Guerrilla Cambridge’s Killzone: Mercenary has a lot riding on it. As one of PlayStation’s tent pole franchises, this latest entry in the sci-fi FPS series not only has to live up to its console brethren and please an army of loyal fans, but crucially, deliver the all-important triple-A PlayStation Vita exclusive that Sony’s handheld has been so desperately crying out for. It’s true, Resistance: Burning Skies has already proven that PS Vita is more than capable of condensing the FPS experience into pocket form. However, Sony’s high-powered portable has yet to receive the quintessential shooter that proves above and beyond that you can get a console-quality FPS on a handheld. Killzone: Mercenary looks set to change all that.
Set between the events of the original and 2009’s Killzone 2, Mercenary sees you strapping on the boots of a grizzly merc named Danner, who excels at nothing better than slaughtering Helghast in exchange for cash. This forms the nucleus of Mercenary’s gameplay, as your performance in combat directly affects your currency and promotional opportunities. Our preview build consists of one single-player stage set right in the belly of the beast on the planet Helghan; there’s no multiplayer teaser here, so it’s strictly in familiar campaign territory.
From the second your well-worn boots scuff the industrialized battle zone, it’s strikingly evident how well Mercenary adapts the series’ core components to PS Vita. This is an FPS experience cut from the same cloth as its PS3 counterparts, and feels like you would expect a Killzone game to. Hit L to aim down your sights, squeeze R to fire; X is jump, circle has you manoeuvre into a crouched position, while Square reloads your weapon. The touchscreen also comes into play, but it’s not intrusive or gimmicky; it feels natural to select weapons or lob grenades by tapping on-screen icons, or by dragging your finger downwards to flip switches or surreptitiously stab enemies from behind. Weapons feel meaty and pack quite a punch, just as they should.
The demo was very much bread-and-butter as far as Killzone goes, though that is by no means a bad thing. The action comes thick and fast, punctuated by slower-paced sections typically involving zipping from one side of the map to the other hitting switches and solving the odd hacking puzzle – the latter a touchscreen highlight. One aspect that particularly impressed me was the AI; your enemies aren’t just obtuse bullet sponges, and will take cover effectively, flush you out with grenades and try to flank you where possible. When in cover, they won’t always pop their head up for a convenient headshot opportunity, and instead stick their gun arm around the corner/over the top of their hiding spot to attack, making them difficult to attack and pinning you down in the process. As such, gun fights are intense and I found myself having to adopt tactics on the fly to get the upper-hand – running and gunning left me on life support.
Combat also plays directly into the currency system. Capping off foes will net you cash, but the way you play determines how much you’ll receive. Firing off a barrage of hot lead into your adversary does the job, but if you land a headshot or kill multiple enemies quickly, you’ll net more dough for your kills. This encourages precision and style above merely going in guns blazing. It’s a nice trade-off in terms of playing style; do you play it safe and mow down enemies in the gut before they get a chance to attack, or do you wait and pick your targets off with one-hit kills at the risk of being swamped? I found this to be a pleasant deviation from running-and-gunning, and one can only speculate how much impact this will have in latter stages against more difficult foes. Even grabbing dropped ammo rakes in the cash. Your rank will also increase eventually, and you can use the dosh earned from battles to invest in new weapons and equipment via arms dealer caches to change your load-outs fit your playing style.
Of course, one of the selling points of Killzone: Mercenary are the visuals, and with good reason. Going by the preview build, this is easily one of the best-looking games to grace Sony’s handheld. Locations are vibrant and detailed, with characters oozing menace thanks to their inhuman ferocity and silky-smooth animation. It’s not just in-your-face graphical flare that does the job either; Mercenary is full of nuanced detail too, from dynamic shadows, bullet-riddled and blood-splattered walls to some impressive draw distance depicting massive battle cruisers in action.
All in all, my brief hands-on with Killzone: Mercenary left me confident that Guerrilla Camebridge is on to a cracker. Sure, it doesn’t really go against the grain, but what it does it does bloody well. Aside from some noticeable frame rate hiccups, which should hopefully be fixed in time for the final release, there’s no reason to doubt why Mercenary won’t help PS Vita’s move off the shelves come September.
Killzone: Mercenary was previewed via a downloadable build provided by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). Are you looking forward to Killzone: Mercenary? Let us know in the comments section below.