We wondered for a little bit why Killzone on Vita fell off our radar, and then we remembered – the one-two horseshitstained punch that was Resistance: Burning Skies and Call Of Duty: Black Ops Declassified put us off the idea of PS3’s best FPS franchises coming to Vita, just because the two
Nihilistic-produced titles systematically removed what was interesting about both properties. Killzone: Mercenary, however, is a full-fledged Killzone title developed by Guerrilla itself as well as
companion studio Guerrilla Cambridge, built on the same impressive technology that debuted the PS3’s power to begin with.
Mercenary has a campaign that will last roughly six to eight hours, taking place in the same timeframe as the second and third games. We won’t go into the story in too much depth, since discussing the mythology of the Killzone universe is basically like talking about Universal Soldier’s mythos; nobody’s that interested. The twist here is that you’re playing as Arran Danner, a mercenary who follows the cash, which takes him between both the bad guy space-Nazis Helghast and nice chaps the UCA, offering players a snapshot of both sides of this epic conflict.
That could potentially offer some interesting story-based scenarios in the campaign, which is carrying
over and actually building upon the ideas established in the home console Killzones, primarily the
Half-Life 2-beating AI and a freer mission structure. The levels unveiled so far offer more than one route through environments, and for once stealth can be properly employed as a tactic throughout these story bits. It won’t be open-ended, but Guerrilla has taken healthy inspiration from sandbox-style games.
Then, of course, there’s the other stick of dynamite in Killzone’s belt: good looks. Killzone’s universe might not be the most involving, but it has always taken us to locales that look better than almost anything else running on PlayStation technology; this is no exception. Built using the same engine, the Vita’s power actually impressed Guerrilla to the point where they discovered they’d initially underestimated its capabilities. You can see the screens – it’s one of the first Vita games that actually manages to look like a high-end PS3 title. For showcasing the technology alone, Killzone: Mercenary is worth keeping an eye on.
Then there’s the rather exciting prospect of having the Vita’s first decent multiplayer shooter. With eight players per level, it appears Killzone is gunning for a Call Of Duty audience with the dynamic established within that figure, as opposed to the overpopulated and brilliant choke points that mark the peak of Killzone’s brilliant online modes on PS3. There’s also a card-collecting aspect to it, as well as scaleable leaderboards that mean it’s harder for players to stay at the top. Finally, a shooter that could be worthy of Vita’s two comfortable, brilliant analogue sticks, made by people who actually know what they’re doing within this genre.
Between Mercenary and Tearaway, then, it’s not as bleak a year for Vita as we’d previously assumed, providing Sony manages to get these titles out the door sooner rather than later, and that there’s more to back the machine up come Christmas time. Given Sony’s stock of developers, it’d be nice to see
more of them assisting the transfer of its biggest franchises to Vita – or, you know, Sony Bend could just make them all. That developer seems to know what it’s doing.
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