UPDATE: Due to unforeseen processing issues, the Killzone Mercenary Botzone Soldier Training Pack has been delayed until this evening (4/15). Content should be available by 8pm PT. We apologize for this inconvenience.
A few weeks ago we added two classic Killzone multiplayer maps to Killzone Mercenary. Since then we’ve been working on adding more to Killzone Mercenary, and finally it’s here on PS Vita. We’re very pleased to announce the release of our latest update for Killzone Mercenary, delivering an offline multiplayer experience to our 8 maps.
With the purchase of the Botzone Soldier Training Pack, all of our multiplayer maps can be played offline in Mercenary or Guerrilla Warfare modes, against up to 7 AI soldiers. As the game host, you’ll have control over the number of teammates and enemies joining you in battle.
In team modes, you have the luxury of picking your compatriots and foes: play with 3 against 1 for a quick kill, or go brave and take on an entire team of bots alone. Your choice, soldier!
Killzone Mercenary Botzone brings new skills to the series’ traditionally strong AI bot experience: Vanguard usage, zip line navigation, interrogations, rescues, capsule hacking, and valour card collection are all behaviors unique to the game and our AI is going to challenge you with all of them. Not only that, but our cunning bots will also be using many of the game’s diverse loadouts to stop you in your tracks.
And it doesn’t stop there; you’ll have the chance to collect some of those harder-to-obtain multiplayer trophies in an offline arena — provided your skills are up to the challenge, of course!
Finally, we’ve also taken opportunity with this update to fix up some longer standing collision issues reported in the multiplayer maps. As such, the update will be mandatory for anyone wishing to play online multiplayer, with 23 MB required on the memory card to download it (549 MB if you’ve not downloaded our previous updates).
Today, the title update will be made available for download, and the Botzone Soldier Training Pack will also be available for purchase from PlayStation Store. The Botzone Soldier Training Pack will be required in order to unlock the in-game Botzone menu.
Happy fragging, and enjoy your training!
Well this DLC came out of nowhere, but I was thrilled to see it arrive on the store. My Vita’s internet connection has never been great and I’ve never been able to compete that well against the hardcore Mercenary players online, so it’s great now being able to play it offline against “players” more my skill level. And it’s only $2.49, which is less than I was expecting.
Just some suggestions, though, if there is future Botzone DLC:
1. Please give us the ability to set the AI’s loadout (no one online uses the tranquilizer gun).
2. Right now we can only play deathmatch & team deathmatch, so it would be great to be able to play Warzone against the AI.
Overall, great new, unexpected DLC. Keep it up! ^_^
I don’t really mind one way or another. I don’t care for multiplayer for this in general, bots i might have tinkered with so I will just wait it out. It’s nice for those that want it and it’s great they are supporting the normal online trophies in this fashion.
Previously even if it was not explicitly stated, it was definitely intimated in similar posts to these that the botzone addition was going to be gratis, like the 2 maps.
The fact they want to charge for them now, is understandable, but they have to understand that many of us with a mild interest will be a bit irritated that they have altered the deal. There should be a ps+ discount for it at the least. Since I got KZ on sale for $9 any way you slice it i’m still getting a deal if i have the whim to play and pay for bots. However I will just wait for now. It would be cool to have ad hoc with the bots for playing with a friend or two but fair enough if that was not practical.
Enjoy the mode for the rest. For those being critical of holdouts or those put off understand it was never something they were upfront about as having a cost, and considering it’s bots that is a bit of a suprise.
@dmsleight I said “other people’s” fun, not just mine. There are some people that actually want to buy this as you can see on the comments. If DLC doesn’t exist, people would get bored of the game and would want more. Look at Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, people still want DLC characters for it even though it stopped. Only companies like Capcom with Street Fighter X Tekken uses DLC the wrong way. That’s a true instance, not this. Consider this “botzone” mode as an extra, this isn’t Metro: Last Light where Deep Silver charged $5 for a difficulty.
Also, I shouldn’t have told you to go ef yourself because it’s sounds inappropriate for this type of situation. I actually meant you to shut your mouth. My bad.
@Gamerzlimited “I said “other people’s” fun, not just mine.” While my comment was mostly directed at you, I did say “I didn’t realize how much I affect the masses.”
Either way, I don’t think that my comment has any affect on anyone. I wish it did, because I said it to let the devs know how I feel. I don’t understand knee jerk reactions to any criticism. Like we should just shut up and enjoy what we get. Well, if we do that, things wont get better. Complaints are how people know what is wrong and how to improve. It sucks to hear them, but strong people will improve themselves.
There are places in the world where you can’t speak your mind and you have to toe the line and any negative comment (or even perceived as such) is insurrection. I think people can read what I wrote and understand I wasn’t attacking anyone. I was sharing how I feel. If that is unacceptable, then reason and open mindedness are dead. As if to say, if you agree with us, speak your mind. If you disagree, you and your opinion should rot in…
That’s great for the devs that people will pay for this DLC, I am not one of them. I also want to let them know that I think this should be free. I don’t understand why that would warrant hatred and ill will.
“If DLC doesn’t exist, people would get bored of the game and would want more.” That is true for me in regard to this game. I was REALLY looking forward to offline bots. I would love to play this game whenever/where ever. I still have to get the kill and money trophies to plat. The only way to do that is replay the tired campaigned or wait till I happen to travel to an area where I can connect to the servers. I spent more on this game than I usually do on games, and I am not willing to pay more for additional content (nor do I ever, generally).
A step in the right direction towards how to deal with multiplayer trophies.
One day I wish:
That multiplayer trophies are only DLC and not part of the Platinum/base game
That multiplayer trophies can be done with bots in offline modes, regardless of bot difficulty (so if I need to fight difficult bots, I would take that over an empty server or a server closure)
That online multiplayer has a client-hosted protocol as a backup to kick in once server closures happen on older games. That way, multiplayer can continue for the true life of the title/PSN service.
But a step in the right direction, indeed.
Sup Shadow_Enz hehe…
You are totally on the money about this though. I don’t know why this isn’t a thing yet anyways. It is silly that games these days just die off after a couple years and that is it.
I can go one day with out buying a starbucks coffee, plus the last update you gave us some free maps. I’ll be more than happy to support this.
we could be helping fund a future game for the vita by buying this dlc, so stop complaining and think about the possibilities. Plus sony needs the funding after employing many of their staff.
Hey Sony, as soon as I saw this feature being added to the game, I thought it would be great if other games were like this. Could you guys by any chance get in contact with Naughty Dog and have them do this for their Uncharted games for example? I’m sure there’s numerous Sony fans like myself that live in the middle of nowhere where their internet access has a monthly limit and/or poor online connection. Thanks and have a nice day!
@dmsleight If you don’t want to buy the DLC, that’s fine. Just don’t be so rude about it. I know there will always be complaints, but most of them ends up leading to hate speech and companies won’t bother listening to them anyway. There is some business practices that does bother me, but this one doesn’t too much because it’s reasonably priced and the developers worked hard to make this possible. Luckily, I have $3 unused in my account so I decided to use it on the botzone. Otherwise it would just sit there in dust and have nothing to spend it on. Be glad that it didn’t get cancelled or delayed even further. If that happened, then you would have the right the complain and I wouldn’t had said anything.
And I apologize if I tried to be rude to you myself. Now that you’re being honest about it, I shall respect your opinion.
water under the bridge
What… The… Hell…
Amazing, getting mp trophies offline and getting to experience all the great maps and mp features without a connection is great. I would honestly pay twice what they’re asking for this, KZ Merc is a technical marvel and an incredible game please GC make another KZ Vita game.
@ Welmosca
“@ neuropunk – You really are the greatest troll here in the Blog,what a nuisance….I dunno why the people responsible for the Blog don’t ban you once and for all….all you do is troll and ask for something that is of your interest…selfish much?..ha….coming here in the KZ post just to say that its “bad” in your narrow-mind…thats some real troll work.I and I’m sure a lot of people don’t wanna know whats going on in your ill mind.”
Aren’t you the one who is selfish for wanting video games to be ruined for everyone? You are the ones supporting all these awful FPS to plague the video game industry. Never before PS3 were FPS so prevalent. Why does everything these days need to be a shooter? Can’t we get good games again? You are the one who is being selfish.
FPS are linear and mediocre. Do they even have any gameplay in them???? There’s nothing to do in FPS and they’re all the same. So, you’re the one who is selfish.
Look at how GREAT Sony’s first party studios Vita games have been – Uncharted (great), LBP (outstanding), Tearaway (refreshingly excellent), PS Allstars (underrated/ amazing), Sly Cooper, Guacamelee, The Show, Gravity Rush, Killzone Merc and more. All fantastic games please keep em comin Sony (people are starting to come around on the Vita). Also, i heard Nate Fox on a conference call and inFAMOUS: Electric Souls (Vita exclusive) will hopefully be coming soon. If you don’t own a Vita ………..wtf get one already or pre order a BL2 Slim (May 6th) the game catalog is spectacular, crossplay/crossbuy, free ps+ games, remote play, and for you trophy hunters it allows you to instantly double platinum via the cloud (Sound Shapes & Sly Cooper) and earn trophies while waiting in line at the grocery store. Monster Hunter Frontier G coming to Vita (2014), GoW (May 7th), BL2, SS Delta, Duke Nukem, and Forgotten Memories (3rd person survival horror similar to early Silent Hill and RE games but with excellent graphics).
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@ neuropunk – You got it wrong, copy paste games like Call of Duty are hurting the industry, allowing Madden to suck every year, microtransactions, mindless MP over great narrative ( Titanfall ), the economy, casual/mobile gaming ( look at Japan), and the Forza 5 dlc model. There are quality FPS games with quality stories i.e. Metro 2033, The Darkness 1 & 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 3, Spec Ops: The Line (TPS), and maybe the finest game i have ever played Deus Ex: H R. The problem is every one of these games UNDERSOLD with some of them selling under 500K total copies while each iteration of CoD sells 30million copies. People buy uninspired crap like CoD and miss out on the truly original and exceptional (fps) titles which in turn causes talented studios to close and other studios to take less chances. Also, Killzone is not a mediocre and sterile FPS it has strong story elements, STUNNING visuals, spot on controls, great atmosphere, and the best antagonists/enemies in the genre i.e. Radec & the Helghast in general. There is nothing mediocre about Killzone it has far more style than CoD or Halo. Killzone 3 (on PS3) looks better than CoD on xbone and Killzone Merc (PS Vita) looks much better than halo 3 on 360.
This botzone thing is awesome… I would like adhoc support too