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GVMERS - The Rise and Fall of Killzone

Kupfer

Kupfer

Member
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The summer of 2003 abounded with talk of Ford’s supposed “Ferrari Killer,” the 2004 GT40. A faster, quicker-to-brake counterpart to the Ferrari 360 Modena, the Ford’s high-performance race car certainly dressed to impress. But a Ford was still a Ford matched against Ferrari. At the same time, another killer of a premiere brand lurked in the shadows, awaiting its chance to pounce on the competition. Sony’s Killzone played terminator in this scenario, its prey the game-changing Halo: Combat Evolved from Bungie and Microsoft. Months of rumors about the so-called Halo killer generated enough hype to reach a fever pitch before Sony even formally unveiled its new first-person shooter. Premature reports described the game as the perfect cross between Halo and SOCOM; claims of advanced technology, spectacular graphics, and destructible environments heightened the anticipation tenfold. More importantly, PlayStation faithful were thrilled with the prospect of its purported online multiplayer capabilities. Killzone’s official announcement amplified the anticipation, yet its eventual deployment fell short of the unrealistic expectations. This would ostensibly become the status quo for Killzone going forward—marketing cycles that promised generation-defining experiences but arguably amounted to shooters of the slightly above average variety. In this way, Sony’s flagship FPS series never competed with that of Microsoft’s in a traditional sense. It carved out its own niche, with six adventures launching across a nine-year period. But in the end, Killzone was still Killzone matched against Halo. And it hardly helped that the former battled false advertising claims on more than one occasion. This is the rise and fall of Killzone.​
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Kurimao

Kurimao

Member
Everything in KZ2 from the gritty war atmosphere to even its delayed trigger input adding a weight like feel to their guns. I never had problems with it in the multiplayer Warzone & was always a rank topnotcher, chirp.
Loved everything except for those player wall hacks in the multiplayer, phucking cheaters.

Oh and phuck Sony & GG for abandoning this series.
 
Kupfer

Kupfer

Member
midnightAI said:
Hey, now stop that..... It'll be back..... in VR.... and it will be glorious.
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I would like to see it. But I'm afraid that such a game doesn't fit the image that GG has built up with the Horizon franchise and is very successful with it.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
Killzone 2 was one of my favorite linear campaigns in FPS games. Shadow Fall was a disappointment in every way from that, outside of visuals.

At least I still have the Resistance series, right? ahah.... ahaha
 
radewagon

radewagon

Member
Pouring Austin Powers GIF

I love the whole series. There isn't one game that I dislike. The OG on PS2, the phenomenal KZ2, the still awesome KZ3 (in 3D with a motion control gun peripheral, no less), the massively underrated KZ:SF for PS4 and the two portable darlings Liberation and Mercenary. There isn't IMO a single bad title.
 
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I

ironmang

Member
This series always felt carried by the presentation rather than gameplay. Input lag is just not fun assuming that was intentional. Most matches in KZ2 quickly turned into spawn camp fests with 80% of the map being ignored.

It is a shame though that they basically killed the series after KZ3 and KZSF weren't hits. It had potential to be a great shooter franchise if they could have made it a better overall experience instead of just being really pretty.
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
The game(s) never competed with Halo in really any capacity throughout it's lifecycle, it's best chance was maybe at launch of PS4, but by then, the competition was so fierce that most games were doing more interesting things.

Still a cool series, and I think if it wasn't touted as a "Halo Killer" it's expectations wouldn't have been set so high and people could have just enjoyed it as a cool and different Sci-Fi shooter telling a decent story.

As it stands, I don't really miss the series and would much prefer Guerilla stay with Horizon or even a new I.P. altogether again.
 
U n i o n 0015

U n i o n 0015

Member
I played KZ1 and KZ2, and while 2 was a huge improvement over the first, I really disliked how sluggish it felt. Like it's one thing to feel heavy because it's intentional, but there was a ton of input lag in the controls. And sub-30 FPS didn't feel great, either. I imagine playing these games are RPCS3 is a better experience than native these days.
 
Evildoomnerd

Evildoomnerd

Neo Member
CZY said:
The coolest thing to me about KZ2MP was the spawn grenade mechanic. When it was gone for KZ3 I lost interest. Petty maybe but true.
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True. A good enough Tactician could turn the tide in Warzone. I myself enjoyed floating between Medic and Saboteur classes. Good times. I'd kill for a Trilogy remaster OR KZ:Mercs to console.
 
Hayabusa83

Hayabusa83

Member
Killzone 2 still has some of the best death animations and blood effects in a first person shooter. Sony should have kept that formula. I don't know what they were smoking with Killzone Shadowfall, but I quite enjoyed Killzone 2, Killzone 3, and Killzone Mercenary.
 
ANIMAL1975

ANIMAL1975

Member
Kurimao said:
Everything in KZ2 from the gritty war atmosphere to even its delayed trigger input adding a weight like feel to their guns. I never had problems with it in the multiplayer Warzone & was always a rank topnotcher, chirp.
Loved everything except for those player wall hacks in the multiplayer, phucking cheaters.

Oh and phuck Sony & GG for abandoning this series.
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DerivedDataCache said:
Yeah I remember that. Gave a whole new meaning to "spawn camping".
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Nothing beats those moments when you kamikaze your self in enemy camp to throw a spawn grenade, and then the bloodbath with one team crazy suicide spawning, and the other camping for the kills! Best team deathmatch ever!
Chirp Chirp Chirp
 
Shadowstar39

Shadowstar39

Member
I miss Killzone. I loved kz2. Even bought it again with the trilogy to play the first one (which wasn't that bad, but it was ps2 which was way weaker than og Xbox so wasn't expecting much).

Kz3 seems like it got graphically sliced to accommodate 3d and move. It wasn't nearly as good, but still a fun game.

Kz shadowfall was shit. It looked great but it was boring and sterile. It was missing what made the other games so fun. It lacked in story and shooting wasn't good.


The best game outside of kz2 was on the vita. Killzone mercenary was amazing. It had what shadowfall was missing. I don't understand how that time line and game structure wasn't made into a mainline release on ps4. They were rumored to have that team making a ps4 game, but it never happened.

Then the woke shit started happening and all first person style story games stopped in the industry. So it's no surprising Kz got the axe. Sadly 😢

For online I only ever played kz2, shadowfall and mercenary. I loved kz2 the most.
 
Shadowstar39

Shadowstar39

Member
Why are these games stuck on older systems. It's annoying. My ps3 is borked and there is no ports of kz1-3, Kz mercenary, as well as other Sony first person titles like resistance trilogy and infamous. It's almost like they are ashamed of them. It's sad as these games were amazing. I'd buy trilogy or anthology collections day 1.
 
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Chronicle

Chronicle

Member
CZY said:
The coolest thing to me about KZ2MP was the spawn grenade mechanic. When it was gone for KZ3 I lost interest. Petty maybe but true.
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It was the cloaking in three that ruined the game. Like always every cry baby wants to snipe and hide.
 
RoboFu

RoboFu

One of the green rats
I really liked KZ 1-3 .. idk what it was about 4 but it just didn’t grab me like the previous games did.
 
RJMacready73

RJMacready73

Member
I only ever played Shadow fall on PS4 and I must be in the minority cause I thought it was great, it was graphically an absolute eyeball melter, the story was videogamey but held my interest and the levels had plenty of variety to keep me interested. It was a proper next gen game, something unseen on previous generations and a real show piece of the power of the PS4.

I'd definitely be up for a new PS5 only chapter especially considering how technically proficient GG are
 
fart town usa

fart town usa

Member
Biggest issue with KZ for me is the complete narrative fumble. Killzone and Resistance completely squandered their respective narrative and I feel like that's why each IP didn't really engage with the masses.

I'd love to see a locked 60fps version of KZ2, that's a great game.
 
Apocryphon

Apocryphon

Member
The first 3 games were solid. The 2nd was the strongest by a country mile and is the game that I would like to replay with non-sluggish controls. It’s probably one of my favourite FPS experiences ever and I would gladly pay for a remake or remaster. With the already clunky controls and input lag, there’s no way I’m playing these games using PS Now 😂

Shadow Fall looked good, but it was boring as fuck and didn’t feature any of the tension and foreboding atmosphere the 2nd game had. 3 wasn’t perfect, but it did have nice weapons and environments and I did really like the mech suit things. Shadow Fall felt rushed to me and I really didn’t like the new weapon setup or the drone.

Mercenaries on Vita was gorgeous and while it wasn’t a traditional follow up, I still found it to be more enjoyable than SF. I would have liked a full on, expanded console version of Mercenaries, or even just a MP focused Killzone game that used Killzone 2’s multiplayer as it’s foundation. The controls were ass, but literally everything else about that game, including it’s online component, was brilliant.

I’ll take a Bluepoint remaster at a minimum please Sony.
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
Shadowfall took a while to grow on me, but once I gave it a fair shake I liked it. I think it warranted another sequel anyway. And to those joking about making this a VR title…that would be great actually. Not enough story based fps games in VR
 
oji-san

oji-san

Member
To me it was Shadow Fall that ruined the series, KZ2 and 3 were awesome, the whole atmosphere being in Helghan, felt like a real war being there. The gameplay and characters were also great, Sadly for me SF dropped all that and i could not connect with the game in any direction, tried it again a few months ago and no, just like generic FPS to me. I do like the 2 Horizon games and i don't see Guerrilla Games retuning to Kiilzone but man after KZ3 ending i had so high hopes for a sequel and SF was a huge letdown.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
The Killzone IP I always have mixed feelings, the I.P. You can see the care of the developers to deliver a high quality title, but at the same time it lacks fun.

Graphically they are excellent, but I played the Killzone 2 titles and the one on PSP, but it made me too sleepy. I want to support them, but at the same time it is difficult.
 
RAIDEN1

RAIDEN1

Member
Killzone was touted as the Halo answer for Sony, and we all also remember that infamous video thinking "wow, this Killzone is on another level!"
 
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