15-Mar-2004 If halo, Splinter Cell and Vice City have taught us anything, it's that porting a game from console to PC can be a huge success. Even though Splinter Cell and Vice City were hardly changed from their front-room cousins, they won out because beneath the high-res textures and mouse-friendly controls, they're excellent games.
Halo is the anomaly; it was a PC game originally, but its case proves that unless you take the time to add some PC extras - especially when developing a shooter - you aren't going to convince anyone. Fortunately, the inclusion of some great online multiplayer options helped its cause no end.
Pulling Into Port Following this rather obvious theory through, kill.switch sticks to the tried-and-tested principle furrowed by most console ports. The PC version was only announced last November - when the PS2 and Xbox versions were readied for release - and it's taken just a few months to transpose the game from TV to PC. Despite the competence of the legendary Bitmaps, in such a short time frame and without the authority to add the necessary PC bunting, the game's fate was sealed from the get-go: on its native platform, kill.switch is a good game, which means it can be no more than this on PC.
The story running though the missions is predictable, but what makes kill.switch worthwhile is a feature termed 'Offensive Cover'. In essence, all this means is that by pressing the 'crouch' key in close proximity to an upright surface, your character will hunker down to offer the smallest possible profile to the enemy. You can still move, slowly, but the best thing is that you can 'blindfire' around corners or pop your head out to let off a more accurate shot.
It works similarly to the crouch/peek feature indigenous to most first-person shooters, but in third-person it works far, far, far better. The icing on the cake is that you can roll and dive between cover, loose off a hail of lead, nonchalantly lob a flashbang grenade over the top and dive forward to the next collection of boxes.
In response, AI goons dive for crates, run from grenades, go crazy when blinded and pretty much ape your movements. However, they lack your training and rather than survive, their duty is to fall in large numbers - which they do regularly.
These situations are very enjoyable and despite the arcade feel, the combat is quite tactical as you dart for cover, watch for enemy soldiers trying to outflank your position and charge ahead to the next objective. It's a very good thing the combat is so enjoyable, because that's pretty much all there is.
More Please, Lots There are no vehicles to drive, no squads to fight alongside, the locales and the arsenal of weapons are over-familiar, and the game itself is over in a matter of hours. But in spite of all this, kill.switch possesses an addictive quality married with a tight, focused design. It keeps you fitfully engaged despite the imposed limitations of the console for which it was originally commissioned - but it could have been so much more. With a decent selection of multiplayer options it could have countered Counter-Strike (geddit?), and with squads of allies it would certainly stack up to Ghost Recon.
Were there to be a sequel geared towards the strengths of the PC, we'd welcome it with open arms. For now, what we have is an enjoyable diversion that will keep you occupied for a few fun-filled hours - and at a mere 9.99, that's pretty damn good value in our opinion.
PC Zone Staff
// Overview
Verdict
Enjoyable duck-and-shoot action that's good while it lasts
Uppers
The 'Offensive Cover' feature works brilliantly Tense, tactical and engaging arcade combat A well-executed conversion
Downers
Lack of variety All over in six hours No multiplayer options
There's so much potential in kill.switch, it's untrue. The ducking and diving action lends itself so perfectly to online combat it beggars belief that Namco didn't consider developing it for PC. The ballistics and properties of the weapons may not be realistic, but the principles of this style of combat certainly are: covering fire, outflanking manoeuvres, staggered break-and-enter advances... In fact it's hard to comprehend why even a basic co-operative mode wasn't attempted, especially in light of the fact that the single-player game is so short. For the record, it took me six hours to complete the game - so releasing it for a tenner is definitely a good move.
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The 'Offensive Cover' feature works brilliantly
