So here it is. The first game to be exclusively published by a Sony owned first party studio that is of the FPS genre on the VITA. A lot of eyes will be on this title from Guerilla Games Cambridge studio seeing as they are well known for bringing Sony’s biggest FPS franchise Killzone to the PS2, PS3 and soon to be PS4. The game revolves around you being a Merc. A gun for hire. No matter what is going on in the world, as long as you get paid by the end of your mission you don’t care about the outcome. You’re a freelancer, a gun for hire, a soldier of fortune.
Story:
Killzone Mercenary supports a single player campaign and a multiplayer mode that both interact with one another. The progress you gain in the single player campaign will carry over online. The campaign will run you about 5 to 6 hours depending on your skill level over the 9 levels on offer. You play the role of the silent protagonist Adam Banner. Not a lot of backstory or information on this guy other than he worked with a few merc’s that you meet up with throughout the campaign.
The game starts off with an active gameplay tutorial which helps you grasp all the aspects of gameplay. It’s a search and rescue op having you melee, purchasing goods from Black Jack and one of the best in game cut scenes. Your character and companion glide suit into a building to infiltrate, hack and rescue admiral Grey one of the leaders of the organisation known as the ISA. Grey is being held hostage by colonel Kratek who is one of the front runners of the Helghan army. The story introduces a host of other characters which add more to the campaign but none other than your merc sergeant ever seem particularly memorable due to average voice acting and short appearances. The main focus here is get in, get out and get paid.
Gameplay:
Now I know there have been two other FPS games that came out for VITA (Burning Skies/Black Ops) and even though I never played them, judging off many of the press reviews that I read, those games did not encourage many FPS fans to run out and purchase the VITA. All I have to say is I hope they don’t take the same approach with Killzone. The guys at Cambridge had more hand’s on time with the handheld and have crafted a game worthy of a sequel and perhaps more.
The game runs off the same engine as Killzone 3 did on PS3 and this helps benefit players getting submerged in the atmosphere of the war that is surrounding them. Each mission has you take on waves of enemies and to prevent this from becoming repetitive the guys added a sneaking element which can be used to gain more money by collecting intel from specific enemies in the level. Even though I’m a big fan of stealth games I never successfully got passed an area more than once by sneaking through it. This didn’t hinder my enjoyment though because the focus of the game is gun combat and what they had to offer I got great enjoyment from.
There is a system in place called the Valour system. It basically records all your gameplay and tracks how well you do with the number of melee, headshots, assassination etc. Everything you do in the game rewards you in money for spending. You will need it too because Killzone offers great replay value with harder modes and specific challenges for each level which will test your gameplay and knowledge of a level and skill.
Graphics:
Currently the best looking PSVITA game soon to be on the market. The game offers the level of a console game on a handheld and takes the mantle of which Uncharted Golden Abyss had and made it better. No matter what you’re doing, walking around or engaging a group of enemies, the game doesn’t suffer frame drops or tearing. It is impressive what the guys at Cambridge have pulled off on the hardware. It proves to me that with the shift to next gen hardware the VITA will have no problem running PS4 games over remote play.
From the get go Killzone looks to impress. Starting you off with fire fight against enemies being dropped in by airship then having you watch your character taking out an enemy with a knife by nailing him in the head to jumping through glass to air glide into another building across the map.
Presentation:
Killzone Mercenary does a very good job with introducing you to its gameplay mechanics. One of the first attack’s you perform in the game is a melee takedown which then lures you into gun combat behind cover. At this point you also get to see Blackjacks stash and then, just after, take on a jet landing in troops that you can blow up if going over this level again with a rocket launcher. The game knows you will be replaying over and over in the hope to unlock all its goodies which transfer over to the online section of the game.
The options and main menu are nothing to run home about. You would think that a game that looks so good in-game would offer the same visual fidelity at the menu screen. The cutscenes leading into the mission offer a better insight into what you are trying to accomplish in the game and throughout the war that is going on.
Sound:
The pro’s on the music and sound in the game. It gives you the feeling and presence of an all out war that is going on around you in the world. It does what it needs to in this section. The painful side of this section is that the voice acting in the game is not memorable and doesn’t even try to be. It knows that DPS games are more about the gameplay than the long lasting story appeal. Perhaps the only one in the game that does a great job is your mercenary officer Anders Benoit Phantom Talon Corp leader. He intros most of your missions and speaks directly to you. He comes across as your friend even though you never have any interaction with him.
Multiplayer:
The game offers a full on 8 player multiplayer. The customisation options during multiplayer offer 24 unique primary and secondary weapons, 5 grenades, 8 VAN-Guards, and 6 different armor types to choose from. Game modes on offer are Deathmatch and objective based mode. Deathmatch is like any other Deathmatch. Kill the other team a number of times and don’t be the losing team.
Objective based mode is the one that is also offered in the Beta. There will be 5 based objectives that are chosen at random. It offers a great come back during a match. Over my few hours with the mode I had many games seem like we were surely going to win or lose and have a great turn over due to a player’s strategies to react to the objective.
The Likes of Killzone Mercenary:
+Fun gameplay
+Great replay value
+Visually stunning
The Dislikes of Killzone Mercenary:
-Short campaign
-Boring voice acting
Conclusion:
If you are a VITA owner and a FPS fan then this is the show stopper you are looking for. Great replay value and fun multiplayer on the go. A truly groundbreaking achievement on the handheld platform.