Depending on how you feel about the mid 2000s-mid 2010s cover shooter invasion, Kill.Switch may look like the great innovator or a harbinger of the stop & pop apocalypse: pioneering many of the mechanics that would become standard in the genre, it is without a doubt what inspired Gears of War and kickstarted a veritable craze.
It expertly sidesteps a number of key pitfalls of the time: instead of unflinching bullet sponges, enemies are glass cannons who go down quickly but are able to deal significant damage to you, it features a dedicated reload button (not a given for the time) and a dedicated grenade button, grenades which also work properly instead of erratically impacting with level geometry, something that still trips up many games to this day.
It even attempts to feature a dramatic Hollywood-style storyline which, while being cheesy and unconvincing due to poor acting performances and amateur hour writing, is still better than a lot of what shooters of the time had to offer. Points for effort, if nothing else.
What brings the game down is the repetition: for a game that clocks in at a paltry 3-4 hours, its firefights get significantly monotonous really quickly, which is salvaged by the considerable difficulty of some of the sections which, along with the lack of checkpoints, will at least keep you on your toes.
Kill.Switch was very quickly surpassed and overshadowed by its emulators, and for good reason, but the fact remains that the seminal achievements are not to be forgotten.
It expertly sidesteps a number of key pitfalls of the time: instead of unflinching bullet sponges, enemies are glass cannons who go down quickly but are able to deal significant damage to you, it features a dedicated reload button (not a given for the time) and a dedicated grenade button, grenades which also work properly instead of erratically impacting with level geometry, something that still trips up many games to this day.
It even attempts to feature a dramatic Hollywood-style storyline which, while being cheesy and unconvincing due to poor acting performances and amateur hour writing, is still better than a lot of what shooters of the time had to offer. Points for effort, if nothing else.
What brings the game down is the repetition: for a game that clocks in at a paltry 3-4 hours, its firefights get significantly monotonous really quickly, which is salvaged by the considerable difficulty of some of the sections which, along with the lack of checkpoints, will at least keep you on your toes.
Kill.Switch was very quickly surpassed and overshadowed by its emulators, and for good reason, but the fact remains that the seminal achievements are not to be forgotten.