In creating Kill Switch, Namco has taken one of their most famed arcade elements of shooting and hiding (ala Time Crisis) and pulled the camera back so not only can you see your protagonist, but you can also control him in 3-dimensions. Easily mistaken as just another shooter, Kill Switch is truly the most shootin’-ist game this side of Gungrave.

Breakdown

Literally, if you took out the shooting all you’d have is a bunch of grown men peering at each other from around corners and behind milk crates. But by some miracle, by merely adding a host of cool weapons and nearly flawless control, Namco made an unmistakably alluring game out of a simple formula. Somewhere around the second level the skill and diversity of the game play becomes apparent as you slide along the body of a burnt out vehicle spraying cover fire over the top without looking. The concept of a lone warrior dependent upon salvaging cover from any fallen objects in a battle torn environment is sculpted carefully. Bullets bite chunks of brick from the walls, sparks spray like fireworks and rattling gun fire drowns out the games music. Mastery of the controls is essential to appreciate the full potential of the game. From then on, keeping alive by taking cover and diving from grenades becomes quick work.

The seemingly simplistic storyline quickly becomes so shrouded in mystery that you spend most of the game not knowing what the Hell is going on. It doesn’t help that the instruction manual completely sidesteps any explanation of the story. Short CG cut scenes show a slim woman in a black dress on a balcony above a gleaming metropolis cozying up to the protagonist right before she’s murdered along with a bunch of other disconnected happenings. As frustrating as this and the incoherent conversations are it’s quite obvious that the main character is a mercenary out for blood to uncover some sort of secret about his past and the death of this woman in black. I really don’t know, I’m still confused. But there is never a true face attached to your enemies, nor are the game’s scenes connected very well which makes the story a bit of a side note.

Then back to basics. After a brief tutorial getting into the game takes minor effort. Enemies come from windows and doorways, hide behind stairs and corners, broken down trucks and burnt buildings. More intelligent than the average game goon, they swarm in packs, outflank the player, dive from grenades and take cover just like you do. The first two levels are arduous to play and it seems as if the developers were still trying to understand how best to use this system. From then on the game picks up pace and the level design is much more sophisticated. Figuring out ways to clear an area is particularly interesting using grenades, flash bangs and various automatic weapons like the AKUG, the AK47 and the MCRT 300 with the sniper scope. Each gun zooms with a different view finder and has its own strengths. Either way, it takes a long time for the task of finding cover, clearing the area then moving on to the next to get old. It feels so fluid and natural not to mention ridiculously excessive in its use of violence.

And of course, Kill Switch would be nothing without its brilliant control. Crouching behind a wall or other obstruction while staying close to it has never been easier in any game. It doesn’t take much to get used to using the right analog stick to aim and the left analog stick to dip in and out of your hiding place. Tossing grenades and laying down no look burst fire is nothing short of sublime. Strategy is cemented when you realize that running and gunning is not the name of the game. Calculated strikes from your cover position are imperative for survival. Snags begin to occur when your on the move between hiding spots and you walk to close to a wall. The camera sometimes loses all sense of space and hidden enemies have the advantage at this point. Also, as you are taking cover for 70% of the game holding down the same button starts to wear on your finger after not long. They should have implemented a lock on cover feature so you can left the button go while you’re in cover mode. The HUD is perfectly navigable which is very important in such a high action, twitch reaction game. Luckily, every weapon and ammo clip that an enemy drops is yours for the taking and story progression points are clearly marked with a blue spiral of lights.

The Xbox version is noticeably smoother but even the PS2 version seems to snatch a page from MGS2's book of style, especially on the level that takes place on a tanker in the rain. While not as sharp and descriptive as MGS2 the color and clarity is similar. The lighting is typically sufficient and the textures vary greatly from level to level and surface to surface. The protagonist character model is liquid while creeping and diving, pretty well done. Voice-acting is superb although pretty convoluted and vague. And again, the soundtrack seems to be ripped from MGS2 (which isn’t a bad thing) with a tense, percussion and bass driven pulse that fits the pace of the game.

Dismissing Kill Switch as just another shooter will only result in you kicking yourself when you realize you were wrong. Its rare that a game comes along that embodies so much of the original spirit of gaming. And who better to give it to us than Namco. Go out and get this game.

Posted: December 1, 2003