PlanetSide Hands-On Preview

Sony Online Entertainment, formerly known as Verant Interactive, has been making massively multiplayer online games for years now, though some skeptics would say that the company's only significant success has been EverQuest, the extremely popular and long-lived fantasy role-playing game. But you don't have to be a skeptic to wonder about Sony Online's upcoming massively multiplayer first-person shooter, PlanetSide. After all, 2002 was an amazing year for PC first-person shooters, thanks to games like Battlefield 1942 and Unreal Tournament 2003. So if you're a fan of first-person shooters, why wouldn't you keep playing those games, rather than go out and buy PlanetSide, which will require you to pay monthly fees?

We were recently fortunate enough to sit down and spend some real time playing PlanetSide, and from what we've seen, the game may just turn out to be worth it. The game will be a persistent team-based shooter that will let you play on the side of one of three political factions, each of which has its own weapons and technology, and each of which is trying to take over the world by attacking enemy installations on the planet's continents. The developers at Sony Online Entertainment have some very clear ideas about how they expect players to play PlanetSide, and they're making sure to give you plenty of options. If you want to use heavy weapons and be a full-on commando, you can do that. If you prefer to be a reconnaissance pilot who uses light aircraft to scout enemy territory and harry enemy armies, you can do that. If you'd like to play as a stealth expert with the ability to turn nearly invisible, you can do that. But what's most remarkable is that, as we found, PlanetSide will let you do all these things with just one highly experienced character.

Even though your character can eventually have lots of different abilities, PlanetSide will let you create a character relatively quickly. You simply choose to align your character with one of the game's three factions--the New Conglomerate, the Terran Republic, or the Vanu Sovereignty--and then begin choosing your character's certifications, or skills, by spending certification points. You'll begin with only a few certification points, but you'll earn more on the battlefield. PlanetSide doesn't have physical attributes, so you don't have to worry about strength or intelligence or dexterity, but you will want to choose the certifications that are right for you. Even though the game offers new characters an impressive array of choices, PlanetSide's certification system is rather straightforward: You choose basic certification in basic skills such as ground assault, medical treatment, hacking, repairs, or basic vehicle certification, and you can then unlock advanced certifications by spending additional points. For instance, if you play as a New Conglomerate character and you're interested in fast ground transport, you can use certification points to purchase ground vehicle certification, which lets you pilot the speedy Harasser four-wheel buggy and will also unlock certification for the more heavily armored Enforcer combat buggy.

Certification is central to PlanetSide. Certification points are what let you equip your character with weapons, equipment, and vehicles from your home base. Though the game had an economy based on actual currency in its earlier stages, the PlanetSide team got rid of that and chose instead to make the system far more streamlined by focusing on certification. Certification also essentially defines what your character is. Rather than forcing you to play a predefined character class, like a fighter or a thief in a traditional role-playing game, PlanetSide will let you define your characters and their abilities by spending certification points on whatever skills appeal to you. If you prefer to play as a support character, you can load up on medical and advanced medical certifications and equip your character with a medical kit. If you'd like to play as a stealth-based character, you can purchase certification for an infiltration suit, which can make both your character and your current vehicle nearly invisible and difficult to detect--unless your enemies have wisely certified themselves in nanotechnology engineering to build motion sensors and landmines.

Packing Heat

It might sound complicated, but PlanetSide's certification system takes all the cumbersome number-based systems of other online games, like experience levels, character classes, and money, and rolls them all into a single system. Once your characters are certified with a certain type of equipment, they essentially have unlimited access to that equipment at any nearby friendly terminal, so you don't need to worry about running out of money to buy ammunition or weapons. As long as you're certified with a specific weapon, you can purchase as much of that weapon's ammunition as you can carry--but as we found, filling out your character's inventory is one of Planetside's most strategic aspects.

That's because ammunition, medical kits, repair kits, hacking tools, and weapons all take up about the same amount of space in your character's inventory. In our first run through the game, we tried picking up as many gadgets as possible, including a medical kit, a hacker tool, and a vehicle-repair tool, and we were able to fill many roles at once--at least at first. We eventually ran into the nasty problem of going head-to-head with enemy soldiers and running out of ammo after a while because we simply weren't carrying enough--and in PlanetSide, a soldier with no ammo is a sitting duck. Clearly, the PlanetSide team is attempting to make sure that lone-wolf players don't become all powerful or have the ability to do everything. You can take certification in heavier armor, which actually features additional holsters and inventory slots, but as we learned firsthand, even with a big inventory, you'll rarely if ever be able to hold off an entire army on your own. Heavy-duty combat troops will need support characters to back them up, and support characters will need cover fire to perform their duties safely.

However, as part of a squad in PlanetSide, your character's varied skills can add a great deal--choose the right weapons, ammunition, armor, and items, and your characters can be effective shock troopers, base defenders, scouts, pilots, or medics. In addition to your characters' certifications, you can also choose body implants that enhance your abilities. PlanetSide currently has 10 different implants, including personal armor enhancement, running speed improvement, weapon zoom amplifier, and exceptionally quiet footsteps--which is especially effective when used with an infiltration suit. These implants can be very useful, but they drain your character's stamina over time. And since your character needs stamina to run and jump, you'll need to use your implants judiciously, or you'll find yourself exhausted and unable to run, which can be a real problem if you need to make a hasty retreat.

Fortunately, you'll be able to cover ground quickly if you have vehicle certification, which will let you pilot such vehicles as scout airships, heavy transports, light ground buggies, and tanks. Nearly every vehicle in PlanetSide has a pilot's seat and a gunner's seat, though several of the larger vehicles can carry a number of players at once. Vehicles have varying speeds and handling, but they can be a great way to cover ground quickly, provided you have the certification. You can procure a vehicle at the nearest friendly base by using a vehicle terminal (for instance, you use a launch pad terminal for an air-based vehicle, and you use a garage terminal for a ground vehicle). Unlike in EA Games' excellent World War II shooter Battlefield 1942, in which specific spawn points produce a set number of specific vehicles that anyone can grab, you can generate only those vehicles you're certified for. However, instead of waiting around for the next set of vehicles to spawn, you can generate your own immediately.

On to the Fight

Though you can catch a heavy air transport at your home base to quickly transport yourself to an enemy installation, you'll land on terra firma on foot, with nothing more than the items and weapons in your backpack. If you plan to bring a vehicle into battle, you can generate it at your base and drive it down to the enemy base, making sure to stay out of range of any anti-vehicle turrets. Though you can choose from a number of different certificates and can also gain more certification points from your experience on the battlefield, it's a good idea to make sure someone in your squad is certified with the heavy-duty advanced mobile station (AMS). The AMS is a sizeable transport that not only carries lots of allies, but also serves as a mobile supply station and base. The AMS lets you "matrix" your character so you'll reappear near the AMS if you die in battle (similar to "binding" in EverQuest), and it also serves as a regular equipment terminal, allowing you to replenish your ammo and swap out weapons and items. Because of this, the AMS is a crucial supply point you'll fall back to if the battle isn't going well, but since it's mobile, it can also advance into enemy territory with your team when you're winning.

The battles in PlanetSide seem about as fast-paced as the battles in any other recent first-person shooter, and though most conflicts are generally tests of skill and reflexes, they aren't always as straightforward as in other games. The most effective way to win a battle and take over an enemy base is to keep track of some important factors. You should watch your current stamina, which lets you run, jump (jumping down from balconies is a quick way to close distance with an enemy below), and use implants; your current health and armor levels, how much ammo you're carrying, and whether or not your team has control of your base's control centers. Each of PlanetSide's bases has a control room, indicated by a sign with two yellow flags, that can be hacked by a player with appropriate certifications and a hacking tool. Each base also has a generator, a huge power converter that can withstand a great deal of damage (in fact, destroying an enemy generator is all but impossible without the combined firepower of a team) but will leave the base open to enemy control if destroyed.

And even if you do happen to get shot down on the battlefield, most of the time you'll be able to get back into the action quickly and easily, thanks to PlanetSide's carefully designed player death system. If you do get killed, you can be instantly revived by a teammate with medic certification. If no medics are around, you'll have to go back through your last matrix point to respawn, and your body, represented by a casket that contains your inventory, may be looted by enemy players.

However, unlike in other online role-playing games, this isn't a problem, since you can resupply yourself quickly at the nearest base or AMS. If you die, you don't lose any experience or certification points, so you can, as usual, grab as much in the way of weapons and equipment as you're certified to carry, but if you're fighting over a base, you need to stay alive long enough to ensure that your team takes and holds it. Once an attacking soldier hacks an enemy base's control point, a timer begins ticking, and once the timer runs out, control of the base goes to the enemy. You can attempt to re-hack your own terminal, but as we saw in our own play sessions, control terminals are ideal locations for infiltrator characters to hide and pick off unwanted intruders.

PlanetSide is full of interesting strategic considerations like this. The game is really coming together, and considering its gameplay nuances, its varying gameplay styles, and its huge world, PlanetSide may very well succeed at its ambitious goal of bringing first-person shooters into a massive, persistent online setting. The game is currently scheduled for release early next year, and we'll have more information on the game soon. For now, be sure to watch GameSpot Live's 437493developer interviews with creative director Kevin McCann, producer Dave Georgeson, and Sony Online president John Smedley.