A online FPS experience like none other, but lack of quality content from developers will eventually ruin it.
The Planetside version of levels is battle ranks. When you dispose of enemy soldiers, armor, or simply aid in the capture of a base, you gain battle experience (or BEP); which eventually leads to progress in battle ranks. There are 25 battle ranks in Planetside, and it can take you quite some time to get to the cap. Each battle rank you get, you receive certification points that can be spent to certify your soldier to use certain equipment, such as weapons, vehicles, and other support items. Also at battle ranks 6, 12, and 18 your soldier will receive implant slots. Implants are devices surgically placed inside the soldier’s body, which serve several roles such as a quick boost of running speed, your own personal shield emitter, an advanced targeting system that displays health of enemies and vehicles, and many more. These can often make a drastic difference when used properly in the battlefield.
Along with battle ranks, there are command ranks (more about that in a bit). Planetside is of course hugely team oriented. If you don’t have organization and each soldier is has his own objective nothing rarely gets done. To increase organization and to improve the efficiency of empire operations, you have the tools to create squads (max of 10 soldiers per squad) and platoons (group of 2 or 3 squads).
It is up to the squad leader to hand out assignments and make sure his or her (yes, some girls do play Planetisde) troops know their objective. Successfully capturing a base with your squad or aiding in a base capture, yields you command experience; which eventually leads to command ranks. There are five command ranks, and each command rank you receive allows you access to more tools to make your job of commander easier. Example, at battle rank 2 you receive the ability to mark points on the map that everyone in your squad can see, at battle rank 3 you have the ability to free draw on the map a set of battle plans that everyone in your squad have access too.
What is most noticeable about Planetside is of course the battles. There are three empires both with their own unique set of weapons and vehicles (although there is a common pool of weapons and vehicles that all three empires draw from) and 10 massive continents with a set of several bases on each one. The game is basically territorial wars, the objective is taking all of the bases on a continent in order to officially capture that continent and reap the benefits. (Each continent has a global effect given to that empire, such has extra vehicle shielding or faster respawn rate).
Planetside has a good mix of both outdoor and indoor battles. Although outdoor battles are hugely vehicle oriented. Although it is possible for a foot soldier to use Anti-Vehicle weaponry it often happens that they are simply overrun outdoors by aircraft, tanks, and mechs and this can get extremely frustrating for newer people who don’t have the access or experience for the vehicles.
And then, the indoor battles… Of course the largest advantage of Planetside is the fact that it is indeed skill oriented. If you are a huge twitch shooter fan you will fair quite well in indoor engagements. It is quite a common sight for a newbie to take out a solider twice his rank.
But the game doesn’t start until you join an outfit. Outfit’s are the guilds of Planetside, and there a great way to get a new player rolling or a experienced player busy. Most outfit’s have Ventrillo or Teamspeak servers for better communication on the battlefield (I can’t tell you how many times I was shot to death while typing, these servers eliminate that) so it’s best that you have a microphone. There is no experience elsewhere like having ten or so guys on teamspeak while doing an operation.
What if shooting isn’t your thing? There are so many more roles in Planetside then a common foot soldier. How about being a medic? Okay, maybe drive a tank? Fly troops behind enemy lines in your massive troop transport, the Galaxy? The possibilities are endless and the best part is that you will receive battle experience for doing all of these things even if you didn’t pull a trigger.
So, what are the downfalls of Planetside? Surprisingly the greatest downfall of Planetside is not the gameplay, or the community… Planetside’s biggest downfall is the developers. Your probably used to MMOs that get new content around the clock, but sadly Planetside never gets that kind of support. Planetside is owned by SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) and it shares the same developers as Everquest and Everquest II. And of course, Everquest gets the most attention.
The largest update was almost two years ago and it was the introduction of mechs (called Battle Frame Robots or just BFRs). Since then, the content has been slim. There are rarely GM planned events and the player often feels that SOE just doesn’t care. The last content patch simply raised the battle rank from 20 to 25, but the only new thing that was added was re-colored textures for the armor once you get rank 25. There have even been people who claimed at a SOE stock meeting SOE admitted that they use all revenue generated from Planetside and use it for Everquest… and it shows.
So you have a choice, I would recommend Planetside to almost anyone for it’s playability and FPS experience that no other game can provide. But once you really get into it, the staff and developers at SOE can get the player really frustrated, and the game will eventually lose it’s value.
RECAP
Highs:
Epic battles; skill based.
Lows:
Vehicles can feel overpowered; can get laggy on lower end machines; lack of content from developers can get real frusterating at times.
All-in-all:
A online FPS experience like none other, but lack of quality content from developers will eventually ruin the experience and leave the player feeling cheated for paying $13 a month.