Image via Complex Original
Like most PlayStation Vita owners, the prospect of a quality first-person shooter on the handheld remains one of the most tantalizing promises Sony has made about the system. However, with both Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Black Ops - Declassified being such a lacklustre case studies in on-the-go fragging, my hope of ever seeing one has started to wane.
Enter Killzone: Mercenary, a brand-new entry in the high-fidelity franchise that’s been built from the ground up specifically for portable play. With an adapted version of the Killzone 3 engine, an impressive array of multiplayer options, and a fresh look at the Killzone universe through the eyes of an unaffiliated mercenary, the game has a lot of promise. However, even with all of this, the single-player demo the team from Guerilla Games Cambridge displayed at a special event in Los Angeles this past week revealed a myriad of design flaws that left my faith in this being the mobile shooter I’ve been waiting for shaken.
The game looks absolutely gorgeous and really puts an impressive graphical offering, but as with any gaming experience it only takes a few nagging hang-ups to detract from what would otherwise make this the game everything I wanted to be. There’s still months to go before its September 17th release date, but unless the following frustrations can get ironed out Killzone: Mercenary may very well wind up being just another well-intentioned, but woefully unfulfilled bet on the Vita being able to carry a console experience.
Swipe-to-Kill Melee
Swipe-to-Kill Melee
One of the worst aspects of Resistance: Burning Skies was its reliance on the touch screen for melee attacks and it’s repeated in Killzone: Mercenary almost exactly. When you’re going to stealth-attack an enemy, you can engage a hand-to-hand coup de grace with the triangle button or a tap in the center of the Vita’s screen, but then it brings up the unfortunately familiar quick-time swiping commands that require you to take hands off the controls and finish your enemy off with finger flicks.
Guerilla Games seems to have learned at least a little from its predecessors as the game slows down considerably for the attacks, giving you a greater opportunity to position your hands and complete the motions, but the gimmick still reeks of unnecessary feature inclusion for the sake of showcasing the Vita’s features. Arguments can be made for its immersion factor, but any game that asks me to step outside the comfortable and automatic understanding of my character’s functions winds up leaving me wishing they’d at least have the option to exchange the unnecessary addition for a simple button press.
Sniper's Lament
Sniper's Lament
For those that played Killzone 3, you’ll remember that in addition to the analog stick controls you could fine-tune your aiming with a sniper rifle by tilting the controller for added precision. The Vita’s gyroscope is used in a similar way here, but unlike the console experience where the television never moves, the Vita’s screen shifting around while you try and get a bead on an unlucky foe means that you’ll have to adjust your focus to keep the Vita’s screen in view.
If that weren’t enough to turn you off using long-range weapons, the sniper’s zoom control is controlled completely by the back-touch. I’m sure it can be comfortably used with a little practice, but with so few games ever having asked us to use it in that way I’m left asking why a simple button press wouldn’t have worked just as well.
Crouch and Run and Run and Crouch
Crouch and Run and Run and Crouch
Since the Vita’s dual analogs don’t have clicky-sticks like its console counterpart, the run toggle had to find a new home on the face buttons. With so many different functions available to the player this unfortunately means that some buttons are dual purpose, as is the case with the crouch and run toggle. While moving the button puts the player in a sprint, but if hit while stationary the player will fall to their knees.
For the most part this isn’t particularly aggravating, but it means that in the few instances where you decide to sprint out of a situation and hit the button before taking your first step, you’ll wind up crawling away with an ass full of lead. There is a back-touch alternative that’s a little more comfortable but as the default option, this isn’t ideal.
Get Out of My Way!
Get Out of My Way!
Modern shooters have a lot of information to feed the player. From mini-maps to ammo counters, there are a lot of elements that can take up space on the screen when you’re trying to catch the enemy in your sights. Killzone: Mercenary has all of the traditional HUD elements, but it also features some on-screen buttons that take up additional visual real estate. Combine that with objective markers, level progression counters, damage indicators and more the screen can become incredibly cluttered given the Vita’s pocket-sized proportions.
This got especially frustrating mid-firefight when iron sights were pulled up and the screen started fading to black-and-white as I got clipped over and over because I couldn’t make out where my enemies were thanks to the lack of peripheral vision. Hopefully Guerilla Games will reduce the overall footprint of the various elements or at least provide options for reducing their presence, but if they don’t you can expect a few moments where you’ll just be blind-firing in hopes you hit whatever’s attacking you.
Loading... Loading... Loading...
Loading... Loading... Loading...
3-4 minutes may not sound like a great deal of time to spend waiting for a level to load in a game, but when you’re looking for short-burst gameplay that can eat up nearly 10-15% of the time you were intending to send playing. Combine that with the fact most missions include an unskippable in-engine action sequence like watching your hero descend on the scene in a wing-suit or waiting for an elevator to ascend while story details are fed to you and it takes an annoyingly long time before you’re actually able to shoot anything.
It’s not surprising that the game takes so long to load considering its visual fidelity, but that definitely means the number of opportunities to have fun with the game are reduced. While it doesn’t completely relegate it to an in-home experience, it certainly will prevent you from whipping it out while waiting in lines (which out of context may not be a bad thing). The Vita’s dynamic state-saving system will alleviate some of this and Guerilla could get things a little more streamlined before launch, but I guess this is part of the price that needs to be paid for such pretty visuals.
Tap-a Tap-a Tap-a, Tap-a Tap-a Tap-a
Tap-a Tap-a Tap-a, Tap-a Tap-a Tap-a
One of the coolest weapons in the game is the vanguard missile system which allows players to launch explosive rockets right into the faces of your enemies – most specifically the jetpack soldiers that usually annoy the hell out of you from on-high. Raining death from below on those who usually rain death from above is an ultimately satisfying experience, but the game’s reliance on the touch screen for target selection diminishes some of the joy of unleashing a deadly artillery strike.
It works simply enough; enemies are circled in red and you just poke them to fire a heat-seeker at them, but switching your hands from on the sticks to on the screen is still an experience I’ve yet to get comfortable with. On top of this, it feels a little unfulfilling because of the ease. The attack is intended to be a rare, over-the-top treat, but part of me wishes there was some more challenge involved in making the strikes work. It’s not so much frustrating as it is deflating and if you’re the kind of person who can sit back and enjoy an uncompromised spectacle like this, you’ll definitely enjoy it. Otherwise though, you may find yourself wishing there was a little more gameplay attached to the devastation.
The Price of War
The Price of War
A big part of Killzone: Mercenary revolves around buying new equipment that provides options for customizing your loadouts for both single-player and multiplayer. Naturally with the purchases affecting both halves of the game, the bankroll you use to buy new weapons and gear is universal. The money you earn and the purchases you make will be available to you regardless of which mode you’re playing in.
The problem with this is that the progression of purchases can be thrown completely out of whack for the campaign mode if you choose to start the game in multiplayer. Entering the online arena and earning yourself fat stacks of cash will mean you’ll be able to start the single-player levels with more weapon options available than had otherwise been intended, somewhat breaking the flow of the game.
When I brought up this issue to the developers on-site, they assured me this wouldn’t be a problem because all of the weapons are relatively equal in power and merely have functional differences (akin to comparing a shotgun and a rifle). The question then remains, why would players bother purchasing anything beyond the basics, or the bare minimum to suit their favourite playstyle? This is definitely a more speculative problem than factual at the moment, but it’s quite possible that a good deal of the progression in the game will feel worthless once you’ve achieved your first solid loadout, deflating the drive to earn anything else beyond that point.
More Buck for Your Bang
More Buck for Your Bang
In game design, there’s a concept called “First Order Optimal Strategy” which is used to describe any set of moves, tactics, or particular strategies that are inherently more powerful than they are difficult to execute. Examples of this include Ken’s uppercut combos in Street Fighter IV, particular button mashing patterns in games like God of War, or the n00b tube in Call of Duty. Most shooters are able to avoid this because the gameplay doesn’t usually quantify the way you kill your foes, but Killzone: Mercenary does through its bankroll system and thus the player will always seek to maximize their killing methods.
During my own play through of two of the single-player levels it became obvious that melee kills offered a great deal more cash incentive when compared to just shooting the bad guys. This naturally led to a desire to stealth-kill pretty much everyone I came across because it provided the most money for the least effort. While the developers I talked to insisted that it would be possible to earn more impressive payouts with grenade multi-kills or environmental attacks, neither of those options seemed to offer enough of a payout to make the extra effort worthwhile.
It’s near impossible to find a perfect balance between skill of execution and value of payout and because of this Killzone: Mercenary will always suffer from the effects of “First Order Optimal Strategy” syndrome. This becomes frustrating when much of the game revolves around earning as much money as you can and the method of doing this goes against the mode of play you wish to employ. Regardless of how they manage to iron this out, it’s hard to foresee this issue ever being completely resolved.
Play It Again, Sam
Play It Again, Sam
One of the really neat features about Killzone: Mercenary is that it offers players the means to control how they want to play through a given mission. This is made possible through custom weapon loadouts, multiple paths through the levels, and – most prominently – through the introduction of contract modes that add additional parameters to the gameplay. This means that before starting a given level, players can choose whether they’d like to play guns-blazing, stealthy, or a hybrid of the two with additional bankroll bonuses given for playing in the style.
The problem is that the choice of contract type only comes after you’ve completed a level on the basic (far less exciting) normal mode. This means that if you want to play through the game in the shadows and experience the thrill of figuring out the best hiding spots on the map as you go, you won’t get to because by the time you’ve unlocked the ability to maximize your stealth experience, you’ve already seen the level’s content.
That's All, Folks!
That's All, Folks!
I’ve said it several times already, but I’ll say it once more so I know you’ve heard me; Killzone: Mercenary is without a doubt the most visually impressive game on the PlayStation Vita. However, the cost for all this majesty is unfortunately short levels in the single-player. Both of the levels I tried seemed to last no more than 30-45 minutes at most and with only a handful available it looks like the game may wind up only being a 3-4 hour experience.
This problem comes through thanks both to the game’s reliance on detailed environments that take a long time to develop and the fact that the game is (at least somewhat) designed for shorter, mobile play sessions. If you’re expecting a campaign with the breadth and depth of your traditional Killzone game, you may find yourself disappointed with how short it winds up being.
Killzone: Mercenary handles this as well as it can by offering incentives for multiple playthroughs and its focus on multiplayer, but these aren’t solutions as amiable as if it had just had a longer campaign. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see if the truncated level structure holds true in the final version, but color me sceptical for now that this’ll be a game that eats up more than a few hours of your time.