mission sees Kellan charged with taking down some Helghan AA guns and assisting some ISA troops. It's at this point that the PS4's technical grunt really hits home. It's not long before you're taking steps outside, and into the shimmering sunlight of a glorious forest. It starts promisingly though, with a long, stealthy and purposely 'drab' section similar to the first hour of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I missed the heft, the decay and mass destruction of previous games. The feeling of raw muscle and urgency displayed in the opening stages of the second game is nowhere to be found here, replaced instead with covert ops and smaller skirmishes. Where Killzone 2 and 3 placed you as a vital cog in a grand, planet-wide conflict, Shadow Fall pulls a Call of Duty and has you running around as a one-man army capable of defeating scores of well-trained, heavily armed attackers, no questions asked. Your job is to avert another war by infiltrating the wall and exposing the Helghast scheme. Understandably, the Helghast are not happy. Health and prosperity are found on one side, while oppression and indoctrination thrive on the other. It sees the planet's capital divided by a great wall. Vekta has now become divided following the destruction of the Helghast's home planet, and as an olive branch measure, the Vektans have offered Helghan refugees a new home. Over the years he grows to become a Shadow Marshall for the ISA, and sets off on a mission to expose a terrorist threat. The game is set 30 years after the events of Killzone 3 as a young Lucas Kellan gets his first taste of Helghast brutality. What use are highly-defined gun models and impressive facial tech when you simply cannot become invested in the hammy words coming out of NPC's mouths, or the reasoning for the bullets expended from your gun? This is an enjoyable game, and confidently the most visually arresting title of the Next-Gen Show so far, but it falters often. Yet, it stumbles as a gameplay experience, at points failing to grasp simple sign-posting and design mechanics that have been delivered adequately throughout the last generation. It is a monumental achievement and a true coding show-piece. This is evident from the moment the plot begins, right up to its conclusion. Not an inch of this game's visual make-up has been neglected or represented without care. Like a viral or meme, word will spread of Killzone's incredible dynamic lighting, its eye-watering vistas and the painstaking detail afforded to simple set dressing such as chairs and tables. It's the game that will get people talking to their friends about why PS4 is the correct choice going into the new hardware round. I streamed Shadow Fall over Twitch while I was preparing this blog, and the comment box was constantly filled with praise for its visuals. ![]() These 'holding areas' are blatant, but rarely feel tedious due to the eye candy on offer. There are no loading screens during missions, but while the game is preparing the next marvelous expanse you are treated to long, lingering shots of Vekta's capital city as your air cruiser hovers towards its next mission, or dizzying views of the planet's Helghan quadrant. ![]() Guerrilla shoves its technical mastery in your face at every given opportunity. You can't simply spectate this game, you actually have to try it. You have to actually sit down with the DualShock 4 in your hand, and move your avatar around Guerrilla's technical play-space to fully appreciate the leap in power between PS4 and its predecessors. The screenshots didn't do it justice, nor did the carefully edited trailers. It wasn't until I played Killzone: Shadow Fall's campaign that I felt the next-generation of console gaming had arrived. All images were taken using the PS4's share function on Dave's console.) PS4 EU Launch At the time of writing, multiplayer games were not connecting due to the game not being out yet, and as such this article contains potential plot SPOILERS. (Note: This article refers to the Killzone: Shadow Fall campaign only. Killzone: Shadow Fall is arguably the best-looking next-gen title so far, but VG247's Dave Cook reckons that the campaign's old-hat design knifes Guerrilla's visual masterpiece in the back.
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