Time took to complete: ~6 hours on VETERAN
The graphics are absolutely amazing. I don't like talking technical stuff too much in games, so let's get that established. They are great to look at as is, and absolutely mind blowing when you think they are being done on VITA. This hardware and these devs are just wow.
The gameplay is awesome. It truly gives you different ways you can approach situations. Not only with weapon selection but also armour and vanguard (perk) selection too. vanguards range from rockets to airstrikes to radar scanning and so on.
A few points on those aspects is I liked that weapons could not have attachments changed. Being able to silence every gun would have been OP and a bit boring. They give you enough options if you want a strong sniper or a silenced uzi or a good old assault rifle and they fit the most sensible attachments on there.
However the balance did get skewed a bit for me in the Ghost perk. This turns you invisible until it runs out (a good 20+ seconds I would guess, feels long anyway) and couple of sections I literally just walked through a section lol. It's nice the game gives you a Stealth Bonus if you go through a section without raising alert. That was an unexpected, but an awesome addition.
However going all stealth, I felt there are some sections that rape you in the ass for making that decision. Basically refer to this comic by Penny Arcade. That's exactly how you feel at times and is becoming a growing concerns with balance in games that give you play style choice. Please devs make sure all styles are applicable in all situations.
Luckily, it wasn't too bad and I did buy a few offensive vanguards just in case, and in the final boss that became to be a very worthy investment (no idea how I could have done it without that!).
The story is eh. Where it does do great is you are playing as a Mercenary. All you care about is getting money and the game doesn't try to delve into meaning of life and whatever and through that, it actually succeeds in having a deep meaning. Wars are profitable and you can fight to get rich and sabotage sides not to win, but to keep the war and your profits going. After all isn't that what war is. Both sides suck, so get rich and gtfo. This is further amplified by you working with ISA and Helghast, showing very well why both sides think why the other side is wrong, and ultimately how no-one is 'right'.
They try to grow that into something more by throwing a kid in there you are supposed to care about I guess but I blanked that part out. I prefer the game was telling me war is an ugly profit game.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable shooter with more variety in style and gameplay than I expected with an enjoyable, money driven story that shines a more neutral light at the Killzone universe,
A 'Very Good' - 7/10.
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