Killzone: Mercenary (2013)

I was there day one for the PlayStation Vita. The launch was quiet. Someone asked me what I bought later that day and when I replied ‘PlayStation Vita,’ their response was ‘what’s that?’ The signs were there early but in the time when there was still hope for this awesome handheld Killzone Mercenary dropped. I was there day one for this game too and what a good looking game it was. For a Vita game and a handheld game from 2013 this is extremely impressive. As a first person shooter it is pretty good too but as a Killzone game a bit of a mixed bag. However it is a Vita game and a spin off title so maybe they made some of the right choices.

Killzone Mercenary takes you back to Vekta around the time of the first Killzone and Killzone Liberation but it is presented in a visual style somewhat its own and also somewhat similar to the Killzone Shadow Fall. This time though you are not playing as the ISA but as a mercenary that takes missions for cash. You are dropped straight into a very important mission to rescue someone important. The differences to previous Killzone games are immediately noticeable and I was really worried about this game during the first couple of chapters. Things are heavily tutorialised, it is too easy even on the hardest difficulty, I’m not a big fan of the presentation and style, it has shifted Killzone strongly towards stealth and I don’t like the characters or care about what is going on at all. But then something brilliant happens after the end of chapter 2 and the game is getting to a point where things are going to pick up.

Killzone Mercenary jumps ahead in time to during the events of Killzone 2 and we are going back to Helghan again, fuck yeah. The dark stormy skies, the colour palette, the architecture, the technology, the weapons, the destruction, the challenge has increased, the atmosphere, fire, ash, rust and blood, we’re back and it is running on a handheld. The game looks fantastic to the point where I would take this over so many PS3/360 games and many people would confuse it for one. Okay, almost back this is still a Vita game and was made years after the series peak. It is not as dark, effects are missing and it has a much worse HUD. The soundtrack isn’t as good and the same goes for the sound effects. It also feels different to play.

Killzone’s heavier feel is further toned down from Killzone 3 but it still has some of that Killzone flavour in the first person animations and weapon reloads. The Helghast die much quicker here and some of the impact is stripped away from things like melee kills, shooting, explosions and getting hit. The obvious big change is this is on the Vita and they are definitely going to use those features. There are touch screen buttons conveniently located on the sides of the screen right next to where your thumbs already are so you can switch weapons or to grenades and also activate your vanguard system equipped. This is a new addition and you can swap out things depending on what you have unlocked and what you think you’ll need. There is drone that you can control to fly around getting quiet kills, a missile launching thing, a shield, cloaking and more. Melee kills require a swipe on the screen after being initiated and interacting with things in the world and in menus uses the touch screen too. The rear touch panel on the Vita is used for zooming in and out by sliding your finger up and down. It actually all works and works well. I like the way this plays and handles even if it has lost that earlier Killzone feel and it makes sense for the Vita anyway. Although maybe with the number of melee kills you will be doing using the touch screen for that does get a little irritating.

So Killzone Mercenary mostly looks great once you get past the first couple of chapters and plays pretty great too. It just has some weak areas that can make it feel a bit flat and maybe at times a little annoying. There is a kid you need to look after and there are some escort style sections. I think the kid exists just to make the mercenary character you play as come across as a bit more ‘good’ or like he’s on the right side of things. There are times when you might get stuck waiting and the hacking game sucks. The objectives are pretty run of the mill and as I said before I didn’t really get into what’s going and the characters are not memorable at all. Actually I do remember Boris the loyal Heavy Helghast Trooper that helps out and sacrifices himself for others. The opening cut scenes to missions are dull, info dumpy and it takes a while to load before you can skip them. It does a lot right too though. It’s brief, well paced and gameplay isn’t overly interrupted. There is a big variety of weapons and equipment which also allows you to change up your approach. Killing enemies is snappy and satisfying and the game actually ends with a proper boss fight. The best thing is how it comes together as a whole.

Killzone Mercenary’s structure, story, gameplay and that it is a Vita game is so cohesive and really impressively done. You play as a mercenary that does contracts for cash and you buy your weapons from an arms dealer. So everything you do in the game like kills, picking up ammo, etc. is rewarded with money and the better you play the higher the rewards. Then you use that to buy more equipment and weapons and then go back and be even better at killing so you get more money and so on. Then a big part of what is going on is trying to prolong this war so you as a mercenary and the arms dealer both get more money. Also trying to stop the attempts of genocide by both sides is good for business too and you know maybe the right thing to do as well.

Being a Mercenary also allows for a section of the game where you fight alongside the Helghast. This was such a weird and special section. To see the Helghast running next to you while you fight the ISA felt like something this series always wanted to do. You get to see the fucked up shit the ISA do from within the Helghast perspective. They finally got to bluntly drive home that the Helghast versus the ISA isn’t a simple bad guys versus good guys for anyone not quick enough to have picked up on that yet. The campaign is quite short, with missions that don’t go on too long and multiplayer matches were quick too, making it a perfect fit for the portable handheld Vita. Of course being a side story means there’s no need for prior knowledge, although that would make it better, and this all connects back to you playing as a mercenary taking missions. The other thing on offer is the contracts mode. In this you replay campaign missions but with very specific objectives, which means you need specific weapons and gear. This means you need to make more money, so play more and play better. But also play different because that is what the contracts mode forces you to do. And again it all makes sense because you’re a mercenary and you are potentially playing this in shorter bursts on the go.

The way it all ties together is so good. If I was more interested in the characters and what’s going on this would have been a very special game. The contracts mode did also get repetitive and unenjoyable quickly because you are just replaying missions though. But I do need to praise it for forcing you to change play styles and weapons and for the increase in replayability. If I come back to this game again it will be to finish these off. The other thing that increased replayability was the multiplayer and I spent a good amount of time with it back when it was new. It was plenty of fun, kind of similar to the PS3 titles and was better than many console game multiplayer offerings. And again it tied into being a mercenary and playing on a Vita with short matches and the rewards. The highs of this game and how impressive it is make me want to give it four stars and I probably would have if I wrote a review at launch. But the lows drag it down, the biggest being that the Bot Zone is paid DLC. Are you fucking kidding me? What a wild decision to make. So yeah I can’t tell you about the Bot Zone.

There are times when I think this is the second best Killzone game and easily one of the greatest Vita titles. But then I remember the two opening chapters, my lack of interest in these characters and the story, a few annoying quirks, that the online functions are gone and the awful decision to charge extra for the Bot Zone. At least it is better than Killzone Shadow Fall which released not long after. Holy crap this team and this handheld game humiliates Shadow Fall, my review of that game will be coming soon. So maybe it is the second, third or fourth best Killzone, it depends what day you ask me. Although it doesn’t matter what day you ask I’ll always strongly recommend Killzone Mercenary to every Vita owner.

You play as Arran Danner, a mercenary of Phantom Talon Corp (PTC) hired by the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA) to drive off the Helghast from planet Vekta.

Taking place between Killzone 2 and 3, the game follows another episode of the centuries-long conflict between the United Colonial Nations (UCN), rulers of the Earth and its colonies, and the Helghan Corporation, an industrial conglomerate originated on the Earth that initially colonised the planets of Vekta and Helghan in the Alpha Centauri system.

I wanted to start my review like this because Killzone Mercenary has been my entry point to the Killzone universe and, even though the story is regarded as weak in many reviews, I think its twists and turns do a very god job of driving the gameplay from one scenario to another, whilst slotting in the lore of the series; It made me research the background story, and luckily for me there's plenty of stuff about it online!

The game looks, feels and plays great even today, and this is even more remarkable when achieved on a portable console. The fact that the Vita was the first portable with dual analog sticks made FPS on the go a pleasant experience, as opposed to the clunky attempts in older portables. It might still not be as nice as with your home console with a proper controller, but hey, you can always play it in PlayStation TV.

Killzone mercenary comprises a single player campaign of about 6 hours with 3 levels of difficulty available, as well as several multiplayer modes. As of today, the servers are still up but not many players are active.

Almost every action during a mission rewards you with money that can be spent to unlock more equipment, also available for multiplayer games.

The game offers plenty of replayability whether you are trying to unlock all the equipment or getting all the intelligence reports by interrogating highly ranked enemies, which in turns help fleshing out the story a bit more with details about the story.

I beat the game in Trooper difficulty, which felt right and rewarding for someone who only plays FPS casually from time to time. I cannot say it's the best FPS in the Vita, because is the only one I've played (with a few others still in my backlog), but I can already say it's a MUST in anyone's Vita collection.

The good:

• Great visuals and gameplay
• Plenty of replayability

The bad:

• Not a fan of touch controls for melee kills, but it was nowhere near as annoying as in Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
• Beating the game in Trooper difficulty does not unlock the rewards in the lower difficulty setting.

After playing the terrible Shadow Fall a year or so ago, I came into this one without any expectations whatsoever. It definitely affected my experience at first as I saw Mercenary as no more than just a functional shooter on a handheld console. But after a while I kind of liked it.

First of all, Killzone: Mercenary was my first FPS game on Vita and after horrible PSP controls in similar games it was very nice to finally have a second analog stick. Sticks are small as nipples and Vita is not as comfortable to hold as a normal controller, but still this is a huge improvement over Sony's previous handheld generation, which makes it a decent device for playing shooters on it. Moreover, PSV has a touch screen and a motion controller, which both are implemented in pretty cool ways - fun and gory melee kills and precise aiming, respectively.

Gunplay is fun and challenging. Story is filled with silly plot twists, but presentation makes up for that well enough to give the game a true blockbuster vibe and with a 3-4 hours campaign length it's a good package. Ooh, and I absolutely loved the return of the Killzone 2 color palette!

As always I have a couple of minor complaints, like the stupid level with the fucking annoying proximity mines, or the hacking mechanic, which was fun a few first times, but was used so many times, it annoyed me as well. I can't say I liked the gun shop that forced me to buy weapons instead of just picking them up from the enemy corpses. I ended up buying the machine gun asap and using it exclusively for the rest of the game.

Overall, Mercenary is well worth checking out if you enjoyed other games in the series or if you're a loser owner of PS Vita, which can't boast with a good enough library of games anyway. (I'm not like that by the way, 'cause I'm cool, and I borrowed it from a friend.)