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wubb
05-25-2006, 04:28 PM
Because you were clamoring for a review of a 2+ year old game, here it is -- a review of kill.switch!

Played on Normal difficulty (you choose between Normal and Hard)

The game is pretty short made up of a series of fairly short missions. But the big gimmick of the game, using cover to stay alive, works very well. Basically you can duck/take cover behind pretty much anything in the game and then you can either blind shoot from the cover (poor accuracy, but not much chance of being shot) or lean out to shoot (high accuracy, but you might get pegged.) So you bounce from cover to cover trying to get a good position to take out the enemies that are also (sort of) using cover themselves. I say sort of, because the enemy AI runs out into the open pretty readily if you just give them a few seconds to 'think.'

You can run and gun in certain situations, but there are definitely cases where you will be mowed down quickly if you don't hop behind a pillar.

My biggest beef (aside from the short length) is that you may only save between missions. I don't think any of them last more than 10 minutes, but it can be somewhat frustrating to die 3/4 in and be forced to restart from the beginning. However the saving grace here is that it plays almost like a semi-strategy game in that once you play through an area and know where the enemies come at you and good places to take cover, you can work through past ground fairly easily. Another annoyance is that in cramped areas the camera can get in your way. For the most part it's a decent camera, but it has its moments...

Oh and the graphics aren't too hot. I realize it's a pretty old game, but I don't think they were all that great when it dropped.

I give the developers props for weaving a bit of narrative between the missions. It doesn't make a ton of sense IMO, but it's an honest try.

Factoring in replays of failed missions it probably had 4-5 hours of gameplay for me, so it's extremely short. But I'd recommend it on the cheap as the gameplay is pretty fun.

Scahom1
06-11-2006, 04:37 PM
I thought it was a fun quick game to play. I've played through it a couple times already.

repetske
06-12-2006, 01:12 PM
Doesn't it support 720p? That helps the graphics a little. If you like this game, and want a semi-crappy ripoff, try Special Forces: Nemesis Strike.

Swift900
06-12-2006, 07:37 PM
Nice review, OP, short and to the point. I, myself, have yet to play this one and don't know if I will get the chance with the size of my backlog of games to play as big as it is, but the fact that you say missions only last 10 minutes or so is certainly appealing.

psiufoxx2
07-02-2006, 09:37 PM
Just to add my 2c - I would score this game a 6/10.

Fun little game but not without its quirks. The one thing which kept me from playing this game was that I thought it to be a simple run and gun. As wubb mentions, it is, but the developers tried to spice the storyline up by giving you a narrative to play through. Essentially you are a supersoldier being controlled to manipulate a war. Past that it does get pretty sketchy... but it at least gave reason for some of the levels you play through.

If you can get it on the cheap and have 4 hours to kill, check it out.

PenguinMaster
08-16-2006, 11:50 PM
Doesn't it support 720p? That helps the graphics a little. If you like this game, and want a semi-crappy ripoff, try Special Forces: Nemesis Strike.

No, it doesn't support 720p (though it's 360 compatible so it'd be upscaled on that).

GuilewasNK
08-17-2006, 10:19 AM
My biggest beef (aside from the short length) is that you may only save between missions. I don't think any of them last more than 10 minutes, but it can be somewhat frustrating to die 3/4 in and be forced to restart from the beginning. However the saving grace here is that it plays almost like a semi-strategy game in that once you play through an area and know where the enemies come at you and good places to take cover, you can work through past ground fairly easily. Another annoyance is that in cramped areas the camera can get in your way. For the most part it's a decent camera, but it has its moments...

That pretty much is the one big problem IMO. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the duck-and-cover combat technique. It's something I would like to see a lot more of.