kill.switch

"A decent action title, but that's about it...."

kill.switch. Where to begin? Well, I recognize the fact that it is very difficult to come up with new ideas for third or first person action games. We have dual wielding, we have the much overused Matrix-style effects (come on, now, it has been beaten to death), we have vehicles, we have puzzle-driven gameplay, and we certainly have different takes on stealth... Yeah, it has all been done before, right? Well, almost. Then comes along kill.switch, a game that uses a not-so-common concept, and boasts "Take Cover. Take Aim. Take Over.". Sounds interesting enough, but with a console that is so full of first and third person shooters, what makes this game worth your time? Sadly, maybe not enough.

Gameplay: Use your surroundings for cover, or prepare for maximum frustration

Like mentioned, kill.switch uses a game style that is not seen quite too often. Remember those tactics you learned from Max Payne, where you would go into a fight guns blazing, and would keep on hitting that trigger button until everyone in the room was dead? Forget that. Pull that stuff in this game, and prepare to die a whole lot. What makes this game so different, you ask? For starters, you actually have to use this game's novelty to survive. That novelty being using your surroundings as cover. Press up against crates, walls, trucks, or anything that might give you cover from enemy fire.

But first, the controls. For the most part, the controls work, and in all honesty, are fairly simple. You use the two thumb sticks to move and look (surprise, surprise), R trigger to shoot, X to throw grenades, and, most importantly, the L trigger is used to duck or press up against objects in the game for cover. Like said, for the most part the controls work. Maybe it was me, but I actually had some troubles with the look sensitivity. I could never get it just right, making aiming a tad more tedious, especially for fast moving enemies. It might of been just me, so I do not hold it against the game, but this is more of a heads up.

Back to discussing this game's true novelty, it surprisingly works well for it, but also sometimes against it. Finding a good place to take cover actually makes for some tense gameplay. Find a crate to press up against, shoot it out with your enemies until they are all dead, and you are the last one standing. Sounds fun, but on the downside, you are pretty much doing this for 90% of the game. Find a place to shoot, kill all the enemies in the room, continue on to the next area, do the same... Yeah, it doesn't get anymore complex than that. Sure, it is tense, but it just is not as satisfying as it really could of been

There were a few things I really did not like about gameplay. First, the mission structure. The mission structure is about as generic as they come, as it mostly involves you killing all the enemies, and finding the switch to unlock the next area. The objectives are just boring, and seem to run together, even if you are in a completely different locale. "Find the key card to unlock the door", "Infiltrate the base", etc... Just no variety. It is almost useless checking your so called "objectives", since basically your only objective is to complete the level. Oh, joy.

Another problem is the atrocious artificial intelligence. Oh man, oh man, these guys are stupid. They run around like idiots, sometimes getting caught on walls. They never quite seem to know where they want to go, often times running back and forth trying to find a place to hide, sometimes even choosing a worse place to take cover. Also, they take cover behind the wrong objects, meaning, I can still actually see them and get a good shot off. What was the purpose of ducking for cover behind that object again? It is quite easy to take advantage of their low intelligence level. My best method is to wait for the idiots to stand up, and try and find another place to hide, but of course, I get them long before they reach the next crate. Or better yet, just walk up behind them while they are camping out behind a crate, but they still do not notice me. It really should not be this simple.

There are also a few glitches. I have seen people get stuck in floors, and walls. I really find it odd when I hear a gun shot go off nearby, I walk over to investigate the area thinking that I eliminated all the enemies in the room, and I find a guy half way in the wall. Ok, sure? Fortunately, I have only run into these sort of problems a couple of times, but it was still strange, nonetheless.

The difficulty of the game is rather inconsistent. It is not that the game, itself, is difficult, but it is more tedious if anything, especially towards the end. You see, you do not get "check points". You either complete the level in one piece or prepare to restart. On a positive note (well, kind of), many of the levels are fairly short, but a quick save feature would of been helpful, but I made it through the game alive, so it is obviously not impossible. The game, overall, is not a challenge, but there are some very tedious moments that I would choose not to play through again.

6/10

Graphics: Far from terrible, but far from being the best

For the most part, kill.switch is a decent looking game in some aspects, but terrible in others. To start off, I'll say the graphics might not be up to Chronicles of Riddick quality, but they do get the job done. First, the character models are fairly detailed, including the lead character. The animation is fluid, which is a great thing. There is some rough edges when it comes to transitions from one animation to the next, but overall it is fairly decent. The game also seems to run at a consistent frame rate, and I encountered very little slowdown throughout the game.

The cutscenes, surprisingly, look pretty good (remember, I am talking graphics, not the actual content of the cutscenes). They sure aren't Final Fantasy quality cutscenes, but they are better than nothing, and almost make watching them worth it.

Now the bad. I think the level design is abysmal towards the end. It starts out alright, as you fight your way through the war-torn middle east, but then ends in a very industrial setting full of room repeats, and there is even a level that takes place in a poorly put together temple (whatever tribe built that temple was full of a bunch of sadistic bastards, obviously having it out for you, and had a thing for making you suffer through corridor after corridor of repetition). Level design is very important when trying to make a game fun and interesting, but it just does not work here, unfortunately. In all honesty, the whole game screams mediocre when it comes to level design.

Another thing that bothered me was that, for every location you visit, there is only a handful of different enemy models (I would say about 2 different enemies for each level). It only adds to the repetition, unfortunately, as you plow your way through the same enemy after enemy that the game throws at you. The only difference that distinguishes one enemy from the other is the weapon that they carry. Not a good thing.

Overall, kill.switch suffers from repetitive (boy, am I getting tired of using that word) level and enemy design, but what is there is not so bad. It is a tad above average in my book.

7/10

Audio: It gets the job done

There is not much to it, really. Your enemies scream a handful of phrases, the guns sound decent enough, and the voice acting, for what is there, is actually adequate. The only negative I can come up with is that the music is fairly sub-par by today's standards, and there is actually very little of it. What brings the audio down is the repeating one liners your enemies shout, and the severe lack of music.

7/10

Story: Oh, dear lord

Ever go on a road trip, and just as you are halfway down the highway, you all of a sudden realize that you didn't lock the front door? Well, maybe the developers were experiencing this kind of misfortune when they were ready to release the game. "Well, it's been a long, strange trip developing this game, but we are finally there", "Bob, did you remember to add a story before releasing this?", "Doh!". There really is no story, and what is there... just... sucks..

Where to begin? You are guy named Bishop, and, uhhh... you kill things. And, uhh, something with a woman, and wanting to stir up trouble in various parts of the world. Uhh, you get to travel a lot, and kill people from all parts of the world! Uhh, the cutscenes are pretty. Yeah, what are you looking at?

Now class, can you say "convoluted mess"? Basically, this game actually means it when they say "mission brief", as you have no idea what the hell is going on in the very short and meaningless cutscenes. There is somewhat of a story, but what is there makes little to no sense. I mean, I can respect that a developer is more focused on gameplay over having a story heavy game with 40 minute cutscenes, but this is just ridiculous. Overall, and awful story. Do not be expecting Max Payne, that is for freakin' sure...

1/10

Replay Value/Length: What the....

This is easily one of the shortest games on the Xbox. The game itself takes only a measly 4-5 hours to complete for the average gamer which is downright depressing. The game can easily be completed in one sitting, and this is not a good thing. But what the main problem is, is not the length, but rather the replay; there is none. You complete the game, and never touch it again since there is little to NO incentive to go through kill.switch again. No unlockables, no multiplayer... Yeah, what's the point?

3/10

Rent or Buy:

Definite rental. I cannot stress that enough. Any game that can be completed in under 5 hours is definitely not worth anymore than a rental, sorry. So, rent it, complete by the second day of the rental period, never touch it again.

Closing comments:

You could do a lot worse than renting or purchasing kill.switch, but then again, you could do a whole lot better. kill.switch is one of those games that you should rent one rainy weekend, just to kill a couple of hours (which is all it will take to complete kill.switch). It does not quite reach the level of other superior third person shooters such as Max Payne, but it surely does not sink to the level of abysmal TPS such as Drake. Overall, the novelty is great, and the action can be tense, but by the end, I was really left with a bitter after taste, and surely did not satisfy my gaming needs. If it were not so short, I would have no problem recommending this promising title. But as is, it just is not a complete package. Like mentioned, you could do worse, but you could do a lot better.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/04