kill.switch (PC) - Part 1
Channel: Louis B
Date: 2016-11-19

A little later than I first promised but here is Kill.Switch on PC, or Windows 7 to be precise.

For a Namco release, Kill.Switch might appear thoroughly unremarkable: It has a generic look, a not very memorable story and it is a short experience at only three or four hours in length. Yet, for the longest time, Kill.Switch's claim to fame was that it was the first to properly implement the, now standardised, cover mechanics used in nearly every third person shooter to date. That is to say, you have a dedicated button for cover and depending on where you are hiding, it can be used to peek around corners, make blind fire shots or go out all guns blazing.

Ofcourse, games like Winback and Metal Gear Solid 2 has attempted to implement similar controls some years before it, but Kill.Switch was the first to really get it right. Swinging between cover and making on-the-fly decisions on where to break into new parts of the map had never felt as fluid or as smooth in a third person shooter, no doubt helped by the game's tight controls and solid 60 frames per second performance.

This Windows port of Kill.Switch, produced by the once legendary Bitmap Brothers, largely recaptures the experience found on Playstation 2 and Xbox. And thanks to Namco's use of the RenderWare engine, it runs rather comfortably with modern hardware, even laptop hardware should be able to max this game out at full speed. I also appreciate that it only takes a little tweaking to get proper aspect ratio support (widescreen or full-frame are simple enough to configure) and, best of all, Kill.Switch has full mouse and keyboard support. Anyone familiar with the standard wasd layout of modern PC shooters would have no trouble at all getting to grips with this one.

The bad news for Kill.Switch on PC is that no digital distribution sites carry it as of the time of this video upload. Irrespective of that, second-hand copies can still be obtained for well under £5 on CD-ROM, even online.

kill.switch might be showing its age now but the mechanics really do make this game as fun as it is to play, and I would encourage my viewers to try it out if they find a copy.  Thats all there is to it.

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A LEGAL NOTICE:
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Any copyrighted footage I use is covered under fair use laws, or more specifically those listed under Section 30(1) of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1989 and under section 107 of US Copyright Act 1976. This video exists purely for the purpose of research and crticism. I do not make a profit from any uploaded content, nor do I intend to. Thank you for watching.