Reviews// Killzone: Mercenary

Fill that primary slot with one of many sub-machine guns, heavy weapons and sniper rifles, and opt for pistols, grenade launchers and various rocket launchers as a secondary. Many weapons vary by offering explosive rounds, scopes or suppressors (what we called “silencers” back in the day). As a shooter, "World" and "Oyster" come to mind.

How a mission is fought is at the player’s discretion; stealth, measured combat, run-and-gun or a healthy mix. I found, however, that I simply stuck with just the two or three preferred weapons. This was in part because I opted for stealth much of the time, where a melee knife attack and suppressed SMG are all the tools you need. The bigger issue was that I simply couldn’t access the entire repertoire.

You see, as a Merc you have to buy your weapons, and for the first few missions I simply didn’t have the funds to access the bigger guns. By the time I had the money, I’d grown familiar with the capabilities of the weapons I had, and comparing the damage/range/accuracy/clip/rate I didn’t see any good reason to change. Then there’s the issue that load-out selection is done before the briefing, so you’re effectively selecting your weapons “blind”.

It’s not a disaster, though, as you can change load at numerous points throughout each mission via weapons lockers handily provided by your friendly arms dealer, Blackjack. Offering banter, weapons advice and the most ridiculous Russian accent since Commander Chekov uttered “wessels” in Star Trek 4 , for a nominal fee he’ll also allow you to swap out load and top-up ammo. What a nice man.

The balancing of combat is well managed. Playing on medium difficulty, I felt under pressure and got into plenty of tight spots that I thought would lead to an untimely demise, yet I managed to pull through. Finding a quiet corner for a few seconds is all it takes to regain health and jump back into the throng and a chance to reconsider that loadout.

By the latter missions I’d started to switch weapons around, but still had only enough cash to acquire a couple of the Van-guard gizmos. Offering automated support, these devices include stealth cloaks, force shields, shoulder-mounted seeker missiles, arc lightning drones and orbital beam cannons. However, their use is limited by either power drain or fragility, so they’re best kept for those taxing moments. Accessing them pretty late in the game, I felt like they were seriously under-utilised gameplay feature.

In spite of the wealth of weapons and options for tackling situations, the variety of gameplay boils down to getting from A to B via a prescribed route, killing enemies, interrogating some and the odd bit of hacking. With the added exception of one “on rails” battle on an Infiltrator craft, the game is solidly a shooter. Having several points where cinematic set pieces are staring you in the face shouting “play me”, it’s seems a missed opportunity that they remain hands-off experiences.

One such example appears at the start of the game, where you glide by wing suit to your destination. It has every marker for a fun player-controlled segment; you’re clearly given the method of travel and destination, and you have a guide that leads the way. Instead, you get to move the camera a little.

Some might consider this steadfast focus on FPS gaming a bonus. However the paucity of variety runs right through the game; there are no tanks, jeeps, exoskeletons or gunships to commandeer. Enemy engagements are limited too, offering only the usual range of infantry - grunts, officers, snipers, flame throwers & heavies. Boss battles aren’t anything to write home about either, so don’t expect epic assaults on MAWLRs or Ice Saw races.

This dearth of variety and lack of obvious opportunities to mix things up leads me to feel that the game was rushed out. A line was drawn, and features, engagements and possibly whole missions were cut. If that’s the case, though it's a disappointment, it's to the benefit of what remains, because it’s brilliantly realised and utterly polished ... though short.

Don’t expect to be playing the campaign for weeks - I clocked just over 6 hours, including time spent hacking for intel. There is a great deal of replay for all missions, though. Instead of the basic objective for each mission, you can opt take on extra objectives to complete the mission with speed & precision, covertly or going in guns blazing.

For the scavengers there’s the replay to get all intel. In spite of these added game time offerings, getting more out of Mercenary depends on you being satisfied with revisiting the same missions. Multiplayer will, of course, further extend the options for continued play, though here I’m focussing on the campaign.

Visuals are amazing, to the point where only the ache in my clawed hands reminded me that I was playing a handheld game. It’s not an overstatement to say that it’s impressive how much of the Killzone 3 engine Guerrilla Cambridge has managed to squeeze into the Vita - smoke, lighting, draw distance is all there.

If anything, the absence of epic battles makes the work to bring such a powerful game engine to the Vita a little under-utilised. With the polish given to all that is on offer, it’s disappointing that the pitiful variety leaves the game feeling incomplete.

Pros
+ Light on turgid plot
+ Polished & visually impressive
+ Many ways to play

Cons
- Short with questionable replay
- Lacking variety
- Clumsy touch interaction

SPOnG Score: 4/5