Co-Impressions on Killzone: Shadow Fall Intercept Co-op - Preview

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Myself and gamrReview Editor-in-Chief Karl Koebke took the time to check out Killzone: Shadow Fall's new co-op mode in the upcoming Intercept DLC on E3's show floor. Here are our thoughts: 

Karl: 

First person shooters aren't my preferred genre, but when Jake asked me to help him try out the new cooperative mode in Killzone: Shadow Fall it was hard to turn him down. I'd played quite a bit of Killzone 2 and 3 online multiplayer and although the most recent Killzone had been a disappointment, it was still a series to which I was accustomed and happy to give some time to.

The general idea behind Intercept is that it's a hoard­-type game mode with objectives. Wave upon wave of Helghast will come at you, but their goal isn't simply to kill you. Instead, the Helghast and the four brave souls (that's you and your friends) are all tasked with trying to capture and maintain control of three points on the map. Controlling these points as well as other accomplishments will net your team points, and if you get 1500 points you pass the trial.

1500 points does not come easily, though, and you have to do your best to coordinate since dying and respawning without the help of a medic will cost your team 50 points every time and can quickly eat into your hard earned pool of points. Points also have to be banked from time to time, since those earned by individuals for killing enemies or recapturing zones on the map do not immediately get added to the total and can actually be erased if you die without banking them for the team.

Another interesting aspect of this mode are the upgrades that can be earned by collecting certain items throughout the firefight. Depending on the needs of the group these items can be used to add turrets to the battlefield for automated help or give jetpacks to all of your teammates. It's an indispensable resource when things are getting hairy and adds to the strategy required to beat the level. Conference volumes can make coordinating a team of four like this rather difficult but I could see how all of these elements could come together to make an exciting challenge for a group of friends to tackle

Jake:

Killzone’s goodwill is starting to wane for me. 2004’s debut entry for the PS2 had lots of interesting ideas, and Killzone 2 remains one of my favorite shooters of its generation, but Killzone 3 and PS4’s Killzone: Shadow Fall moved away from the what I enjoyed so much about the franchise. Shown off on the show floor of E3, Killzone: Shadow Fall’s Intercept DLC introduces co-op to the PS4 shooter, and while it’s definitely nice to have co-op added to the game, nothing I played convinced me the series hasn’t devolved into just another generic shooter. 

Karl described the gameplay mechanics above, but my experience with them yielded frustration. Only one person can play as each of the four available classes - Assault, Marksman, Medic, and Tactician - which feels arbitrarily limiting to the amount of strategy we could employ. For example, only the Medic can revive players, which seems too much importance to place towards any one player, and kind of screws everyone over when the Medic falls in combat, especially given the high respawn time. Ammo seemed scarce, requiring regular trips back to the ammo drops, which proved annoying due to the cluttered and claustrophobic map design. 

Killzone is a series that I associate with large open battlefields for both the single-player and the multiplayer, so it was disappointing to have the map so closed off. More disappointing still, the map gave off the illusion of grandeur, only to give way to invisible walls that block you as you approach the map's edge. Perhaps this is an issue that only applies to this particular map, or was put in for the E3 demo, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth. 

The four players must work together to gather 1500 points, but they are only applied toward the goal when players walk back to an area where you can “bank” the points. A neat concept on paper, with players having to employ a risk/reward system when a large amount of points have been gathered, but instead it comes off as a needless stress when the game should be focusing on shooting and teamwork in the heat of the moment. 

All in all, I was not impressed with my time with the Killzone: Shadowfall - Intercept DLC. That said, I’ve never been convinced the E3 show floor is the best place to show off co-op gameplay anyway, with the hectic nature of the conference at odds with teamwork and communication, so maybe this preview is completely off-base. Despite its flaws, I’ve always enjoyed the ideas Guerrilla Games have put forward in the Killzone series, so there’s still a chance that Killzone: Shadow Fall - Intercept will be worth checking out when it launches June 25th for the PS4.  

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