PlanetSide

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a company most know for bringing us the Everquest series back in 1999, has steadily been expanding its presence in the gaming industry since then.  With three MMOGs under their belt, two sporting the Everquest name and the other being Star Wars Galaxies, it seems SOE has decided to direct their attention to a new class of gamer.

Once again SOE has made an attempt to become a pioneer in the gaming industry, this time with what they claim to be the first true MMOFPS.  PlanetSide, a Massively Multiplayer game that incorporates the persistent world and level scheme of your traditional Role Playing game and tosses in the twitch combat and PvP of a traditional First-Person shooter was released in May 2003.  Toting face-to-face grunt firefights, a multitude of ground vehicles, and several different variations of aircraft, PlanetSide offers many different roles and arsenals for players to choose from.

PlanetSide consists of three factions that each wish to be the leading power over Auraxis.  The Terran Republic believes in loyalty until death — true power comes from unity.  The Vanu Sovereignty believes mankind is a doomed creation plunging toward oblivion and that  their only chance is to learn from alien ‘Vanu’ technology in hopes of increasing their understanding and changing their future.  The New Conglomerate fight for freedom from oppression and liberty — nothing is more important than the right to choose your own lot in life.

PlanetSide has no real classes.  The game instead starts a player out as a blank slate and a few ‘certification points’ used to purchase the ability to wield certain weapons.  As players progress through levels, or battle ranks, more certification points are granted, giving a player’s character access to stronger weapons and armor, or simply adding to your options to combat more situations.  New players may be at a slight disadvantage when just starting, but joining squads or platoons (a group of squads) will help speed the process of getting to your killing prime.

Several weapons are available, from assault rifles that are great at range, to Heavy Weapons and Anti-Armor such as the Mini-Chaingun and JackHammer 16-round shotgun.  Armors make a big difference on your character, too.  Heavy armors allow more ammo and weapons to be carried at once, allowing you to be ready for more situations.  Light, Agile Armor is needed to pilot all aircraft and most vehicles and while allowing you to run faster, provides less carrying capacity and protection.  Infiltration suits provide minimal protection, though they allow their wearer to basically become invisible.  Allowing only pistols, knives, and hacking tools to be carried, they’re best used to sneaking up behind enemies or past defenses.  MAX suits are basically your indoor mini-tanks.  They cover the player in cumbersome metal shells that are all but invulnerable to small arms fire.  Weapons best suited for dealing with tanks and MAX suits are your Decimator missiles and other ballistics.

Players are have the option of traveling by foot and soaking up bullets with their faces, but can also travel in ground vehicles include tanks, anti-aircraft Skyguards, transportation vehicles such as the Deliverer, and support vehicles like the Advanced Nanite Transports that refuel bases, and AMS vehicles that serve as mobile, cloaked spawn sites.  You may also jump into an aircraft, ranging from air transport Galaxies and Lodestars, best suited for dropping behind enemy lines, to Liberator bomber planes and Mosquito scout jets.  The largest of these, by far, are the newly introduced Battle-Frame Robotics.  Lumbering one or two-man robots capable of flying, or simply smashing anything in its path.  Like grunts, there are basically vehicles for every purpose.

The main point of PlanetSide is to capture bases spread across all of the continents of Auraxis.  Bases can be captured by hacking their Control Console and completing one of the two capture methods, either holding the base’s control console for 15 minutes, or delivering the Lattice Logic Unit (LLU) to a friendly-owned base.  Bases offer different benefits to their owners depending on their type.  Technology plants are generally the most important, offering the ability to create main battle tanks, dive bombing reavers, and other high technology vehicles.  Bio Labs offer faster respawns and the ability to change your certifications on the field, and Dropship centers offer areas to grab Galaxies, and allow all linked bases to repair vehicles near repair silos.  Factions lucky enough to capture the two ‘Home’ continents of an opposing faction are granted the ability to use all of the weapons and vehicles of the unlucky losing side!

The interface of PlanetSide is fairly simple.  Following the usual HUD style display of games like Counter-Strike, the only real difference is the tab bar that allows the player to find his rank information, experience, and other useful tidbits.  The minimal size of the interface is nice, as vision is important in any twitch combat based game, and it seldom gets in your way.  A radar is provided that allows players to see all friendlies around them, and any enemies caught in the radar of bases, seen by friendly players, or caught by motion sensors.  Vehicles can always be seen on radar, which is valuable in avoiding death or foiling a sneaky special ops rogue.  While most keys can effortlessly be re-bound to provide a custom fit, anyone familiar with the usual WASD style of FPS games should be able to dive right into the game.

For a two-year-old game, the graphics in the game are still up to standard.  Armor and weapons look nice, while vehicles and landscape could use some work and fleshing out.  The landscapes are pretty empty.  Trees are basically the only outdoor cover given to grunts, and even those do nothing when a tank or aircraft spot you.  Sounds are far from realistic.  Most ballistics lack the bass that comes with a 200mm round going off three feet from you.  Still, generally you’re too busy dodging bullets and shooting nubs to notice.  The servers themselves could still use a lot of work.  Random disconnects, warping, ping spikes, and random frame rate issues are pretty commonplace.  Also, the game is a RAM monster.  With a gig of RAM I still drop into the single digit frames during a steady fight.

PlanetSide is a great game and a ton of fun when things go like they should.   Like most FPSs, the game is heavily dependant on others for action.  If no one is out to cause trouble, or your side is lacking population, you’ll generally log off bored with no fights to go to, or frustrated that you can’t put up decent defense.  The population seems to have taken a large hit over the last year, and large fights aren’t nearly as intense as they used to be.  The game has really taken a favor to vehicles over infantry.  A tank can usually kill upwards of 50 players before dying if their crew is cautious and skilled.  If you like playing a grunt and the fight is outdoors, chances are you’ll end your session frustrated within a few fights.  If you’re not into FPS games pretty seriously, or can’t take the occasional frustrating stalemate that leaves you all but useless, you’ll probably not find PlanetSide interesting enough to warrant subscribing for more than a month or two.  But for true fans of the FPS genre that can take a beating and keep up the fight, PlanetSide is full of action and serious squad-based fun.