PlanetSide 2 Review

I made a promise to myself when I was about to start this review: no battle reports. I wasn't going to write sexy, sensual descriptions of what PlanetSide 2's enormous, chaotic, 2,000-player sci-fi warfare is capable of. There was a very good reason for this, and it's probably not what you're thinking: I just wasn't sure I could do it justice. Over the past week I've been taken aback by the scale of this game. What it encourages players to enact, on the ground and in the skies, and how well it scales the battles is rather extraordinary. It's laying a late claim for my game of the year.



So instead of vast, intricately detailed stories of plasma-burning mayhem, here are some little moments that have made this a game to remember for me. (Imagine Rutger Hauer reading them out as the rain cools his dying body if you must.) I've seen a column of tanks so long that I couldn't tell where it ended; I've watched friends riding quad-bikes off cliffs in foolhardy base assaults; and I've looked down at the on-rushing ground as a drop pod sped me into battle and steered it into the path of an enemy aircraft, ripping through it on my way to the ground.

Larger Than Life

It is exhilarating. It is exhausting. This couldn't happen on any other system without being compromised. And that uncompromising attitude means there are still crashes. Although I've never had any real trouble other than server bugs, the reports of framerate drops and other bugs on message boards are pretty numerous. To its credit, Sony has acknowledged that there's stuff to be fixed, and most of the server shutdowns I've experienced has seen a flurry of activity afterwards to find the culprit.


Perhaps the most amazing thing about it is that Sony Online is willing to put out a flying, driving, and run-and-gun first-person shooter that clearly cost a lot to develop, that requires a powerful PC to get the most of, and give it away for free. And it really is free. You won't miss out on a single player class, vehicle, map, or battle if you decide it's not worth spending your money. Weapons, boosts, decals... there's nothing for sale that I've found that tips a scale in any particular direction. Instead there are "side-grades" and a few movement tweaks, as well as way to improve your own XP gain. You can't buy a bigger, better gun. Well, it might be bigger, but expect it to be slower to fire and reload, or ammo deficient. The only downside is that the collection of XP, which you'll convert into upgrade-unlocking Certs, is a little slow. So if you want to invest in your character without feeling like you're buying progress, just grab some XP boosts ($5 for a week of +50% gain). You'll soon have the Certs you need.

Can You Hold A Gun? You're In

No, this is free-to-play with a purpose: to feed a war with warm bodies. If the servers were empty because it wasn't fun to play for free, if the world didn't feel as alive, PlanetSide 2 wouldn't be half as impressive. It needs stalwarts veterans and newb fodder alike to keep trying to push to capture that last hexagon on the map, to fill the giant structures you fight for, to appear below you as you fly from one corner of the map to the other, the lights of their tanks splashing out onto the road. And what better way to do that than to give everything to everyone? It's incredibly smart. Sony is aware that locking off levels or weapons or vehicles would create a tier system that's just not workable. One 64-square kilometer map might occasionally be taken over by one of the three factions, but there are two others there to fight for, and we're free to teleport between them at will. What good would that be as a game mechanic if only the people that paid could access them?


The main barrier isn't money, but knowledge. This isn't just a shooter -- even once you understand how weapons work and how to purchase and pilot vehicles, there's an entire complex metagame to master. The only way I managed to learn the ropes is by joining up with friendly, experienced players who passed on the knowledge. That's a position that Sony really should be shouldering more than it is: there are links to YouTube-hosted tutorials and a page of UI instructions, but there's more to this game that can be discerned from those. After a week, plus time in the beta, I still don't know why some of my hot-drops into battle deposit me closer to enemies than friends, for example. It might be bugged, or it might be an entirely understandable reason that I've not learned yet. I don't know how XP is divvied up, either. Why is one death worth more than another?

No Victory In Sight

Also, like in most online shooters -- Team Fortress, Call of Duty, Battlefield, et all, there's no sense of finality here despite the grander scale. No real glory in conquering a continent. Just a stats boost and another fight elsewhere. Other MMOs can drop piles of content and quests, and other shooters have a definite end, but PlanetSide 2 drums to a different beat. There are other continents that could be built, but they'd need to bring something truly different to make it worthwhile. (The original game released an expansion pack that created underground caverns to fight in, which was a disastrous idea and should never be attempted again.)


It's pretty brutal to the solo player as well, but that's to be sort of expected in a game where you can easily put yourself in a situation in which you're one soldier against a literal army. In other words, dead. You can just join a game and meet up with randoms, but the connection to the bigger battle is usually lost when I've done that. PlanetSide 2 does stand on its own as a shooter, but when you stand on a vanquished base and look out over the map to see another base being torn into by a pair, or trio, of warring factions, it feels so much more meaningful to discuss how you're going to approach it with friends. At the very least join a squad -- it'll give you a whole new perspective on the struggle. Remember: the more you invest in the world, creating an outfit and coordinating regular battle nights, the more you'll get out of it in return.

Where To?

Free-to-play games are always evolving, and I hope that some of that evolution brings more features to help squads to coordinate. Right now the squad stuff is pretty basic, with no support for a squad leader to point to multiple objectives at once, or suggest what sort of soldier or hardware is required to take them other than doing it over voice chat. The original PlanetSide lets people draw on the map, which is both handy and hilarious. Given that PlanetSide 2 tosses you right into a squad the moment you land, this kind of coordination is obviously an important aspect. It needs some love.


Will it keep you coming back long-term? It's an interesting question. I can see myself keeping this game around in the months ahead, because there are rewards here that aren't readily apparent until you're there in the world and then you realize you can only get them in PlanetSide 2. There's the view you get when an aurora spills it's light overhead, turning the world into a flickering, dancing painting. There's the feeling you get when you're in a Galaxy, looking down at the world, and you can see gunfire illuminating infantry, like ants with torches. There's the approach to a huge fight over a base, watching the giant structure come into sharp focus, a bubble of action encapsulating it.

PlanetSide 2 shows the PC off. From the gorgeous lighting and huge draw distances, to the intense, multiplayer battles. It's based on something old, but that was so far ahead of its time that even now the template feels new. Exciting. It feels like the next generation has just landed.


That's the short version -- for more info, make sure to read Craig's review in progress.

Part 1: The First Few Hours -- Learning the ropes and taking it all in.
Part 2: Off To Battle -- Open warfare, testing classes, and floating tanks.
Part 3: The Not-So-Friendly Skies -- Joining the Vanu airforce.