Guerilla Games has decided to take a different tactic when it comes to Killzone: Shadow Fall’s multiplayer progression system. Instead of letting players build up their notoriety and rank through experience points, it’ll take the completion of both simple and complex challenges to advance as a competitive online soldier.
This is a departure from what we’ve previously seen in the series, as past Killzone games followed the common practice of equating kills to XP, and XP to new ranks. Certain challenges that net players bonus XP have played a significant role in modern Call of Duty games, but in Shadow Fall, it’s the only way to progress. In a blog post, Guerilla community editor Victor Zuylen explained that there will be more than 1500 challenges for players to complete when the game ships, varying from simply taking out a single turret to killing “one enemy player with a laser tripmine while they are carrying a beacon." Every challenge completed will add a point to your overall rank.
It’s a unique method of encouraging players to try new tactics on the battlefield, and if you just so happen to perform to the best of your abilities, the Spotlight System will place you and two of your allies in a small, post-game cutscene. Something similar was seen in Killzone 3, so expect players to try their hardest with the hope of grabbing that five seconds of fame at the end of a game.
Sony’s big first-person shooter will be launching alongside the PlayStation 4 Nov. 15.
