This is not a new issue. It's older than dirt, and I ran headfirst into it yet again in the midst of happily playing Space Marine on launch week itself.
I was having a altogether cheerful and cinermatic time playing the singleplayer campaign, up to about Part 2 Chapter 7, one chapter away from the finale of the act before it segued into part 3. There are five parts, so I'm moving from buildup to rising action at this stage. It also heralds an understandable rise in difficulty. Prideful gamer that I am, I refuse to play on easy and went on Normal, but seeing as I don't play action fighting games very often, I am no master of combat, especially with ranged and melee mix confusing the issue. I hit stuff when I should be rolling away, attempt to close in when I should shoot from afar, and miss my shots as the enemy charges in to mix it up in a big ol' WAAARGH.
So I die quite a bit the last few chapters, and reloading from checkpoints only goes so far before the movie illusion cracks and you stop feeling so heroically invincible.
I pop in on online play during one of these off moments, to discover that multiplayer is set up in somewhat Call of Duty leveling style, I believe the term is. The more you play, kill and complete objectives, the more experience you get. The better play performance, the more experience. You level up and this unlocks shiny new perks like fancier looking costumes, and sadly, more abilities or weapons sometimes.
Why sadly? There is an obvious vicious cycle in effect. The better you are, the faster you level, the more fun stuff you have unlocked. Higher level weapons often have more power. If not, there is still a significant advantage to versatility. Veterans have the benefit of experience with the controls, the map, the quirks of the game, and then the added icing on the cake of level unlocks. Even if you just play it for a long time, you will get some experience. This essentially means you can never compete on the same even playing field as someone who comes in on launch day, plays first, plays for long hours, and hits level 35 when everyone else is wandering around at level 1-5.
That's an awful lot of free kills.
The defence on the FPS' part is, I suppose, the following:
If designed well, the fast pace of matches means the freekill-gankmenow stage doesn't last very long. Ideally, a good game should allow a newbie to still viably kill a max level player. Space Marine is not designed -that- well, and I endured about 3 levels of colossal suck from level 1-3 while facing off 2 level 35s on the other team. Their team balancing algorithm also leaves a bit to be desired - no way to control this. On the bright side, I finally unlocked a viable weapon around level 6 or so when I got the equivalent of a sniper rifle, with the benefit of range and careful stalking and distraction from more rambunctious teammates, I was able to obtain a kill:death ratio higher than one, which is a nice way of saying you've killed more people than you died to others, you're finally slightly presentable.
The level imbalance is also not as steep as in typical MMOs where a level 50's sneeze would footstomp a level 1 into nothingness. After I got the sniper rifle, which appears the weapon I'm most comfortable with, ironically, I've scored a couple kills on the high level 35s and 36s. (Max is 41 for now.) Not as easily as on level 1-3 equivalents, but still, I did killeth them. Before they respawned and ate me for lunch again, that is.
Space Marine also offers a revenge kill mechanic that I wasn't aware of until later. Much later. If you get killed by anyone, you can copy their exact weapon loadout for one life. So if you get killed by some level 35 bleep! wielding the uber-powered nuke of doom (ok, more like a meltagun or lascannon or thunder hammer or what have you), you also get to use it, no matter what your level is, for the next respawn. Preferably to go back and melt the other guy's face off. Assuming you have the skill (and ping) to pull it off, that is.
This would have been good to know while I was getting ganked to the point of feeling hopelessly gimped and limited at levels 1-3. How's a newbie to freaking know, though?
One thing's for sure. The levels keep you playing. Sometimes past the point of reasonableness. Just to get the next unlock. I'm not sure ir that's a good or bad thing. On one hand, it keeps people interested and your potential playmate pool larger. On the other hand, once the external rewards dry up, so will enjoyment of the actual gameplay eventually.
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