4/6/2023 0 Comments Killzone shadow fall lengthKillzone may have been poorly received by critics and fans alike, but Sony had clearly seen enough from its sales and seen enough potential in the game itself that it was willing to turn it into a franchise, and let Guerrilla learn from its mistakes. In spite of that, however, Sony clearly saw some potential in it. A Halo-killer it was not – not even close, in fact – and the disappointing nature of the game was only propounded manifold in light of the ridiculous levels of hype and excitement surrounding it before its release. A poorly written and poorly told story, uninteresting characters, stupid AI that made the shooting half as good as it could have been otherwise, and a spate of technical issues and bugs were just a few of the game’s most commonly cited problems. But when it came to the things that really mattered, Killzone came up short. Some aspects of the first Killzone were praised quite a lot, such as its stunning visuals to its gritty, hard sci-fi war setting. Killzone launched on the PS2 in November of 2004 (just a few days before Halo 2 came out, in fact)- and the general consensus was that Guerrilla Games’ shooter was a sour disappointment. Expectations, then, were ridiculously high- but we all know how that turned out. Of course, they never publicly said as much, but the hype and marketing surrounding the game made it abundantly clear that Sony and the PS2 were banking on its success, and banking on it hard- and of course, given the new and fierce rivalry between Sony and Microsoft that the industry had become caught in the grips of, it didn’t take long for everyone to slap the “ Halo-killer” tag onto Killzone. Sony were not the first who would look to chase that trend, and nor would they be the last- but chase it they did. Its follow up, Halo 2, took things even further, by implementing an ambitious and wildly popular online component that would go on to set the standard that the entire industry follows to this day. Combat Evolved stunned the entire industry by showing that not only could first person shooters work on consoles, but that they could even be some of the best games ever created. Back when the series was first greenlit, Microsoft and Bungie were taking the world by storm with Halo. Though Killzone was one of Sony’s most important franchises in the seventh generation of console gaming, we all know that things didn’t start out well for the franchise. But why exactly does that seem to be the case? After overcoming initial hurdles and managing to carve out an identity for itself as one of the most refined shooters on the market, why is it that Guerrilla Games’ series suddenly went silent? What the hell happened to Killzone? Sony has comfortably and confidently settled into the groove of the kind of games it wants to make – cinematic, story-driven single player games – and Killzone, it seems, doesn’t fit into that framework. ![]() ![]() By now, however, it has been over five years since we last saw a Killzone game, and both Guerrilla Games and Sony have been largely silent about the franchise and what the future might hold for it. Though it never quite lived up to its “ Halo-killing” ambitions, Killzone was a franchise that rode a pretty strong high for a good number of years, and seemed to have firmly cemented itself as a series that Sony was prepared to invest in heavily. Back during the days of the PS3, Killzone was, without a doubt, one of Sony’s flagship franchises. Its first game and what has till now been its last game both disappointed a lot of people, but there were also a couple of instalments that impressed millions, and were critical and commercial successes. Sure, there have been a few that have endured some tough times, and some that have even come out stronger as a result but Killzone is probably the most prominently inconsistent franchise belonging to Sony. ![]() It is hard to think of a major first party Sony franchise that has had a journey as rocky as Killzone’s.
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