Kill.Switch
(PC Version)
Publisher: NAMCO
Developer: HIP Games

A Quick Review

Previous to buying this game, the only thing I had heard about
kill.switch was a television commercial promoting its release on a
game-console system some months back. At the time, it was competing
against Splinter Cell, and many of the video-clips from the game
looked fairly similar to that action/sneaker game. In any event, I
thought the game looked interesting and thus -when I saw the box for
the PC version on the shelf at the local GameStop- I didn't hesitate
too long to pick it up.

Kill.Switch is a console-port of a third-person shooter. It's gameplay
is essentially the same to any other first-person shooter, with two
distinct differences: first (and obviously), it's played from a
trailing third-person view. Secondly -and this is the primary "hook"
to the game- it boasts what the developers call "blindfire", e.g.
firing from behind cover. It features a good number of realistic
weapons and some intense battles, wrapped around a moderately
interesting storyline.

Graphically, Kill.Switch has nothing to boast about; although it
supports the higher-resolutions a well-equipped PC allows it, the
textures are very bland, the levels are sterile and empty, and there's
a heavy layer of fog that hides everything beyond 100 feet.
Doubtlessly this is all a result of the underpowered hardware to be
found on the console on which this game originated, but it would have
been nice if the developers had put a bit more work into this port to
take advantage of the PCs capacious RAM and speedy CPUs. The character
models are somewhat better done -albeit still noticeably blocky- and
motion capture was obviously used for their animation. Alas, there are
not too many types of enemies (five or six models, tops), and their
corpses disappear a few seconds after they die. To be fair, the
developers have done a tremendous job given the limits the console
technology put on them -this isn't an ugly game- but at times it looks
little better than something you'd find in the later Tomb Raider
games. The in-game video cutscenes are okay - a bit pixellated at
times- but nothing spectacular.

No, the meat of this game is not in its graphics but in its gameplay -
what there is of it, anyway. "Blindfire" aside, this is not a
particularly sophisticated game; it is a straight-out shooter. You run
through very linear levels zapping hordes of bad-guys, picking up
ammo, guns and health packs, and looking for the occasional keycard or
switch to open a door. On a few missions you have to plant explosives
but that's about all the variety to the missions you will find.
Despite what I initially thought, this is *not* a Splinter Cell clone;
there are a few areas where you can try to sneak (it is not required)
but eventually the game devolves to a running gunfight.

What makes this game different is "blindfire". Basically, blindfire is
just shooting from behind cover. You maneuver your own-screen persona
("Bishop") so he leans with his back against the wall or some other
cover (either standing or crouching) and then shoot around the cover
at the bad-guys. You can either do this blindly (e.g., just raise poke
your weapon out and shoot, which is very inaccurate) or lean out a bit
with your gun for more aimed shots. Although not a particularly
original concept, it is very well done - running from cover to cover,
slamming your back against the wall and sniping a bad guy around the
next corner whilst bullets are tearing up the rock around you leads to
some visually intense battles. It's not just a gimmick, either -
although your avatar can take far more punishment than the bad-guys,
if you neglect to use cover you'll die PDQ. Fortunately, it is very
easy to pick up. I only have a few issues with blind-fire:

    - first of all, "shooting blindly" blindfire is so inaccurate
as to be virtually useless - you'll almost never hit anybody with it,
and since the AI only takes marginal note of incoming fire, it isn't
even much use in getting them to keep their heads down. I only used
"blind" blindfire two or three times in the whole game - usually I
poked my head out to aim, which still left me with enough cover that I
didn't worry much about getting hit.

    - Second, once you've attached yourself to a wall, you can't
walk around corners or switch from crouched/stand without first
detaching yourself, moving appropriately, and then reattaching
yourself. This could have been done more smoothly.

    - Third, once attached to a wall, you lose a lot of peripheral
vision - more than once I've been killed by a bad guy who came at me
from the side and I didn't see him until too late. The game should
have allowed more mouse-movement so you can scan your immediate
vicinity while attached to the wall.

Nonetheless, Blindfire can be a lot of fun and I expect variations of
it will be used in other third-person shooters in the future.

The level design is very linear - essentially a curving corridor from
point A to B. There is usually enough cover so you can take full
advantage of the "blindfire" gimmick, although this decreases as the
game progresses. There is some variety in levels, which helps keep
interest up, from the generic "Middle Eastern country" levels you face
at the start (some of the worst of the game, in my opinion) to an oil
platform, to a tank-manufacturing factory. The levels are very, very
small though - in most cases, it won't take you more than five or ten
minutes per level, and there are only about fifteen levels total. If
you do the math and you will see this game won't take you particularly
long to finish. The AI isn't particularly bright either; they take
cover as they advance and use "blindfire" too, but generally don't pay
much attention to you shooting at them. Nor are they particularly
accurate with their own fire. But there are a lot of them - you'll
probably be mowing down thirty or fifty bad guys per level.

There are a number of weapons you can use -all based on real-world
weapons- but none of them really offer any advantage over the others.
There is the usual selection of heavy- and sub-machine guns, automatic
rifles, sniper rifle and shotgun, as well as tossed grenades and
sticky-bombs (the latter two are used with a single-button toss
remarkably similar to how Halo does it) but ultimately my choice of
weapon was based more on ammo-count than any difference in
capabilities. You also have a melee attack, but I never used it - the
only time the enemy got close enough for me to bash them was when if
they snuck up on me (see above for my complaint on the loss of
peripheral vision while blindfiring) and even then it was just more
effective to shoot them. You could zoom into the iron-sight with any
weapon, but -sniper rifle aside- the zoom was so poor that it didn't
offer any real benefit. Furthermore, while zoomed in you also were out
from behind cover. The heavy fog clouding distant targets also limited
the usefulness of zooming in.

Audio was acceptable, but not outstanding in any area. The gunfire
sounded muted in many areas, but there was an agreeable variety of
"barks" from the enemies. The music was the usual beat-heavy techno
you find in action games these days - not that offensive, but nothing
that sticks in your head.

The storyline was interesting, if predictable and not particularly
original. It does jump a bit, and purposely leaves itself open for a
sequel. There is one fairly intense Matrix-esque cutscene which makes
for fun viewing all by itself. On the whole, I wish the story hadn't
left so many questions unanswered, though. Nor does it lend itself
towards replay - a problem bolstered by the small levels.

There is no multiplayer. Not a big loss for me as I'm mainly
interested in single-player, but -especially given how short the
single-player game is- this lack does reduce the value of the game.

The game only allows you to load from the beginning of the level;
there are no in-level saves. Fortunately the levels are fairly short
but there are a few times I wished for a quick-save.

The game suffered from a few minor bugs. It twice crashed to desktop
on me, and frequently the graphics in the "weapons selection" box were
corrupted, making it difficult to determine what gun I was using (not
that it really mattered...).

Kill.Switch is not a bad game - it is just not particularly original
or outstanding in any way. On the downside, it has mediocre graphics
and AI, tiny levels and a poor savesystem, no multiplayer and 4 hours
gameplay tops. On the plus side, the blindfire system does make for
fun battles. Priced as a "value game" (e.g. $20 or less to begin
with), these deficiencies would have been less noticeable, but since
it is competing with full-priced games I expect more from it. I *did*
have fun -once I accepted its shortcomings- and, in fact, played
through it twice and expect that -eventually- I will play it again,
but I don't feel I got my money's worth.

Final Grade: 60% (just above average)