Killzone: Mercenary Hands-On Preview

In terms of the actual gameplay, Mercenary still stays true to the series’ roots. I always liked the fact that the Killzone series is one of the few FPS franchises out there that has a cover system. Mercenary also allows you to hide behind walls if you’re getting overwhelmed with lots of bullets flying around. It’s also worth mentioning that the collision detection is spot on and bullets rarely miss their targets. If you’ve played any of the previous Killzone games, Mercenary on the PS Vita feels just as good.

The biggest new addition in Mercenary is the “weapon loadout” system. A guy by the name of Blackjack has crates scattered throughout missions where you can buy new weapons, armor, items and grenades. When you complete objectives or kill lots of enemies, you will earn points so that you can spend them on new upgrades. This is a feature I remember the old Rainbow Six games having and it made the games more fun to play.

Graphically, Mercenary looks just as good as any Killzone game released on the PS3. The graphics may not as detailed in places, but it truly uses the PS Vita’s graphical abilities to its full potential. The only downside to the graphics is that it may have impacted on the game’s framerate. I noticed the game slowed down several times when there were lots of enemies on screen trying to kill me. It got to a point where one soldier was frozen inside of a wall. This is a preview after all and let’s hopes the framerate doesn’t drop so dramatically when the full game releases this September.

The PS Vita is in need of a AAA blockbuster exclusive and Killzone: Mercenary might be the game that will deliver on this promise. After Black Ops: Declassified and Resistance: Burning Skies disappointed PS Vita fans last year, it looks like Killzone: Mercenary will not make the same mistake as the gameplay is explosively fun as any other FPS game on bigger console machines.

[Editor’s Note: The screenshots used in this article was taken from the preview build we have.]