Killzone Mercenary. Best game on the Vita yet.
Finally, a quality FPS that shows off Vita's capabilities. On first look, the game looks stunningly gorgeous. It manages to push the visuals capabilities of the Vita to consoles' quality and yet, maintaining that smooth, fluid gameplay experience.
This time round, you are not working for the ISA. And you are not working for the Helghast. You are working for the money. That's what made you a mercenary. The war is raging, deaths and losses have never been so prominent. By working as a mercenary, it is the fastest way to earn bucks. Big bucks.
That is what the game is about. Killzone Mercenary is a unique Killzone game, in terms of its style. You are working alone. Everything you do gives you money, or rather, Vektan dollars in that sense. You can use these money to purchase new weapons and armory from a mysterious guy known as the Blackjack.
There are primary and secondary weapons to choose from and of course, your VAN-GUARDS. Van-guards are objects that help to kill enemies in your missions. Think of them as killer toys. By using Van-Guard, you can become invisible for a period of time, launch missiles from a shoulder projectile or even
stealthily kill an enemy using a small engine.
The gameplay felt like Killzone, in fact, it runs on the same engine as Killzone 3. That's what makes it very Killzonish. The gameplay felt really smooth, which surprised me with a frame rate of only 30 per second. The campaign was rather short, average players could complete it in around 6-7 hours. My advice : play the multi-player for a long while first, then proceed to the campaign. That way, you can save quite a number of time fighting the AI. It was very easy to switch from primary to secondary weapons, but throwing of the grenades became troublesome. You will need to equip the grenades first before hurling it. You can quick-throw it by pressing the DOWN on the directional pad, but this is often an epic miss. The two analog sticks were very easy to get used to, just a couple of minutes to half an hour. Sprinting is a little uncomfortable using the rear touch pad by tapping and tap then hold. It can be done with the O button but you will easily get killed that way. Melee attacks are often executed with the TRAINGLE button or the touchscreen, you get to swipe the screen afterward to execute a brutal melee. For example, stabbing in the throat, neck and of course the crotch.
Surprisingly, the Beta version contains the same number of weapons and armory as the full game. Don't be disheartened, with a large number of weapons, a lot of combinations can be made. Multiplayer is where Killzone Mercenary shines in. With the complex system of Valour cards to collect from dead enemies, multiplayer just gets real deep. It's fairly easy to play, there are 3 different modes : Warzone, Mercenary Warfare and Guerilla Warfare. I particularly enjoyed Mercenary Warfare, where the teamwork really pays off. It IS the multiplayer that makes me coming back for more and of course, showing off my skills.
Warzone, in the multiplayer is really fun. There are five phrase of the 25 minutes game. The team with e most number of points after the match is the winner. This requires huge amounts of teamwork. The first phrase enables you to collect Valour cards to score points. Basically, you have to kill enemies and collect their Valour, or even save your allies' valours to prevent enemies from scoring. The second phrase, which is also the fourth phrase, is called hacker. There will be Van-guard capsules landing from the sky and you have to hack them to earn those points. It is hard to explain how to hack but basically, you have to press one of the choices that made up the figure shown in the middle and then press the choice followed by pressing the figure in the middle. Then you have to find another choice that matches the figure in the middle. You have to try it to find out.
The third phrase of the match is called interrogator. It is rather simple and hard at the same time. You have to sneak up on an enemy and press the "interrogator" action, there will be a couple of action swipes to complete the interrogation. The bad thing is that you can get killed easily by other enemies during the interrogation. The last phrase is where your aiming abilities and real skills pay off. It is very simple, you just have to kill and you earn point. Piece of cake. But be careful, enemies will tend to rampage on this round since this is the final round.
Killzone Mercenary, my advice : just get it. It is that good. I'm giving it a 9/10. Really, best Vita game of the year.
