In late 2012, Sony Online Entertainment’s newest cash cow and public offering of gaming goodness graced the internet waves as “Planetside 2” was released from the throes of an extensive beta testing phase. The game had already developed a widespread hype and with its rather unique style of gameplay.
“Planetside 2” fluidly combines the realms of the FPS shooter with the massively multiplayer. The battles in “Planetside 2” are truly massive, with at least 100 active players present in the largest engagements. These huge fights usually last hours on end, with players moving back and forth along strategic points of capture, defense, and assault in one of three server-wide theaters of war spanning vast continents.
The game follows the story of three huma- ruled factions and their quest for domination of the planet Auraxis and its revolutionary mineral Auraxium. The Terran Republic is a domineering and authoritarian regime that seeks to unite the galaxy under one banner. The New Conglomerate is composed of freedom fighters and mercenaries fighting for democracy and freedom from the oppressive Terran Republic. The Vanu Sovereignty is an association of technocrats, academics, and intellectuals who believe the exploitation of otherworldly technology and Auraxium will lead humanity to a new golden age.
Gameplay is frantic and exciting when actively engaged, and calm and anticipatory when not. Players should always be on the lookout for threats: a single team of infiltrators can cloak into a team’s base and hack their defensive emplacements in less time than it takes to divert drop pods as a defense. “Sunderers” are large mobile command vehicles that, when deployed with the requisite upgrade, serve as mobile spawn points for a sustained assault on a distant location. A Galaxy aerial personnel carrier with sufficient interceptor and gunship support can break behind enemy lines and swiftly deploy troops to capture nodes.
The capture nodes themselves are often towering and fantastical: shielded bio-labs shimmer with energy while mining facilities bristle with artillery emplacements and anti-air flak guns. Generators power protective shields while the Spawn Control Unit serves as the beating heart of any base as it governs the defending forces ability to respawn upon death within the facility. Emplacements can be hacked by Infiltrators, C4’ed Heavy Assault troops, or repaired by Engineers.
Weapons and other upgrades are unlocked through normal play via gaining Certification points. These points are then used to purchase from an extensive list of hundreds of weapons and enhancements for a dizzying array of aspects of play. It is expected that the player will focus on a specific area of the game to improve in, gradually becoming very skilled in it before moving on to a different one. The degree of customization is very large here, as players can extensively modify the look, feel and handling of almost any vehicle or class. There exist many paths to take your avatar and many ways to play the game.
Overall, “Planetside 2” is an immensely enjoyable game. The replay value is stellar, and the SOE servers are usually under high load and heavy population. The graphical optimizations present are top-notch, helping to make the game as beautiful as it is deadly. There also exists a spicing of realism, as aircraft and bullets react to gravity and other factors much like they do in real life. It remains to be seen in the long run how well “Planetside 2” will do compared to mainstays of smaller based combat like “Battlefield”, “Team Fortress” and “Counter-Strike”, but with the way things are going thus far, it looks like “Planetside 2” is here to stay.
You can download “Planetside 2” and begin playing today via Steam or SOE’s website: planetside2.com
