First off, Beta is Beta. There is still a lot left in the
game that’s under discussion and review, and a whole slew of things left to
test and add. It’s still a single continent world, whereas release will likely
be two with a rapidly coming third. Many of the weapons and upgrades are still
locked.
So rather than taking this as set in stone negatives, I
would say it’s more of a collection of things I sincerely hope are fixed or
altered by release.
More Continents
Extra continents will change the dynamic and will likely be
necessary to keep things interesting. They’re coming, or so we’re told, but not
quite here yet. As it stands, the general to and fro of battle is still fun,
but sometimes it feels a little too much like just driving or flying around
capturing and recapturing points, and having to hold points on more than one
continent may help to stress defending what you take.
The Learning Curve
One major issue that every new player will notice is the complete
lack of any kind of explanation of anything. I can understand this for a beta;
the tutorial isn’t the most important part of the game and can easily be done
last. But I suspect some beta players have ended up a little discouraged by the
lack of help and subsequent learning curve. You’re left to figure out the HUD
icons, map icons, which bases do what and which terminals spawn what by
yourself. It’s relatively self-explanatory, and you do get used to it after
playing for a while, but some basic instructions and explanations would speed
up the process significantly and definitely needs to be in and functional by
release.
If I recall correctly, the first Planetside had a... sort of
testing arena. A small section of a main map around a base where you could go
to spawn vehicles and weapons and such in and try it all out. Practice your
flying without risking crashing immediately and wasting supply or killing people.
I sincerely hope something similar makes it in to Planetside 2, even if they
limit it to a certain rank or level.
Ranking Up
The ranks, however, could turn out to be an issue
themselves. After a while it could be excessively difficult for a new player to
do well. Higher ranked players have access to more weaponry, upgrades and
better armour. In the long run, this could produce a barrier to entry of sorts.
But on the other hand, players should be rewarded for investing time in the
game. It’s a fine line between “I beat you because I have more upgrades and
better weapons than you” and “I beat you because I’m better at this”.
Alternatives and tradeoffs might be best, but may feel less rewarding to longer
term players.
Cashing In
The last concern I have, and perhaps an unfounded concern at
that, is the cash shop. I distinctly recall from several interview VODs from
back at E3, as well as previous and more recent interviews and commentary, that
the developers and PR staff have frequently mentioned that the game will not be
pay to win, and that the cash shop will be for aesthetic purposes. My concerns
are that they’ll decide that as long as you can buy something with in-game
currency (Auraxium you earn while playing), it’s fine to attach a Station Cash
(Sony Dollars) price to it as well. I don’t think it’s as clear cut as buying
weapons with real money = pay to win, but it does revolve a little around how
quickly you earn the in-game currency and how expensive items are on launch,
and how well balanced the additional weaponry is. If there is no expensive
hands-down the best gun ever for X class, that you can grind for weeks for or
pay $10 to get now, it might work out. Personally, I hope the cash shop stay
purely aesthetic.
The only issue with that is friend or foe recognition. It
seems a little buggy in beta at the moment, especially for vehicles, so
recognizing a vehicle texture or hull pattern on a cross-faction vehicle like a
Galaxy or Lightning is fairly important. But then, if the FoF system functioned
more reliably and the red or blue foe or friendly tags always popped up when
hitting ‘Q’, it should work out fine for the most part. It does take some time
to get used to identifying the sounds and silhouettes, too, and it is nice that
so many are fairly distinct.
But Planetside 2 - It's still damn fun.
I certainly have high hopes for Planetside 2, and will keep
on dying horribly in the beta, but it definitely has some issues that need
fixing for release. There’s plenty of time and plenty of effort going into it,
and so far they do seem to be giving fair consideration to the community’s
opinion. Time will tell.
- ED
(Note: This is valid as of date of publishing, September 16th 2012. Beta changes may be fairly rapid.)
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