If you manage to secure a higher-level player on your team, the increased abilities and power can make victory a foregone conclusion. But as with any competitive multiplayer game that offers advantages for players that have been playing for longer than others, the cost is imbalance. In the immediate term, the system is compelling, as you want to level up your characters, increase your options and grow more powerful, and the excitement of growth distracts from the limited number of maps and game types. But most offer tangible advantages in play by unlocking new weapons and upgrades for those weapons, and increasing the abilities of your Necromorphs. Some of these are merely aesthetic, such as the different colours and styles of suits for your Human character. As you level up your character, you unlock various extras.
The game borrows Modern Warfare's influential experience system and after each match you earn points for the number of kills made and the number of objectives you personally cleared, with bonus points if you were on the winning team. Every time you die when playing as a Necromorph you have the chance to reincarnate as a different type, but you must wait longer if you want to respawn as the more powerful creatures, an ingenious system that forces you to decide whether it's more important to rush back in as a weaker unit and overwhelm in numbers, or sit out till you can arrive in power.