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[Marc]

Played a little bit of this now, looks so damn good, everything is crystal clear even to a blind man like me.

I just got a sniper rifle and at the top of a mountain side decided to put this game to the test and scope things out. Far away backgrounds are shitty, fair enough, didn't expect miracles and then I leek to my left and there off in the distance is some kind of TV. Showing an animation of something I can't quite make out. I mean it is way off, that is crazy detail to animate that! Absolutely no reason to, kudos to the design team.

Game wise, a bit underwhelmed so far, but then I am not a big FPS fan. I like the pacing a bit more, and I am still getting used to the controller.

 

[Frillen]

Beat the game on normal. It had some frustrating parts in the latter chapters, including a boss fight. Graphics are stunning though.

 

[BoilersFan23]

I loved KZ2 and 3 single player a lot, but Shadow Fall's single player has not appealed to me as much. My main problems involve checkpoints (where when I came back to the game, it started me WAY back) and has some stupid frustrating parts where you are instantly swarmed and you cannot get out of it. I am even playing the game on easy. I also have to seem to rely on the market a lot because I cannot figure out where to go. I am almost done w/ Chapter 6. I also have CoD: Ghosts and its giving me no issues playing through SP.

Graphics on the other hand are amazing and I love the audiolog. MP seems good but only played once so far.

 

[Majanew]

Holy shit the checkpoint/save system sucks balls. I'm tired of having to replay entire sections because the checkpoint/save is so damn far apart. Makes me want to stop playing. Just loaded up my campaign, saw I had to replay entire section over, closed application. Fuck that.

Save anywhere for Shadow Fall 2, please.

 

[Lord Error]

Holy shit the checkpoint/save system sucks balls. I'm tired of having to replay entire sections because the checkpoint/save is so damn far apart. Makes me want to stop playing. Just loaded up my campaign, saw I had to replay entire section over, closed application. Fuck that.

Save anywhere for Shadow Fall 2, please.

It's really dumb. It comes down that practically only safe place to quit the game is the beginning of each chapter. Because you never know where the mid-chapter section checkpoints really are.

 

[Rich!]

Got this as my launch game.

My god, the first chapter sucked. A really, really lame and hilariously predictable attempt at gaining an emotional response. Not only that, but boring. Boring, slow and lame.

But it's picked up now. In the forest area near the dam, and getting crysis 1 vibes. that's good.

respawning enemies though? oh please fuck off

 

[Apoc87]

I think they were banking on the suspend feature to alleviate the save issues. It really pisses me off that sony didn't have that feature ready at launch.

 

[dark10x]

I know, but I'm not talking just about fighting ennemies.

Spoiler

The stupid "puzzle" section with those fucking generators, the zero G fights, the boss fight, the dumb story, etc.

Like I said I thought that everything that does not involve fighting breathing Helghasts was baaaaaaad.

I absolutely loved most of the things that you hated.

 

[Apoc87]

respawning enemies though? oh please fuck off

Find the alarm and disable it.

 

[March of the Crabs]

Played more of the SP campaign and it still is really not that good at all. Such a shame because the graphics are beautiful and the gunplay and controls are great as well. Thankfully I'm having more fun with the multiplayer than I have with any MP shooter in years. Wish there were more people online.

 

[NullPointer]

why are all my bots just standing around in one spot?

Would like to know this too.

Can't seem to make a death match only botzone. They all run to one spot near their own base and just stand guard.

 

[CorrisD]

I watched back a share button recording of my game play, the video quality really doesn't do the game justice, like, at all.

So, do those of us that pre-ordered the PS4 with Killzone:SF not get the pre-order bonuses? I was kinda hoping we would.

I'll quote my question to see if anyone knows a few hours later, lol.

 

[leng jai]

Got up to chapter 5 and really am not impressed. It's just boring and frustrating - my least favourite KZ campaign by far. Whoever thought the zero gravity level(s)? would be fun needs to be slapped.

Multiplayer however is amazing.

 

[TEH-CJ]

Got up to chapter 5 and really am not impressed. It's just boring and frustrating - my least favourite KZ campaign by far. Whoever thought the zero gravity level(s)? would be fun needs to be slapped.

Multiplayer however is amazing.

yup. after killzone 3 and shadow fall I have pretty much lost faith in guerrilla to make a compelling campaign. I can't get over how boring most of the game is! and shooting rockets out of my hands with no explanation?? wtf was that. was I given a rocket launcher during a cutscene that I missed or something?

why am I doing puzzles and walking around doing the most boring shit imaginable in a killzone game?

why isn't the entire game like chapter 4? because the game is at its best when I am having massive battles with the higs and damn is it good. but I am not having fun shoving canisters in a hole. just some really bizarre design decisions here.

damn what a let down. I seriously had more fun with resistance fall of man...I'm not even trolling.

guerrila..killzone 2 was a critical success because the game had intense and exciting battles from beginning to end. the pacing was spot on and the gunplay was excellent. now put what made killzone 2 so succesfull in a sandbox type level design and you will have a winner.

 

[Gator86]

yup. after killzone 3 and shadow fall I have pretty much lost faith in guerrilla to make a compelling campaign. I can't get over how boring most of the game is! and shooting rockets out of my hands with no explanation?? wtf was that. was I given a rocket launcher during a cutscene that I missed or something?

why am I doing puzzles and walking around doing the most boring shit imaginable in a killzone game?

why isn't the entire game like chapter 4? because the game is at its best when I am having massive battles with the higs and damn is it good. but I am not having fun shoving canisters in a hole. just some really bizarre design decisions here.

damn what a let down. I seriously had more fun with resistance fall of man...I'm not even trolling.

guerrila..killzone 2 was a critical success because the game had intense and exciting battles from beginning to end. the pacing was spot on and the gunplay was excellent. now put what made killzone 2 so succesfull in a sandbox type level design and you will have a winner.

You two nailed my exact feelings. I actually liked KIllzone 2 and 3 campaigns a lot but SF is so terrible. I keep trying to go back and play it but it's just awful.

The multiplayer is still great though. Just hoping they lower the bullet sponge-ness of the turrets and make a few other balance changes.

 

[SJRB]

Just cleared the first proper mission, it was pretty cool but clearing that tiny patch of forest 5 times in a row was kind of silly.


The music so far has been awesome. I can't find anything regarding a soundtrack, anyone know what's up?

 

[ZealousMonkey]

You don't have to clear that part 5 times in a row do you? You can do that part from left to right and it is pretty easy I thought. Fun at least for me. Breaking into the weapons factory is still one of my highlights for the launch games. I actually feel badass with that OWL and I like that. I hope this isn't the total end of KZ.

 

[Earthanoid]

It's not that the story is bad. It's that it does not make sense. Felt the same thing about BF4. It's like they thought about cool stuff they could make and then tried to stich all that with a story.

This. There's nothing wrong with the story inherently, it's just that it stops making sense in the context of what is happening in the game about halfway through. It feels like they had all these levels planned out, with stuff planned in between to make it flow, but then ran out of time to develop the "in between" stuff. It doesn't help much that at the end it also feels like they didn't have time to focus group the levels and tweak the difficulty properly. So by the end of the game you're really scratching your head thinking "wtf is going on?" in both the story and the gameplay.

It's too bad too, because the game engine is solid. Some of the levels were really awesome and the gunplay is very good overall.

 

[ZealousMonkey]

This. There's nothing wrong with the story inherently, it's just that it stops making sense in the context of what is happening in the game about halfway through. It feels like they had all these levels planned out, with stuff planned in between to make it flow, but then ran out of time to develop the "in between" stuff. It doesn't help much that at the end it also feels like they didn't have time to focus group the levels and tweak the difficulty properly. So by the end of the game you're really scratching your head thinking "wtf is going on?" in both the story and the gameplay.

It's too bad too, because the game engine is solid. Some of the levels were really awesome and the gunplay is very good overall.

I think launch came up pretty quick. Devs need to start polishing their games more and that is my biggest problem with gaming today. Unpolished 2 year on the dot games, or worse, that just don't quite have that last edge in quality.

In this case I really like KZSF but it could have had a little more time to flesh out some story stuff.

 

[Ricker]

Holy shit the checkpoint/save system sucks balls. I'm tired of having to replay entire sections because the checkpoint/save is so damn far apart. Makes me want to stop playing. Just loaded up my campaign, saw I had to replay entire section over, closed application. Fuck that.

Save anywhere for Shadow Fall 2, please.

Well maybe not anywhere but for example in Chapter 9 at one point,you need to do something so ennemies stop coming through a door...its a pain for many reasons but I passed it...then,there is another one like this,but even harder...the game should auto save after the first one at least,but no I have to not only redo that but a few other hard parts before it also...

 

[Frillen]

Been playing TD a bit and I've had a lot of fun. There's almost no bullet lag and the maps are pretty good with decent hot spots. Not a lot players though .

Add me: PSN: SuperYlvis

 

[WarrenMax007]

When i first started Killzone campaign, in intro sound was laggy, is this because game is installing?

 

[BattleMonkey]

yup. after killzone 3 and shadow fall I have pretty much lost faith in guerrilla to make a compelling campaign. I can't get over how boring most of the game is! and shooting rockets out of my hands with no explanation?? wtf was that. was I given a rocket launcher during a cutscene that I missed or something?

why am I doing puzzles and walking around doing the most boring shit imaginable in a killzone game?

why isn't the entire game like chapter 4? because the game is at its best when I am having massive battles with the higs and damn is it good. but I am not having fun shoving canisters in a hole. just some really bizarre design decisions here.

damn what a let down. I seriously had more fun with resistance fall of man...I'm not even trolling.

guerrila..killzone 2 was a critical success because the game had intense and exciting battles from beginning to end. the pacing was spot on and the gunplay was excellent. now put what made killzone 2 so succesfull in a sandbox type level design and you will have a winner.

I hope they don't listen to you. No offense but non stop combat is not what the series needs, we have countless of these shooters out several times a year now for almost a decade. Having them attempting to insert platforming, some puzzle elements, exploration, and stealth all into one game is a noble idea.

The game has issues, it's sloppy in the way it does a bunch of things, but I appreciate the scope and them trying to distance themselves away from the linear micheal bay presents corridor shooter. KZ2 reviewed today, would probably be getting shit all over it for how derivative it is. KZ2 was a solid polished game, but to just rehash the same linear shooter, as the reviews are showing for BF4 and COD series, it's getting tired. SF falls on its face in design decisions, but I have lot of respect and hope for what they have in mind and pray they keep going this direction with the series.

Well maybe not anywhere but for example in Chapter 9 at one point,you need to do something so ennemies stop coming through a door...its a pain for many reason but I passed it...then,there is another one like this,but even harder...the game should auto save after the first one at least,but no I have to not only redo that but a few other hard parts before it also...

In chapter 9 the final big battle area? You don't have to stop them from coming, you just kill them till they are all dead and you can proceed. I just took to cover, used owl abilities and kept picking them off one by one and eventually checkpoint kicks in and you can continue. To close the doors is just an option in that area.

 

[JamboGT]

Watching a friend play at the moment, in the reticle what is the, well I guess it looks like a muzzle flash icon do or mean?

Ah its the Owl Mode.

 

[Bollocks]

The only negative thing I can say is that it feels rushed and only because when Sinclair speaks there is no ambient sound whatsoever and going from section to section there are some awkward pauses in between conversations.
Also the voice over leaves a lot to be desired, again Sinclair's voice feels out of place,

While the game definitely looks hot, it looks too sterile imo (even chapter 5/6). KZ2 looked way grittier and looked like a unique game. Shadowfall looks like a PC game with its high resolution photo textures. I think they said they dropped the deferred renderer, maybe that's what it is.

Art direction as always is amazing, I can never get enough of the Killzone universe.
Can't really say I hate the game. I love that they try to bring new things to the franchise.
So far I'm having a blast playing it.
Though the waypoint indicator could be more prominent, first there is a delay and second it's so small you don't see it immediately because it gets blurred with all those lights and post processing effects.

 

[HolyFridge]

 

[RoboPlato]

I hope they don't listen to you. No offense but non stop combat is not what the series needs, we have countless of these shooters out several times a year now for almost a decade. Having them attempting to insert platforming, some puzzle elements, exploration, and stealth all into one game is a noble idea.

The game has issues, it's sloppy in the way it does a bunch of things, but I appreciate the scope and them trying to distance themselves away from the linear micheal bay presents corridor shooter. KZ2 reviewed today, would probably be getting shit all over it for how derivative it is. KZ2 was a solid polished game, but to just rehash the same linear shooter, as the reviews are showing for BF4 and COD series, it's getting tired. SF falls on its face in design decisions, but I have lot of respect and hope for what they have in mind and pray they keep going this direction with the series.

Completely agree with you. I think they tried to do too much for a launch title but they can build on this game and the engine quite a bit for the next game.

 

[HueyFreeman]

I hope they don't listen to you. No offense but non stop combat is not what the series needs, we have countless of these shooters out several times a year now for almost a decade. Having them attempting to insert platforming, some puzzle elements, exploration, and stealth all into one game is a noble idea.

The game has issues, it's sloppy in the way it does a bunch of things, but I appreciate the scope and them trying to distance themselves away from the linear micheal bay presents corridor shooter. KZ2 reviewed today, would probably be getting shit all over it for how derivative it is. KZ2 was a solid polished game, but to just rehash the same linear shooter, as the reviews are showing for BF4 and COD series, it's getting tired. SF falls on its face in design decisions, but I have lot of respect and hope for what they have in mind and pray they keep going this direction with the series.

I think this is a great point. KZ2 is a great game, but both 2/3 when replayed now just feel like a constant stream of balls to walls. When everything is sensational, nothing is.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Wow, I just noticed the soundtrack was composed by Lorn. That's awesome.

 

[nib95]

I hope they don't listen to you. No offense but non stop combat is not what the series needs, we have countless of these shooters out several times a year now for almost a decade. Having them attempting to insert platforming, some puzzle elements, exploration, and stealth all into one game is a noble idea.

The game has issues, it's sloppy in the way it does a bunch of things, but I appreciate the scope and them trying to distance themselves away from the linear micheal bay presents corridor shooter. KZ2 reviewed today, would probably be getting shit all over it for how derivative it is. KZ2 was a solid polished game, but to just rehash the same linear shooter, as the reviews are showing for BF4 and COD series, it's getting tired. SF falls on its face in design decisions, but I have lot of respect and hope for what they have in mind and pray they keep going this direction with the series.



In chapter 9 the final big battle area? You don't have to stop them from coming, you just kill them till they are all dead and you can proceed. I just took to cover, used owl abilities and kept picking them off one by one and eventually checkpoint kicks in and you can continue. To close the doors is just an option in that area.

Fantastic post. I wholeheartedly agree. GG had the right idea by opening things up and slowing down the pace. Where they've failed is that they didn't incentivise exploration enough.

They need an upgrade system of some kind, or something more than just collectibles. RPG esque elements to reward searching around or even getting lost. Finding parts for weapons, money to buy new stuff etc.

 

[Matchew]

Like others have said the campaign was a lot of fun until that sky falling chapter (i think it was ch. 7 or 8). After taking 10+ tries at the sky falling part and the controls being horrible, I get into annoying gun fight with big alarm gun, a huge robot, and spiders everywhere while trying to find a piece of something to put into something. And once that's all done I get to do it again! But with two huge alarm guns and more robots. I said fuck it and haven't played since.

 

[pixelbox]

I think launch came up pretty quick. Devs need to start polishing their games more and that is my biggest problem with gaming today. Unpolished 2 year on the dot games, or worse, that just don't quite have that last edge in quality.

In this case I really like KZSF but it could have had a little more time to flesh out some story stuff.

Yeah, three years minimum. These games are too complex.

 

[KennyLinder]

Been playing this solid for over 10 hours now and I am at the point of nearly giving up on it. It's one of the most disappointing, frustrating and generally weak first person shooters I have played in a very long time. I can totally see where the 5 and 6 review scores are coming from now, it's just not a very good game at all.

Level design is appalling, I am constantly wondering where I have to go next or getting totally lost in a level. Even in the forest at the start, I had no clue where to go and that's a massive failure within level design. Let's direct you over to a bit by the river, but this is a dead-end. There is a 1 metre drop which kills you instantly and where do you go? Back where you came from down a hole in the ground. The levels should flow naturally and they do not in SF.

What THE FUCK is up with the games difficulty? It's ridiculous. Enemies take 15+ rounds to kill and a weapon only holds 30 per clip, and the enemies themselves are very very tough, even early on. I am playing on Normal difficulty and I have generally struggled my way through the game. Checkpoint placement isn't great either, with some very unforgiving sections later on in the story mode.

The graphics are lovely, and when it runs at 60 its fantastic, but the character models aren't up to much, and the camera is still at about 3ft tall. I was really hoping they would fix the camera height, it bugs the shit out of me.

Controls feel great, mostly helped with the less weighty weapons now and the Dual Shock 4 is a great piece of kit. The owl is handy but fiddly to use, but the shield is really handy obviously.

Story is all over the place, and with no cutscenes or clear narration, when levels jump from forrest to zero-gravity to a flashy city, you wonder what the fuck is going on. It's awful, and the characters, story and premise is just not exciting at all. It's like Halo never happened.

I will probably finish the game, I think I am near the end (

Spoiler

just took a scientist back to base and the Helghast are attacking us in ridiculous battle

), but I am very very glad I bought it on disc so I can ditch it off as soon as possible.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

I'm really enjoying the campaign so far but the story continues to be absolute gutter trash. It's extra annoying because it clearly wanted to be about something interesting, but they had to leap through so many logic holes to get to the premise they wanted. Off the top of my head:

Spoiler

-Why did they just invite the Helghast to their home planet? Did no one think "they might be mad about the nuke thing"?
-Why did they allow them to bring their military hardware?
-Who the hell agreed to just literally splitting the planet down the middle and displacing their own constituents?
-Why was there not an immediate political or military response to the Helghast killing civilians leaving their new half of the planet? "no dude it's theirs now we gave them the keys"
-If the Helghast are so disgusted by the prospects of living next door to their genociding enemies, why did they accept the offer in the first place? Are there only two livable planets in the galaxy?

 

[BattleMonkey]

I'm really enjoying the campaign so far but the story continues to be absolute gutter trash. It's extra annoying because it clearly wanted to be about something interesting, but they had to leap through so many logic holes to get to the premise they wanted. Off the top of my head:

Spoiler

-Why did they just invite the Helghast to their home planet? Did no one think "they might be mad about the nuke thing"?
-Why did they allow them to bring their military hardware?
-Who the hell agreed to just literally splitting the planet down the middle and displacing their own constituents?
-Why was there not an immediate political or military response to the Helghast killing civilians leaving their new half of the planet? "no dude it's theirs now we gave them the keys"
-If the Helghast are so disgusted by the prospects of living next door to their genociding enemies, why did they accept the offer in the first place? Are there only two livable planets in the galaxy?

Earth forced the treaty upon the Vektans and Helghast, there was no surrender just a cease fire. But yes it was silly how they had them move into the same city when it was establish in previous games that the planet is quite large and has various other places where they could have set up a Helghan population.

 

[SJRB]

I'm really enjoying the campaign so far but the story continues to be absolute gutter trash. It's extra annoying because it clearly wanted to be about something interesting, but they had to leap through so many logic holes to get to the premise they wanted. Off the top of my head:

Spoiler

-Why did they just invite the Helghast to their home planet? Did no one think "they might be mad about the nuke thing"?
-Why did they allow them to bring their military hardware?
-Who the hell agreed to just literally splitting the planet down the middle and displacing their own constituents?
-Why was there not an immediate political or military response to the Helghast killing civilians leaving their new half of the planet? "no dude it's theirs now we gave them the keys"
-If the Helghast are so disgusted by the prospects of living next door to their genociding enemies, why did they accept the offer in the first place? Are there only two livable planets in the galaxy?

I'm only at chapter 5 but I agree with everything and was wondering the exact same things. I mean, I love the cold war-esque vibe and the surreal "split down the middle" city, but the leaps of logic in everything that's happening are gigantic.

 

[Always-honest]

Been playing this solid for over 10 hours now and I am at the point of nearly giving up on it. It's one of the most disappointing, frustrating and generally weak first person shooters I have played in a very long time. I can totally see where the 5 and 6 review scores are coming from now, it's just not a very good game at all.

Level design is appalling, I am constantly wondering where I have to go next or getting totally lost in a level. Even in the forest at the start, I had no clue where to go and that's a massive failure within level design. Let's direct you over to a bit by the river, but this is a dead-end. There is a 1 metre drop which kills you instantly and where do you go? Back where you came from down a hole in the ground. The levels should flow naturally and they do not in SF.

Controls feel great, mostly helped with the less weighty weapons now and the Dual Shock 4 is a great piece of kit. The owl is handy but fiddly to use, but the shield is really handy obviously.

Story is all over the place, and with no cutscenes or clear narration, when levels jump from forrest to zero-gravity to a flashy city, you wonder what the fuck is going on. It's awful, and the characters, story and premise is just not exciting at all. It's like Halo never happened.

.

Have to disagree on the level design. It seems they can't please people. The forrest level was great imo. And if you push up on the D-pad you see where you have to go. It's just not that easy to get there. I'm at chapter 4 and so far i'm having no problems with the level design. There is not much handholding and as far as i'm concerned, that's great. They do tell you the basics though.

I agree wholeheartetly about the story being all over the place. It just doesn't mak much sense to be flying into the sun the one moment and then arriving at the city in another chapter without saying shit.

A lot of decisions are weird in this game.

Oh and i agree the DS4 is amazing. I also like the owl but it took some time to remember that you can use all that stuff and not forget where everything is located on your controller in the heat of the battle.

 

[BoilersFan23]

You two nailed my exact feelings. I actually liked KIllzone 2 and 3 campaigns a lot but SF is so terrible. I keep trying to go back and play it but it's just awful.

The multiplayer is still great though. Just hoping they lower the bullet sponge-ness of the turrets and make a few other balance changes.

Same, I loved the campaigns a ton in KZ2 and 3. I started to think...maybe I would not enjoy a KZ game now....until I decided to finally play my Vita copy of KZ Mercenary. KZ Mercenary felt more like the KZ I enjoyed a ton on PS3 and wanted to keep playing.

Shadow Fall SP just doesn't feel right (difficulty put too high, too hard to find out where to go next, and just not a good flow). I could careless about the story, but I just don't feel like playing SP more. I did like MP when I played it, so I may just stick to that even if I'm not a big MP gamer.

 

[Gator86]

Same, I loved the campaigns a ton in KZ2 and 3. I started to think...maybe I would not enjoy a KZ game now....until I decided to finally play my Vita copy of KZ Mercenary. KZ Mercenary felt more like the KZ I enjoyed a ton on PS3 and wanted to keep playing.

Shadow Fall SP just doesn't feel right (difficulty put too high, too hard to find out where to go next, and just not a good flow). I could careless about the story, but I just don't feel like playing SP more. I did like MP when I played it, so I may just stick to that even if I'm not a big MP gamer.

You should definitely put some time into the MP. Its fun immediately but also grows on you as you get more experienced.

 

[IvorB]

Well just finished up playing about 12 hours of this and I have to say it's pretty awesome. We're having a great time. The graphics are face-melting. I don't really like or play FPS games but this is really cool. We are playing on hard which has the right about of bite. I really like the Owl stuff (shield is essential). But by the heavens, the game is gorgeous. Next gen is here!

One thing that's disappointing is the audio. The guns sound muddy and indistinct. The game is just really not doing it for me sonically. Also the audio track was glitching in the opening cinematic. Did anyone else experience this? Kinda worried my console has some issue.

Pretty zoned out now though...

 

[IvorB]

Shadow Fall SP just doesn't feel right (difficulty put too high, too hard to find out where to go next, and just not a good flow).

Really? Seems pretty straight forward to me. You know you can see where your objective is if you press 'up' right?

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

Finished the single player campaign. Pacing was all over the place. Mercenary had a better single player package, even if it is shorter.

 

[RoboPlato]

I'm still confused at most of the difficulty complaints. I was incapable of finishing KZ2 on Elite but I finished this on Hard without much difficulty at all.

Finished the single player campaign. Pacing was all over the place. Mercenary had a better single player package, even if it is shorter.

After a replay I do agree the pacing is off, although I like the slower parts. The game could have done with being a bit shorter, which I never thought I would say about an FPS campaign in 2013.

 

[The Xtortionist]

I'm still confused at most of the difficulty complaints. I was incapable of finishing KZ2 on Elite but I finished this on Hard without much difficulty at all.

Same. Shadow Fall was piss easy for me on Hard. Only rough sections were skydiving and the enemy waves at the end of chapter 7. Just play cautiously and abuse the OWL.

 

[X-Factor]

The level with the power cell swapping and the terrible anti-gravity space sections with ascending / descending very slowly are definitely the worst parts of the game.

Those levels were not that good.

Overall Shadowfall is a good game, albeit not as good as Killzone 3.

I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 since some of the bad sections hold it back.

 

[Zen]

Shadowfall is 20 times the game that 3 was. You ascend descend pretty quickly if you use the controls.

 

[Aaronology]

Wow, I just noticed the soundtrack was composed by Lorn. That's awesome.

Holy cow, that's beyond awesome. The music is easily my favorite part of the game.

 

[RoboPlato]

Shadowfall is 20 times the game that 3 was.

Yup. Both games are 50/50 in terms of quality but for me the good parts of Shadow Fall are so much better and more fresh than the decent parts of KZ3. The parts of SF that weren't as good were just OK whereas the bad parts of 3 were really fucking bad.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Outside of the freefall stupidity, the game was easy as heck outside of that initial forest level. The forest was hard since enemies could come from so many directions, hard to see, and its your first real battle so you have no idea how to use all the game features.

 

[NullPointer]

Have to disagree on the level design. It seems they can't please people. The forrest level was great imo. And if you push up on the D-pad you see where you have to go. It's just not that easy to get there. I'm at chapter 4 and so far i'm having no problems with the level design. There is not much handholding and as far as i'm concerned, that's great. They do tell you the basics though.

While I agree with you, and would rather have open non-linear levels rather than corridor crawls Guerrilla still does need to work on their level design. While they can produce visually stunning environments, they don't make those areas that are centrally important to the gameplay stand out nearly as much as they should.

The Forest level could've used some significant work, that while it is fun on replays, its downright obtuse on a first go. First its extremely difficult to spot enemy patrols from afar. Whether its the dense foliage or fog, zoomed in with the rifle or not, you can barely discern anything. You can try to use your tactical echo, but considering the size of the area, you're only going to detect that which you're almost right on top of. So this means that first central Alarm is very difficult to spot and account for, whether with your eyes or the echo. So most people will first set off the alarm, and face continual waves of shock troopers. Not a great start.

Alarms need to be more distinct. Patrols need to be visible at a distance. Echo needs to have enough range to where its useful from most vantage points. Neither of these is true on that level, so combat there is likely to be a mess. Outside of combat the player will rely upon waypoints because the only time the important structures stand out is from above the forest canopy, but you don't get the various objectives until you're on the ground floor.

ShadowFall is filled with a lot of tiny problems of this nature. GG's ultimate goals are sound, and are the right ones, but they need to work on making important things visually distinct along with providing the players the right tools and the space to experiment with them outside of fight-or-flight situations.

If they can focus on that their output will more closely match their more ambitious gameplay goals.