Game:

Kill.switch (2004)

Duration: 4:59

3,184 views

15

GAME OVER.
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You are no longer controlling a bad-guy or a lady-friend controlling the main guy, and neither are YOU! The game.... is OVER!

It's the usual "Does killing him really fix this?" scenario... a rather violent and in your face ending for Mr. Archer for a game with no blood.

4:28 - There's more after the credits! Bishop and lady-friend talk about Archer and all his naughtiness - hinting strongly at how a sequel could have been made to this game.

I found this game fun enough! Hope it was just as interesting to watch!

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Kill.Switch is a third person shooter with the interesting distinction of being the first video game of its kind to make cover-based gameplay its driving feature. You may have seen this style in the Gears of War series where it has been popularised.

Apart from that, it's a fairly average shooter, although the AI can be challenging and makes use of cover as well.

One thing that caught my eye was how they manage health in this game. You can heal by staying away from bullets, like in newer games, but... the game ALSO makes it so that your maximum health goes down with damage, too. (Think of it how fighting game health bars work.) What this means is that you CANT just rush into a situation, drop everybody, and then simply wait and fully heal. You are PUNISHED for foolhardy actions by having a lower potential health. That said, you can fully heal (your maximum health, too) with medkits.

If anyone knows another Shooter that manages health in a way like this, I'd be curious to know!

The weapons in this game are okay... I think the majority of them are real-life weapons, but they all kinda... feel the same. I mean, they sound different and all, but as you're looking at the little HUD image it's kinda hard to tell what's what. And what's more, they all end up performing about the same. Although the crosshairs and firing rate of some may be different.

The other complaint is a more major one: The "fog" in this game is atrocious! Half the time it renders a sniper rifle moot. It's generally better to take out your automatic and have at 'em! Might just be the PS2 version, but it still stinks.

The cover mechanic is done well. I rarely use the blindfire mechanic (which this game introduced) because I found it wasn't worth the loss of ammo. It can be used to scare enemies though. Also, I tried tossing a grenade when up against a wall once, and it didn't work, so I assumed that wasn't possible. Turns out it IS (at least when crouching behing a barrier). I recommend tossing grenades in this way - I really could have used it myself!

All in all, a pretty okay game. It's worth picking up if you like getting games that had a big impact on how newer ones were developed. It is a really short game, though. I imagine a lot more so on "Normal". I chose "Hard". Worth a few bucks for a used copy!
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NOTE: WIDESCREEN IN THIS GAME IS NOT "WIDESCREEN". That is... it doesn't give you extra viewing area on the sides. Instead, it cuts off the top and bottom bits of the 4:3 screen, and zooms in. That's a HUGE loss of visual information! This is why I played in "4:3".

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