Eurogamer Expo 2013: Hands On with Killzone: Shadow Fall

The more I see of Killzone Shadow Fall, the more I get excited for it. As a longtime fan going back to the original Killzone on PS2, I was excited to see a sequel announced along with the PlayStation 4 in February this year. Today, I got to go hands on with the game at the Eurogamer Expo and let me tell you, this game should be on your radar.

Specifically speaking, the online multiplayer was the only version available for the public to play. Each class was made available which allowed me to really play around and see what damage I could do in the 8-10 minutes we were given to play the game. There are three classes to Shadow Fall’s multiplayer, Stealth which includes silenced weapons with invisibility gadgets and the such. The second is Assault which is made up of SMG’s, rifles and defence based gadgets. Last but not least we have Support which gives you all the heavy weaponry and gadgets such as medkits for downed teammates.

The match we were playing was a mission based team deathmatch. Every few minutes your team would be given a new objective such as “search and attack” or “defend” a position. When one objective achieved or lost the game will give players a new one to fight towards.

One thing you’ll notice when the game releases is how accessible the game is. Now this necessarily isn’t a bad thing. As a player of mainly single-player games, I was able to rack up high levels of points and kills straight from the get-go. Shadow Fall still retains the series’ trademark heavy feel to the character’s movements but Guerilla has toned it down somewhat to allow for players with quicker reflexes to do their thing. It’s less strategic but at the same time it prevents itself from being a twitch shooter with character classes hampering you in some cases and benefiting you in others. Guns also have the Killzone meaty feel behind them. They feel powerful and you certainly don’t want to be on the business end of one.

Killzone Shadow Fall was also absolutely stunning aesthetically. The demo I played looked to be running at 60 frames per second in 1080p (don’t quote me on that) and only twice did I encounter any framerate issues. Unlike what we’d previously seen, this particular map was set in a bombed out location and was lashing down with rain. The rain soaks wreckage and bodies alike and it makes the scenery look beautiful despite this particular map looking very true-to-form Killzone instead of the bright, popping colours we saw when it was first announced.

In a future war of attrition kind of way.

Killzone Shadow Fall launches alongside the PlayStation 4 on November 15th for North America and November 29th for the UK and Europe.