This year’s Gamescom finally did what many Playstation fans had hoped E3 would do; offer hope that the Vita may actually pull out of the tailspin it’s currently in. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault & Tearaway all look great and worth owning. Unfortunately, they are not really system sellers. Let’s be honest, Uncharted: Golden Abyss can only pull so much weight and the previously announced Assassin’s Creed Liberation just isn’t enough to get Vitas flying off the shelves.
Multi-platform releases and ports simply will not cut it either. Killzone: Mercenary was my favorite announcement and, whilst it’s likely to be popular, I don’t see it being a major system seller either. The Vita needs a massively popular franchise to develop a bespoke, Vita-specific title. A Gran Turismo or Monster Hunter would have an immediate affect on Vita sales.
Enter Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified – an eagerly anticipated game with a massive fanbase that has the potential, should it be a quality title, to sell a heck of a lot of Vitas; but, let’s face it, a Vita CoD:BlOps would probably push sales even if it was northing more than mediocre. Sure, many of us are suffering from CoD fatigue these days, but there’s no denying a lot of people would love to finally have a AAA blockbuster FPS on their Vita – especially if that game was a Call of Duty title. Too bad the game itself shows very little to be excited about beyond its name.
The first warning bells sounded the instant it was revealed that Nihilistic was the developer; the dev’s previous two games, PlayStation Move Heroes and Resistance: Burning Skies, were utterly mediocre. Having a crew who produced a truly terrible game for one of Playstation’s core shooter brands (Resistance) does little to inspire confidence they can handle an even more demanding CoD title.
Set between Black Ops 1 & 2, Declassified’s single player element is cut up into bite-sized covert missions designed for quick play on the go – to give Nihilistic their dues, I’ll admit this is probably a good idea for a mobile shooter. The core gameplay is the standard CoD fare that has proven so popular – but it’s the rest of the game that really screams, to me at least, that this CoD game is being phoned in. The visuals look like something from a PSP game. Looking at the gameplay footage from Killzone: Mercenary and Black Ops Declassified, it’s hard to believe they are even running on the same platform. Of course graphics aren’t everything and time has a way of adding a lot of polish before actual release – but I doubt the 3 months left before release is sufficient time to add anywhere near enough.
CoD is the behemoth it is because of multiplayer, and this is where Declassified craps the bed. Four vs. four multiplayer via WiFi, a limited choice of six maps – some of which are recycled classics, no evidence of a killcam and only three announced game modes (Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed & Drop Zone) just a few months before release do little to wow or impress. Elements may be added later but given how close the game is to launch, you’d think they’d have more to flaunt.
To put it in perspective, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3, a PSP game that’s almost 3 years old, launched with 16 player multiplayer, online four player co-op, five game modes, 8 maps, custom levels, built-in clan support and built-in voice chat. Bravo 3 even managed to make lag a non-issue despite offering all that. Bravo 3 may not have been the best PSP game ever, but it arguably had the best multiplayer setup of any shooter on the PSP. The standard it set has yet to be broken by any other PSP or Vita shooter even after all this time; the fact CoD, the biggest, most popular shooter franchise on the planet, can’t offer up something that even come closes to Bravo 3’s accomplishments is more than just disappointing – it’s sad.
Everything I’ve heard about CoD:BlOps Declassified stinks of squandered opportunity and å lack of faith in the Vita on Activision’s part. With Unit 13 and Resistance: Burning Skies both failing to make a strong case for handheld shooters on the Vita, and with Declassified revving up to be another let down, it’s all on Killzone: Mercenary to set the bar on the Vita. I think Killzone could do well but, without a big system seller like CoD, how much longer will anyone even be interested in trying to make a blockbuster shooter on the Vita?
Cory
I wouldn’t put Burning Skies on the same level as Unit 13. At least Unit 13 is a decent game. It’s a shame it sold like crap because the short mission structure is really nice for small gaming sessions on the Vita.
Matthew J
I’m right there with you, PacMan. The Vita version of CoD should be setting the bar for both FPS games and multiplayer games on the system, and it looks like this is going to fall short of both of those goals.