Let's get the obvious out of the way first: the game looks incredible, especially for a Vita game. This wouldn't look out of place on a PS3, perhaps not even on the Nintendo Switch. Mercenary does exhibit heavy frame rate drops in some levels, but it running on 2011 mobile hardware is a miracle in itself, so I won't complain too much.
Despite its short length it's also a contender for best Killzone campaign. The game takes place during the events of the first two Killzone games, taking the player to the locations of both games and offering lots of level variety in the process. Players are also free to choose how they approach most situations and can buy guns and equipment supporting their respective styles. Stealthily taking out commanders even yields additional lore bits and currency rewards. There's tons of different weapons and shooting them feels great. I didn't even mind the touchscreen minigames and QTEs since they work so well, way better than rotating the controller did in the console games.
The story's great too. In my other reviews, I criticized the earlier Killzone games for not building onto the tone and stories their predecessors established. Mercenary manages to nicely tie the stories of Killzone 1 and 2 together, even offering a unique perspective since you play as, well, a mercenary. The protagonist and his allies generally aren't constrained by annoying things such as loyalty or basic ethics - they're in it for the money.
Not only does the game make both sides of the ongoing war seem morally gray, it also ties this into the gameplay. Ammo costs money, so you better loot it off the people you killed instead of buying it. Got shot and died? Now you get a (very very slight) punishment in the form of a "life insurance" payment taken from your account. Accidentally blew yourself up like an idiot? Suicide costs twice as much. But don't worry, both sides of the conflict will happily pay you for all the people you killed and things you destroyed. It's perhaps the most cynical the series ever got and I appreciate what the game is trying here, even though it sometimes suffers from the short length of its story - it's hard to flesh out characters when they're only around for less than 4 hour.
If there are, by some miracle, still Vita owners out there that haven't played Mercenary, they should at least try it. It's not only a masterclass in pushing the system to its limits, it's also a great game on its own that I would happily play on a bigger screen, provided Sony ever again allows Guerilla to work on something not called Horizon.
Despite its short length it's also a contender for best Killzone campaign. The game takes place during the events of the first two Killzone games, taking the player to the locations of both games and offering lots of level variety in the process. Players are also free to choose how they approach most situations and can buy guns and equipment supporting their respective styles. Stealthily taking out commanders even yields additional lore bits and currency rewards. There's tons of different weapons and shooting them feels great. I didn't even mind the touchscreen minigames and QTEs since they work so well, way better than rotating the controller did in the console games.
The story's great too. In my other reviews, I criticized the earlier Killzone games for not building onto the tone and stories their predecessors established. Mercenary manages to nicely tie the stories of Killzone 1 and 2 together, even offering a unique perspective since you play as, well, a mercenary. The protagonist and his allies generally aren't constrained by annoying things such as loyalty or basic ethics - they're in it for the money.
Not only does the game make both sides of the ongoing war seem morally gray, it also ties this into the gameplay. Ammo costs money, so you better loot it off the people you killed instead of buying it. Got shot and died? Now you get a (very very slight) punishment in the form of a "life insurance" payment taken from your account. Accidentally blew yourself up like an idiot? Suicide costs twice as much. But don't worry, both sides of the conflict will happily pay you for all the people you killed and things you destroyed. It's perhaps the most cynical the series ever got and I appreciate what the game is trying here, even though it sometimes suffers from the short length of its story - it's hard to flesh out characters when they're only around for less than 4 hour.
If there are, by some miracle, still Vita owners out there that haven't played Mercenary, they should at least try it. It's not only a masterclass in pushing the system to its limits, it's also a great game on its own that I would happily play on a bigger screen, provided Sony ever again allows Guerilla to work on something not called Horizon.