There aren’t many first-person shooters on the PS Vita platform. Offhand I can only remember a passable Resistance and completely disastrous Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. Developers from Guerrilla Cambridge decided to correct the failed relationship between Vita and shooters. Killzone: Mercenary was supposed to be a full-fledged shooter for a portable platform without any gameplay or graphical simplifications.
Explode, kill
Main pride Mercenary – its visual component. Despite the fact that the Vita’s performance is, for natural reasons, slightly lower than that of its "adult" sister, the appearance Killzone: Mercenary not much inferior to the third part. And it’s not surprising, because both projects are built on the same engine. High resolution textures, excellent depth of lighting, high-quality shadows and explosion effects – you often wonder how a small console is able to reproduce this beauty. After all, with all this, the frame rate does not suffer at all, the game does not slow down, even when quite large spaces open up in front of the camera.
And those in Mercenary quite a few. All locations are designed in traditional Killzone industrial style. The levels, although linear, are divided into large open areas filled with patrolling enemies. The developers expanded the space as much as possible in order to make several styles of passage possible – stealth elements were screwed into the project. It turned out quite primitive and rude: shadow hiding is impossible here, and crawling past ten enemies unnoticed, each time waiting for the bastard to turn his back to you in order to slip past him, is quite boring. It’s better to raise the alarm and quickly kill the reinforcements.
However, secret killings look quite impressive. We can easily eliminate an enemy close to us in close combat by driving a knife into some part of his body. The Vita’s touch screen is responsible for executing finishing moves – at the moment of execution, time slows down, an arrow appears above the enemy, which we must have time to swipe with our finger. If you don’t have time, you’ll get hit in the kidneys with a butt and bullets to boot. In general, the traditional way of resolving conflicts is much more pleasant and effective. This is also facilitated by intuitive controls that you quickly get used to.
In general, the dynamics of the https://pub-casino.uk/mobile-app/ gameplay compared to other games Killzone has increased significantly. At the same time, we have to fight with a dozen opponents, among whom there are both ordinary privates and fat flamethrowers and flying drones. It will not be possible to sit quietly in a shelter – the villains are smart enough to outflank us. However, the fights lack hardcore: our health is restored automatically, most enemies fall dead from one “headshot”. Despite all this, the point in stealth passage still remains: secretive “fatalities” bring more income, and money in Killzone: Mercenary play, if not a key, then an essential role.
The price of victory
The plot explains the reasons for such commercialization of gameplay. Events Mercenary occur immediately after the first part. This time we will be in the shoes of a simple mercenary Arran Danner, who cares primarily about his own financial well-being, and not about the outcome of the war. The hero is only interested in high-paying contracts of any complexity – and it doesn’t matter with whom to conclude them. During the game we will visit both Vect and Helghan, we will fight for both the ISA and the Helghast. Yes, mercenaries are unprincipled people: whoever pays the most calls the tune. For the first time we will be able to look at the war from the other side of the front.
Here we get money for everything: for killings, collecting ammunition, distance traveled. Earned funds can be spent in small shops scattered throughout the maps. The game has a fairly long list of “guns” and armor that have their own characteristics. The hero’s arsenal includes a pistol, main weapon, grenades and the VAN-Guard system – a PDA mounted on Danner’s wrist, through which the guy can perform amazing miracles. So, we can take control of a flying drone capable of quickly and quietly eliminating a dozen enemies; order an airstrike; shoot an enemy squad with rockets. The last ability uses the Vita display – enemies within our field of vision are marked with red circles; in order to launch a rocket at one of them, you need to “poke” your finger at it.
At all, Mercenary actively engages the touch screen. In addition to the above examples, we will need it in order to change weapons, select cartridges, and also pick locks. The last procedure is a mini-game in which, within the allotted time, we must make the figure proposed to us from triangles. Not too original, but they also give rewards for solved puzzles.
Cards, money, a lot of guns
All equipment unlocked in the single player campaign becomes available in multiplayer. Thus, the developers tried to link both modes Mercenary: even while remaining offline, the player continues to “pump up” his character and prepare him for battles online.
An interesting feature of the multiplayer component is the card system. Every day we receive a card from the deck that reflects our professional level. It gives certain bonuses to your “salary” both in the single-player campaign and online. By killing opponents and taking their cards, we can make poker hands that bring huge cash income.
Multiplayer is represented by three modes, one of which we have already managed to play. Outwardly, a completely ordinary team Deathmatch has important features that seriously affect combat tactics. There are ampoules scattered around the map containing the VAN-Guard weapon, which we have already mentioned. Capturing one of them gives the team significant advantages, allowing them to get a couple of frags without risking their lives. There is no need to be afraid of imbalance: recharging VAN-Guard takes quite a long time.
Mercenary – perhaps the best shooter on PS Vita. Excellent graphics and dynamic gameplay squeeze all the juice out of the “iron” filling of the console. However, if you evaluate the new Killzone out of context and compare it with heavyweight representatives of the genre, we have before us a rather ordinary project, unable to surprise or boast of any original ideas. But be that as it may, we got a full-fledged continuation Killzone for handheld console.
Pros: stunning graphics for PS Vita; a fascinating “economy” that links multiplayer and “single” together; abundance of weapons.
Cons: the game is original and interesting only as a representative of the genre on Vita.
