Killzone

[JaKeUtd]

Hi, is Killzone (2 or 3) still populated online? I know 3 hasn't been out too long but I never hear of it so wondered whether it was still worthwhile to play online?
I am still yet to play either of them, and I feel like I have missed out on 2 great exclusive FPS games... Both cheap as well now so might jump in and see what it's like. Could anyone give me an opinion as to what the online is like in relation to other FPS' like RFOM, BF and COD?

Thanks,

[chrisa3211]

Haven't been on Killzone for a month or so but there were certainly still a few populated EU servers back then, so I'm sure if you widened your search you'd find some games - DLC not so much though, it's hard to find games that use it.

KZ3's still pretty active, although if you're partying up with 7 others you'll almost certainly outnumber the other team - again, DLC matches are rarer.

Compared to other games, I'd say both are quieter than Black Ops by some way - both are probably quieter than MW2 - and I'm sure they're less populated than BF3 by a lot.

[Cloudburst--]

Killzone 3 wasn't populated online after about a month.

In short. . . KZ3 was announced. Everyone who LOVED KZ2's online game modes, maps and guns became incredibly excited. We were promised even better graphics, even tighter gun play while keeping the chunky beefy shooting mechanics, and we were very happy.

Then. . .we eventually learned that Guerrilla had basically been told to shaft everyone who loved and stuck with KZ2 in order to win over more casuals. This led to a lot of random inclusions to the game. . .hardly any recoil. . .but most importantly class imbalances.

In the first week the official killzone 3 forums were POUNDED by folk like me complaining about the Marksman class. IT was invisible, armed with a full auto assault rifle with red dot, didn't show up on radar even when firing its unsilenced gun, didn't get revealed to spot and mark (UAV) even when un cloaked. . .it had a secondary fully auto silenced pistol which meant it could stay invisible even when killing.. . and it scrambled your radar. ALL those abilities in one class.

Any other developer would realise "Wow. A totally invisible, undetectable class with zero counter and two awesomely powerful guns? That's bad". But not Guerrilla.

We told them and told them "Change it. Make it fair". . .they replied with "We'll not be changing the class system". We all left.

The game was brutal. The first month was NOTHING but invisible camping marksman with no counter - it was hilariously badly designed.

A couple of months ago (yes like 5 months after release!!!!) they got around to patching the marksman and gave it a short cool down for its scramble ability (its one ability that wasn't even the overpowered problem).

GG lost the plot , and a lot of fans and players in the process.

Unfortunately Naughty Dog didn't learn from this and also caved in for Sony to attract more casuals. . .the result is U3 online. . .which takes everything that made U2 amazing, popular, and unique. . .and turned it into the third person mode for Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 with Uncharted skins.

So in short. . . .don't bother going online. There's no one playing (two months after release TDM's i played were 2 vs 1). . .and even if you fluke a full game . . .it's an unbalanced, unenjoyable shambolic mess.

[eltonkev]

I was going to give a considered response to cloudbursts tirade about another game he obviously just can't play( look at his posts about BF3) but just can't be bothered but to answer the op you will still find an active community on killzone 3 and most evenings you will find full lobbies.

[Cloudburst--]

I can't play it with a 1.90 KDR

I speak the truth. Most of the Killzone fan base was disgusted at being abandoned by Guerrilla at KZ3. I mean....they pretty much abandoned the game two months after release with the 6 map bundle. They abandoned it because no one plays.

In fact...after Killzone 2 the lead multiplayer designer left.....and a new guy came in.....I've since read that the original KZ2 multiplayer designer is now back at GG Even they realise they ballsed up.

I just hope that they learn from it and go back to giving us an amazing game next time round.

It's easy for you to say "meh he's saying that because he's crap" but everyone knows the Marksman and tactician were the two most overpowered classes in the game - an the marksman had no actual counter. People played as marksman to avoid being on radar constantly due to tacticians having constant uav with a short cool down and then everyone used tactician so they could know where everyone was. If your team had many tacticians and marksmen then there was constant uav and constant camping marksman so the people invincible to uav could camp, and the people with constant uav had free kills.

It was just a big mess.

[eltonkev]

Your 1.90kdr doesn't nessecarily make you a good warzone player, some of the best players like Md128 have lesser kdrs but are always at the top of the leader boards because they play to win and play the objectives. The op wanted to know if people still play killzone and I as someone who still plays a few times a week can tell him they do.

[Cloudburst--]

If he's expecting high numbers, full games and a thriving community then he's going to be disappointed. He'll be playing the same maps against the same people.

[JaKeUtd]

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys! My main problem really is that I don't want to play COD or BF... I wanted something different that I would enjoy playing and get quite a few hours out of. I'll give both KZ's a go because they are relatively cheap now so it shouldn't be much hassle. I have 1 or 2 friends that play as well so that should keep it fresh for a while as well

[Cloudburst--]

Personally I would stay away from Killzone 2

If you're on the team that does the baseraping then you'll be loving it and kill farming.

If you're on the team that is being base raped with spawn grenades right outside your base and all exits blocked. . .then you'll want to destroy your controller.

Killzone 2 had that fundamental problem that they encouraged baseraping. . . .first team to sprint over to the enemy spawn and toss spawn grenades won.

That was bad enough on launch. . .but by now only really experienced players will be left and they'll be baseraping with ease so just stay away.

Give Killzone 3 a chance but there are so many problems and fundamental balance issues (just like Killzone 2 GG failed with balance) that you really won't stick around. It's a shame as killzones fundamental gameplay. . .its feel. . It's weight. . .its gunplay . . .its unique and absolutely brilliant. Balance issues spoil it I'm afraid.

[AAAAAAAARRGH]

To be fair, much of what Cloudburst says is valid. GG was basically trying to broaden its appeal to the COD crowd but completely forgot about its core market in the process. There really was a huge amount of criticism almost as soon as the game launched, as a lot of what made KZ2 great was removed or messed up.

The marksman class, while eventually nerfed, still had a huge advantage over every other class. GG was so slow to respond and patch things in, that many people left the community as a result. You only have to look at the overall sales figures of KZ3 to see it faired poorly compared to its predecessor.

I tried to stick with it thinking it would come good, but come the end of summer, I'd grown tired of 1 vs. 1 matchups on the biggest warzone maps. And don't bother with the DLC either, while the new maps looked great, nobody was on them.