Before delving into what makes Fire Emblem 7 such an enjoyable game, I’m just going to mention two things that may be deal-breakers for the uninitiated or even those who are looking to play this game after experiencing some of the newer games in the series. Firstly much like the newer games, Fire Emblem 7 has a decent amount of RNG or Random Number Generation involved, as every attack will have a chance of missing and a chance of inflicting a critical hit. Even if a lot of enemies won’t have a chance to inflict one of these crits (which are worth x3 the normal amount of damage inflicted), the bosses and certain enemies definitely will. Plus there’s always a chance that your guy will whiff their blow, leading to you either taking more damage than expected or possibly dying. So far so XCOM, but then much like XCOM Fire Emblem 7 throws another spanner into the works by making it so that the death of any character aside from your trio of plot-critical lords is a permanent death. As such your options are either to play through the game with the spectre of perma death always looming over (almost) every single character, or you can take the slightly more cowardly route by resetting the game every single time a character dies – which of course means that you’ll need to play through the level from the very beginning. No matter how you slice it Fire Emblem 7 can be a brutal game, and while I don’t condone it I can understand why both Nintendo and Intelligent Systems decided to make the permadeath optional in later games.

With that out of the way, Fire Emblem 7 is one of my favourite games for the MIGHTY Gameboy Advance (GBA) and a fantastic game that I think anyone with some patience will be able to enjoy. It’s a Turn Based Strategy (TBS) game that borrows heavily from RolePlaying Games’s and as such can also be considered as a Strategy RPG (SRPG), with both the player and the enemy in the form of bandits, cultists and other ne’er-do-wells moving all of their units one at a time during their respective turn. For the player each character is a unique unit with some custom art, a backstory, their own inventory which can hold up to 5 items and their own skills split into 8 categories which each increase as they gain levels. For the enemy they have hordes of disposable grunts to be used at will, with many levels causing more enemies to spawn in during certain turns and often from an irritating angle which will force you to take considerable care when using your more fragile units. All units in the game are split into various classes, each of which can use a handful of the game’s weapon and spell types and due to the game’s balance each class is therefore good against certain other classes but in turn weak against others. The first piece of the puzzle is the fact that weapons and magic both fit into a triangle system, with axes beating lances, lances beating swords and swords beating axes – while arcane magic beats light magic, light magic beats dark magic and dark magic beats arcane magic. Then you’ve got the fact that different classes (and by extension characters) not only have different amounts of movement points, but these classes also tend to empathise certain skills at the expense of others. Heavily armoured knights and generals have high defence and attack for example, but have low resistance making them weak against magic and low speed which means enemies can often get two blows in. Mages on the other hand have relatively high resistance and can attack at a slight distance, but are weak against physical attacks and generally have modest amounts of health. The intersecting nature of these classes ensures that no one unit is strong against everything, so you need to use your entire squad as a team lest your favourite unit get dog-piled and ground down by the enemy.

Then just when you think you’ve got everything in hand, the game’s inventory system pops up to nag you. The trouble is, while there are myriad weapons within the game each weapon can only be used a certain number of times before it breaks. Remember how you can only hold 5 items on each character? Well that means that you’ll need to factor in your weapon and how many hits it can dish out before it breaks, lest your unit be weapon less and thus unable to hurt a fly during the middle of a large skirmish. Before you ask, no you can’t repair items for most of the game (and when you can it’s only via a rare staff that in turn can only repair 3 weapons before it breaks) meaning that you’ll probably want to carry spares around. Then as if that wasn’t enough, you’ve got classes that can carry up to 3 weapon types and you’ve got to consider how the quality of certain weapons/spells. You see not only do you have multiple weapon types, but you have multiple weapons within each type alongside some rare weapons which are effective against certain types of enemies. Generally speaking weapons go from Iron to Steel to Silver, with each type of weapon only being usable by characters with a high enough level in that weapon type. Oh and the better weapons not only cost more but can be used less before they break. So it’s entirely possible that you’ll have a character with a Steel Sword, a Steel Lance, backups for each and then a unique weapon such as the Axereaver which inverts the weapons triangle (i.e. it’s a lance that’s good against axes but weak against swords). It all gets somewhat complicated very quickly, but that’s part of the fun and it’s a good way to ensure that you’re invested in finding new loot before it’s pilfered by enemy thieves and to go out of your way to rescue villages before they’re pillaged by enemy bandits. If it’s all sounding a bit much then don’t panic, as you can store (temporarily) un-needed items with your supply convoy after a certain point in the story.

Due to all of this Fire Emblem 7 can be a complex game of cat and mouse as you manoeuvre your troops around, dodging enemy reinforcements (or funnelling them towards the right units) while you consider which weapons to use. This gives the game a nice feeling of depth and outside of the occasional piece of absolutely terrible luck, the game is well balanced and most deaths really are your fault – you MONSTER. As alluded to above there are also ways to gain new items outside of buying them from shops which appear in some levels, such as by killing enemies (who automatically drop any items they have in their inventory that are coloured green), stealing items from enemies with your thief, by visiting friendly villages before they are ransacked by enemy brigands/pirates and even by recruiting units to your side. Yes that’s right, some levels contain enemies which will “give you” a hint at the start of most missions via their dialogue with other units that reveals that they know one of the characters on your team. If you can get this unit into melee range with that named enemy, then you’ll be able to convince them to join your team and to stop aiding the bad guys. Of course this inherently involves some risk as now your unit is in melee range of that unit, which might place them in a sticky spot. And as if all that wasn’t enough, you might also be in a mission with a named friendly NPC (who appear as Green units) who has to be chatted to before they end up suiciding themselves by charging the enemy. These interactions are themselves often quite sweet and involve an abrupt change of heart on the part of the enemy, with many of these recruitable characters being powerful indeed. Or you can just kill them because you are a MONSTER.

As for the characters themselves they can all be described as charming archetypes, most of whom are suitably simple to understand for a game with modest pretensions to being a full RPG but who are still entertaining enough to justify their screen time. You’ve got nervous and naïve knights, gambling obsessed swordsmen, men of duty, men who are just in it for the sheer THRILL of adventure and much more besides. Ultimately you’ll be able to find a few characters that you enjoy, as while most of them are relatively shallow each of them feels like a D&D character and you’ll inevitably have your favourites. These characters are then able to propel a story that is likewise fairly simple, but which definitely has it’s moments and which manages to create an Arthurian feel of a world which has it’s noble lords and wicked villains, it’s power hungry despots and it’s wise sages. The whole game is brimming with charm and character, even if almost all of it is told through plain unspoken text (with a little bit of fantasy tweaking and dated verbiage) and static imagery. Of course there are a few exceedingly short cutscenes, but due to the limitations of the MIGHTY GBA the game is limited in how it presents itself. Fortunately it more than makes up for these limitations via some great artwork which is occasionally used to great effect in showcasing how the world appears through the eyes of it’s characters.

Further complimenting the occasional piece of high definition artwork (Relatively speaking, it is the GBA after all) is a great art style for units and gameplay which is simultaneously easy to read but still looks great in spite of the system’s limitations. Units may only be made out of a handful of pixels, but both the animations and art design is excellent and makes the game visually pleasing to the eye. Critical hit animations are stylish without feeling overlong, each class feels unique and I’m always surprised by how much a simple colour pallet change or slight tweak can make a character or enemy feel unique. As for the music, it’s also great in spite of the system’s limitations even if the number of tracks and their length is fairly limited. You will be hearing the same battle theme again, and again and again but fortunately each theme is handled well as is instantly recognisable. Fire Emblem 7 is therefore a great example of how much can be done with a limited amount of headroom and is an exceedingly efficient game in the way that it’s able to contain close to 40 unique levels, a full OST with around 30 tracks, almost the same amount of units and myriad weapons/spells all in one exceptionally small package.

Then when you reach the end and face off against the final boss, which is a total pain in the butt btw, the game gives you a charming ending screen which explains what each character does after the world has been saved. By that point you might think the game is over, as you’ll have encountered many characters, plenty of dialogue and wrapped up close to 30 levels. But then the game reveals that actually you’ve got an extra route revolving around Lord Hector that you can playthrough (who is otherwise portrayed as Eliwood’s stalwart pal but doesn’t have much autonomy). Oh and if that wasn’t enough then you can also replay Lyn’s route (the first 12 levels) and Eliwoods route (the other 18ish levels) in a newly unlocked Hard mode which is even more challenging. As such the game that has pretty much everything including great art direction, a solid difficulty curve, plenty of strategic head-scratching and a surprisingly good plot with charming characters reveals that it has plenty of replayability too. Oh and did I mention that there are multiple levels that only appear if you meet specific requirements, such as completing a level under a certain amount of turns, killing a fleeing enemy or by “rescuing” a hostile unit that would otherwise try and kill you? To see everything you’ll need to play through both the normal Lyn & Eliwood route, then the Lyn & Hector route and you’ll need to do both while meeting these hidden objectives. Fortunately you can always check a guide to see what’s needed, but I’ll warn you now that knowing how to unlock a hidden stage and actually unlocking it are not the same thing and some of them can be quite challenging to unlock.

In summary then Fire Emblem 7 is a game that can be challenging, complicated and occasionally unforgiving but which is nevertheless a fantastic game brimming with charm and content. There’s always a twist awaiting the player, whether it’s a new enemy type, a new plot development or a new hidden stage and while the game can occasionally be frustrating it’s almost never unfair. Every mechanic compliments each other nicely and the game excels with it’s solid gameplay, great visuals and charming cast of characters. Ultimately Fire Emblem 7 is a game that anyone can enjoy and one that I would highly recommend to anyone, although these days copies can be expensive as this was always a relatively niche series (at least until Awakening encouraged you to have babies with your waifu which caused every weeaboo in the world to become a gushing fanboy). If you see this game in the wild be sure to pick it up, and if you can’t afford it then just know that you can’t really afford to let Fire Emblem 7 pass you by either, so do what you have to (*cough* emulation *cough*) to experience it for yourself.

The post Fire Emblem 7: The Blazing Blade appeared first on Big Boaby Gaming.

Metal Slug Advance is one of those games that I bought on a whim during my youth and which has been languishing in my backlog for far too long. Not only has the store I bought it from long since ceased to exist, but the company that controlled the chain has had to be rescued from bankruptcy on multiple occasions. That’s not to say that I never played it of course, but for whatever reason I was never able to finish the darn thing despite it being an ostensibly short game, and so it sat in a cupboard for years once I’d moved onto the DS and then 3DS. I did try playing it again via an emulator a few years ago, but ended up struggling on the final boss and took a break before life got the better of me and I ended up moving country three times, working in half a dozen jobs and so on. The third time is the charm however, and I’ve finally gotten around to finishing what turns out to be a difficult but surmountable shoot em up experience. Which really shouldn’t be anything to write home about, as this game only has FIVE stages (well 6, but read on for more details) and the first four will only take most players a few hours to beat as the game has unlimited continues.

The catch to using these continues however is seemingly minor at first, but quickly becomes more pronounced the further through the game you play. Essentially as you play through each stage, there are around 16ish prisoners to free and around 16ish cards to collect. Now you won’t be collect all of those cards initially, as some of the cards are required to gather other cards (for example by unlocking hidden routes within the stages). Most of these cards are decorative and don’t do anything, in fact around 60% of them can be described in this way. Similarly, the majority of prisoners you rescue will just give you a healing item or special weapon (which can only be used briefly before it’s ammo runs out) and so the benefit to rescuing them is modest. The remainder of the cards however, provide various bonuses and modifiers which can be extremely powerful. Examples include reducing the damage taken by your controllable vehicles (including the Metal Slug itself) by 50%, doubling the amount of ammo you have for special weapons, or doubling the amount of grenades you start with. With that being said, the catch is that if you use one of those continues during a stage you lose any cards/prisoners you acquired throughout the mission. In other words, to keep your powerful new bonuses you need to be able to beat the entire mission without dying once.

Fortunately unlike other Metal Slug games, you don’t die in one hit and instead have a health bar which enables you to survive multiple blows. Of course nothing is given away for free, as unlike in the arcade or anthology you can’t just enable unlimited credits to let you blitz your way through the game. Instead you’ll need to play somewhat cautiously as while you can survive multiple wounds, healing items are fairly rare and never appear during the boss battles. In addition, the i-frames (invincibility frames) are quite short and as such it’s often only too easy to be hit, become temporarily invincible and then get hit again during the same boss attack or by the same gaggle of enemy grunts. This means that the stages are mostly easy to beat, but tough to master as each stage has 3 or 4 components split up by checkpoints, but you can’t use any of these checkpoints should you wish to gain those permanent buffs. The stages themselves are each inspired by the previous games and many of the enemies, art work and even attack patterns are copied over from mainline entries in the series. This means that you’ll be facing standards rebels, mask-wearing aztec (or inca?) inspired foes, the maggots from MS2’s mummy levels and so much more throughout a single stage. Fortunately all of this holds up well on the humble Gameboy Advance and outside of some of the blood effects and gore, you’d struggle to tell that this wasn’t a straight port of the originals (well of course the stages are a bit different too, but you get what I mean).

One area in which the GBA struggles a bit however is in handling all of those enemies at once. You see, the game does a good job of managing the levels as the camera follows your perspective slightly which lets you see further ahead despite the small screen resolution. This means it’s fairly rare for enemy attacks to appear out of nowhere off-screen. The way the game’s able to do this is that it spawns enemies in slightly ahead of your perspective, but rarely without sufficient time for you to react. Unfortunately the game also spawns in enemies where you’re looking, regardless of whether you’ve already killed them or not. As a consequence it’s possible to fight your way through a section of the stage, then need to jump backwards to avoid an enemy attack, causing new enemies to respawn into the fray. This may have been an intentional design choice, but if it is then it’s a very annoying one as it happens not only across stage transitions but also throughout every stage with there not being a ton of leeway given before retreating results in more baddies popping up. Additionally both enemies and prisoners are prone to despawning, so if you were to free a prisoner from their constraints but then get knocked down to a lower area of the same stage, then that prisoner can disappear until you reload the level. Which requires either beating the stage and starting it again, or losing all progress made thus far. It’s a tedious aspect of the prisoner and card collecting mechanic that holds Metal Slug Advance back a little bit.

As for the levels that you’ll be playing through again and again, they’re generally pretty good. As mentioned earlier they do a good job of blending various assets together from the rest of the series and as such the enemy variety is strong and most stages are just long enough to feel complete without being a total slog to replay for those cards. Generally the difficulty in Metal Slug Advance is easy-enough and I’d say anyone who has played through any mainline Metal Slug game will know what to expect, with one exception. The bosses. Now the first couple of bosses aren’t too bad and in fact I’d say both Stage 1 and Stage 2 are quite easy, lending themselves nicely to a cheeky replay for those bonus cards. Stage 3 is more of a pain and I struggled to get through it to collect some of the power-up cards if I’m being totally honest. Stage 4 is a bit harder but the boss is slightly easier, once you know the patterns and so it’s entirely possible to get through it without too much trouble. Regardless I’d say that getting all of the prisoners and cards in these stages will take some patience, as one death will screw everything up and most of your deaths are going to come from the bosses at the very end of the level. Then you’ve got Stage 5 which is, to put it charitably, a digital haemorrhoid. The stage itself has a ton of replayability as it splits into multiple segments, starting with either a jet vehicle section (or you can eject for a different level) before you start going through the enemy base. This base has a lot of powerful hidden cards within it, but also some dead-ends and so you’ll need to work your way through it many a time to get everything. Especially as some of these cards are will hidden, and will require you to shoot at innocuous props and background items so that you can reveal them (honestly I’d recommend a guide if you’re going to do this). Then once you’ve fought tooth-and-nail through a brutal gauntlet of enemies, you have the worst boss in the game and in my humble opinion one of the worst bosses in the series. In fact beating the 5th boss with continues took me longer than the rest of the game combined. It was so brutal I’m going to include a little guide at the end of this review. Suffice it to say, if you can beat the game you’ve already proven yourself. But to get 100% will require going above and beyond!

Once you’ve cleared through the 5 stages, there isn’t much left outside of the card collecting and prisoner liberating to do. Although there is a bonus 6th stage (albeit without a boss) that contains another batch of cards and prisoners to liberate. The catch is that this bonus stage is quite long, relatively difficult and of course has multiple routes through it so you’ll need to replay it multiple times choosing different routes to get everything (kind of like stage 5 on steroids). The only catch is that to unlock the sixth stage, you’ll need to beat stage 5 without dying as you need one of the stage 5 cards. Honestly it’s a ballache and I would not be surprised if only a modest % of the player base bothered. With that being said I think it’s proof that despite being short, Metal Slug Advance has a surprising of content and on balance it’s a great experience for shoot em up fans or Metal Slug appreciators who are looking for some new content. Between the strong graphics, high levels of replayability and decent performance on the GBA this is a solid game and one that’s great for the right type of player. Those who aren’t looking for a challenge, or are new to shoot em ups should start elsewhere unless they’ve got something to prove. For them, I’d recommend the Metal Slug Anthology as it contains multiple games with the ability to use unlimited credits so you can practice, practice practice until you’re confident enough to beat stages in one go. Then you’ll be ready to get 100% in Metal Slug Advance and save the world, Forever(?)

If you’re still reading, then you’re probably looking for some help with the final boss. God only knows I was, as the endless deaths were brutal and of course getting through the entire stage and the boss without dying is frankly a nightmare. As such I’m going to make a list of tips that I found very helpful for dealing with the final boss of Metal Slug Advance. I’m also going to link a Youtube video of some guy beating the final boss, without any powerups, grenades, etc. You can find that here.

• Pre-battle pro-tip: You can bring a tank into this fight if you go the following route through the enemy base – Go down at the first option, then up every time thereafter. Towards the end there will be a Metal Slug for you to use, but you’ll need to shepherd it through two more segments (slightly easier than it sounds) before you’ll through to the boss. This tank is useful even without upgrade cards as it gives you some extra heath, an unlimited MG while driving it and you can abuse i-frames when entering and exiting it. Alternatively always going up is the shortest route and thus exposes you to the least danger (although there isn’t much to collect).
• Boss attack 1 – The Drones: I HATE these little freaks, my best advice is to use the small window before they spawn to get some shots off at the boss and to then immediately duck down to the bottom area. You’ll be able to jump around 4 times before they start to spawn. If you touch the top of them, you take damage so you want to be below them. They can take around 16 pistol shots or 2 grenades (or a mix) so you need to focus on one. Be very careful that you don’t jump up onto a ledge, as getting down without taking damage is a real hassle. If you can take out one, the other is easy to deal with. The 2nd one you kill drops a Heavy Machinegun pick-up, but it despawns very quickly so try not to kill them when they’re high up in the air.
• Boss attack 2 – The floating lasers: This part isn’t too bad, and while you’ll be tempted to sit it out entirely it offers a great opportunity to do some damage. Just keep an eye on the pattern (generally it alternates per shot from left to right and they go through each side of the two platforms in variation). You’ll want to keep jumping back and forth to give you more reaction time, but you’ll get the hang of this pattern fairly quickly. Just be careful not to waste your MG ammo by jumping behind you then firing, as you’ll shoot behind you. If you’ve started shooting, then your movements will be the same but you’ll keep facing ahead of you – use this to your advantage
• Boss attack 2.5 – At this stage the boss will reuse the laser attack from the Stage 3 boss directly beneath. Do NOT stand there! The platforms will then fall to the ground.
• Boss attack 3 – The reflecting lasers: A very annoying attack to deal with. Before it starts you have a brief window to pour damage onto the boss, take full advantage of this by jumping up and down as the closer you are the less distance your bullets have to travel, meaning the more bullets you can fire off in a short time. Once the attack starts, try to stay directly in the middle and keep firing upwards while jumping over the various shots. You’ll need to move slightly, but generally directly under the bosses weakspot is the best place to be and moving from side to side will result in you getting trapped in either corner. Refer to the video I linked to see a good example of how this strategy works.
• If you do everything right, you should only need to survive these patterns twice before the boss has taken critical damage and starts being on fire. At this point the attack patterns will change, albeit the existing one will continue (so if you do critical damage during the reflecting lasers stage, you’ll have that stage before the next stage is upgraded).
• Boss Attack 4 – The DRONES: Now there are 3 (one spawns after you kill one) of them, and they stagger their shots which sounds like a small change but makes them so much difficult to deal with. Keep focusing on them one at a time, I’d also consider saving some grenades for this section as these drones are surprisingly durable. Personally I used about 5 or 6 grenades on the boss once it started being on fire and saved the rest for clutch moments against these damn drones.
• Boss Attack 5 – Pewpewpewpewpew: This is a very quick two-tier laser attack that hits basically the whole stage, so you’ll need good reaction times to find a sweet spot and to then move quickly from it as the sweet spots are then hit on the second barrage around a second later. If you’ve playing it right, you should have to survive this once (or maybe twice)
• Boss Attack 6 (sort of) – Faster floating lasers: This is the same as the previous attack, but about 50% faster. The technique is the same, but it’s hard to pull off. I’d suggest using this pattern as an opportunity to use up your first 6 grenades before things really get tough.
• Boss Attack 6.5 – That stage 3 laser attack again, it’s unchanged
• Boss Attack 7 – Oh my goodness, more lasers: If you thought the reflecting lasers were bad try this one on for size. You’ll be hit by a barrage of lasers that sweep the stage in a similar fashion to the previous attack. It takes longer, but you won’t have those platforms getting in the way. Again you’ll only need to survive this once (or maybe twice). Unfortunately much like the previous attack there’s no consistent sweet spot and they come in quick so you’ll need to either have plenty of health saved, abuse the tank’s i-frames or just have damn good reflexes.

Basically the challenge with the boss is avoiding all damage during the first half, then trying to finish off the second as quickly as possible. Make full use of the MG drops and then use grenades once it’s already on fire. I’m not going to pretend this is an easy fight by any means, but I was able to overcome it and I have a coordination difficulty so hopefully you’ll be fine. If you’re just going for a casual playthrough, there’s no shame in continuing again and again until you’ve got those patterns down. Hope this helps!

The post Metal Slug Advance appeared first on Big Boaby Gaming.

Quick Note: As of the time of writing (July 2023), Killzone: Liberation has multiple levels locked behind a free DLC delivery service that no longer works. While there are workarounds available, you’ll either need to locate the files and manually install them on your modded PSP or download a specific pre-patched .iso to enable them to work on an emulator of your choice. Unfortunately emulators cannot easily install the DLC due to a bespoke patching system that was used, so if you want to play the final chapter you’ll need to do some digging ahead of time. Alternatively honest and law abiding citizens can buy the shiny new remaster

Killzone Liberation is a great and relatively unique game in the sense that it manages to feel like a standard Killzone game without taking place in a first person perspective. Instead of following in the steps of other FPS games on the PSP (such as Syphon Filter), the developers at Guerrilla decided to transport the series into a cover-based isometric shooter with generally positive results. Despite only having one thumbstick to play with, the control is by and large perfectly acceptable and camera issues are rare in spite of the scale of the game which features multiple large (for the system) levels. The game itself is set two months after the original Killzone and has you controlling Templar, a captain in the ISA (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance) and one man army in the fight against the Helghast forces on Vekta who are still attempting to subjugate the planet in spite of their losses in the first game. The use of recurring characters and the way that the game is closely tied in to the rest of the series is somewhat surprising for a portable “spin-off” game, even if the plot is largely nothing special. Essentially the Helghast are the baddies, as denoted by the fact that they have nazi-motiffs, brooding commanders and seemingly innumerable hordes of grunts that scream about how they want you to suffer or that they’re going to slaughter you. As for the ISA, they’re a fairly generic sci-fi America with the standard issue amount of quips and allusions to “liberty” and “freedom”. Fans of the series will probably be aware of how these concepts were toyed around with in the other killzone games and media, but for the purposes of Liberation they are played entirely straight which is honestly fine. I can’t imagine anyone picked this game up for the plot, myself included.

Instead most people picked it up for two reasons, the gameplay and the visuals both of which have been heavily refined and hold up pretty well (hence why it got a re-release on PS4 and PS5 relatively recently). Starting with the visuals, they’re surprising good for a handheld system and are light-years ahead of anything that the DS could put out and frankly are seemingly beyond the reach of even the 3DS which came out years later. Now I did play this on an emulator (as my PSP is in my parent’s attic in a box somewhere), but even allowing for the various upscaling and AA that was applied it is still a visually impressive game that seems more akin to a PS2 release than a PS1 game. While some finer details are lacking, the game is able to successfully present a variety of different enemy types and environments while still packing CGI cutscenes and in-engine cutscenes that look great. There are also plenty of nice touches including splash effects for water, glass shattering during shoot-outs and even the visual cues related to the awareness level of enemies (yellow eye-visors for oblivious, orange for alert but hunting, red for actively pursuing you). Guerrilla have always been capable for showcasing the potential visual fidelity that various PlayStation systems have offered and Killzone: Liberation is no exception to the rule.

And while I’ve personally found Guerrilla games to be a bit hit-or-miss in the past, I can confirm that Killzone: Liberation is my own personal exception to the rule as it is in my opinion the most enjoyable game in the series. The reason for this is simple, the isometric gameplay system they’ve adopted is punishing but at the same time highly engaging. As much as I yelled at this damn game and cursed the various people who worked on it, I can’t deny that everything just clicks in a way that so many other developers can’t match. Templar is a one man army, but he is always on the brink of getting overrun and a snap judgement will either save his bacon or condemn him to an abrupt and inglorious end (and you to the load checkpoint screen). The reason for this is simple, you don’t have that much health or that much ammo at any given time and the various Helghast you’re up against are specialised and quite often gluttons for punishment. Even the simple soldier can be a pain to deal with as you’ll need to use up a whole magazine to deal with them, assuming you land your shots (which is finnicky) and that they aren’t in cover and that you don’t get flanked by their comrades in arms. There are also so many types of enemy to deal with that they’re constantly getting introduced throughout the game, all the way up to the midpoint of the final (non-DLC) chapter. In addition, the game utilises elevation and cover to block shots meaning that you’ll need to make use of the R-shoulder button to duck lest you get shredded by the barrage of enemies. These enemies also make use of cover, alongside strategic use of the elevation and melee attacks which knock you on your ass.

Once you add in the boss fights, the dastardly way that the developers just love to screw with you sometimes (e.g. putting bombs in the hitherto safe supply crates) and the fact that the various enemy types can synchronise in brutal fashion you have a real fight on your hands. To give a brief example, the game often likes to send one or two regular goons your way and a specialised trooper (such as a sniper or shotgunner). If you focus on the specialised trooper you’ll get mown down by the regular goons, if you focus on the goons you’ll get flushed out of cover by the specialist or just killed near instantly depending on their type. Oh and there are turrets, mines, tripwires and the occasional vehicle to deal with as well. The Helghast are legion and you’re still trying to be the “One Man Army” for better or (frequently) for worse.

Well that’s not entirely true, one part of Killzone: Liberation that I wasn’t expecting but is actually mainly well handled is the fact that multiple missions have you teaming up with another character from the first game. There are a handful of one-off “buddies” as the game calls them, such as a general packing a revolver and some scaredy-cat VIPs that don’t do much, but you spend around half the game working with either Rico or Luger who put in serious effort to steal the spotlight from you. Rico has a machine gun and a propensity to call the enemy ASSHOLE (seriously he says it almost every time he starts shooting a new enemy), while Luger has a crossbow that shoots explosive bolts. Just be careful as your buddies are so keen to be the hero that they’ll shoot you if you get in the way of their shots and will take damage if they run in front of you while you’re shooting. They’ll even get pissy and punch you if you hurt them too much, apparently oblivious to the fact that there’s a game over screen tied to your health bar.

Both have their own health pool that can be replenished via a healing syringe, and if they’re reduced to 0hp then you’ll need to give them a shot in the arm within 20 seconds or they’ll die FOREVER. Fortunately these syringes are fairly plentiful and so you don’t really need to worry about their health, unless they get stuck directly in front of a turret or are getting bullied by the shield-toting melee Helghast enemy type. They’re invaluable for splitting the enemies attention and can hold their own, while essentially doubling your damage output. Unfortunately they’re never there when you really need them (like in the boss fights) but I guess the developers wanted you to work for that taste of sweet, sweet, victory. One last thing worth noting is that they can also be bossed around via an orders overlay, which lets you tell them to focus on a specific enemy, use their ability to make the level proceed (C4 for Rico, grappling hook for Luger) or take cover in a specific spot. You rarely have to use this, but it can be very helpful to have them distract certain enemies while you flank for an easy kill.

And those kills can be made even easier if you opt to gather the optional collectibles or attempt the various side-challenges which unlock as you play through the campaign. The collectibles themselves are fairly straight forward, each level has a set amount of cold hard CA$H hidden within it in the form of suitcases that are tucked away in wooden crates. As you gather more of them, your total funding increases and more weapons unlock alongside upgraded versions of those weapons should you earn enough. You don’t need to dip into your funding to unlock new weapons or upgrades as they’re unlocked automatically once you’ve reached a certain level of funding. As for the side-challenges, these provide “points” which are used in a similar manner to unlock various abilities such as the ability to hold extra grenades or to have double the amount of HP. These abilities can be very powerful, although your first playthrough of the campaign will be relatively normal as you can only gain these points through challenges which are tied to clearing each act of the campaign. As such you’ll need to have cleared most of the acts to unlock the most overpowered abilities.

And once you’ve cleared most the acts, the game has a few more bits and pieces of content with which to incentivise you to keep playing. Unfortunately the multiplayer servers and community don’t really exist anymore, so the multiplayer mode isn’t much of a draw these days. To my knowledge you will still be able to take part in local co-op though, presuming you can find someone else with a PSP and a copy of the game. This will let you play through any missions you’ve completed in the single player campaign, but with a buddy. Of course both of these modes are still a factor if you pick up the remaster (which is “free” on PS+ platinum) so those looking for the most content might want to take a look at that version. For everyone else, you’ve got the Jukebox to enjoy the OST, the collectibles mentioned above and uh… that’s about it. Therein lies the flaw with the bold new online age that the 7th console generation (and to a lesser extent the 6th) ushered in, namely that a lot of Killzone: Liberation content just doesn’t work any-more. You can’t get the last act of the game (and there are only 4 in the release version), you can’t play online and co-op is more tricky to utilise. As such those of you who stumble upon the game at a very low price for the original PSP version are advised that you’ll be missing a good chunk of the game. Fortunately what’s there is still great and I’d recommend it to any player looking for a challenge, but be aware that you’re not getting the full experience as the developers had intended.

To conclude, Killzone: Liberation is a fun but challenging Isometric cover-art shooter that is a great showcase of what the PSP is capable of. While many of these capabilities have died out, what remains is a visually impressive and faithful adaption of the Killzone series to a handheld system. There are myriad enemies and features contained within the single player experience, and between the (admittedly short) campaign, the collectibles and the challenge modes there is still a healthy amount of content on offer. No doubt the best experience would be to play the remaster, but to my knowledge you can’t own that on disc so as the industry marches on that version of the game will be lost to time. For those of you who don’t own a PS4/PS5 and a PS+ subscription, I would have no issues recommending the base game with one important caveat – this game can be unforgiving and you should be prepared for a short but brutal campaign.

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