We're not seeing many accounts of the multiplayer system in Killzone 2. Understandable, as it provides a lot for players to chew on and anyone trying to rush a review out (print and more commercial websites) wouldn't be able to invest the necessary time to really evaluate the component as a whole. After playing all evening in the last Friday Night Fights and the majority of my waking hours the following weekend, I feel I'm far enough in to share some opinions on it. Do I need to say it looks and sounds amazing? It looks amazing. It sounds amazing. Just as good as the campaign, with all the fancy lighting and so on. If it isn't one-for-one to the campaign, I didn't notice anything that was cut back. There, done.



The Games
Killzone 2's game types will be familiar to anyone that has played Call of Duty 4. Assassination, Search & Retrieve, Search & Destroy, Bodycount and Capture & Hold. If the names aren't descriptive enough for you here's a quick run down:

-Bodycount: Team deathmatch.
-Assassination: There's an area which the target must remain inside to cut down on backing them into a corner way on one side of the map, and there's a limited time in which they must be killed. If they get mortally wounded, essentially downed ala Gears, a medic can revive them.
-Search & Retrieve: Reverse CTF, wherein the “flag”, a propaganda speaker spouting mildly entertaining fluff, spawns somewhere in the middle of the map and must be captured and taken into enemy territory.
-Search & Destroy: Exactly what it sounds like. You will either be attacking or defending an area. Two bombs must be set and will detonate in 30 seconds when both are set.
-Capture & Hold: COD4's domination, where points are gained by holding areas of the map.

Fairly normal. I believe a plain deathmatch was left out because it either completely invalidates or elevates certain classes to nigh godhood. Disguise as the enemy--the enemy being everyone--or become an invisible sniper; which do you think will win in a free-for-all match?



What sets it apart for me is the flow between games. The types are selected, and as the Destructoid clan has been playing with all of them on, matches go for a best of seven. Each type is played once, with an additional round of both Assassination and S&D to swap the offensive and defensive teams, but until those seven games are complete, you won't be seeing the lobby; when one is completed there's a brief intermission where you can continue fighting or use the time to regroup and then the next game is announced. No breaks. Wherever you are when Assassination ends, you are when Capture & Hold begins. Games can end quickly and the lack of breaks keeps the momentum going and lets players plan ahead. Know where you'll need to defend when S&D comes up? An engineer can put a turret there well before that game type even starts. Worst case scenario, it shoots the enemy team in some other game.

“Immersion” is also a big deal when someone is dredging up buzzwords, and in some sense I'd say that the lack of breaks does just that. If you're the type that gets into your game, even multiplayer games, then the rolling nature of the matches, with new orders coming in over the radio should agree with you.



Things get crazy and chaotic when both teams have a tactician's spawn grenade near a game objective, but at other times there's a tight squad dynamic where you and your teammates are pushing forward and everyone is trying to do their part, with air support drones and sentry guns firing away.

Badges, Ribbons and Medals



Have you played Guild Wars? You will know what you're ultimately getting into if you have. Everyone starts as a basic soldier and steadily unlocks weapons and badges. The rate at which you gain new options is quick and the more you unlock, the more there is to be unlocked. I am somewhat loath to link to them, but Gamespot's guide has neatly organized information on when and how you unlock things.



Using the first badge, Medic, as an example: When you get 350 experience, you will be at the rank of Master Sergeant and unlock the medic badge. You can equip the badge in the character tab between games or even between respawns and while it cuts down your weapon options to the assault rifle for either side, it gives you the ability to revive players that are mortally wounded. By reviving players (5 of them) you will get the Revive Specialist ribbon. Get 8 of those ribbons and you unlock the second medic ability: dropping health packs. Heal 5 players with health packs in a match, and you get the Healing Specialist ribbon and then 8 of those unlocks the ability to switch out the medic's secondary ability with that of another class.

Get it? I'll admit it's daunting written out. Once the medic line has been completed all the way, you could potentially combine it with the Tactician badge as a Tactician/Medic so you can drop spawn grenades (the tactician's primary ability) and health packs (the medic's secondary). While this won't make you a powerhouse as an individual, when there's and objective to be attacked or defended, your team will have a leg up as they can spawn much closer to it and pick up heath packs to outlast the enemy.



The classes and their abilities are as follows, and when played to “completion” any primary and secondary abilities can be combined. I was surprised by how balanced they all feel. By limiting weapon selection to more specialized things that compliment a badge's special abilities, Guerrilla Games was able to make each class useful and effective without any of them being overpowered. Here they all are, so you can start to pick and choose:

Soldier
Primary: None, but has the largest selection of weapons.
Secondary: None.

Medic
Primary: Revives downed team mates.
Secondary: Throws a health pack, which can be picked up by other players.

Engineer
Primary: Sets up an automated turret which targets the enemy.
Secondary: Repairs ammunition dispensers, mounted guns, and automated turrets.

Tactician
Primary: Throws a colored smoke grenade, which serves as a spawn point.
Secondary: Requests air support from a sentry bot which targets the enemy.

Assault
Primary: Dons heavy armor twice as strong as normal.
Secondary: Temporarily boosts running speed.

Saboteur
Primary: Assumes the disguise of a randomly selected enemy player.
Secondary: Throws a sticky, proximity-activated C-4 charge.

Scout
Primary: Uses a cloaking suit to become near-invisible.
Secondary: Tags all on-screen enemy players with a hidden marker, which broadcasts their coordinates to team mates.



In addition to all that, you can unlock more starting ammunition and grenades, increased points for completing objectives and making kills and a second handgun with non-class-specific medals. All of this combines into lots to work for even though you will quickly gain options as you rise through the ranks. I want to get my hands on more stuff, but I don't feel like I need to grind or find XP boosting rooms to get it, just do my job as whatever class I am, and that's a great balance to have.

The Website
Hitting up killzone.com, or specifically [ http://killzone.com/kz/mykillzone.psml?kz_user_id= ] followed by someone's PSN ID, shows you tons of player stats, ranks, unlocked unlockables, and top down replays of the person's last ten online matches. In some strange trade-off between being absolutely, scarily lag free since the moment I put it in the machine and selected “Warzone” the evening of launch day, the website is presumably getting hammered with traffic and all the above fanciness is intermittently available at best. As long as the game remains online and lag free, I could care less about checking my medals online, but it would be nice if everything were as smooth as the play.



The Miscellaneous Good
Warzone matches, once quit, are quit. Unlike certain other games where certain old men will quit and switch teams, Killzone 2 tells you straight up that if you rejoin, nothing you do will count toward your stats. This is only when you quit though. Killzone 2 has host migration; amazing host migration. I didn't even know it had it, at all, because even in nearly-full 32 player games, there's just the slightest blip of a message about it taking more than two seconds ago to contact the host, then the game goes on—in anything less, you aren't even told the host has left.

I can tell I'm not unique, but it seems that regardless of where I sit or how loud my television is, the sound from is unlikely to trigger my headset. Oddly, I had a bit of trouble with that when the volume was low. Go figure. There may be a threshold I was unaware of before, but as it stands, the official PS3 headset picks up my voice nice and clear but none of the game's sound effects. When I speak, it's apparently clear as day, but I can shoot people and eat pizza with nary a flick of my voice indicator on the screen.

While the control was lightened a bit for multiplayer, Killzone 2 is still Killzone 2. It's weighty and urgent, and picking someone off at range is a satisfying challenge. Expand your abilities or perish... or go to GameFAQs and complain like a sissy poopy diaper baby. There's always that, if flexing your balls is too difficult for you (/inflammatory mocking). In all seriousness, I will say again that one of the things about Killzone 2 that felt fresh was the difference in the controls. It is a new game to learn and play, and not a $60 feeling of deja vu.



The Miscellaneous Bad
There's no party system and the game does not seem to care about splitting up clan members in non-clan match games. Even if you can kind of circumvent the lack of a party system by selecting ISA or Helghast if the option is enabled, I would like to be able to keep squads together. Being shuffled about can be mildly irritating, but squad invites can be sent in the lobby, so it isn't something you need to do while taking fire.



Basically...
Killzone 2 combines a lot of ideas that aren't totally new in a way that is. It has the best idea of several worlds brought together with a unique look and feel. Regardless of your class you'll feel important to the team and while individuals can make a big difference, they can't win everything alone. Killzone 2's multiplayer is expertly produced and not only meets, but surpasses the bar set by it's single player campaign.