Planetside

Rating:
Summary: RPG GAMER
Review: Ok, I have heard so much bad stuff about this game. So I decided to try for my self. IT IS THE BEST game ever made. The graphics are crystal clear. Sound is awesome you can even hear the cloaked Terran scum walking behind you. Every thing is awesome. Don't let anyone tell you other wise.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: I went out and bought this game the first day it came out, and I'm regretting it already, for many many reasons. First off, this game is VERY unstable. I have a system that exceeds the required system apecifications, and the game crashes almost every time I try to enter a new continent besides the Sanctuary. There have been many many times when I have spent quite a while trying to find a squad only to lose it when the game crashed to my desktop and refused to load again without a restart. Secondly, the support is horrible. If you go to the support website and search for your problem, you will either come across one of their Everquest solutions, or (in my opinion) solutions to questions that they think will sell the game, such as "What is Planetside like?" Yes, that question is really in their "support" area. It really doesn't seem to me like the game was ready to be released at all. It's such a simple but wonderful idea, and the producers have done such an impressively awful job on it. So, my suggestion, do yourself the favor I wish I would have done myself and stay well clear of this game, for a little while at least. They might get their problems fixed, but if not before my one free month is up, I'm out and my Planetside CD's will be retired to my 'other' CD case.

Rating:
Summary: Same ... Different Base
Review: SSDB (Same ... Different Base)

That's how I feel about the game, as it went live. I played the game in open beta for 2 weeks. At first, the fun and exhiliration of actually battling it out with thousands of people online was addicting. Then realization came that I won't ever get to see more then a 100 people on-screen, and at most a couple hundred battling it out near one area (happened one time for me).

But big battles aren't easy to find. Most of the time, you'll arrive at base with little or no resistance. From forming a squad to capturing enemy held base, you will have spent an hour doing basically nothing. The core gameplay is at issue here. Regardless of which certifications you choose, it all boils down to capturing base. There's no other way of accomplishing anything in this game. I mean other MMO's will give you quest to fulfill, you can just randomly go and kill enemies in the 'wild'...in Planetside, with the experience system as it is, if you're not in or around a base, you're not getting much exp.

They can pretty up the game all they want, but as long as the core gameplay focuses on base capture, Planetside will ALWAYS be SSDB.

Now on to the good side...the developers are very quick in listening to their players. Changes are always planned, and unlike other MMO's, I feel very confident the PS dev team will do everything in their power to make changes the fans are clamoring for (when's night-time feature coming up, dammit!). The game is, for what it is, very stable. Drops were uncommon even in beta, and with the netcode 56K and Cable Modem users both are at even ground (it does nerf the Broadband user a bit to accomplish this, but what the hey).

Most importantly, I strongly feel this game can be golden. Even with all the negatives, this game has obvious potential. For that, I will put in an extra star for the review.

Rating:
Summary: Why Are We Fighting Again?
Review: I'll admit it, when I first started playing this game in open beta, I thought it was pretty fun. If you ever played or enjoyed Tribes 2, this game is very much like it, which was my main draw to the game. Planetside is essentially a squad-based game in which your empire battles two opposing empires in a persistent online world. Sound fun? It is, but Planetside quickly begins to lose its charm.

There are three empires that you can choose to be a part of. All of the empires are basically the same, with the following exceptions: they each have a different main battle tank, their MAX units are all different, and they all have a different heavy and anti-vehicle weapon. All of the other weapons, armors, tools, and vehicles are all shared between the empires. This lack of diversity between each empire is very disappointing, and after fighting against one empire for a while, you've basically fought against each one.

An interesting aspect of Planetside is that as you participate in different battles and capture enemy bases, your character will go up in rank. As you go up in rank, you earn certification points that you can use to learn different skills, which in turn lets you use different armors, equipment, and vehicles. Four certification points are given to you in order to get started, and each empire has the same set of skills. There are no classes, so anybody can learn anything. This has its benefits, and its shortcomings. By not having different classes, every character is somewhat unique, and is defined by the skills they have learned. However, since there are only so many "useful" skills and vehicles, everybody chooses the same certifications.

But as long as the game has good gameplay, who cares about diversity right? Well, prepare for another disappointment. In Planetside, I haven't seen one battle that was won due to skill. Instead, whoever has the most players in an area will capture that area. Also, capturing an area consists of fighting into the enemy base, and then hacking into their control console. Some fights are exciting, which result in the satisfaction of just barely capturing a base against impossible odds. Most fights are very boring, which consist of about one hundred or so members from your empire walking around the base while it's being captured so they can earn experience. Since hacking into a control console takes fifteen minutes to do, be prepared to be standing around doing nothing for most of these fifteen minutes, as there are usually so many people waiting around to get experience from the capture that the enemy has no chance to defend the base.

What promised to be the ultimate online first person shooter turned out to be rather disappointing. At the moment, the game is plagued by lag, uninteresting gameplay, and a nonexistent story line. And with a $... monthly fee you may be forced you to ask yourself "Is this really worth my money?" Unfortunately for me, it wasn't.

Rating:
Summary: Seems like an inexperienced staff
Review: Very Pretty. Versatile. It can be fun with friends.
(wait for it) BUT Save your money. Avoid this product.

Support is terrible. The software is buggier then a bait shop. Their forums are littered with people who are unhappy with the product. I'm not as unhappy as most, but it needs a lot of polish, and should not have been released. What really kills it is you see potential for a good game and that is blown with poor implementation. The second star is for just that, it had potential and I want to credit them with that, but the moment there is a problem you are through.

Here are some issues just in the first few days (I'm leaving many out):
Server lag and framerates are bad even with the top of the line machines. Speaking of which you a high end machine to have the game run smoothly. 512k memory and a 128k new video card with updated drivers is a MUST to run it minimal. You want twice that memory to not see constant frame hits (you are warned of this though)

The help files for support don't exist. It actually says *Fill in Technical Support phone numbers and such here* if you click through the game help to the tech support area. If you do call their TS phone number (long distance), they then tell you how to ask for help in game...the game you bought... with the faulty manual. Then you have to somehow get the attention of a in game help person --- which is to say challenging at the very least.

Large numbers of people are unable to get the game going, or are having problems with it. They are in their second or third day waiting for help or responses from Tech Support people. To be honest I think this is a combination of; a poor not ready for release software with a manual that contradicts some of the gameplay aspects, a swamped under manned support staff that is getting frustrated.

The game mechanic for experience was changed just before release. It in no way resembles any of the published or advertised ways it should be when evaluating the product. What's more there seems to be issues with it saving your character properly at intervals. Sometimes you will find the hard fighting of the last 20 minutes for a base capture lost because there was a save problem.

Most bugs or problems just plain lock the game up and out. You cannot progress to even see where you need help or to give this information to a tech support person. Most responses are that you basically have to uninstall and re-install this cd collection anytime you have a technical issue.

If this is the way their support is at it's peak when the product is just released, under scrutiny and all hands are on deck. I would hate to see what it is like a few months down the road.

Rating:
Summary: What to do next?
Review: I took part in the beta. I was captured by the massive battles and the fun that this game does offer. However, after about a month, I got tired of it. Its the same thing every time. Get to location capture base, move to next base, capture base, etc etc. Too much repetitiveness for my taste.

Rating:
Summary: Good but lacking
Review: The beta was a wonderful chance to see this game in action. During base sieges I could see snipers to my left taking potshots at unwarry soldiers, Tanks rolling forward trying to take out fellow team members, while planes from above launching a barrage of missles. Its quite amazing that they could have wars that would have hundreds of people swarming left and right of you.

Now for the downpart. Most of the time I spent was waiting. And waiting. And waiting. While there are some exceptionally spectacular battles between the Empires(sometimes, all three are duking it out for a base, making the battles even more hectic), most of the time, you'll find yourself travelling large distances to get to battles. Another major aspect of the game is base capture. Sometimes they can be fun, but for the most part, you'll enter an empty enemy base, hack in, and wait there for 14 minutes for the "hack" to finish and the base to be captured. More than half of the time, while we were hacking a base, on the other side of the island, the enemy empire was hacking into ours. Suddenly, it dawned on me that this quickly turned into a game where it was capture Base A, then go to Base C, then capture Base B, then go back and capture Base A. Sadly, the bases themselves are generic in nature (they all have similar characteristics, a basement, a second story, etc.), and the "amazing 20 different types of terrain" is just media-hype sponsoring (the terrains don't make a squat difference in terms of gameplay, since most of the time you'll be flying over them, which by the way is the only good way of travel). Snow, dessert, volcano ash, it doesn't make a single difference to you're traveling. All the islands are equally hilly, making land vehicles travel almost irrelavant (you slow down to an ant crawl when you're going uphill in any vehicle, and by the time you get to your destination, the enemy empire has spotted you, and quickly destroys the slow-moving large and easy target).

Did I mention there's no drive to the game? (Pardon my angry tone, I really just don't recommend this game) The basic premise is to Capture or Defend a base, nothing more or less. They'll be adding "Capture the Flag" as a mini-game for empires soon (Oh, isn't that original) You can play different roles, either a soldier, engineer, pilot, or a stealth hacker, thats about it. Sure you can play the other roles, but you'll find being a medic or a tank driver (did I mention the hills) doesn't that often come into play.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, for a time, but released on schedule
Review: I played Planetside (PS) for over a month in the closed and open betas. I tried all three empires, and every role in the game from pilot, to vehicles, to infantry, to the MAX units, support roles, etc.

Positives:

Very large battles, can be very intense especially when you are new and the 'wow factor' is still there.

Team play is encouraged, though there are a few roles that you can engage in solo or with a partner. Two that come to mind are sniper and tank crew.

Strategic thinking is rewarded in the game.

The so-so features:

The graphics vary from passable to very good, but be warned in advance that it takes a SERIOUS system to play with high detail and still get decent frame rate. I have a P4 2.66mhz, 1gb ram, Audigy 2 Platinum and 128meg 9700 ATI card running over a cable modem. When I started the playtest, I had half the ram and doubling it enabled the game to stop using the windows swap file and run everything from memory which helps a lot. However, in large battles (say, 30+ people within your visible range) the frame rate can drop off dramatically. I played with the default 1024x768 with no AA or other card-specific functions applied and my frame rate ranged from 100 or so in wide open empty areas to 10-15 in huge battles.

Negatives:

Lack of long term replayability. There are basically three types of battles in the game: tower battles, base battles and 'open field' battles. Tower battles are boring contests to see who can spawn the fastest, bases are uninteresting, poorly designed and cookie-cutter (there are a total of four designs in the entire game).

Two of the three support classes are poorly balanced. Medics are near useless in most encounters. Engineers are useful in certain circumstances, but the problems with the more advanced Combat Engineer deployables (various mines, turrets and sensors) prevent them from playing a significant role in most combats.

Individual tactics and good aim count for little in the game. It is designed so that a beginner can stand a chance against the most experienced player ever to play.

In conclusion, the game does have its high points but for the shekels they want for it, and the high monthly fee, you're paying Ferrari prices for a Chevy Nova. It may succeed in the marketplace but instead of releasing on the arbitrary schedule it should have been developed more. Visit planetside.com yourself and look at the features they promise shortly as evidence of this.

Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect, But At Least It Has Created The MMOFPS Genre
Review: Planetside is not perfect, but hopefully the developers will continue to add to the game in the months after release. The two things I like most about it are the size of the maps (huge) and the fact that you don't have to search among thousands of public servers to find your friends or fellow clan members.

PLANETSIDE HAS SOME PROBLEMS:

As a First Person Shooter, there are problems. There are balance problems with weapons, and the way aiming works is unusual and not very satisfying with some weapons. Joystick support for aircraft has an "added at the last minute feel". The shooter aspect of the game is still fun, but there are some things that many players may not like.

Lag is a problem. I have read that having 1Gb of RAM helps, so I may buy another 512Mb stick... But lag seems to happen at the most critical times, like when you walk into a room with enemy in it! lol

The world of Planetside does not really grow and evolve the way I have been told the worlds of Everquest and Asheron's Call do. I would like to see some enhancements made to the game in this area, but it's my opinion that the people who want to "role-play" in Planetside and are unhappy with the game in it's current state are probably not big FPS players. If you are a hardcore Everquest or other MMORPG player, you may not find Planetside to have the kind of environment you expect.

The game, the online and paper documentation were not finished when the game was shipped. There are numerous interface problems. The popup windows for locating friends in game are clumsy. Things like that: they don't ruin the game, but are a source of occasional irritation.

The griefing system doesn't seem to do what it is intended to do. You could easily TK 5 or 10 people a day and suffer no consequences, although there have been rumors that Sony will cancel accounts of people who chronically grief in this way. I believe you have to TK about 70 people before you suffer any penalty in game, as the griefing system currently works. Gamecards currently cost almost as much as the game itself, but if cheaper one month cards become available, you can bet that there will be griefers who buy them just to TK until their account gets cancelled.

Planetside takes an approach to shot placement called "cone of fire" which means that your shots do not always go where you want them to at long ranges. For some weapons, even the first shot or two do not hit the crosshair. It's frustrating to take the time to kneel and carefully aim a weapon at a distant target, fire a burst and have the first two rounds miss completely.

THERE ARE GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE GAME, THOUGH: if you like shooter type games and particularly if you like working in a clan with other people, and are interested in developing your ability to communicate and cooperate with a group of 10 players to achieve tactical objectives, Planetside will offer hours of fun, at least initially. Whether there will still be large numbers of people playing it 6 months from now is another question.

Voice-over-IP communication is built into the game, so you don't need to run Roger Wilco, but the person who hosts the voice server must have broadband or the sound is garbled, and even if the voice server has broadband, it still doesn't always work well, so most people don't use it! But when it works, it's fantastic.

A squad mechanism is built into the game, and support for clans (called "Outfits" in Planetside) are also supported, with clan ranking. It's nice to finally see a game provide native support for clans.

The maps are much, much larger than any other maps I've played in other games, including Battlefield 1942, and to me, this alone made the game worth buying. This was the first game where I felt it could be difficult to know where the front line is. You can spend minutes on end crossing terrain, and knowing when to stop and look for the enemy becomes an important skill--being able to locate the battle without running into the middle of it and getting killed right away is an important skill in Planetside. Every single other FPS game I have ever played had a limited number of hiding spots, which every good player knows about, making them worthless. The terrain is so big, the problem is not finding hiding spots, but choosing the best one!

The game is supposed to have a "commander role" but in my opinion this feature has not been completely fleshed out, and how Sony implements this is going to be important to the longterm success of the game. If they do it right, it will be the thing that saves Planetside and makes up for all the games' other shortcomings. As the game currently stands, there is little to no leadership most of the time, even in the better squads. The few squads with good leadership and communication are acheiving that *despite* the user interface and game commander features, not because of them.

Planetside is the first persistent-world shooter game, and two or three years from now I think there will be more of this type of game. If you prefer to "roll dice" to see the outcome of combat and don't enjoy moving, aiming, and trying to understand what is happening in the battlespace, you may not enjoy Planetside.

But if you like to cooperate with teammates to capture a base, hold a bridge, plant boobytraps and discover and invent ways to cause headaches for the enemy, Planetside may be what you are looking for!

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate Squad Based Combat
Review: To build on the other reviews, I'll talk about the team element of this game. If you've played a lot of FPS games, you're familiar with "clans" or "guilds" -- friends you get together with to do tournaments and so forth. In normal FPS games, it's really tough to get all your friends on at the same time to play together. Servers fill up, or degenerate into grief festivals and you just plain can't get all your friends on the same team. The only way to do it is with scheduled matches against other clans, and that's a hassle for everyone.

Planetside is a dream game for clanners. There's built in support for "squads" (temporary groupings) and "outfits" (long term clans). You can see where your squadmates are on the map so you can stick together, the squad leader can set waypoints that everyone can see and there's built in voice-over-IP support (all you need is a mic and someone in the group with a good connection to be the host). This all translates into being a really strong team game.

If what you want is a Rambo shooter that lets you run around by yourself doing deathmatch, you're probably happier with games like BF1942 or Unreal Tournament, but no other FPS offers the clan support of Planetside. The Massively Multiplayer environment means you won't have to see "server full" messages and there's always plenty of varied enemies to fight.

The game is short on objectives for release, basically being one big Capture The Base game, but part of being a pay-to-play game is getting frequent content updates, so I'm sure we'll see more variety as time goes by.

Also, the game is "FF On", friendly fire enabled. I consider this to be like a mandatory expert setting for FPS games (FF off is for novices). Fortunately, as a subscription game we can expect customer service monitors to boot the teamkillers, but there's also an effective anti-griefing system built into the game so that a TK's rampage can only last a couple minutes before his weapons are locked. The balance is good enough that an occasional accident won't be penalized but serious and repeated friendly-fire will be.

Anyway, this game is good stuff, and a must-have if you like playing shooters with a group of friends.