I was floored to discover how much of Killzone 2's multiplayer was locked behind a wall of unlockability. It's clear they're looking to follow a model that combines something like TF2 or even the criminally unloved Fuel of War with CoD4's ranking system, but no matter how you look at it, it comes up pretty far from the mark. First of all, CoD4 gave you some of the best perks and a pretty healthy arsenal of weapons right up front. There were plenty of ways you could tailor your character right out of the gate. Be an assault trooper, a heavy weapons guy or even (I think, I may be wrong on this one) a dirtbag sniper. With this, everyone starts out exactly the same. That first few games are gonna be so dull, I have to wonder how many people will really stick around with it, or if they'll yawn, grab their World at War disc and pop that back in. Cos by this point, I imagine most people playing World at War have already unlocked Der Uberrifle and the Cracking, By Jove perk and are able to do what they want in a multiplayer game.

It's so nice to hear someone bring up Frontlines, which I was going to mention, but I figured the reference would be lost on everyone. That game had a great (the greatest?) mix n' match class system, which tied in wonderfully with its balance of infantry and vehicle combat. Ah, Frontlines...

There's a fair amount of people who have already unlocked all the classes (and a quick, sucky round of MP gave me a few points), so I'll ascribe your bugginess to the Tom Chick aura of inexplicability (for a further example, see Far Cry 2 GOTY). There seems to be trouble with some of the ribbons, though.

I thought I read somewhere the reason the classes are locked in the beginning is to help with the learning of the shooting and such. But it is silly nonetheless because it shouldn't matter if you suck with whatever class you first pick.

Still I love to unlock stuff, it makes for a reward for doing well instead of just being pleased. Although it seems more developers are into making unlocks for DLC (I'm thinking Capcom and their shameful DLC costume packs for SF4).

You are right too Bahimiron, dirtbag sniper is unlocked from the go. They all are, you just unlock new weapons and perks.

I was a bit unhappy with the choice when I first started playing the MP in KZ2 but it gives you a chance to get a good feel for the game hone your skills with such a limited weapon selection and skill set. That doesn't mean I'm going to throw my copy on the shelf with a sigh and head back to my trusty COD. I will take up the challenge and build my score kill by kill; all while keeping the itching and moaning at a dull roar. Overall, i'm pretty happy with the turn out.

Gonna have to agree with Tom and disagree with others here on the unlocking progressing. I can fully appreciate wanting to smooth the curve for new players into MP, but one of the best ways to do that is through a support class.

I spent the first 5 minutes in the MP UI just trying to figure out how to change my class to medic because all I wanted to do was run around and learn the maps while reviving fallen teammates. Only when I RTFM did I realize that the entire class was locked and was only available after what I would guess would be 4 - 5 hours of play by the typical gamer. I don't think all classes need to be available from the start, but since the medic "class" is really just one fancy defibulator I can use on fallen enemies, why not give me the ability to swap out my primary weapon for that thing and keep a pistol? Other upgrades, like portable health packs can become unlocked with skillful medic play.

As for bugginess, I put in about 3 hours on KZ2 MP this weekend and didn't have a single hiccup. Worked just fine for me, except for the fact that I was running around as a generic soldier with only 64 bullets and quite bored most of the time.

why further disadvantage new players by awarding unfairly better equipment to the elite veterans of grind? it some respect this uneven playing field also cheapens any victory a more experienced player may win over a newbie, as it can no longer only be attributed to a difference in skill.

to its credit, at least killzone 2's system sounds like character advancement is governed by successfully performing useful actions for one's team

- in contrast, team fortress 2's unlockable equipment generally provides situational alternatives, not upgrades, but the player behaviour required to gain these unlocks typically involves disadvantaging one's team while farming stupid achievements.

an unfortunate consequence of valve's staggered class updates for TF2 is that for a few weeks a disproportionate number of players on each server ignore the First Rule of TF2 and play unhelpful classes (i.e. far too many copies of the recently enhanced class running about) given their team's current situation, and the brilliantly rich gameplay degenerates.

Well, TF2 unlockable items were, possibly, the worst decision in the history of game-making.

The decision not to let you be a medic is baffling to me, honestly, but having whored classes like the sniper be unlockable is something I can stand behind.

I played about ten hours over the course of this weekend without a single bug or lag. I was impressed how robust it was.

As for the worry of getting completely owned by a team full of maxed out players? There's no worries. When searching for games set it to find only ones with people near your rank.

I've been loving it so far. I'm about a round away from getting the engineer badge. Most people seem quite intelligent in regards to what they are supposed to do during different segments so it gets quite tactical and the squad ability is great. I actually wish everyone used it though. You still sometimes get the fools who become the target for assassination (you're supposed to defend them) who just go running off either not realizing they're the target (it selects it randomly) or don't care but whatever. Once you're ranked up and playing with other high ranked players they all know what they are supposed to be doing.

After returning two copies of KillZone I've given up. The graphics look like they could be incredible but the characters jerk and jump all over the place on my PS3 so I gave up trying to play it.

You do know there is a setting to play against people your own level... the makes half of this review void.

Wow. This is precisely what I needed to hear before buying the game. I was going to pick it up as a casual FPS for the PS3 but now I see that if I were going to play it I would have to put more effort in than it's worth. I mean even if you're completely out to bash Killzone 2, the system you've described just isn't what I'm looking for.

I have to say I'm totally baffled at folks who say they've been able to play this weekend without any hitches. I've played on five separate occasions since the game's Friday release and was never able to get through an entire match! Why does Killzone 2 hate me? Did it read my earlier review???

Also, your point is well taken, Polizei, about matching games by rank so you don't have to play against people with better gadgets. But I still think it's a bad decision to drop players in a vanilla shooter without any of the weapons and devices around which the later gameplay is built.

It should be noted that the "Quick Join" option does NOT rank-match you. I had to play around 5 matches before I realized that. It's no fun to get sniped and attacked by flying death bots 3 seconds out of the spawn zone, carrying only the default weapon. It's also disappointing to those of us who just wanted to play with AI, only to find out we have to put 30+ hours in online to use the extra classes/weapons offline.

Your review was reminding me why I didn't enjoy starting BF2142, until you pointed out that at least you could start as different classes. And at least getting those first few unlocks were very easy/quick.In restricting weapon access (and squadding! >_<) Sony seem to be pursuing ONLY the hardcore crowd, which seems incredibly narrow for such a big release game.

And even if you can match to your level, doesn't that just stratify the player base even further?

You've got a little something on your face.(shovels dirt onto his face)

I can't believe why anyone hasn't seen this yet. Sony is appealing the Achievement/Trophy crowd; by forcing the player to get X amount of points to get the specific class they want, they keep the player involved in the game with a very specific goal. And once they reach that goal, they then go for other goals, such as getting X kills or X revives. Yes, it alienates (to some degree) those who came to the party late or are looking for a quick, casual experience, but KZ2 isn't going after the casual crowd.

I wouldn't call this a review of multi-player if you only played three hours. Even if you weren't able to get full games in.

I 100% agree with POLIZEI. You neglect to mention that there's a setting that allows you to play with people your level (which is defaulted to on, by the way). Allow me to humiliate you with this stupid rhyme: "You get what you set."

The rest is merely opinion.

@ guardian:

mmm, it's a shame that Tom's so-called review consists merely of his opinions. he didn't even have the decency to award the game some number out of 10. in future i'll have to refer to other gaming blogs when i need to know the Gold-Plated Truth about new releases...

- more seriously, Tom's been good enough to qualify his written words with the amount of time he's spent playing the game so far - we're all smart people, we can figure out that these are just his first impressions of multiplayer. that doesn't make them invalid.

/rant

i'm not sure which is more amusing : that the Quick Join button (aimed at casual players?) throws you against unmatched opponents equipped with superior gear you're not allowed to use, or that matched games of newbies with 0 points would have everyone running about as default vanilla soldier with default weapons playing vanilla shooter... it's like they're emulating exactly what isn't fun about MMOs like EVE Online - you have to grind or wait for months before you're allowed to play with all the fun toys. Because grind is fun!

I like how many games now adays are limited in the number of players that can sit down at a single console and play multiplayer. Is it really so odd to think that modern nerds can have more than ONE friend who might like to play this game at the same time, offline? To all companies who limit multiplayer to either online, or only coplay (not 3-4 people, like my freaking NES could handle) I hope you die a slow, painful death.

I don't understand why people are claiming that it's going to take months of grinding to get anything. I'm not all that good at FPS games, but it only took me about five hours spread across 3 days to hit Major. I've run into a couple of dc's, which I think were caused by the host quitting. But I've played games that were far worse on launch. So give the game some slack here and try again.

Wait what? Review says the classes in COD are unlocked at the start and this is not true, you have to actually unlock the first couple of classes in the game actually and are also given a very bare bones selection. KZ2 is very much like COD in the multiplayer aspect in having to unlock "perks" and gear.

Sounds like just had problems with your account, have had zero trouble unlocking the early unlocks so far and the grind is no different in length to what we saw in Call of Duty games in getting all the perks and gear.

Kyle, that's incorrect. A new Call of Duty 4 account can choose among three very different classes without ever having played or unlocked anything. The Demolitions and Sniper class, and then the create-a-class feature, have to be unlocked. But Call of Duty 4 immediately begins with some variety and very quickly folds the rest of the variety into the mix.

A lot of people seem to be taking issue with Tom Chick's not using the "play with your level" feature, but I can't find anywhere in this article where Tom complains about going against higher level people... Maybe I need to reread it again, but you're going to have to quote me actual lines here.

I think Chick's main complaint is that he has to put in effort to play the game that he wants to play. For someone with a limited amount of playing time to dedicate to a single game, this is a very annoying prospect. If I want to play a quick game of Counter Strike, I can sit down and play it. Killzone 2 lacks this feature. I understand many of you enjoy this working towards bigger and better things in your FPS experience, but many people don't. One of the key things I like about FPSs in general is that they are not MMOs. I don't have to grind them, or at least when I do I still have most of the game available to me.

Guitar Hero/Rock Band also suffered from this problem (till I found the unlock all songs cheat code) and it always pissed me off. I know that making a game into a full time job seems to be a popular thing recently (don't as me why), but I already have a full time job (two if you count other games I play) I was sort of hoping I didn't have to get another one to justify my purchase of a PS3. Sure its only temporary, but even that is a lot to ask. Its kind of like having the release date pushed back again (even if it is only a couple days or a week). Kind of a kick in the pants.

I don't know, maybe Kill Zone just isn't the game for me. Its just frustrating knowing it could be the game for me if they'd just give me a few more options off the start.

Yeah it sounds like Killzone goes too much for the hardcore... think about it, most really popular games appeal greatly to the casual crowd- Halo, CoD, WoW... This was kinda a bad move, the people I know with PS3s are pretty casual gamers that just play Madden and stuff. The game sounds fun to me, but then again I'm not a big FPS guy.

Me and a buddy of mine have been playing since release the past few days and i have not encountered a single bug.

You guys are either halo fan boys trying to put down the game again ( i love halo by the way), idiots, or have shitty systems/connections.

The game runs smooth as can be, and has amazing graphics. None of this twitching or whatever some one is complaining about.

Personally i like the unlockable classes and weapons. It was an aspect i liked about modern warfare as well, that is just personal preference though. And it dosn't take much to unlock them. The customization is great as well, and i like something to work towards.

People try comparing killzone to Halo and COD4 but you cant compare those three games, they are completely different styles of play. I think this has the most real feel to it though out of the three.

And just as a side note, im a big fan of Halo/COD4/ and now killzone, but world at war sucked huge balls.

After playing this game for 6+ hours I have to say this is a perfect review. I came upon this doing a google search looking for the what unlocks their are in the game (unlocks move so slow), and found this review. I rented this game and have not played the single player, straight to online. Why would anyone play this multi when there is COD? I guess if you are burnt out on COD and want to pretend something else is great. Great review.

I think the locking class is a good option. I don't know how long this writer played or what kind of internet connection he has but have only logged 5 hours of play so far and already unlocked engineer class (one up from medic) Maybe it's the fact that you may be choosing to join the wrong games for exp.

Whenever you do get to playing killzone online I have a few quick tips for you to get your rank up quick. Join games that only have “body count” (skull symbol) and preferably 20 max players. Reason being the point system. A standard kill will get you +1 point in any situation but in body count it is an automatic 2 points for each kill. Headshots give you +1 point on top of that so you have the ability to get three off one kill. Another reason for joining with only about 20 players is that you can quickly receive ribbons for body count. 1 body count ribbon is given when you achieve 10% of the kills in the body count mission. This is obviously easier to do in a smaller game. Once you achieve 8 of these ribbons you get 1 extra grenade to start with. Good conduct badges are necessary too but a little harder to achieve, not because of the conduct but because you need to achieve 20 points in one game without penalties to get one (this badge might be easier to get in 32 player games.) You need to get 8 conduct badges ASAP because it will increase your starting ammunition which I’m sure you’ll realize runs out quickly in the beginning. You only have 2 clips worth to start. Completely reminds me of ET ammo. Until then just scavange off others...

Another reason why you want only body count games is because if your team wins in any game you get x1.5 points (20 points received = 30 if you win) If you go into a game with all 5 challenges it takes a lot longer and you will just have more win opportunities per hour if the conflict is over after just one mission instead of 5.

Hopefully this helps for the Whiners out there that think classing up is so hard...it isn't and personally with regards to the idea that the higher classes have a better chance of surviving your wrong. A well placed head shot or grenade is just as effective. It isn't like they have 9999 HP in most cases I love this because you still have to watch your back no matter what class you are. They all have drawbacks. This is more akin to a real FPS and not a rambo FPS, meaning that you can't spray and pray like a newb. You get a feel for what shooting a real gun is like and I have done it and I got to say this is about as accurate as your going to get without makign it boring to shoot.

When I first played multiplayer it was somewhat annoying because I found it very hard to aim (as it feels different to most fps'ers ive played) and kept on dying in stupid situations where I shouldn't have lol. But now i've racked up a few hours and it's very easy to aim and i'm really enjoying it. The unlockables is also a great idea as it keeps me interested in playing online as I always like games where I have something to work towards (diablo2 = best game for that reason lol).

All in all i think this game is great and it seems not many people are giving it enough of a chance.

Heaven forbid a game actually leads the player into the multiplayer and demand some competency before it introduces more choices, as opposed to just dumping the confusion on someone. It takes a lot of maturity for the designers to encourage new players to get accustomed to the playing style and basics. Otherwise you'll just have newbs who just get overwhelmed and never get the opportunity to dedicate themselves to different classes and learn what works best for them.

At first, I was intimidated by the lack of available weapons and perks at my disposal. But, with the matching system, that seems to be the case with most of the people surrounding me at any given time. Granted, there were the occasions where a sniper rifle had me baffled, or a seemingly random encounter with a rocket launching assault badger had me shitting myself. But, it's been fun to grow with the rest of the community.

I have the game and it takes all of about an hour to level up 3 times, it is not hard. The first 3 times i played I was the room leader with the given class.

I have to agree with this entire review. While I have rarely been dropped from a game (probably less than 5% of the time), the entire game experience just feels as though it was designed by a company without any experience in multiplayer FPS games.

The maps for example, while beautifully constructed very generally seem to favor one side over the other for many of the moment to moment objectives. Such is the problem with any non-mirrored map I suppose but it is still frustrating when attacking an objective you find that it exists moments outside an enemy base where the enemy can hold indefinitely by simply pitching their grenade stash and then running into the fray with their finger on the trigger only to move to a defend objective where you find your own strongpoints are baffinly far from your spawn zone and seperated from one another.

The classes unlocks also make me wonder, because most of the unlocks are not simply different, they are undeniably better than your other options. Snipers that can literally become invisible - as though in the the fast paced action they needed the help when located a mile fron the front (with a weapon that kills in one shot to any body part it seems). A class that can disguise and plant proximity mines while wielding a powerful long range or close ranged weapon? A class that inexplicably has double the health AND insane speed AND tremendous firepower? Why play as a soldier if using a shotgun when the engineer can also deploy sentries? By the end game, the starting soldier class is literally obscelete. If you want a shotgun you play as an engineer. If you want an assault rifle you play as a tactician or medic. If you want a rocket launcher you play as assault. The only unique weapons seem to be the machine guns, which are such massive piles of inaccurate recoil that rarely do people actually bother trying to use them.

The ribbon system is also built with a certain disdain for players it would seem. In order to get a medic ribbon a player must merely revive five players in a game - a task that can be done in the opening minutes of a large game. Yet in order to get a melee badge a player must make 10 melee kills in the course of the game. In a world of fantastic lethality, where your survival time even inside cover is often measured in moments, that the developers even began to believe that this achievement was completable outside of strange circumstances (or playing against idiot bots) is striking.

These things don't stop the game from being fun but they certainly detract from what there could have been. Forcing players to make a few thousand kills to unlock the sniper class might be a blessing in disguise for many, but the odd balance issues and the long, uphill grind to get that particular weapon, item or ability you want is something I'm certainly not a fan of. The end game seems to be a literal brick wall unfortunately, as once players have achieved a high level they have come to understand the nuances that lead to terrible episodes of base camping slaughter, and even when this doesn't occur victory and even survival seem to hinge on forces far beyond my ability as a player to substantially influence.

I have to agree with this entire review. While I have rarely been dropped from a game (probably less than 5% of the time), the entire game experience just feels as though it was designed by a company without any experience in multiplayer FPS games.

The maps for example, while beautifully constructed very generally seem to favor one side over the other for many of the moment to moment objectives. Such is the problem with any non-mirrored map I suppose but it is still frustrating when attacking an objective you find that it exists moments outside an enemy base where the enemy can hold indefinitely by simply pitching their grenade stash and then running into the fray with their finger on the trigger only to move to a defend objective where you find your own strongpoints are baffinly far from your spawn zone and seperated from one another.

The classes unlocks also make me wonder, because most of the unlocks are not simply different, they are undeniably better than your other options. Snipers that can literally become invisible - as though in the the fast paced action they needed the help when located a mile fron the front (with a weapon that kills in one shot to any body part it seems). A class that can disguise and plant proximity mines while wielding a powerful long range or close ranged weapon? A class that inexplicably has double the health AND insane speed AND tremendous firepower? Why play as a soldier if using a shotgun when the engineer can also deploy sentries? By the end game, the starting soldier class is literally obscelete. If you want a shotgun you play as an engineer. If you want an assault rifle you play as a tactician or medic. If you want a rocket launcher you play as assault. The only unique weapons seem to be the machine guns, which are such massive piles of inaccurate recoil that rarely do people actually bother trying to use them.

The ribbon system is also built with a certain disdain for players it would seem. In order to get a medic ribbon a player must merely revive five players in a game - a task that can be done in the opening minutes of a large game. Yet in order to get a melee badge a player must make 10 melee kills in the course of the game. In a world of fantastic lethality, where your survival time even inside cover is often measured in moments, that the developers even began to believe that this achievement was completable outside of strange circumstances (or playing against idiot bots) is striking.

These things don't stop the game from being fun but they certainly detract from what there could have been. Forcing players to make a few thousand kills to unlock the sniper class might be a blessing in disguise for many, but the odd balance issues and the long, uphill grind to get that particular weapon, item or ability you want is something I'm certainly not a fan of. The end game seems to be a literal brick wall unfortunately, as once players have achieved a high level they have come to understand the nuances that lead to terrible episodes of base camping slaughter, and even when this doesn't occur victory and even survival seem to hinge on forces far beyond my ability as a player to substantially influence.