Planetside 2 - Putting the Massively back into MMOFPS
Planetside 2 is war. The current beta battlefield is massive, though from what I understand it’s only a portion of what will be available later on and at launch. Three factions fight constantly over facilities that provide resources they can then use for spawning in vehicles and grabbing upgrades and resupplying items like grenades. This tri-faction battling along with the necessity of holding key locations for bonuses and supply is where the similarity to Guild Wars 2’s WvWvW lays, and where it ends.
The scale of Planetside 2 is extreme, and it’s only going to grow. If you decide to run from fight to fight you’ll be doing a lot of running. Galaxy dropships and Sunderers are air and ground transport respectively, and can provide mobile spawn locations. A Flash is an inexpensive little quad bike you can grab to dash from point A to point B. The only reasons you’d want to run are having spawned in vehicles too soon to do so again, or wanting to sneak up to something. A Flash may be inexpensive and quick, but at the moment you can hear them from a good way away. The same goes for pretty much any vehicle.
Gameplay
Most of the upgrades are still on lockdown in beta, so it’s difficult to get an impression of how this might pan out down the line. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like any of it gives a massive edge. Most of the useful stuff is fairly cheap, like sights and suppressors and the like for weapons. Some of the vehicle weaponry might give an edge, but none of this is even remotely close to pay to win. It boils down more to their battle rank levelling system and where people have spent their certification points, which you use to buy the aforementioned upgrades.
The classes work out fairly well, but so early on it’s impossible to tell how well balanced it is. I’ve felt like the standings are relatively fair so far. A skilled light assault can kill a heavy assault, or vice verse. Weapons wise, the only thing that’s stood out to me so far was testing the Vanu Sovereignty Infiltrator as a comparison to the other factions. It seems like Vanu weapons may have less bullet drop. But then again, the scope on that one also didn’t have tick marks for adjusting to drop off, whereas the Terran one does.
Upgrades and difference aside, the dynamic of play is insanely fun. It’s one giant, constantly shifting battle. You can become so engrossed in taking a base that when you’re done and the tension has died down while everything gets repaired, you could glance at the map and see you’ve been cut off from the rest of your territory. In one moment yesterday, playing Terran Republic, ten of us took a walled off base on the Vanu side of the centre of the map. When we started, our territory all connected to that area. When we were done, there was barely any red Terran presence on the map, let alone nearby. So off we rushed to retake bases. Several hours then passed far too quickly.
Sound
They’ve done an amazing job on the sound so far. Each vehicle for has a distinct noise, and some are incredibly easy to tell apart. The clearest examples I can think of are the air vehicles. The whine of Vanu Sovereignty Scythe sounds completely different from a Terran Republic Mosquito. And a Liberator Gunship is distinct from the deep hum of a Galaxy Dropship. You wouldn’t think distinct sounds were so incredibly important, but the more time I sink into pitched battles the more I find myself reacting to what I hear. For instance, yesterday we were trying to get a Galaxy onto the landing pad of the Allatum Biotech facility and you could hear the anti-air Max suit fire from a nearby ridge. It immediately gets your attention. The same applies to sniping. Infiltrator weapons can be very loud, and even after upgrading to a suppressor you can give away your position with noise as well as the light of the shot. And if you’re trying to sneak around in a vehicle, it just won’t work.
For the musically inclined, there is very little. Some plays when you log on and some more if you switch classes or resupply at a station. Out in the battle you don’t need it. You don’t even notice. All you hear is the positively amazing sound of gunfire, cannons, explosions, and vehicles. The sound of some of the larger guns in the game carries into the distance and it sets up a brilliant, immersive ambience of battle. If music was added, I have a feeling I’d turn it off just so I can clearly hear all the sounds of conflict.
Visuals
The game looks good, though some of the textures are a little basic on the settings. This mostly applies to terrain. The vehicles and character models are well done and well suited to their factions, usually having fairly distinct colour schemes. The lighting on some of the larger facilities, like the Biotech domes and any walled-in base are impressive. The single most impressive visual in the game is definitely the night battles. I almost wish it was just a tad darker, but I’ve also no idea yet if the heavy moonlight is something that cycles or is always on. The night fights are spectacular; bright tracer rounds arcing across the battlefield, the lines of anti-air fire carving up the sky. It’s a wonderful aesthetic, and the cycle of a clearly different day and night is nice to have.
Overall
There are a few negatives to the beta so far. The currency structure and icons and options are a bit of a learning curve, especially with nothing in the way of a tutorial to help acclimatize you to all the resources and map icons. There are a few bugs; I’ve sometimes fallen through the world on respawning or lagged out like crazy. I have some other issues with it, like the view distance being a little too close for very long range shots, and some of the controls being a little odd.
All in all, these are entirely normal issues for a beta. If some of it persists into a live client, it could be problematic, but for now it’s known to the developers and ideally on the road to being sorted.
If you like large scale FPS combat, with the booming sound of tank cannons, explosions and the whine of incoming air support to keep you company, you’ll love this. Some of the functionality they’re planning on introducing, like in game Twitch streaming and Youtube Video creation will streamline this for a lot of content creators, so we’ll definitely see plenty of it in the future. But overall, the battle ambience is hands down my favourite thing about Planetside 2. The sounds and spectacle of a night battle I have never experienced anywhere else, and it will keep me going back for a good while. Once I have more experience with the classes and vehicles, I’ll post again with a breakdown.
- ED
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