PlanetSide 2 Review

I've always dreamed of games like this as a kid; huge battles spanning large maps, rockets crashing into the ground, planes flying overhead, bullets whizzing past your head, and most importantly, explosions! But that's not what's so unique about PlanetSide 2, it's the persistence and character progression that makes it stand out from the average shooter. For those unaware, PS2 is an MMOFPS which means it maintains the sandbox feel and persistence of an MMO, whilst including the FPS elements of a Modern Shooter.

There are three factions in PlanetSide 2 engaged in total war against each other over a planet called Auraxis. They have discovered the secrets to resurrection, or rather 'nano reconstruction' as they call it, which means that the only thing they have to lose on the battlefield is their pride. All three factions differ in ideology and strengths and weaknesses, which is great in my opinion; having three factions that play and feel identical would be about as dull as a salad with no dressing. Once you pick a faction you will end up getting deeply immersed in its culture, which is a great experience for both new players and veterans who have been loyal for years.

The technology worshiping Vanu Sovereignty

The proud and free New Conglomerate

The ruthless and authoritarian Terran Republic

The game plays quite similarly to Battlefield 3, in the sense that you can pick between a handful of classes, customise their weapons, as well as spawn vehicles that can also be customised. But whilst the core gameplay is quite similar, the end goal is quite different. The objective of the game is rather simple, conquer facilities, bases and power plants in the name of your faction, owning this territory will in return gain more resources and bonuses for you and the rest of your faction. When you capture a base, it is yours until the enemy takes it from your hands, there are no map resets, whatever you own is yours to stay. This--coupled with the character progression you get via Battle Rank promotions and Certification Points that you use to unlock new weapons, skins, abilities, and pretty much everything else there is to offer--gives you an overwhelming sense of achievement compared to the average modern day shooter. It's almost as if *gasps* your effort that you put in to a video game means something! Of course this is entirely subjective, and mostly just an illusion of achievement, I'm just merely pointing out that PS2 is far from your average shooter.

Personally I feel like they could have increased the worth of owning territory in Auraxis. At the moment all you really gain from owning territory is an increased rate of gaining resources, which allows you to construct vehicles and the sort, so that you can go out and capture more territory. Of course you gain certifications by capturing or defending such territory, but that is just a bi-product of combat, you could be winning or losing and still be gaining certification points. I understand that they are trying to create a sort of scarcity model, in which you need to have X resource income to allow your faction to spawn a certain vehicle every dozen minutes, but I've never once felt like I've been in danger of not having enough resources, in fact most of the time my resources are all capped at their maximum capacities. I think this is due to the long acquisition cooldown timer after you spawn a vehicle, preventing you from spawning another one for sometimes up to twenty minutes, which is perfectly fine, but bringing it back to my point, I think if owning certain territory allowed you to gain Certifications faster, it would create a much larger sense of urgency to defend or capture that said territory.

An outdated beta version of the map, but similar.

The game's visuals are astonishing, unfortunately my PC is a little too old to be playing it on anything but Low during large battles, but it just looks fantastic. Do yourself a favor when you first start the game, spawn an aircraft at your faction's WarpGate and go explore the map, you won't regret it. The attention to detail, at least on this scale, is unrivaled. The same goes with the sound, although at some times overwhelming because of how much crap is going on at the same time, you truly feel like you're in the thick of a brutal war. I honestly don't think there's a better shooter out there that will immerse you as deeply as PlanetSide 2.

Unfortunately I find the core game mechanics of PlanetSide 2 to be a little bit lacking. Movement seems slightly under polished, as you will often get caught inside of objects if you're trying to traverse outside of flat surfaces. Moreover, crouching and jumping feels quite sluggish. Gun combat and certain weapons on vehicles also feel half baked, it's hard to judge where your bullets are going and sometimes you just feel like you're pissing in the wind. If you go and play Battlefield 3, Counter Strike or any other well tuned shooter, and then come back to play PlanetSide 2, you will understand what I mean. Some things are just not responsive enough and the 'feel' just isn't up to par in my book. Bare in mind that I am a shooter fanatic, and have played Counter Strike, Quake and many other shooter competitively for quite some time; so whilst I have acquired a taste for shooters, I am very finicky when it comes to fine tuning, I just can't accept sloppy gun control.

Lag is quite a large deterrent at the moment, a lot of times it will be fine, but there's just that off chance you'll come across someone with a terrible internet connection and they will literally be warping around everywhere. I created a short video illustrating such lag during the beta, and it seems that the same type of lag is also applicable as of this post. I want to believe that it will pass after launch, which I think is partially true, but since I've experienced this type of lag since the alpha I don't think it will go away any time soon.

All of this points to a rushed release. About three months ago this game was no where near ready for a release. Even though they did a pretty bang up job adding that last minute polish, I feel like if the game had been in development for another solid five months then it would literally be on the top of the shooter holy grail. Let's be real here, Sony doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to MMORPGs, and I believe this was just a move from 'corporate commander' to get the game out of beta so that people would start purchasing stuff from the cash shop. Fortunately I'm fairly certain they will be adding a lot more to the game, more content, bug fixes and overall polish. So who knows? Maybe this game will eventually become the best shooter known to man, or maybe it will just stay within its niche market.

Some people seem to have an issue with the cash shop, which is essentially a way to pay for shortcuts in the game (like any other F2P cash shop). I think they've done a decent job of balancing it, you're not 'paying to win' so to speak, I have not payed a single dime and can confidently kill those who have payed for weapons and equipment they do not have an advantage over me in any manner, they just have a different type of weapon with different strengths and weaknesses. In an ideal world I think a subscription or even one time fee with expansions would have suited PS2 bettter, but we don't live in an ideal world. PS2 requires a high number of players to keep the game playable, it relies on huge amounts of combat, everywhere. When you restrict your playerbase to those who only pay money, you in turn reduce the population. As such, I think F2P was definitely the right way to go, and applaud Sony for the attention to balance they put into the cash shop on release. Let's just hope they keep up the good work and it doesn't turn into a pay to win game.

With all that said I really do enjoy PlanetSide 2, and can appreciate how hard it is to emulate un-instanced persistent warfare on such a large scale. I think what it loses in core game mechanics gets carried by its unparalleled immersion and sheer scale.

Pros

• Unparalleled immersion.
• Visually amazing.
• Persistence, scale and a sense of achievement.
• Free to play.
• AUSTRALIAN LOCAL SERVER (Yes, that's goddamn right)

Cons

• Core game mechanics are not quite up to the standard of modern shooters today.
• Lag and performance issues will cause some headaches.
• Rushed release.
• Could have been a greater incentive to conquer and retain territory.

Verdict

8.1/10, with more polish from the devs I believe this game will turn out to be something amazing.

Should you play this game?

Yes. It is free after all, you will either enjoy it or you won't. So why not give it a try?