Killzone 3's multiplayer is loaded with features new to the series, including five career paths, three times as many character levels to unlock and dynamic cut-scenes that highlight the top player's in-game efforts.
Among the things tweaked was the matchmaking system, which was completely overhauled to dump players into games much faster, adding a new dynamic spawning system to keep you closer to friends and the
in-game action and streamlining
how easy it is to get to multiplayer from the menu.
The team also revamped the rewards system bumping up the number of ranks a player can achieve in online play from the
15 found in Killzone 2 to 45, and adding more than
100 medals and a new round-based ribbon system.Bigger changes include adding
two new multiplayer modes (deathmatch-like Guerrilla Warfare and story-driven Operations), and amping up the type and number of close-quarter combat kills.
This time around Killzone 3 will have
five different career paths, each with
six weapon and
six ability choices, and individual levelling, meaning you have to rank up in each career to unlock weapons and new
skills. The careers are
medic, marksman, infiltrator, tactician and engineer.Connor said that in designing the game's multiplayer levels, the team made sure to add plenty of new environments including
war-torn settings, frozen tundras and areas irradiated by a nuclear blast.Operations plays a bit like competitive single-player campaign missions. The matches open with a high production cinematic cut-scene.
The goals are linear, having one set of players defend the objectives while the other side attacks.
In the match we played, our Helghast were trying to stop the ISA from taking out our installation.
Shortly after dropping into the first match I asked Connor about Killzone 3's still noticeable float, a barely
perceptible drift in the movement of the gun while aiming and firing.
Connor said that some of the issue with that control delay was technical, but that the team figured out the issue shortly after the release of Killzone 2. They left a bit of the float in the game for Killzone 3, he said, to bring across a sense of weight and realism to the game.
It took a few rounds to adjust, but once I did it wasn't that noticeable.
I tried my hand at each of the character classes, testing out
abilities like being able to block radar in an area around me,
spotting and marking areas for attack by fellow players,
building sentry guns and
sentry robots, and moving faster. One of the more interesting abilities, I found, was the
medic's mini-drone, a hovering bot that provides the medical class with cover fire and can even heal him at
times.
I also played around with some of the new, brutal melee moves: snapping one player's neck and slitting the throat of another.
It was pretty neat to see the cutscene unfold with the named player performing the level's coup de grace.
@Kotaku
