The Helghast stand strong in Killzone: Mercenary. In the face of previous failures to make a good first person shooter on the Playstation Vita handheld system, Guerrilla Cambridge makes it look like it's easy. PS Vita gamers -- we have officially got our first killer app. And it works. My gosh, does it work! We're seeing the first step in the evolution of handheld action gaming here, and an odd return to some retro game design ideas that are welcome.
Also, this is a PREVIEW, NOT A REVIEW so these statements are based on what footage I've had access to and what I've gotten to play in the beta. Now, back to what I was saying.
PS Vita gamers have had a very small library to call their own. While they've often at least got one game in every genre, the shooter category just can't get a solid winning streak thus far. Unit 13 was a decent if entirely generic third person shooter that, given a few tweaks, could have been a Gameloft iOS/Android title. Resistance: Burning Skies only unique features were there because of the IP's original developers, with Nihilistic Software failing to think up any other ideas that it could bring to the table. And as to Nihilistic's awful Call of Duty Vita game, Jim Sterling of Destructoid put it best. "[Declassified] should have stayed classified"That's a pretty bad run for a handheld that was built to be "the handheld for shooters".
Except now, we finally get to see something made by people who get what a shooter is about. This is a game built by people who aren't just counting the hours until they can release a half-done Gears of War clone. Not only was this built by a branch of Guerrilla Games (Guerrilla Cambridge, who I am expecting we'll be hearing more of if this is any indication as to their talent), but it's clear someone decided to take the time to actually ask the right question: "What does work on a handheld from the core titles?" "What doesn't?" and most importantly "What can we do that's new that isn't totally invasive or counter-intuitive?" The results from asking these sorts of questions when making Mercenary are clear -- this is a Killzone game that was built for the Vita, not built for the PS3 and then crammed onto the Vita.
Everything is maximized while also downsizing everything it can to compensate for the sheer amount of balls Killzone Mercenary keeps juggling. The multiplayer is cut down to four versus four matches, but the maps are also more condensed so as to allow easily five routes to any specific location. The level on display for the beta, Shoreline, manages to keep to a specific theme of a coastline on Helghan (a new locale, as fans will note), while still having distinct areas in of itself. There's the abandoned cave where you usually spawn first that looks bombed out. There's the electric power plant section connected to it across the map. There's the open court yard area with two sniping posts that can be easily countered with grenades. Some catwalks and a few pipes provide unexpected alternate routes for flanking. There even are some briny rocks that could provide cover but leave your rear open. It's got the craftsmanship of a Team Fortress 2 level, and it shows not just in the level design.
The environments look gorgeous, almost at the same level of detail as PS3. Animations are likewise beautifully handled, giving more life and gravitas to the new melee kill and interrogate system in place. Gun reload animations look great and all the weapons I've tried so far looked true to form with their Killzone 3 counterparts (although there are some new weapons to join them). There is however, a gameplay inconsistency.
Some guns don't feature the same style of firing as they did in Killzone 3. Most notable was the silenced SMG from Killzone 3's stealth section. Instead of being a single shot or full auto fire gun, it's now burst fire. Similarly, some weapons have different scopes or stats than in previous games, along with several guns being made into hybrids. You're a mercenary with no side that you loyally serve, so you can expect to get some experimental gear from both sides. Most of unique weapons, however, are still just variants on older versions. An LMG-sniper rifle combo, a charge burst fire sniper rifle, and a mortar launcher are all well and good, but some of these new weapons clearly need some fine tuning before release. There's a silenced, almost no recoil, high capacity SMG at the very end of the primary weapon selection list that was abused on the first day, although that seems to have died down as most people are sticking to the default weapon.
What's interesting is how Guerrilla Cambridge has set up loadout selection. Grenades are still their own slot, now with five variants instead of two (flashbang, poison gas, and remote detonated fire grenades are the newcomers). Instead of a Skill slot like in Killzone 2-3, the player gets a VAN-GUARD equipment piece. These equipment pieces range from stationary jamming stations to remote controlled shock drones like Killzone 3's Medic Drone. You can also call down a brief few airstrikes, fly around a melee drone that pierces through enemy heads with satisfying efficiency, fire remote rockets from your shoulder with a single touch of the screen, reveal all enemies on radar and HUD, and even go invisible. Each ability however can be countered, disabled, or only works under certain circumstances. The game won't let you put a jamming beacon out of everyone's reach, nor fire more than a few airstrikes that can only hit exterior parts of maps. However, these aren't the most peculiar aspect of the loadout system.
Gun selection is strangely split between "primary" and "secondary weapons", with completely different selections of guns for each. I'm not saying you should be able to carry two of the same gun, but it makes no sense why I can have a mortar striking rocket launcher instead of an assault rifle for my secondary weapon, while my primary weapon has to be either an AR/SMG style gun or a sniper rifle, with there even being a hybrid of the two available. Handguns I can understand being secondary but a shotgun was a primary weapon, last I checked. Maybe it was to keep the lists short, maybe it's due to balancing like the new ways certain guns behave, but it still feels a bit odd, although it doesn't bring down the experience.
Another issue though is the sometimes iffy matchmaking. Numerous times it seemed like I and a bunch of expert players would get put on one side while a bunch of newbies with maybe one experienced player would be put on another. Why is it so hard for developers to make a matchmaking service that puts people of similar rank against each other? I only had about one full match that felt like a challenge, with more challenging matches being when teamed up with newbies or with empty slots on my team. And there will be empty slots, as the networking, while usually solid, will cough up a hair ball more often than I'd like, even taking into consideration this is a beta.
The strangest missing feature though? Voice chat. Even though every Vita features a voice chat feature, you can only use it with people in your PS Vita party who are in the same game. Why, Guerrilla? You can't seriously tell me there'd be too many people talking -- at maximum there are only four people per team. This should be able to turned on at least for custom servers, but by default having people muted is just continuing the lack of communication problems that Killzone 3's relatively silent community has spawned.
In contrast, the most solid new addition to the gameplay is something you might not even notice. Mercenary comes with three game modes, two of which are just variants on Deathmatch, but the third one, open for the beta, is a variant of Warzone with several new mission types, one of which is Interrogation. "How on earth does that work?" you ask. "Killzone is about shooting people, not talking to them!" Well yes, it is, but in addition to on-screen sliding prompts for most melee attacks, coming at an opponent who's injured or from behind will prompt you to interrogate, which delays the melee kill a bit longer, but then also reveals all enemy positions on the map. It works perfectly within the melee system Mercenary has in place, which includes a much wanted counter to attacks that Killzone 3 lacked. It adds incentive and is a good risk/reward addition.
Warzone, as always, seems to be changed with each new entry. Whereas in Killzone 3 it was a randomized set of goals, now it's five objectives that cycle in a specific order, although really there are only three objective types, two of which just being slightly tweaked versions of the first two, with Interrogation along for the ride. For maybe the first time in the history of multiplayer shooters, we've got a mode where not instantaneously killing your enemy is necessary to win. This so far seems lost on a few players in the beta, but most are taking well to the mode as it encourages stealth and paying attention, two things that Killzone 3 also rewarded to some degree.
Additionally they've reintegrated the "valor" system from Killzone 2, although it's been changed into a card collection game. Every valor card can be added to a growing stack of cards, although you can't keep repeats. Making hands with these cards is supposed to unlock additional credits (which also serve as experience this time) along with the XP grind challenges, taken from Killzone 3. You'll gain a new card with shifts in how well you're doing with a particular weapon type on a given day, and will somehow give incentive (according to Guerrilla) to keep coming back to the game. Besides that, there's not much else to say other than the multiplayer is probably the best shooter option you have on your Vita at the moment. If that's what you're interested in, go boot up the beta from the PS Vita store or your PS3 if you use it to download your Vita's content. It'll be about 1100 MB, so clearing about 1200-ish would be wise in case any patches are released down the line.
HOWEVER, if singleplayer is your concern, have no fear, I've gotten the chance to sit down and watch one of the early missions. I realize as a reader of these sorts of reports that it doesn't feel as good as hearing what the writer reports seeing as knowing what they actually played, but understand that basically, in short summary, almost everything you see in multiplayer? Yeah, now just imagine that with one constantly evolving loadout, and it's you with some more health against a bunch of AI enemies. And make the levels borderline Deus Ex: Human Revolution style of free-form linear. That's basically what the singelplayer looks to be. You can reach various caches to swap out your loadout although changing gear does cost a fee even if you unlocked a piece of gear. You get credits as you go and it's really up to you how to proceed. The gameplay video I watched was a full thirty minute walkthrough and had natural options for stealth, direct conflict, sniping, and brute frontal assault. Combined with what I know about the variety in the combat loadouts for multiplayer, I imagine you'll really be free (save for the odd weapon selection confines) to finally play a Killzone level however you want.
So, in summary, if you have a PS Vita, and have even the slightest inclination of liking sci-fi, shooters, action games, stealth, multiplayer, non-Call of Duty style campaign missions, and lots of cool gear that you can actually use outside of just one instance, then you should pre-order this. I mean, it's only $40 bucks. Pre-order bonuses may vary, but Gamestop is offering the same class of LMG that Sgt. Rico uses, so if you're one of those people who likes Rico (what's wrong with you?!), then that should solve your choice pretty easily. It releases on September 10th, 2013. Beta progress will not carry over though, so don't worry, you can use this time to improve your K/D ratio.
Cheers,
Paradigm the Fallen
The enemy of my enemy won't say a word, but at least he knows how to use a Vultur VAN-GUARD properly.
Trivia: I actually did a nice bit of testing out the beta with Trenchmace. If anyone else is interested in teaming up, feel free to add me, my PSN is on my main profile.