Killzone 3 post by Magemasher13 - Part 2

Killzone 3 fixes the above mentioned problems in KZ2 with the addition of the TSA system sacrificing the flexibility and unpredictableness of the spawn grenade system, as well as changing the classes, which I will get to later. To start I'll talk about the change in gunplay.

Killzone 3 fixed a major complaint of KZ2, the input lag, with one major change: bullets were no longer rendered in 3D space. This freed up a lot of processing power, bringing the input lag down to around 118 ms, in line with nearly all 30 FPS games. Upon doing this, however, the developers realized that with the KZ2 recoil system, players were pretty much forced to aim down the sights for every single kill like all other shooters, and the fanbase was demanding that the KZ2 hipfire gunbattles stay in the game. So they drastically reduced the recoil of the weapons and changed their characteristics from a deviating flight path, to a lessening damage amount the farther they travelled, and made the overall bullet spread of most guns significantly smaller, making both forms of play quite viable. A good solution, for one that tried to please everybody.

So the gunplay was made easier by changes in the core technology, and the dynamic spawn system was treated as an imbalanced, flawed system as it should be. So how could they make the game more hardcore, then?

By implementing a revamped class system that askes a lot more of the players. So much more that most players STILL DON'T GET HOW IT WORKS.

Changes to the classes meant that SOLO PLAY WAS NO LONGER A GREAT OPTION. And micless squads? Now almost a DETRIMENT to good play.

Medics, no longer able to uselessly drop med packs, which they almost always used for themselves before, NOW HAVE TO STAY WITHIN 20 METERS OF TEAMMATES TO MAKE THEM REGENERATE HEALTH TWICE AS FAST.

Tacticians, no longer the make-or-break factor on teh battlefield, now have to provide the radar for their entire team, so long as their team stays within 20 meters of them. As well as capturing the spawn points necessary to win.

Marksmen are made to counteract the tactician, keeping their teammates off radar so they can lead assaults as well as sniper. Great for Guerilla Warfare and Bodycount, balanced because they are useless at all other objectives unlike every other member of the team.

Infiltrators are now incredibly important because they have to be able to get behind enemy lines make them fire on each other so they show up on radar. For this they needed infinite sprint. To make them useful objectively they can now plant twice as fast, as well as their increased ability to return speakers.

Engineers are now more important than ever as turrets are necessary for keeping a captured spawn and since teammates don't spawn with 4 magazines by default anymore (needing to use an ability for that) ammo crates are now VITAL for a teams success, making the engineer arguably the most important support character in the game.

The TSA system also made it so that controlling all the TSAs was overly difficult, calling tacticians and squads to prioritize certain TSAs whether they were attacking or defending, depending on the mode, and maps were made so that one tsa would be great for 3 modes, but a disadvantage for the other 3, so the warzone developed a meta-game of good territory control at the right time. Not only that, but the shortened spawn time meant that taking a TSA players were spawning from would be exceedingly difficult alone, making it NECESSARY for other players to come simultaneously as backup. Spawning is now a team effort.

Killzone 3 asks players to have:

-constant communication lines
-a broad mix of strategies and different uses of each class
-TIGHT COORDINATED MOVEMENT
-prior planning beyond base camping
-tactical control of the battlefield, getting the most important TSAs for the right objectives.
-making several classes necessary to guarantee spawning, rather than just one.

The overall level of teamwork the online MP asks of you is muc higher than in kZ2, making it a much more hardcore and deep experience. Most people I could see preferring the simplicity of KZ2, as KZ3 asks a lot, and not a lot of players were able to give it. I'm still meeting players online who don't fully understand spot and mark, triage, or scramble and how they work for your team in a proximity setting. I guess it was just too much for the average player.