An in-depth look on Multiplayer

[Zaxx]

Here comes a lot of bashing so if you can't take it just go away instead of flaming. Good criticism is of course always welcome.

So I've played a lot of multiplayer, reached around level 35 and I just have to say: I'm fed up with all the bs that is going on in this game. I've found the basic multiplayer experience pretty good, that's why I've stuck around for a long time but there are a lot of issues getting in the way of truly great gameplay.

First: the progression system is garbage. I knew it was a CoD clone from day1 but it's actually worse. There are 3 boundaries in the way of progressing in this game: character levels, weapon ranks and money. If you ask me, even one of those things would have been enough but my opinion could be on the extreme side because growing up with games like Quake and Unreal Tournament I just find all kinds of progression based multiplayer ridiculous. It should be skill that matters not some stupid number next to your name. On top of that it promotes childish behaviour for a lot of players: if you're not level Legend bazillion you're just a "noob" who clearly has no understanding of the game's incredibly "deep" mechanics. People who behave like that should be exterminated with fire from the servers but games who use this kind of system only makes it easier for gamers to get that attutide.

As for skill, that's where the game starts to really fall apart. Most importantly: the minimap does a horrible job of keeping you up-to-date on enemy positions, it would be better just to get rid of it completely (I'd rather play hardcore modes where you don't have the minimap but people left those a long time ago). Second: the game promotes camping because there are a lot of accurate two-handed weapons. It's really hard to fight back at campers if you're using something that has bad range like dual pistols or SMGs.

And the worst of it all is the damage and stamina systems. Damage is really inconsistent because aiming is inconsistent. A headshot kills you instantly but mostly the game itself decides if you get a headshot or not, not your aiming. Most weapons have a ridiculous spread and even when you're not dealing with that the netcode is bad enough that you'll miss dead-on shots regulalry.

While the damage is inconsistent, there is a thing that's generally true: you go down from only a few hits. This in itself destroys the idea of "dueling". I only had a handful of good duels with other players because most of the time the winner was who pulled the trigger first. It's also ridiculous how easy it is to shoot people in the back: it just takes 2 or 3 quick shots and the target is dead without giving him any chance to fight back. Dodging is also almost impossible with an artifical roll move that makes your enemy's aiming worse while you're doing it. Movement feels limited and sluggish even if you're wearing only basic armor.

And to top it all off: of course the aiming and camera bugs from single player are all there in multiplayer. Sometimes if you're getting close to an object in the environment the camera makes a huge jump and because of that you'll get killed most of the time. Also if you're using cover you have to be really careful what angle you're shooting from because sometimes your character gets in the way of your crosshair and your head will just simply cover out the guy you're aiming at.

Aaand the loadouts: at first the choices you can make seem nice and balanced but actually ther are very far from it. Some loadouts clearly destroy others and while that's fine in team-based modes, basic deathmatch would have been better if Rockstar limited the stuff that's available. A lot of games will be destryoed by guys running around with RPGs on levels that are not suited for that kind of gameplay. Just a quick side note for RPGs: they really hurt the overall experience because even if you manage to dodge a rocket, the physics system makes you fall to the ground and it takes approximately 3 seconds to get up. That's 3 seconds of being a harmless, easy little target for everyone!

The game also has cheaters: I can't even remember how many times I've encountered cheating in this game.

So to sum things up: while the basic experience is fun, everything else starts to slowly kill the whole thing if you dig deeper. Not recommended, enjoy the single player while it lasts and just forget this portion of the game.

[Okihara Jones]

Your complaints are legit. I tried MP and after about 6 hours I couldn't tolerate it. Sadly, most devs don't take the time nor resource to properly ensure a balanced, anti-cheat multiplayer server. After the initial development during alpha/beta, when the game is finally released, the updates stop, and the multiplayer community is taken over by hacks. And Rockstar is notorious for not giving a s*** about the concerns of gamers, particularly PC gamers, and EXTRA particularly with regards to the Steam community. Best to just appreciate the good times you had with this MP and just move on.

My general rule of thumb is to never, EVER invest too much time (re: "money") in a multiplayer game that also hosts a story-driven, single player experience. The MP will suffer, or the SP will suffer, but it is rare that both will be great together.