Now that my analysis and complaints with the classes are over with, Ill move onto other game design decisions that irritates and annoys me.
I really dont understand how GG can allow players to have so much control in the game. Why the fuck did GG give players the ability to create ranked rooms with no standard, uniform set of rules and a minimum amount of player count (lets say 8) in order for a game to be counted towards your stats/ranking? This is the biggest gripe I have with KZ2. Because GG was ignorant enough to allow players run wild, the games stats, points, and leaderboards mean absolutely nothing; even though GG makes such a big deal out of stats, points, leaderboards, and rank. Exploiters and stat-boosters can create rooms where they can kill a friend or alt account with multiple PS3s over and over and over. Even without bots to exploit, there are just so many ways to stat-pad and point-boost. The way KZ2 is set up, it reminds me of the massive stat-padding/exploiting problems SOCOM II had back in the day, except GG actually makes it much easier for cheaters to exploit in KZ2.
Personally, Im not a stat-whore, but I do care about stats in the online shooters I play. I mean, other than just having fun playing the game, theres really nothing else to do except to improve your stats. But because KZ2 is so easily exploitable, with stat-padders/selfish K/D whores that either dont care about objectives or play Bodycount-only, stats have become meaningless and is thus, another missing feature in the game to me and other like-minded players.
Letting the playerbase have so much control in creating rooms causes more problems other than stat-padding/cheating/exploiting and meaningless stats. You get people that create rooms with retarded set of rules or ridiculous time limits in game modes. For example, they can make a room that has a really short or long explosion timer in S&D, or an extremely long Assassination defend timer, or a crazy large amount of points required to win C&H. At some point, games where extreme changes are made to default settings, become boring and ridiculous. Combine that with the crappy game search filter and game details in KZ2 (which Ill get into a bit more later on), finding a good room to play in becomes a frustrating test of patience and a big time-waster.
Having the freedom to create rooms in which the players can play the game however we want to play is a good thing. I know the reasons why GG decided to give players so much freedom and think its perfectly fine to allow such freedom in this game. However, they should have done what many, many other shooters before it has done: Create an UNRANKED, CUSTOM game section and a RANKED section that has a uniform set of rules and settings which GG decides is just right for everyone to play with. That way, people can still play the game the way they want to play in unranked, custom rooms while allowing players (like me) who actually care about stats, to compare and contrast ourselves via legitimate stats.
I mentioned KZ2s crappy game search feature before. For a game that has no party system and no matchmaking system (it does have quick search, but doesnt work too well), the game search function needs to be VERY detailed, but its not. There simply arent enough filters or details available when looking for rooms to play in. All players are left with is a very broad set of filters where the search results are filled with rooms that shows its not filled, but once you try to enter, it says its already packed. This happens more often than not, and is another time-wasting aspect in KZ2. The map filter doesnt work as it should. It searches for rooms that have the map of your choice as the ONLY map available to play, not the one being played at the moment. The server filter is crap. Its either my region or worldwide, even though US, AUS, JP, EU are server options. Im not exactly in favor of region locking the servers, but KZ2 already has problems with lag and connection stability with players from the same region. These issues are exacerbated greatly when players from different regions play together.
Even if the room title (which is too short IMO) claims the room MIGHT be satisfactory, it may still turn out to be a crappy room. The only way to find out if its really an acceptable room, is to join, wait 30-60 seconds for everything to load and sync, then check to see if the basic options, timers, allow/banned classes and weapons are suitable. Even after all of that, the problem still exists in that players have no clue what the detailed game settings for each game mode are, until after theyve played one complete game in that room. If the room turns out to be shit, repeat this lengthy and annoying process until you've finally found a good room to play in. If this game had a good, detailed room search function, I would actually create rooms all the time. But as of now, creating rooms is pointless because it takes 20+ minutes to never for rooms to fill up.
Another major issue is the faction balancing in the game. With it turned on, public games do become more competitive, but this restricts clans and friends from playing with each other, because theres no party system. With it turned off, most games become lop-sided affairs, with one team dominating the other, resulting with the dominated teams players quitting. To make matters worse, the game has no limit to the amount of players allowed on one side of the team, so new players that join the game tend to join the team that already has tons of players because they dont want to be on an outnumbered, possibly losing team, getting spawn camped. It is beyond moronic for GG to not include a player count limit for each team, even if faction balancing is turned off. 18 vs. 2 sounds like a GREAT idea, GG! If youre going to go with the custom games route, at least implement it like SOCOM Confrontation has. If its a 2v2 game, 2 max on each side. 4v4, 4 max on each side. 8v8, 8 max on each side, etc. Its basic common sense in game design. But with GG, its just another game-breaking, amateur mistake / exclusion.
OK, so KZ2 has a crappy game search feature, unbalanced teams, no party system, no matchmaking, no uniform set of rules/settings for ranked games, and a majority of the playerbase having little skill and intelligence (I know, this game is still new and only 2 months old). What makes KZ2 fun and exciting? Id have to say playing with and against other good players and clans (owning n00bies can be fun too but it gets boring after a while). But of course, there are major flaws in the whole clan world of KZ2.
First off, the tournament search function is clunky and takes forever to sort through. Finding a good tournament to join is just as frustrating and time-consuming as trying to find a good room to play in, maybe worse. You have to scroll through all the filled up tournaments one at a time, one page at a time
which is pointless because if you cant sign up for them, then why the fuck do they show up first on the tournament search pages? OK, so you sort through all that crap and you get to games you think your clan might be interested in joining. God forbid you make a mistake and sign up for a game that you dont want to play in, conflicts with other tournament / clan match times, or later want to retract because you found a better tournament game. Guess what? There's no option to cancel / retract games that your clan has signed up for. That means your clan is stuck having to play multiple tournament games at the same or at around the same time. Your clan is forced to take a loss for a no-show or play with an undermanned team. It would be great if clans can retract a sign up until the hour before the tournament begins, but of course, thats not an option in KZ2.
What is the reasoning behind the decision to not allow clan members to rejoin a clan match if they were disconnected during the game? It just doesnt make any sense. GAFA lost 4-3 during the match against those O P A shit-talking bitches (I actually never heard of their shitty forum before the night we played against them, lol) because 2 of our members got disconnected at around the same time during a crucial time in the middle of the match. They couldnt get back in so we ended up losing to those retards. Then in a clan match a week or two ago, GAFA ended up tying Euro GAF because I disconnected and couldnt get back in (no, I didnt quit like a few of you fuckers claimed). We were already down a player or two to begin the match. With me being the only Tactician, when I D/Cd, our team was supposedly left without a Tactician for the rest of the match
even though immediately after I disconnected, I messaged Kittonwy, telling him I D/Cd and to switch to Tactician. Anyway, these are just 2 examples of well-played, close games where GGs dumb decision to not allow players back into games in which they D/Cd, have resulted in bad outcomes for me and my team.
Exploiting clans are becoming more and more prevalent these days. Im sure most people here already know what happens because its happened to both GAF clans already. But in case you havent personally experienced it, let me just tell you how utterly cheap and retarded this practice is... You think youre having a good, competitive game against a clan, but then all of the sudden, they get the lead on your team in Bodycount, everything gets quiet, you and your team is left wondering
where are they camping? Then you look up at the score and quickly realize they have a slight lead on your team and have either committed suicide or simply didnt respawn when they died. So you wait the few minutes it takes to lose BC. I wont even describe S&R exploiting because its probably your teams fault if you let them score first, get the speaker again, and run it back to their base to camp it out. Yeah, its still a cheap tactic and I consider it exploiting the game mechanics, but its not nearly as bad or easy to accomplish as the BC exploit. I guess if they want to be really cheesy in S&R, they can just take the speaker and draw out S&R in a close game where theyre already winning. It may be harder to exploit S&R, but not that much harder. With so many clans exploiting, I have given up playing in random clan tournaments or clan challenges. It is also one of the reasons why I quit GAFA (not the main reason though) and am clanless still.
I dont really blame GG for not catching these game design exploits during their beta phases, but I do blame them for not fixing them ASAP and not having said anything about them planning to fix these problems ASAP. It would be relatively easy to fix these exploits. FOR CLAN MATCHES ONLY, simply force respawn in Bodycount after 10 seconds or so and also count a suicide in BC as a point for the other team or minus a point for your team. Sure, cheesy fuckers can still respawn in their base and camp in there with their turrets, but at least this way, theres a CHANCE to come back and win BC. As of now, you have NO CHANCE to win if the opposing team gets even a 1 kill lead and decides to exploit BC. As for S&R, make it so that the speaker automatically respawns as soon as it reaches the carriers base. On a map like Radec Academy, where the speaker is underground and is so close to the base, tough shit. You dont NEED to take it through your base. There is another route out of the tunnels.
Glitches and game freezes are more problems with the game. Im glad GG is finally fixing some of the out-of-map glitches but they havent caught/fixed all of them yet. Game freezes have become less common since they fixed the Saboteur glitch that crashed entire rooms. But Ive been noticing the game is freezing more often recently, after the latest patch
. specifically when trying to join certain rooms. The game completely freezes the PS3 when at around the syncing clients screen. I estimate that Ive had 30+ freezes during the 2 months Ive been playing KZ2. The sound glitches are also happening more frequently for some reason. Not sure if its just me and my PS3, but KZ2 occasionally has sound drop offs, static-filled sound, missing sound effects, or complete game silence. I know its also happened to some people on the official KZ.com forums. I do have to say, though, the sound effects in KZ2 is very good. But thats kind of expected in such a high caliber game with such high production value.
Speaking of sound, the voice chat is decent at best. No HQ mode/function for the official PS3 headset (I hate having to listen to background noises), proximity chat isnt really proximity-based like SOCOM Confrontation (where the volume of the voice fades or increases depending on your range to the players around you), no ability to mute everyone, and no multi-squad chat option (meaning youre stuck with communicating with only your squad of ~4 teammates, not your whole team, making inter-squad / team-wide coordination impossible). At least GG allows for in-game muting, even if its on an individual basis.
Lag and framerate issues have plagued KZ2 since it launched. Why in the world did GG/SCE not provide dedicated servers for KZ2
supposedly their flagship FPS title, in development for ~4 years? Peer to peer? Really GG/SCE? What kind of fucking drugs were they on when they made this genius decision? Its inexcusable for them not to provide stable, dedicated servers for their premier 1st party games, specifically KZ2. Due to the lack of dedicated servers, this game is plagued with constant double kills, dying all the time behind cover/walls/solid objects, certain players taking more than normal damage to kill, and players skipping/warping all over the screen (although sometimes these are lag switch users).
The framerate drop is so bad; at times, KZ2 is barely playable. Sometimes (too often) it looks and feels like Im playing a damn slideshow. Its completely unacceptable for modern-day shooters to have such a crappy framerate. I understand that there is tons of shit going on and the crazy amount of data the PS3 has to compute, especially within a clusterfuck, but GG should have tested this game in worst-case scenarios to see if the game can run at a relatively smooth and stable framerate or if they had to make some concessions. But no
what we get is a player limit of 32 players for ALL maps, even if most maps in this game (minus Pyrrhus, Salamun, and maybe Helghan Industries) can hardly handle 24 players, let alone 32. I suppose GG knew that they couldnt limit player count to each specific map mainly because of the flawed and ancient player-created game system they decided to implement with lack of matchmaking system, and also because this game shipped with such a low amount of maps.
For the most part, I really like most of the maps in this game
even though most maps have an advantage when playing on the ISA side, with Helghast side having only a few advantages on a few maps. I like the fact that theres multiple entry and exit points on most maps, giving campers less of an unfair advantage than they would have in most other online shooters. Granted, I dislike the fact that shotgun users have such a big advantage on most maps and hate getting caught on various objects littered all over the place on shitty, cramped maps like Blood Gracht, but for the most part, maps are well-designed in this game. The main gripe I have regarding maps is that 8 maps isnt enough (especially because Blood Gracht is such garbage).
In case youre wondering, I probably wont buy the DLC map packs due to principle, not the $6. GG/SCE should have made the first 2 map packs free, due to the low amount of maps available on the disc. Id have no problem paying for an expansion or a map pack with 4+ maps if the game already came with a healthy amount of maps. But it didnt, so I most likely wont support GG/SCEs nickel and diming ways. Its going to be interesting to see how much the KZ2 community will suffer and how badly it will be divided as a result of this decision. A consistently declining playerbase being divided 2 months after the games release is a very stupid thing to allow to happen on GG/SCEs part.
Whats the deal with the 3 new ranks? I know that GG threw them into the game to keep people playing (grinding) the game longer, so they dont go back to playing CoD 4/5, R2, SOCOM, whatever game they were playing before. But what the fuck is the logic in skipping from 5,000 and 10,000 XP all the way up to 100,000 XP? Really GG? 90k XP jump from the 2nd highest rank to the highest rank? Man, those drugs in Amsterdam must be amazing, eh? 5k & 10k XP is NOT at all hardcore. 100k XP is most definitely a hardcore milestone most players will never reach and if they do reach it, it will take months and months of (Bodycount) grinding.
See, logical people would probably do something like 25k, 50k, and then maybe 100k. But its clear to me that GG is simply an illogical development team lacking basic common sense. Too bad they were too lazy / busy to program in new classes, weapons, ANYTHING to go along with these new, hardcore ranks. Maybe its a good thing there are no new classes and weapons to go along with the new ranks, given the fact that the existing classes and weapons need so much work. But character customization or something like that would have been nice. Thanks GG. 2 yellow bars next to my stars was exactly what we wanted to keep playing this extremely flawed game!
With so many flaws, game design mistakes, and exclusions in KZ2, what has kept me playing the game for so many hours? Why do I put up with so many glaring problems and still play? The obvious answer is the graphics, art style, and game engine/tech. But most importantly, even with all the shitty, amateur issues plaguing the game, online MP is still a very fun and adrenaline-filled gaming experience when playing in a good room and/or playing with/against good players. The game is very rewarding and intense when playing with and against other skilled players that know what theyre doing and how to actually play the game.
The controls are great once I got used them. While other shooters may feel more precise and responsive, KZ2s controls really fits the game and I love how for the first time in my console FPS gaming experience, I can actually feel the weight of the guns Im shooting.
To sum everything up, I just wish that KZ2 didnt have so many flaws (some game-breaking) and missing features. I wish GG didnt make exploiting, cheating, stat-padding, etc. so easy to accomplish in KZ2. I wish that the game launched with A LOT more maps. This game had so much potential to become a true classic and one of the best online shooters ever, but because there are so many amateurs at GG making terrible game design decisions, its only an above average FPS that can be very fun and provides tons of eye candy. Thus far, KZ2 fails to be a truly amazing FPS and in the end, without quick, proper, and massive amounts of patches coming VERY soon, this games online community will be dead as soon as the next new FPS hits.
Thanks for reading my 3 months worth of KZ2 opinions, rants, review, etc. all in 1 (actually 2) post(s). :lol
And the Bullet Wasteland map, that looks really good i must say. Both maps looks really good though, but i especially like how the Bullet Wasteland map looks.