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Killzone: Shadow Fall |OT| Nothing Stops This Rain

P

pixelbox

Member
Anyone on this forum knows I love the series and Sony for that matter but I can positively say I was letdown by this game. Not because the game being one of the weaker entries of the series but the game seems to be an indicator of things to come. With all of this memory, the best we're going to get is 1080p and around 60 FPS as a next gen experience. If that's the case we may as well stayed with last gen tech. I want new experiences that are not possible with the previous gen's technology, not a fresh coat of paint. I want real "Red Faction 1" destruction, not Lego pieces fitted to "disappear" upon an explosion.

That being said the environments seem static. Water doesn't kick particles when shot, objects are inconsistently static(not powered by Havoc), and lots of LOD swapping. Although KZ:SF is a 1080p game, some of the buffers like the reflections and particles seem to be rendered at half res or lower which anything behind these buffers could look like the res of the buffer itself. Very jarring and ugly TBH and no I'm not a PC gamer by any stretch. I just expected these issues to be eradicated this time with 8 GIGS of GDDR 5 and wide bandwidths. I know this is a launch title but it didn't have to be so "safe". I guess they just didn't have enough time.

The game itself leaves more to be desired. Yes, there's no aim assist or lock on and yes the game is not as linear. But it just lacks what made KZ2 so special. Things like over dramatic death sequences and heavy blood spatter. It feels sped-up sandbagged with slower movement. Shooting feels good though and close to KZ2 offerings but the A.I. aggression isn't there so it's like shooting at meat bags. It just lacks the visceral feeling of KZ2. I'm still in the beginning so I have time to warm up to it, but so far it could've been released on PS3. That's the vibe I'm getting.

Oh and lastly is the MP. While refreshing to not have my hand held, the maps are very hard to read with me constantly getting kill by "base turrets". It's marked so poorly and unless I'm missing something someone please explain how it works? Speaking of the maps I'm getting tired of the destroyed look. Allow me to do the destroying... ;)

Overall, I give this game a 8.5 out of 10.
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
pixelbox said:
Anyone on this forum knows I love the series and Sony for that matter but I can positively say I was letdown by this game. Not because the game being one of the weaker entries of the series but the game seems to be an indicator of things to come. With all of this memory, the best we're going to get is 1080p and around 60 FPS as a next gen experience. If that's the case we may as well stayed with last gen tech. I want new experiences that are not possible with the previous gen's technology, not a fresh coat of paint. I want real "Red Faction 1" destruction, not Lego pieces fitted to "disappear" upon an explosion.

That being said the environments seem static. Water doesn't kick particles when shot, objects are inconsistently static(not powered by Havoc), and lots of LOD swapping. Although KZ:SF is a 1080p game, some of the buffers like the reflections and particles seem to be rendered at half res or lower which anything behind these buffers could look like the res of the buffer itself. Very jarring and ugly TBH and no I'm not a PC gamer by any stretch. I just expected these issues to be eradicated this time with 8 GIGS of GDDR 5 and wide bandwidths. I know this is a launch title but it didn't have to be so "safe". I guess they just didn't have enough time.
Click to expand...

Breh, it's a launch title. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's still using the KZ2/KZ3 engine as its base. Take a look back at PS360 launch titles, and look at how far those games went years later. Look at what the Sony's 1st party teams with that crazy hardware. Look at what Rockstar managed to get out of the PS3 with GTAV even with it's abnormal RAM set up. Look at Gears 3 and Halo 4. Now think about what will happen with stronger, easier to develop for hardware. Launch games are rushed, no matter how well they turn out. Just take a step back and slow down. The "new experiences" will be coming.
 
P

paperheart

Banned
I finished the game today, and I didn't enjoy it. I loved Killzone 2 and 3, so I was hoping I would enjoy Shadow Fall as well. It's a beautiful game, but that's the only good thing I can say about it. I also agree about the objective marker being hard to see, and it was also difficult to figure out how to get to the objective. On the positive side, I played a round of multiplayer and I enjoyed it. I was also able to get into a match very quickly, which shocked me because I thought it was going to be as slow as it was on the PS3. So, yeah, it seems like the multiplayer is going to be fun, but it's a bummer that the single player had to be so meh.
 
P

pixelbox

Member
Net_Wrecker said:
Breh, it's a launch title. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's still using the KZ2/KZ3 engine as its base. Take a look back at PS360 launch titles, and look at how far those games went years later. Look at what the Sony's 1st party teams with that crazy hardware. Look at what Rockstar managed to get out of the PS3 with GTAV even with it's abnormal RAM set up. Look at Gears 3 and Halo 4. Now think about what will happen with stronger, easier to develop for hardware. Launch games are rushed, no matter how well they turn out. Just take a step back and slow down. The "new experiences" will be coming.
Click to expand...

They are, but when will this change?
 
meanspartan

meanspartan

Member
I don't understand all the hate being directed at the campaign. After playing through the beginning couple missions (I just beat the level that was shown at the PS4 reveal event and am now on the one that begins with the bullet train area) I am quite pleased with it and it is sure as hell a lot more fun than COD or Bf4's campaigns.

Does it go like REALLY downhill or something?
 
S

SkoomaSuckinSwit

Member
That first outdoor level in the campaign. It's awesome.
But I had an issue with competing the mission.
Got to the final objective "Get to the armory"...and nothing happens.
I'm at the waypoint. Can't interact with the computer there. Nothing.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the mission borked?
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
meanspartan said:
I don't understand all the hate being directed at the campaign. After playing through the beginning couple missions (I just beat the level that was shown at the PS4 reveal event and am now on the one that begins with the bullet train area) I am quite pleased with it and it is sure as hell a lot more fun than COD or Bf4's campaigns.

Does it go like REALLY downhill or something?
Click to expand...

The story is terrible, clichéd, and I cared about no character nor faction at all. (I haven't played KZ3, played half of KZ1 and 2/3 of KZ2, 1/2 of the vita game).
The voice acting is even worse.
There are forced sections late in the game that shouldn't exist.
Random sequences where you control a character floating in midair.
Apparently, the guy has on a space suit at all times(?)
The gunplay is boring for the most part, but interspersed occasionally between the bleh battles are some very, very spectacular ones.
The audio mixing in general seems just terrible, maybe it is only unique to me, but I felt that I could almost never hear dialogue at a reasonable level. Sound effects were sometimes muted heavily.
Scripted sequences and bugs littered my gameplay experience. 'I'm almost done hacking', as the NPC is actually just firing bullets outside. WTF?
Many times it was impossible to tell where enemies were.

I haven't played CoD or BF, but I imagine most of my criticism levied above would probably also apply to BF/COD.

The game is gorgeous though. Skyboxes are incredible!
Some of the gameplay elements with the O.W.L. make for some good fights, though it really felt like a cheat-stick at times.
I haven't played multiplayer, but everyone else says its really good...so I'll assume that's the case.
 
B

bobeth

Member
SkoomaSuckinSwit said:
That first outdoor level in the campaign. It's awesome.
But I had an issue with competing the mission.
Got to the final objective "Get to the armory"...and nothing happens.
I'm at the waypoint. Can't interact with the computer there. Nothing.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the mission borked?
Click to expand...

I don't remember exactly, but can't you get your OWL to interact with the computer by pressing L1?
 
S

SkoomaSuckinSwit

Member
bobeth said:
I don't remember exactly, but can't you get your OWL to interact with the computer by pressing L1?
Click to expand...

No special prompt to interact with the computer, for either the Owl or me.
Attacking, stunning with Owl do nothing either.
Should mention: the marines that are saved stay in the center forest area.
Not sure if they're supposed to follow me inside the facility or not.

Not a huge deal, now that I know how to tackle the mission.
The checkpoint was horrible, btw.
I'd have everything done BUT the armory objective, get killed/die, then have to do ALL the objectives over again. I climbed that mountain 4 times.
 
Grinchy

Grinchy

Banned
Cru said:
Can we at least agree that the voice acting is terrible? So glad the names not red.
Click to expand...

I must have played a lot of games with atrocious voice acting, because I don't think it's bad at all. The dialog is bad, but the people trying to make sense of the ridiculous dialog do a decent enough job IMO.
 
meanspartan

meanspartan

Member
SomewhatGroovy said:
No, no. I think you're in the clear. I'm enjoying it myself and I'm two chapters ahead of you. At this point, you're past the buy in stage. It's fun, but if you go back to kz2, you do see the difference in level design. For the rest of us, kz2 is too memorable that we can't help but note the difference in level design.
Click to expand...

Oh for sure I don't think this is in KZ2 levels of quality, I just think so far anyway it is a pretty damn fun campIgn in an era where good fps campaigns are becoming rare.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Amir0x said:
it wasn't aimless at all! They tell you the objective and have a checklist and it's all explicit!

I am starting to understand why devs just design straight lines these days
Click to expand...
I just wish I had a map or something. Well, there's something to be said for design that's memorable enough you can't easily get lost too, but maps absolutely help when they're good, and they can't be THAT much effort relative to everything else already done for the game.
 
J

jaaz

Member
On the 6th mission in the Campaign. I am loving it so far. Varied locations and great gun play. I like it as much as KZ2 and better than 3.

I'm not sure I agree with some of the complaints around here. It's pretty funny: if they lead you by the hand, it's "too linear", if they give you room to explore and a variety of ways to the objective, it's "too confusing on where to go next". Lol.

And the story? For me it was fine, and if you think about it, it has quite a few references to our world today and its history. Certainly better than the crap stories Crysis and CoD have been churning out year after year....
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Ugh, chapter 8 is a slog. This is the first part of the campaign that shows it was rushed for launch. Really repetitive and that open section was infuriating. Everything before this was great but this is rough. Thankfully it's still gorgeous.
 
T

Timu

Member
On Chapter 8 now, and this game has shimmering.:/

c1842941_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1600-34-54-702.png


8774d8b8_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1717-46-14-794.png
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
GlassCity said:
I keep seeing people say not knowing where to go is 'refreshing", it's not in Killzone
Click to expand...
For me, it is, and yes, I can't quite figure out why are some put off by that. I enjoy the fact that the waypoint marker shows just the general position, and then it's up to me to figure out how to get there. It's never too difficult, but I can't put my brain on autopilot either. Plus you don't even have to always do things in strict order either. In the first, I'm pretty sure you can go to crash site right away, and it will just be more difficult because you didn't disable the alarm, which is normally the first step you're supposed to do.

I much prefer the way it's handled here than the giant step-by-step pointers of KZ3 or Dead Space for example. The game might as well teleport you their if it's going to give you such blatant "go here" pointers. I much prefer to not have them at all and to have the level design super-intuitive like in TLOU, or to have them be simplified like here, for situations when you're in a larger open space and need some general direction of where to go. There's a better sense of wonder and a small satisfaction when you get where you needed to go this way.

SkoomaSuckinSwit said:
I'd have everything done BUT the armory objective, get killed/die, then have to do ALL the objectives over again. I climbed that mountain 4 times.
Click to expand...
Strange. I died and it didn't revert me to the beginning of the section. However, when I put the console on standby and reloaded the game the next time, it did just that. Had to do all the objectives from the beginning.
 
G

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
I have a question about the campaign, how do I know when it's safe to quit the game? I ask because the last time I quit when I thought it was ok to(after a checkpoint), the game restarted me back in the beginning of that level. I don't wanna end up doing hours of gameplay all over again.
 
O

Outtrigger888

Member
This has been my favorite killzone campaign yet, chapter 3 was amazing. This whole game is a visual showcase. Love the fact it makes you explore and find where to go. Also love using the owl, some guys were coming up the steps when I was in this tower structure so I ziplined down and snuck up behind them. Fuck review scores, the structure in the campaign is what my gaming ich hasn't had in a long time.
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
GSG Flash said:
I have a question about the campaign, how do I know when it's safe to quit the game? I ask because the last time I quit when I thought it was ok to(after a checkpoint), the game restarted me back in the beginning of that level. I don't wanna end up doing hours of gameplay all over again.
Click to expand...
I'd like to know this as well. As I wrote above, this happened to me when I was near the end of chapter two, and when I continued the next day, it reverted me back to the beginning of the forest section.

Timu said:
On Chapter 8 now, and this game has shimmering.:/
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how you're expecting anyone to see a shimmering, which is a motion artifact on static screen. Yes, the game has some aliasing but it's absolutely minute.
 
G

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Lord Error said:
I'd like to know this as well. As I wrote above, this happened to me when I was near the end of chapter two, and when I continued the next day, it reverted me back to the beginning of the forest section.
Click to expand...

The fact that we even have to ask is kind of sad. Should restart back at the checkpoint, like every other game out there. Pretty massive fail on GG's part.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
Timu said:
On Chapter 8 now, and this game has shimmering.:/

c1842941_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1600-34-54-702.png


8774d8b8_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1717-46-14-794.png
Click to expand...

Really nice to see some relatively loss-less images. Hoping my contact pulls through for the upcoming tech thread.

If that falls through, would you mind helping us by supplying some screens and video content?
 
J

jwbrown77

Member
Can someone tell me what you're supposed to do in the room in chapter 9 when you're chasing Stahl? Do they honestly expect you to beat 50+ armored troops with turrets single handedly?

Is there some alarm I have to disable or exit I need to get to? What am I missing? It seems literally impossible as is.
 
S

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
delta25 said:
oh god the visuals, this is what you would expect out of a top tier PC game running on a GTX titan.
Click to expand...

As an owner of a top-tier PC running a Titan, I can say this is pretty true. Honestly, the only thing it's missing is some higher-quality anti-aliasing; and to a bigger extent, a wider Field of View. Killzone's FoV is alarmingly shallow; but I've managed to adjust rather quickly. Definitely tired of getting shot by someone like 3 feet to my right, though.

EDIT: Also, just shared my first video on Facebook. 1min of KZ footage equaled about 60 megs; which is crazy considering how terribly compressed it looks on FB, even with the HD setting. Still pretty cool, though.
 
T

Timu

Member
Dictator93 said:
Really nice to see some relatively loss-less images. Hoping my contact pulls through for the upcoming tech thread.

If that falls through, would you mind helping us by supplying some screens and video content?
Click to expand...
All I have are screens, and yeah they're all PNG, I'm loving the character models and lighting in this game:

8a7506d0_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1716-29-35-472.png


29ef317a_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1717-11-55-155.png


6abe5dbc_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1717-12-57-613.png


f0ec2c23_MediaCaptureGame1X2013-11-1717-16-53-048.png
 
B

Bringer Of Bacon

Member
Seriously tho, the reviewers on this game are fucking full of shit. This game is amazing. I haven't had this much fun in a single player fps in years. YEARS. I love the story and world. Epic sci fi shit. It had a very Elysium/ district 9 feel to it. The sound track is killer. I love The nod to the movie sunshine... Sci fi fans will know what I am talking about. Acting could be better, but who cares, fire fights are fun, set pieces gorgeous and engaging, it's all so much damn fun!!!! Multiplayer is methodical, satisfying, and addictive. What a way for ps4 to start off the generation. Greatness has arrived my friends, welcome to next gen. Add me on PSN for a game or two: BringerOfBacon.
 
K

Kolgar

Member
Worked my way up to Chapter 8 and I think that may be it for me.

That part where you
glide through the city with horrible, kill-me-now controls
put me over the top. I haven't been this aggravated by a game in a long time, and that's saying something.

I think Guerilla is trying to emulate the wrong type of games. I don't want Call of Duty. I don't want Crysis. But they're trying so hard to make Killzone like other games that the result is a soulless slog quite unlike the first couple of games in the series.

When a game simultaneously lets me down and gets my blood pressure up like this, it's time to check the trade-in value and move on to greener pastures.

What a terrible outing to start the new generation.
 
B

Bringer Of Bacon

Member
Kolgar said:
Worked my way up to Chapter 8 and I think that may be it for me.

That part where you
glide through the city with horrible, kill-me-now controls
put me over the top. I haven't been this aggravated by a game in a long time, and that's saying something.

I think Guerilla is trying to emulate the wrong type of games. I don't want Call of Duty. I don't want Crysis. But they're trying so hard to make Killzone like other games that the result is a soulless slog quite unlike the first couple of games in the series.

When a game simultaneously lets me down and gets my blood pressure up like this, it's time to check the trade-in value and move on to greener pastures.

What a terrible outing to start the new generation.
Click to expand...

Gg nub learn to play
 
H

HammerOfThor

Member
The saving in this game is horrible. It says I'm at a checkpoint so I'm assuming its saving.

Apparently not because if I exist and boot it up its like the last 30 minutes of gameplay didn't even count :/

I wish it would tell you when its saving.
 
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