Killzone: Mercenary

Killzone: Mercenary is a seriously impressive game. It’s a little on the short side, and has a few little quirks all its own, but there’s no question that Guerilla Cambridge have delivered the goods. I still can’t quite believe the technical feats it accomplishes, to be perfectly honest.

Killzone: Mercenary is a gritty, intense experience that is welcome--if not desperately needed--on the Vita. From start to finish, its intensity draws you in and doesn’t let go. While there’s little in the way of innovation, that’s not the point. Mercenary is unapologetically big and bold, and is exactly the kind of game you’d hope it would be.

Killzone: Mercenary se suma a una lista, algo corta, de títulos que todo poseedor de un PlayStation Vita debe tener. No sólo es un FPS sólido y bien estructurado, incluso se atreve a proponer un esquema que recompensa distintos estilos de juego.

En general, Killzone: Mercenary me parece una fantástica entrega para el PS Vita, un first-person shooter hecho y derecho, fiel a la serie y que aprovecha la capacidad de la consola. Aunque no viene a revolucionar el género, se suma a la biblioteca de los títulos que valen la pena en la portátil de Sony.

The wait has been long and arduous, but Killzone: Mercenary finally delivers what Vita owners have craved for over a year and a half: a first-person shooter that won’t only keep them busy for a long time, but one that helps justify their hardware purchase in the first place. Mercenary is a truly great shooter, one that was crafted with the hardcore shooter fan in mind.

So, while Mercenary might not be the best shooter in the world, in its own field - as a handheld title - it’s almost perfect; there’s no other experience like this on a device as small as this. And, judging the game from that perspective, it’s an experience that will stick with you for a long time, much like GoldenEye, Call of Duty 4 and other revolutionary shooters...

It often feels like too little too late but almost by default this is the best portable first person shooter ever made, despite a struggle to distinguish itself in other ways.

Killzone Mercenary's other big issue is how stringently it sticks to the modern first-person shooter blueprint. Make no mistake, when we say it's just like Killzone on PS3, we mean it. The emulation is so successful that there's almost nothing unique about the game. There are no new ideas here, but many old concepts executed well.