Killzone Shadow Fall Review Thread

Damn I shouldnt've opened the plastic wrap on my copy. I was worried about this game. The no autoaim on a console is strange too, if it controls like a pc game with a contoller that'll be bad.

Multiplayer is said to be good in a few of these, that's what really matters.
 
Death frequently contributes to Shadow Fall’s campaign length. The game has an infuriating, trial-and-error approach to forward progress. The UI is disinterested in suggesting the next objective or mission-critical moment in a variety of circumstances. On one level, locked sections of a research vessel are accessed by picking up fuel rods from elsewhere on the ship and slotting them into place — something Killzone: Shadow Fall never told me.

Toward the end of the game, I died and reloaded somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen times in the umpteenth holdout fight against an overwhelming Helghast force. The solution? I had to make a break for a docked bomber and use its guns on the Helghast until they retreated, which, again, the game never bothered to tell me.
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These two paragraphs are actually fascinating to me as the fact that the game does not point these out to the player is something I view as a positive thing. Games have become far too obsessed with spelling out everything in the name of "user friendliness". These types of "rough edges", if you will, are one of the things I love most about shooters from the 90s.

I'd love to see Gies sit down and try to play through something like the original Shadow Warrior, for instance. I suspect he'd be unable to finish the very first stage in the "registered" game.

Picking up fuel rods from somewhere in the ship and using them to open a door somewhere else is basically keycard gameplay and I like that.

Killzone does seem a bit rough around the edges but I really like what they're doing with it and I hope they get to take another crack at this formula.
 
Kibbles said:
Damn I shouldnt've opened the plastic wrap on my copy. I was worried about this game. The no autoaim on a console is strange too, if it controls like a pc game with a contoller that'll be bad.
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Really? You 100% follow a few people on gaming websites? You don't want to see for yourself?
 
A reviewer who's integrity has been put into question numerous times doesn't like a game I'm looking forward to playing.

He must be destroyed.....

Not really, I'm still looking forward to this, if I like it I like it, if I don't I don't. Never played a Killzone game before, so I'm not really expecting much other than a lot of pretty explosions, and possibly a silly story. If it gives me both of those I'll probably be happy.
 
Personally, I expected 9s across the board, maybe even a 10, perhaps 1 or 2 8s, little disappointed with what I am seeing and reading. Welp, it won't stop me from trying the thing.
 
Wow, those reviews are all over the shop! Have a feeling I might gravitate towards the upper end due to my love of KZ2 and my appreciate of 3.

Still, 2 weeks to go in EU land... Boo.
 
Samyy said:
Awful outings on the PS3? Have you even played a Killzone game? Killzone 2 is sitting at a 91 and Killzone 3 at a 84-85 I think? Uhm yea. Not even close to "awful".
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I think hype(KZ2) and graphics(both KZ2 and KZ3) played a huge part in those scores, if you take those two factors out, the games are incredibly average. They never pulled me in.

Ironically, the best parts in KZ3, IMO, were the secondary vehicle sections.
 
Domcorleone said:
Looks good, I only saw 3 bad scores in the OP. 7/10 is bad now? I don't get it. It's not nearly as bad as the reviews knack received, it makes me scared for the xbox one reviews.
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I wouldn' be scared of the xbox one reviews, what have the reviews for a game got to do with the tech they are running on? Its down to the games themselves right?
 
coldfoot said:
So if the campaign is shit but the MP is great like Gamespot says, that means the top score for Titanfall should be 7-8?
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no no, it will be praised for

"...not bothering to hamper itself with the shackles of a single player campaign. By choosing to forego a single player mode, Respawn has been able to craft the greatest multiplayer experience the world will ever witness, exclusively on Xbox One."
 
maverick40 said:
0oRQO5e.png
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That's incredibly bitchy...

I love it
 
Monty Mole said:
Again, Polygon gave Forza Horizon a whopping 6/10 which goes against this "Xbox bias" that everyone keeps throwing around.

Perhaps they just use the 0-10 scale properly. Although that still doesn't sit well with me considering both FH and TLoU were exemplary games. Still, opinions (and hits).
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i think there's three things 1) a site wide and laudable desire to be like edge and use the whole scale. if gies' review was on ign it'd probably be a 7*. 2) the occasional eccentric review - like the forza horizon one, phil's opinion is totally valid but i don't think it's very helpful for fans of racing games, or the sim city mess 3) gies' embarrassingly forthwright preference for microsoft (and ea, for that matter), which he can't suppress on twitter, gaf and rebel fm and which hurts their credibility, especially with their weird score by committee system

i don't think looool they got 750,000 from microsoft is helpful. i don't think they should have accepted the money because it does have subtle impacts, but i don't think it factors much into reviews and pretending like they're bribed is embarrassing.

*note - this approach is completely ignored when gies gets a pet game like mass effect, halo or dead space where he slobbers uncritical praise all over it
 
Lol at people taking Polygon seriously. This guys are a joke, just remember they gave COD:Ghost on the bone a 7, while The last of us got a 7.5

This site should be banned.
 
Gies gonna Gies.

Seriously, though, I just want Killzone because it LOOKS next-gen. I expect a perfect bog standard FPS and just want to enjoy the eye candy.
 
Has anyone ever done a thorough comparison of Polygon's reviews to check for their bias? I am going to dig around and see what I can find.
 
Amused said:
Has Polygons avarage review scores for PS-games and XB-games ever been compared to the overall avarage for PS-games and XB-games?
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Here's a post I made when The Last of Us was reviewed.

hey_it's_that_dog said:
Okay folks, because I hate myself I ran the numbers.

I looked through the reviews for all PS3 and 360 exclusives and compared the Metacritic to the Polygon reviews. I don't think I missed any but it's possible.

PS3:
Last of Us
Deadly Premonition DC
God of War Ascension
Sly Cooper Thieves in Time
LBP Karting
Ni No Kuni
Ratchet & Clank Full Frontal Assault
Starhawk
Guacamelee

Metacritic PS3 Average: 78.11
Polygon PS3 Average: 68.89
Difference: -9.22
Conclusion: Polygon rates PS3 exclusives lower than the average critic by 9.22 points on a 100 point scale.

360:
Gears of War Judgment
Halo 4
Witcher 2
Dance Central 3
Forza Horizon
Fable Journey
Steel Battalion
Kinect Star Wars

Metacritic 360 Average: 72.38
Polygon 360 Average: 61.88
Difference: -10.5
Conclusion: Polygon rates 360 games 10.5 points lower than the average critic on a 100 point scale.

Remove Kinect games from the equation and the Polygon 360 average is -8.5, which may indicate a slightly less negative bias toward 360 exclusives. However, this is based on only 4 scores, and that makes the estimated average a lot less precise. I would guess that a statistical test would reveal no significant difference between 8.5 and 9.2 based on this small number of observations.

Conclusion: Polygon scores both PS3 and 360 games lower than the Metacritic average. They score 360 games slightly lower, though probably not significantly so. In other words, NOT TEH BIAS.

Use this info however you see fit.
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And an update when someone asked me to look at just first party IPs:

hey_it's_that_dog said:
That's a good point.

Using just first party IPs:

Sony:
Last of Us
GOWA
Sly
LBP Karting
R&C Full Frontal Assault
Starhawk

Polygon is 10.5 points lower than Metacritic on average.

MS:
Gears Judgment
Halo 4
Dance Central 3
Forza Horizon
Fable Journey

Polygon is 4.6 points lower than Metacritic on average.

ALERT ALERT! TEH BIAS DETECTED.

This difference is statistically significant, but because the sample size is about half of the recommended minimum requirements (which would be 10 observations per platform), I still urge caution in making too much of this result.
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EatChildren said:
People are concerned about the campaign because it's part of the game and partially why some people gravitate towards the series. I won't spend much time with the multiplayer (whenever I get a PS4). Good single player games exist, and I like to play them.
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That's all fine and good, but these reviews are leaving out a major component of the game and the one that's likely most players are going to spend the most time on. Seems pretty weird.

A COD game without the multiplayer component would be a much, much worse value proposition IMO. Same here.
 
Since its first unveiling, Shadow Fall never appeared to be much more than another Killzone, which for me is a one time play through of the SP campaign to experience their amazing art direction and tech and move on. KZ2 I ate up the MP and loved it, but I just don't play any competitive multiplayer these days so no matter what game, MP is meaningless to me. Co-op or bust.

So, the lower scores of SF aren't terribly surprising, their ambition seems to weigh on tech and not game design/play. My problem is some of these reviews compared to COD:Ghosts, which couldn't be more of a "rehash", "treading the same waters" etc, if you tried. Coupled with the fact that it is one of the worst looking "next gen" games available, I can't find any consistant footing with this onslaught of next gen reviews.

In some games, we hear, "does the same thing, meh, but you know, its that familiar old sweater" Thumbs up! Then in others we get, "does the same thing" Burn it to the ground. It seems there is no consistent "deduction" in points for rehashing the same formula. It is like reviews that deduct points for technical flaws with one title, but then ignore them wholesale for another. A point system is arbitrary at the end of the day, but any form of consistency on top of that will certainly help inform customers better and not just be this weird scatter shot of numbers with abstract and constantly moving metrics "goal posts".
 
x-Lundz-x said:
If you can't see what's in front of your own eyes I don't know what to tell you.

Anyway, back on topic. On the Kotaku review they gave it a No because of recycled ideas? So what do they give call of duty every year?

I purchased ghosts like I do every call of duty game every year. I'm just curious how they can justify that line of thinking.
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I'm just saying people are claiming they have hard evidence of them having an agenda when they don't.

On the topic of COD I believe until now COD was able to get away with it because lets face it they have the perfect formula for a fun MP game. People show how fun it is with their wallets. Like you I buy every COD as well. Ghosts is really the first one since 4 that I'm feeling its getting a bit stale, but doesn't stop me from spending hours on the game with 3 friends laughing and raging at the same time over MP. I think for that reason COD doesn't need to change its forumla. Its the Madden of FPS now.
 
crazygambit said:
Why is everyone so concerned with the Single Player campaign? You'll spend the vast majority of your time in multi. That's what I want to hear about. If these reviews didn't have access to that portion of the game yet, then they shouldn't be publishing them yet.
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I don't play much multiplayer. I enjoy campaign mode. I was looking forward to crysis 1 style open levels.

I'm still looking forward to it, but with slightly lowered expectations. I loved Mercenary
 
Metfanant said:
no no, it will be praised for

"...not bothering to hamper itself with the shackles of a single player campaign. By choosing to forego a single player mode, Respawn has been able to craft the greatest multiplayer experience the world will ever experience, exclusively on Xbox One."
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So why review it lower based on a single player that DOESN'T exist? If it truly had the greatest MP they've ever played, and it's MP only, why would they review it lower because of the lack of SP?
 
Polygon grades a PS exclusive above the metacritic average and no one says shit. When it scores below, however, its "ethics" are suddenly called into question by everyone. GTFOH. Seriously.
 
So basically, it's a typical launch game. Graphical tech-demo but otherwise nothing to write home about (like Resistance before it). People will play the multi and talk about how much fun they are having but in the end this is because there are not many other exclusives to play and in a couple years it will be mostly forgotten.

I've already bought the game and opened it but that's okay because I wanted something to play on my PS4 and this was about it since I only buy exclusives on console. It should be graphically nice, regardless.

BlazingDarkness said:
And Killzone continues to be an average shooter.
Please shit-can this franchise Sony, it's going nowhere.
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I've always felt that this and Resistance were just me-too FPSs so Sony could have exclusive shooters. They are decent, fun games and I've so far played every entry in both franchises but I have to agree that the KZ "franchise" is really not worth much and they'd be better served with new IP. Other than it's silly glow-eyed, Darth Vader enemies, there is really not much memorable.
 
Having played all of the killzones, I was always impressed by the graphics but bored by the gameplay. The Kotaku review confirmed my suspicion about the game.Next-gen graphics with last-gen gameplay.
 
Looks like the Polygon wambulance crew is out in full force. God forbid a game you haven't even played yet gets one low score amongst multiple positive reviews.
 
Exactly what I expected/ feared. I'll still play it and then sell it later on, it's just a shame that I will have to wait another week or two for the other games I've ordered.
 
chalkitdown1 said:
BAN EVERY WEBSITE THAT DISAGREES WITH MY OPINION ABOUT A GAME I HAVEN'T PLAYED!


I get the feeling today is gonna be one of those days when GAF has a fuckton of embarrassing posts and many member bans.
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Heh, ya... if I was a mod here I might use today as a sick day.

Aside from the 5 from Polygon which seems like a score designed to get hits (note: I haven't played the game myself... but a 5?) if this means we don't get a ton of 10's out of the gate for all the next gen AAA games, I'm not displeased at the lower scores across the board.
 
MysteryM said:
GG need to stop with the tech demo's and start looking at the gaming mechanics first. For a dev team that are so technically gifted how hard can it be to just look at what made the first halo so great and copy those mechanics? Its been two years since KZ3.
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at least they tried something different with more open levels, vs the corridor shooters that are so common these days. If levels become more linear in the second half of the game, that suggests they had time pressures - which makes sense as a launch title. Disappointing but not unexpected.
 
Metfanant said:
no no, it will be praised for

"...not bothering to hamper itself with the shackles of a single player campaign. By choosing to forego a single player mode, Respawn has been able to craft the greatest multiplayer experience the world will ever witness, exclusively on Xbox One."
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And it would deserve it. If you're not bringing the best MP experience around then you shouldn't even bother putting out your game. That's all people care about nowadays and rightfully so.
 
This is pretty much how I thought the reviews were going to turn out. I'm glad, I just needed to know that it might be better than KZ3 which I disliked intensely.
 
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