Killzone Shadow Fall

Killzone Shadow Fall launched right alongside the PlayStation 4 and had the job of showing what a new generation of shooters would look like. The story takes place decades after the previous entries, when the Vektans and the surviving Helghast share a single planet split by a giant wall. The player takes on the role of a member of the special Shadow Marshal unit and moves between both sides of a conflict that has clear echoes of divided cities from our own history. Compared to earlier entries, the gameplay lightened up the controls, added bigger and more open maps, and above all introduced a small flying helper drone called OWL, capable of raising a shield, rappelling you down, hacking terminals, or providing covering fire.

Graphically, this was one of the best showcases of the first wave of PlayStation 4 titles. Sharp lighting, glass skyscrapers bathed in sunlight, dense vegetation in the jungle sections, and fine weapon detail were exceptional in 2013. The sound is typically harsh, and the music works with dark orchestral textures and industrial noise. The multiplayer offered classic classes with a great deal of rule customization and long retained a loyal community, and maps for it were also released without additional charge.

Reviews were more mixed than for previous entries in the series. Everyone praised the technical execution, but often criticized the unremarkable story, confusing navigation in the large levels, and uneven difficulty. Its influence on the genre was rather indirect; the main contribution is that it showed off the possibilities of the new console, and Guerrilla Games gained experience with more open design that it later put to use elsewhere. Today, Shadow Fall is interesting mainly as a period document of the start of the generation, but it still delivers solid action and several visually gorgeous missions. The zero-gravity section near a ruined station, or the descent into a contaminated zone, are among what players remember most strongly, and the series still hasn't received another major sequel since.