The latest game from the monster development house Namco, has you playing the
role of a soldier for a mysterious agency. The plot to kill.switch is a secret
to even you, and wonderfully develops as you advance through levels. As a soldier
for a mysterious agency you find yourself on the attacking end of the battles,
breaking into chemical weapons plants and attempting to destroy off shore oil
drilling operations. As the game begins to progress you start to realize for
once you aren’t trying to stop a war, you are trying to start one, but
why? The mid level cut scenes in kill.switch are where you slowly learn your
characters history; the fragmented glimpses of vague memories that come through
and chatter that is taking place in the background over your radio set, you
begin to wonder who exactly is in control.

Gameplay
kill.switch goes where other titles often fail to successfully, mixing elements
of Splinter Cell such as the need for secrecy, with elements of Ghost Recon
such as realistic weapons and tactics. In kill.switch you are given the ability
to hide behind walls and other obstacles for cover as well as to sneak up on
your enemies. Taking from popular movies you have the ability to “blind
fire” when hiding behind walls or obstacles; blind fire is the ability
to blindly shoot at your enemies by peaking only the gun out from behind your
cover and firing wildly. While this ability is nice its not the only route that
can be taken, you can lean out from behind cover and shoot off some rounds and
return to cover easily, of course peaking out gives you better accuracy as your
character can assess where the enemies are more easily.

The artificial intelligence in the game is just amazing, the enemies will take
cover, advance on your position, and even switch from shooting to attempting
to hit you with the back of the rifle if you are close enough. The enemies also
seem to rotate positions slightly and respond to your actions, anything you
can do the enemy can do as well. This includes ducking behind objects for cover,
blind fire, and the use of the wide assortment of weapons such as tossing grenades
to force you to move from your location, and manning mounted heavy machine guns
to lay down suppression fire. I applaud the designers for switching the locations
for the enemies slightly, while the level may stay the same, often you are forced
to proceed through it differently because of the constantly shifting soldiers.
For instance; I began the first level and proceeded forward where I took out
a soldier hiding behind a couch, and then was attacked from the hallway behind
me. The second time I played the level there was no enemy ahead of me, but both
attacked from behind instantly, forcing me to run and take cover behind that
very couch the enemy was pinned down earlier. This adds a great deal of reply
value to the game and removes some of level memorization that sometimes takes
place, thus making dying and repeating a level often boring.

The levels in kill.switch are simply amazing, large to say the least and often
switch between indoor hallway fighting to outdoor locations. In the outdoors
you often have to watch above as well as in front of you for enemy threats.
Indoor locations have you watching every possible corridor, hole in the ceiling
or floor, as well as the windows. The levels in kill.switch also offer a wide
variety from urban environment on the streets of a Middle Eastern country, to
sneaking onto and placing bombs in strategic locations of an off shore oil rig.
I found myself pinned down at one point by a mounted machine gun and so I made
a hook around the wall and proceeded to attack the gun from the side where the
enemy was not expecting me. The best part about this is, while its accessible
to you to sneak up on the enemy, they are often sneaking up on you from such
locations. The ability of the enemy AI to force you to watch all your angles
and make sure you are not progressing past some enemy who may sneak up behind
you later adds a great challenge.

The abilities your character has for sneaking around the level is the best
addition to the game. You often find yourself pinned down, or taking fire and
scrambling for a safe location, the ability to hide behind objects balances
this out. Further improving on the game play is the blind fire ability, as you
often find your location being advanced on while enemy units lay down suppression
fire, the blind fire ability helps you properly defend yourself. Blind fire
however it’s extremely inaccurate, while it won’t be any use taking
down enemies that are behind cover, it does however help to fend off your position
from becoming overrun.

Control
The controls in kill.switch are nicely laid out, the game also features a well
planned out tutorial level for you to play through before progressing to the
game itself. The game features very standard controls, with the left analogue
being used to walk and the right analogue being used to look around. The fire
buttons as expected are located on the triggers and the B button is to reload.
After completing the simple tutorial course you should be able to handle the
character well enough to handle yourself on the first level. The tutorial gets
you acquainted with how to blind fire, use mounted machine guns, peak out from
behind walls, and manage and use grenades.

Graphics

The levels, though nicely designed, are not fully pushing the Xbox to its maximum
potential. The textures are decent from a distance, but once up close they show
their true lack of details. Lighting effects however is nicely done in low light
areas or night time missions, characters display shadows that can help to alert
you of a nearby enemy presence. The shadows however are also the point of flaw
in the game, as I was standing over a stair case ready to turn the corner I
noticed two things; the first was that my shadow was not correctly positioned,
the second that it displayed my character as not having a weapon armed.

The character models and textures in the game and the most impressive aspect,
much as they contain the same assortment of maneuvers as you, they are just
as nicely animated alsol. The texture work is well done with attention being
paid to the minor details of your characters, as well as the enemies clothing.
Each level in the game contains multiple variations of the soldiers you are
fighting, and so it never feels as though you are killing the same two generic
models repeatedly. In kill.switch this was very important as you are not always
killing from a distance, but instead at times sneaking up and engaging the enemy
in close quarters.

Audio
The background music in kill.switch is pretty good, its fast paced and gives
you the sense of urgency yet the need to be secretive. The sound effects for
the weapons are also very well done and help you to determine where the enemies
are firing from and how close to you they actually are hitting. The sounds of
bullets ricocheting means they are hitting close, whizzing sounds mean they
aren’t as close. Another good part, though borrowed from other games, is how
the enemies will sometimes be in the middle of conversations when you sneak
up on their location. While this is not a major game play feature, it does add
to the environment and reinforces the enjoyment of sneaking up on two unsuspecting
targets. Enemy soldiers also yell to one another about how to kill you, they
call for cover fire as well alert other soldiers when you throw a grenade, some
will even beg for their own lives, though I have only had that happen once.

Replay Value
This is where the game faults, unfortunately while it is very interesting; the
story line in kill.switch is unfortunately short. The game is easily defeated
in just 5 hours or less depending on play style, if you choose to proceed cautiously
or storming through levels firing, the game will either way end too soon. With
no online content such as missions or levels to download later, or any additional
goods to be unlocked, the game is not worth playing a second time around. Even
with the enemies changing positions, the levels only contain one real path to
get from point A to B, and thus the reply value is little to none.

Additional Comments
All in all this game is simply amazing, I am highly addicted to it and am surprised
I managed to get off of it long enough to write this review. The ability to
blind fire is a nice addition when pinned down and enemies advancing, yet it
doesn’t overwrite the need to peak out and take aim, or better position
yourself for attacks. The stealth element of this game is what I found most
appealing; the ability to peak out from behind walls and lay down gun fire,
hoping to nail my target at least in the leg was great fun. It was almost as
though I was playing out an action movie, proceeding secretly upon the enemy
location, back to a nearby wall. Though not the most visually appealing game,
the action and tactics is what makes this game most impressive, succeeding in
the tactical shooter business where others such as Rogue Ops horribly failed.
The lack of replay value and the basic textures are what hold kill.switch back
from achieving a higher score, though it should be noted the game play is solid
and the controls are fluid.

Overall Score
Overall Score: 7.5/10 [Not an Average]

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