X
- T
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- T
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- T
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- T
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
Kill Strain
Released On: Jul 12, 2016
53
7.2
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
53
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
38% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
53
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
38% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Kill Strain is a nice attempt at the action MOBA genre, but the game only offers limited content for now and suffers from some questionable balancing choices.
Kill Strain has a lot of cool ideas, but many of them don't translate when mired by the sluggish pacing of each round. I think it definitely needs some further optimization, but the uneven fun factor between the Merc and Mutant camps may take longer to iron out.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.2
65% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
13% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
23% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.2
65% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
13% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
23% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
Kill Strain is a very innovative concept and it shouldn't even be allowed to be called a MOBA. Pseudo teams are put together just for convenience but in actuality the game is a hidden FFA where each player is attempting to beat one another in score by preforming various tasks. Both Mercs and Mutants are fun to play as and each character has a unique kit that's easy to pick up but hard to master. Given it's unique game play and different ways to get score every game ends up being different and throwing mutants into the mix of things gives the game a certain unpredictability that you won't find in other games.
The developers are extremely active in the game. From what I understand, there is only a team of around 40 people working on this game. However, I see them in game almost everyday I play so they are always aware of the problems and are constantly improving the game based on both their own experiences and that of the community's experiences as well. It's also FREE, and Micro transactions here are actually not bad at all. I found that the characters are not at all hard to obtain and I felt like spending money on this game was more like supporting the game and it's future rather then the game taking advantage of me and my money.
As of this review the biggest downfall of Kill Strain is the lack of a party system in the game. But the developers are currently releasing patches to get the game ready for such a party system and I wouldn't be surprised if that's fixed in the near future. It's free, only a few gigs atm, and with several characters in the works and lore patches for each character on the horizon this game has a bright future and I would definitely check it out if you get the chance.
Report
PlayStation 4
this game is awesome, the only bad point is that there is few characters to play. but its a real good moba and its free. i was about to play just to test and now i'm telling to my friend to play it with me.
Report
PlayStation 4
Kill Strain is a multiplayer arena with a peculiar asymmetric formula; even if this type of team play is pretty original, it cannot guarantee a perfect balance and it also inappropriate for a competitive ambience. The game is free but prepare yourself to farm for a long time if you want to unlock all the characters.
Kill Strain was conceived as an "asymmetric MOBA" with a Twin Stick control scheme. It is an unbalanced battle arena with a sloppy graphic and an impressive scarcity of contents.
Some good ideas are hidden behind several aspects that feel unfinished. It's a shame, because the core mechanic works, but its lack of content and shortcomings are just too obvious. Still, it's free, so it's worth a try.
It would be hard to say that Kill Strain isn’t at least ambitious. The game was a studio’s first outing in a relatively immature genre, which attempted to take a dramatically different approach to many of core mechanics that define MOBAs. Though carefully calculated, these risks fall flat in execution, resulting in a confusing and joyless experience.
Kill Strain may find its following as a free-to-play game, but I expect more polish and stability from shooters that we’re asked to play for long periods of time. I can’t revel in the odd matchmaking decisions, nor the way Kill Strain sabotages teamwork by encouraging lone wolf playstyles.
The bad user reviews seem to be pointed at an uneducated player, not a bad game. Overall the game is very fun, it has some issues but the amount of potential is nothing short of amazing.
Report
PlayStation 4
I've played Kill Strain for a few days now. Overall I think the game has potential but it needs more content to keep my interest.
* Good: Two original concepts; asymmetric team setup, and scoring based on a players' performance throughout a match and not on the final outcome of a match. The original concepts are refreshing but also seem to trouble the gameplay. I'll explain more below.
* Bad: Lack of variation and content. There's only one map, and you start with only two(?) playable characters. Leveling up your account doesn't seem to add up to much; after a dozen levels or so you unlock more slots for upgrading your characters.
It would be nice to have a couple of maps more to bring variation to tactics in a match and also different visual themes for eye candy. The one map does work pretty well, though. It can take quite a while to grind your way to unlock more playable characters. Also, I'm concerned that the characters all play quite a lot alike. I've played three characters so far and the main difference between them seems to be how much damage output they have and how to escape tough situations. I keep wishing for more depth and differences in the characters. It may also be partly due to the pretty hectic twin-stick gameplay that the gameplay is more action than tactics.
Gameplay feels often a bit chaotic. Because people don't seem to know what they should be doing at times, it's difficult to play well and enjoy the game to its full potential. Because of this, what happens during gameplay tends to be more random than based on your own tactics, successes, and failures. There is a built-in team communication system based on predefined messages but it's inefficient in getting your teammates to work with you towards the same goal.
I think the chaos of gameplay has a lot to do with the original team setup of the game. Each match has three teams: one team of two mutants, and two teams of four mercenaries. A few minutes into a match the mutants gain the ability to turn a downed mercenary into a mutant. A match ends when any team's base is destroyed, or if all mercenaries are turned, or if the time runs out (20 minutes). Players can and will spontaneously team up with players of other teams in order to gain advantage over the third team. Most often I've seen matches where mercs team up against mutants, but it's also not uncommon to see the merc teams fight each other.
Because of this team setup players seem a bit confused as to what is beneficial to do. There is no clear enemy, and if you're accustomed to two-team games, it's not that easy to read in Kill Strain which team has the upper hand at any given time and who should you be fighting.
This leads me to the big question I've been asking myself when playing Kill Strain: What is my goal in a match? First of all, there is no winning team. The game speaks consistently about a match "ending", not that someone is "winning". If you destroy another team's base, you don't get any special bonus or mention. You have just ended the game, and that's it. What *does* matter is what have you done *during* the game. This is the second original idea in Kill Strain. It's not about winning the match (as in overcoming the opposing teams) but about performing well yourself. You can have all your fellow mercs turned into mutants and have your base destroyed and still come out on top in the final standings. It's all about how you play and not about how the match ended.
The game counts scores for each player based on their kills, damage output, and certain other actions in the game. You are also awarded medals for the actions. At the end of a match you see the final standings, how much players scored and which medals they got. The standings rate each player as an individual.
Playing a merc and getting turned into a mutant is tough for the player. Intuitively it feels like you just lost the game. You're no longer part of your original team. It may be that your original team is now taking a beating, losing structures and getting more mercs turned. But if you look at the scoring system, you haven't lost anything. You're now suddenly a member of the mutant team. The game continues. You can now attack all the mercs, including your former teammates. This is mentally somewhat controversial, and I think some players will have a hard time accepting it. In the scoring and gameplay mechanics you never really lose the game, no matter what happens, but inside your head you may feel like you're being overpowered and beaten to a bitter defeat.
Due to these original design choices, Kill Strain is controversial but taken with an open mind it does provide enjoyable action with a bit of team-based tactics. Maybe San Diego Studios could convince more players to like the game if the in-game presentation alleviated a player's feeling of defeat and emphasized more that success is based on scoring, and score can be accumulated in all situations.
Report
PlayStation 4
I came across this game when it was pretty new and the community that played it was pretty small (3-4 years ago). It became less fun as the community grew larger.
First the good: Each round is different which adds to the fun. Sometimes you have good teammates that can work together, and other times you are stuck with a bunch of **** who have no idea what's going on. The characters each have their own attributes and strengths so whichever one you choose depends on your play style.
The Bad: You have almost no ability to choose your team - specifically the mutants. Playing as the mutants is the most fun IMO, and you NEVER get them. The community is huge so in 20 rounds, you MIGHT get mutants once if you're very lucky. So you end up playing as your same character which gets very monotonous and boring. Because of this, I've stopped playing. But this game is still kind of fun and it's free.
Report
PlayStation 4
Thankfully this game is free. At its current state I would say the game is not worth playing, or at least not worth putting any real time into.
Firstly for it being a multiplayer game, it is very off-putting that there is no option to play with friends, basically the biggest no-no in the hopes of building any online community. I recently just played a match where I was a mutant (the 2 man team of the '5v5v2') where my partner was absent the entire time, which really **** the fun out.
The other man issue is the mech part, where towards the beginning of the matches the MEC suits are few and far between (which is good because they are vastly overpowered), but towards the end of the match the mercenary teams are given access to their mechs more rapidly. The problem is that the mech suits may be used the instant before death to save the user and give them a great amount of fire-power, which is okay if both teams have the advantage, however the mutants have no way to counter the mechs.
The mechs also take no damage-over-time from being inside the mutant areas (whereas they do in human form) so they are able to freely stomp around. That problem also ruins the game because some matches end up becoming a 10v2 where both mercenary teams will form a truce and only hunt the mutants. Another problem would be a 7v5 where the mutants and one of the mercenary teams form a truce. These bonds happen and ruin matches because there is no clear reason not to. If the mercenaries truce against the mutants, the only losers of the match will be the mutants.
The most recent match I played (where I was playing as a lone mutant) the yellow team had destroyed my base, but the blue team didn't seem to mind because they still received the most points for the match.
In closing I guess I would say that the game needs a lot more balancing, and also needs to more clearly define who wins and who loses a match, and also create some sort of penalty or reason to discourage two of the teams to form a truce, which causes matches to end much quicker and curbs some of the enjoyment.
I will most likely forget about this game and this review that I have given it, but if the game is updated to fix the issues of the inability to play with friends and the balancing then the game would get a higher score.
Report
PlayStation 4
Game is proof that an interesting idea can be turned to crap by poor design choices. In a game where there is no real leave punishment; it becomes quickly apparent that having a 4v4v3 setup just doesn't mesh well. 90% of games end with one side completely disconnecting and the mutants winning by default. Maybe the game would be better if it didn't have a hard cap timer that gave the win to the side that already has a massive advantage (better stats with only slightly lower player count).
As it stands the game is just really average; all units need a range buff if the game is already showering the mutants in favour.
Report
PlayStation 4
Summary Kill Strain is a top-down, competitive twin-stick action shooter with a monumental twist where three teams are pitted against each other for domination. Featuring innovative 5v5v2 gameplay, two teams of five players battle to contain-and-control a mysterious and powerful energy source codenamed 'The Strain' that has been discovered in re...
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Jul 12, 2016
Developer:
- SCEA San Diego Studios
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Genres:
