Killzone: Mercenary, !Keet's Review

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Spoilers beware.


This is one of the best games I've ever played. It is well done and has very few problems. Of the few problems that do exist are some glitches where elements don't load, like the enemy solder's in the courtyard of the ISA embassy on Vekta and such like that, requiring a restart of the Vita and having to do everything over again. That's not so bad really, but it would be nice if they'd have a more normal checkpoint system, like Halo or COD games, but having to do everything over each level is actually kind of fun so it's not so bad.

I completed the campaign on rookie level in 10 hours and 54 minutes, gaining the rank of Sergeant Major III, it says my favorite weapons were the M82 (which is very much like the Israeli Tavor 21 rifle, a very cool and well made weapon, as is the Interstellar Alliance's M82 in Killzone), the LS13 shotgun (which is good for close quarters early on, but, against some of the heavy troopers and mechs, the revolver type grenade launcher or the bazooka works better), the VC-G11 gas grenades work really well when surrounded although the remote detonating pyro mines are good too if you have choke points, and it says my favorite Van-Guard system is the Porcupine but I haven't really used the other systems aside from the shield so I don't know.

I haven't played multiplayer, partially because I don't have internet at home. Even if I did though, I wouldn't play that well against non-AI troopers and it's a frustrating enough time dealing with my wife having left me and my brother in law treating me like trash that I just don't want to deal with it. Also, even when life is going well I've found online multiplayer discouraging - especially team games, where team members are supposed to be working together rather than fighting each other. There was one time, playing Halo multiplayer on Team CTF, which I found highly humourous. It was like Red VS Blue, I was a Red and entering the enemy's camp I saw them all just tossing plasma grenades at each other (the grenades were on infinite supply and friendly fire was off, so they were effectively doing nothing) and so here I am in bright red armour watching all these blue guys toss ineffective plasma grenades at each other. I decided I'd help them out and tossed a few plasma grenades of my own at them. They spent so long wondering what happened and swearing on their keyboards that I had plenty of time to bring their flag to my base. Otherwise, multiplayer has generally stank for me.

The way the game integrates the PS Vita's touchscreen into gameplay is awesome. When I started playing COD BlackOps after first playing Killzone Mercenary, I was a bit disoriented at having to use the off screen buttons like a Sega Game Gear rather than use the touchscreen for clicking buttons on the GUI directly. The use of it for melee combat, solving the one puzzle game for hacking, and turning the various rotary devices is great. I wish every game did this, it would be awesome.

One thing that I don't like is it's linear nature. Right after destroying the Petrocyte refinery, it requires you to work for the Helghan. At first I didn't know that and I just took out the Helghan dropship with a grenade launcher, thus I had to redo a bit and accept the offer of the one Helghastly offer to work for them. It felt wrong having to fight the ISA soldiers. I didn't like that. It is just a game, but I don't like the idea of being a turncoat and the ISA are the good guys. Admiral Grey particularly isn't a good guy, but the ISA in general are. I do like the ending though, it was good that the Danner made the right judgment and chose to rescue the kid and destroy the virus rather than handing them over to either genocidal maniac. For a linear game, I do like the story mostly. After having played Mass Effect, it's a bit annoying not to have any real choices (although, like most would complain, Mass Effect 3 did away with that feature ultimately anyway, but for most of the games it didn't and that was one of the best elements of the game.)

Also, for me, the space opera elements and future tech are some of the best features. Vekta does feel a bit like a future Earth, but Helghan is far more alien. The Alpha Centauri solar system displayed on the intro scenes, while the history is being explained a bit, is really cool to me. I wish there were more to do and see of everything therewith, but even without fighting onboard space stations or in fighter craft, it was still super cool and well done.