There's a reason Killzone is my favorite FPS franchise. Its not just the awesome art style, the interesting (usually subtle) lore, or even the awesome aesthetics I constantly gush over. Its because it keeps doing awesome little things that impress me, and feel like it really know what I want despite also contradicting that a bit (regenerating health, yuk!). It keeps doing things to raise the bar on what I love in military shooters, and it beats the competition at its own game for me. Well last night when I signed on for a quick match I was surprised to be hit with an update I should have been involved with before, because the game 1-up'd itself and I don't even remember installing an update to get it that way.
I still remember that incredible news one day when I was anxious to hear more from Shadow Fall before its release (or before I had my very own PS4). The news was No XP based progression system. They wanted challenges instead, which in turn mostly just meant completing optional achievements for fun. There was minor progression on abilities and attachments, but nothing major and not once did it get in the way of fun or screw with my mind. Finally, someone was speaking on my terms and of course it was going to be Killzone. However I've got to face the music and accept that with all its serious competition still using that terrible Skinner box mind trick, in theory the fanbase for Killzone would dwindle because people would rather run hamster wheels than waste their time with a game that was only worth playing for fun. I've also got to be honest and say that I myself am not some dedicated multiplayer warrior for the Killzone series. I don't go running to Battlefield because of grinding, but I sure as hell will run to my R&C games, bot matches in unreal, or that new release I was looking forward to. Basically, I just have other games I'll jump between, and maybe something will bore me if nothing new is there. Gimmicky grinds don't solve that (it makes it worse actually, I quit other games early because I'm sick of not getting the fun content), but there could be some other tricks. Honestly if a game is clever, it can deploy a trick that catches me in an extra layer of addiction, and holy crap Killzone surprised me with a big one today, and I'm still not sure I entirely believe it to be real. That pile of cosmetic DLC that I've been avoiding just became incorporated into a F2P system in Shadow Fall, and I can earn that stuff for free by grinding XP. Bravo!
Well for starters despite being hard to believe, I can see its really as good as it seems. I can actually enjoy the customizable cosmetics for free, though with grinding as a price of course. This is not only pretty generous, but it adds an incentivizing grind that doesn't truly screw with my gameplay. The game didn't get any worse or anything, nor does it mess with my head other than "you can get new stuff". I've still got the same normal challenges for playing the game, like say winning 10 missions of S&D, but the difference is I can actually unlock something that would otherwise cost me money. Something extra the game never needed, and something that was added after the launch, so nobody can play the "evil microtransactions" card. So free maps, free cosmetics, and they turn it into a way to keep population up by always telling you that you can unlock more. I was actually about to sarcastically say that the next thing they'd do is throw in the insurgeant pack weapons, but it turns out they actually did when I researched it... I literally then gave the mystery box a test and immediately got a Sta-14 to keep for my sniper class, and that was the cheaper mystery box option. Did I ever mention that I love this game? Because its really awesome!
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| Best hamster wheel ever! |
What if you've already bought all that stuff though? Well, light perks and valor boosts can be obtained. Yeah that's not much of a big deal, but its still something there that is worth getting and testing out. Either way GG took a brilliant game that was good enough to play on its own without gimmicks, supported it with free content and optional cosmetics for a year, and now well beyond that year of support we've got essentially a slot machine give-away AND new perk system in place. Yes on the surface that contradicts itself a bit as that's adding a gimmick to keep players in, but its not exploitative or harmful in the slightest. It actually taking a good page out of F2P, and properly applying it to the triple A market rather than making it an addition revenue source because "give me money" like EA, ubisoft, and capcom are doing.
On top of that, its just brilliant how well this game still holds up on its own and to think of how far its come in support. No its still not perfect and I'll gladly moan about how better Killzone 2 was in some aspects, but the game has been monstrously improved since its launch, and I think I already gave the multiplayer a 10 out of 10 to begin with (back when I did numbered scores). New features, more maps, more customization, better matchmaking features (extended warzone, my personal favorite, was saved from near death by becoming a staple front page mode), and a control layout that fixed the dumb crouch/explosive issue. Oh yeah and of course there's now clans and voice chat like there honestly should have been at launch. Either way there's a small group of people out there declaring Killzone the best current generation multiplayer shooter, and I think they're spot on with that... of course I am really biased in Killzone's favor, but this all just reminds me of why. The developer team has been very generous, the game was very good, and the long lasting support make it a better investment as it goes on. Oh and I'm not so worried about the community leaving. The number per server bit is actually gone, but there's still an indicator showing strong populations in every home page server except the random picked one. As visari says in one of his speeches... "our guns never tire" and Guerrilla games has put that into their own work, keeping the spirit of its fans alive and happy. I can't wait to see what they're doing next for either Shadow Fall, or that mysterious new IP.
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