Across all matches and game types, you accumulate experience that contributes to your overall rank. This is directly tied to weapon, class, and item availability. It's a straightforward system, but one that encourages you to invest time in order to access the best equipment and special features. Parallels to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare certainly can't be avoided, as much of that formula has been adapted here in good form.

Starting out as a Private, you work up 11 military grades to become a General. Kills, naturally, net you a point of experience; additionally, completing objectives tied to each game type awards you extra experience. Promotion is the only way of accessing every feature multiplayer has to offer, with each new rank unlocking a set of goodies. Achieve Sergeant First Class, for instance, and you open up the sub-machine gun and shotgun for use as a soldier. By default, you begin your career as a basic soldier without any perks. Specific ranks, however, introduce new classes that grant bonuses such as the medic which becomes available at Master Sergeant. Some features even require a bit of playing before unlock, such as the ability to create your own clan that gets triggered when you make Sergeant.

For obvious reasons, unlocking these weapons, classes, and features is a must. While you're able to hold your own online as a basic soldier, waging war becomes much easier when taking on any of the game's six alternate classes. The aforementioned medic has the ability to revive fallen teammates and recoup lost health, which of course proves beneficial on the battlefield. Other classes afford unique tactical opportunities like the Scout and Saboteur who possess the cloak and disguise skills, respectively. Distinctions among the classes require changing your play style in order to take advantage of their strengths and circumvent weaknesses.

Complementing the advancement ladder is an assortment of commendations for special actions. Badges reward specific actions such as executing ten head shots in a single round or using only your sidearm in combat. The Revivalist Special Ribbon, for example, rewards you with the health pack ability if you're able to revive five teammates in the span of a match. Other ribbons unlock new weapons and/or perks related to the ribbon. You equip these prior to a match as you would a weapon in order to receive the perk during battle.

The extraordinary depth to be found online points to a vast improvement over its predecessor. We've known for some time that it would visually surpass the original, yet how decisively the game would fix its myriad shortcomings across both single player campaign and multiplayer has been unknown. While we must still wonder how the single player experience will pan out, it's surprisingly clear that multiplayer will deliver in a big way.

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