Planetside

Your Galaxy pilot just forced you to hot drop on an enemy base.  As you are falling from your Gal, you notice there are dozens of teammates already doing battle.  Reavers are flying overhead giving air support as other Galaxies are landing and dropping off vehicles and men. Explosions are all around you and you seem to be taking fire from all sides.  The enemy appears to be falling back as you pull out your rifle and vaporize an un-expecting foe from behind. Looks like something right out of the movie Starship Troopers.  Though the movie might not have been that great, the game sure is!

Imagine yourself in the future stranded on planets with only 3 individual empires to swear your allegiance to.  All 3 have their unique pros and cons and have their own values of life, as they know it.  Pick your empire and prepare to try and capture all of the ten continents and take over the world!  Now, when I'm using the word battle, I'm not just talking about a few bases here, we are talking a plethora spread out over 10 continents. The three empires all have their pros and cons, which bring war onto a level playing field.

Terran Republic

Though their weapons may not pack quite the punch as NC equipment, the Terran Republic's equipment generally fires faster and they covet the "more is better" type of attitude. This is displayed by some of their vehicles that can carry two gunners, and the other empires are only equipped to carry one gunner.

The New Conglomerate

The New Conglomerate's equipment takes on the bigger is better attitude. The firepower may pack a bigger wallop, but at a slower rate of fire. Many of these weapons can be deadly at close range, but lose their luster over distances.

Vanu Sovereignty

Their equipment may fall short in punching power and rate of fire, but their built-in Armor Piercing mode for their weapons gives them the flexibility in combat that can't be matched. It is true for their vehicles, but they have ability to move across water, which allows them to strike from nearly almost any side. Forcing the other empires to watch every angle of conflict.

If by chance the playing field becomes lopsided with too many players on one side. There will be bonuses/penalties in constant flux in relation to the number of hours played by each Empire in the last 24 hours. As more players from an Empire log on and play over time, their incentives/disincentives will be altered accordingly. The ebb and flow of incentives is fairly slow, but helps to balance the gameplay if the population of one Empire gets too far out of balance in relation with the others.

Ok, so you selected your empire now its time to get started.  Your best bet is to head to the training area to get yourself familiar with weapons and vehicles.  The first time you encounter or do something you have never done before, you will get experience points that will increase your Battle Rank or BR.  BR is important because as you gain levels, you get Certification Points aka CP.  CP allows you specialize in certain areas.  You can use these points to learn how to pilot different vehicles and aircraft, or you can use them to learn special abilities like hacking terminals, engineering, medical, etc.  You can also use them to gain special weapons and armor.  What is nice about certifications, is that you can unlearn them as well.  If you do not like the way your character is developing, no problem, just go in and forget it and learn some thing else.  Word to the wise -  you can only unlearn one certification per 24-hr period.  You will find that a well-rounded squad has members who possess different skills to compliment each other.  My advice is to try different things to see what you like.  It's always nice to have a vehicle when your presence is required across the continent and you need to get there lickidly split.  Hoofing it can take some time.  Thankfully there is an auto run button so you don't have to rest your hand on the run key.

One more added feature is that you will be able to equip your player with is implants.  As you progress through the ranks, you will be able to implant special abilities that give you superhero like capabilities.  Up to 3 different implants that can aid you in the battlefield can be used at one time.  These can be targeting, swapping stamina for health, speed, personal shield, etc.  These can be swapped out at anytime provided you find the implant terminal at any given base.

So now you are ready for battle.  To really take advantage of the game, it's best to become a member of a squad.  A squad is 10 players, all from your own empire of course that will use skill and coordination to carry out tasks.  The main goal is killing the other team and capturing their bases, or defending your own.  This is what the game is all about.  Being on a squad will help you gain ranks more rapidly because you get experience from your other squad-mates as well.  At some point you may be asked to join an outfit, which is a group of players from your empire doing the same thing.  Once in an outfit you will find that by using the outfit chat you will be able to quickly get on a squad, and even easier to call in reinforcements when the chips are down.  In my opinion it is almost necessary to be a part of both of the aforementioned.  If you have a microphone you can communicate via Voice Chat if your squad so desires.  This makes planning strategies much more simple as you can speak instead of type.  More often than not, typing will get you on the fast track to a re-spawn tube. On the flip side if you just want to be your own dude and come and go as you please, you will still have a blast going solo.  It just may take a bit longer to increase your Battle Rank. 

As with most First Person Shooters, this title is about killing the other guy.  Yes, you need to capture the enemy bases, but you do that by blowing your foe from existence and clearing him out of his own territory.  Kill Kill Kill…. that's what you will be doing.  

You can head out on your killing spree in a variety of fashions.  You can go out as infantry and swarm like ants against your enemy's fortification. Maybe you would rather lend some air support and fly a few sorties over and rain down some of your own hell from above.  If you want to bring a tank in to battle by all means do. I personally like to jump in any vehicle that also has a gun turret or two so you can really cause some havoc.  If you so desire you can also grab a max unit.  These highly armored walking tanks if you will, can cause death in large numbers. The down side is they are a little slow and cannot access anything from inventory except to reload weapons.  All are fun and should be tried at least once.

You can travel to the battlefronts in a variety of ways.  You can travel through warp gates from continent to continent either on foot, in a vehicle or a troop transport both land and air.  If you want to get there quickly you can leave your empires sanctuary (this is where you will start out and you won't get killed from battle) In the form of the HART shuttle.  This convenient little plane will drop you on what ever continent you like in close proximity to any battle you wish.  There is nothing like controlling a base and looking up and seeing a dozen or so people falling from the sky to come challenge you to a fight.

Multiplayer is where SOE really kicks it up a notch.  We are not talking about 64 person maps.  We are talking hundreds.  I personally have been in battles with at least 100 people and talk about a blast…Just plain incredible.  Amazingly gameplay for the most part is smooth and usually very little lag.  Is it fool proof?  Absolutely not!  SOE is working very hard to address crashes and lag when these huge battles develop.  The game is only a couple weeks old at time of review and already has come along way since the initial release.  I expect within the next couple of weeks they should be pretty much gone and gameplay will be fluid as ever.  We will wait and see.

The graphics are not exactly breaking any new boundaries in the visual world, but they are quite decent.  You may not get trees blowing in the wind or ripple effects on the water, but the landscapes are quite diverse.  You can find yourself in a sweltering desert, the frozen tundra, forests, or even amongst lava filled volcano.  Fog and rain bring the environmental effects to bring you even closer to the game.  The vehicles, weapons, armor and bases are nicely done.

Audibly the sound effects were pretty good as well.  You can hear footsteps, explosions, gunfire, vehicles, and the list goes on.  The use of preset voice macros is helpful when needing something, or telling nearby troops what's up. The musical score is quite good in my opinion and I have no gripes there.

One problem I have encountered with games of this type is cheaters.  SOE has addressed this issue and I have copied this right from SOE:

"Planetside offers players several methods to help protect against grief players. Warfare and rivalries between players, squads, or outfits within the same Empire are considered grief play. To ensure that player objectives are always as clear as possible (i.e. fighting with other Empires, not your own), any intentional team killing will be considered grief play and will result in penalties. All players in an Empire fight for the same cause, regardless of squad or outfit affiliation and no outfit outranks another in the field of battle. Outfits that regularly engage in grief activity are subject to being disbanded. We have implemented an in-game grief tracking system, but we also offer live Customer Service Representatives to help to address the situations that technology can't. To contact your CSR in-game, type "/appeal" and click the "New Ticket" button. Next, select a category and describe the issue you are experiencing, including the name of any other players involved, their Outfit tag and the location of the incident. " YAY SOE!!!

All ready SOE has plans to release two new vehicles to add to the onslaught of choices to make when doing battle.  They are not released as of yet, but this gives an idea of what SOE is doing behind the scenes. The Liberator is a bomber that carries three passengers all with weapons access. The pilot will position the aircraft over the intended target, with a bombardier dropping the payload. The bombardier may choose to drop single bombs or carpet-bomb across a small focused area. The pilot is equipped with a forward-mounted 35mm chain-cannon. The tail-gunner mans a 20mm cannon to defend the craft against a rear assault. The SkyGuard is a two-person Anti-Aircraft ground vehicle. The pilot lies in the cockpit, positioned ahead of the gunner. The gunner mounts a raised 360-degree turret equipped with an anti-aircraft Flak Cannon and a 12mm machine gun to suppress ground troops. To effectively pursue and vanquish airborne targets, the Skyguard has been designed with a focus on speed and maneuverability.  There is also a plan for a new continent as well.

Ok now for some nit picking.  First and foremost you still have to give credit card information even though you get a 30 day free trial.  You won't be charged for 30 days, but in my opinion once you have exhausted your 30 days that’s when you should give the cc…not before.  Reading the text messaging can be a bit difficult against the background.  It would be nice if the outfit text was a different color than the squad text.  Furthermore it would be nice if the name or vehicle of your squad mates shown as yellow as they do when they are not in a vehicle. The horizon blends in with the chosen text color scheme.  This can be remedied by looking in a different direction, but is not very convenient.  Still in its infancy they are still working out the bugs and will shut down servers for 5-10 minutes while doing updates.  People have been crashing (at least once a day.. myself included) when there are a lot of people in one area doing battle.  This has gotten better over time, but still happens.  Again this is nit pick stuff and really does not hinder gameplay that much to be an issue.  No game is perfect, and as you can tell I had to dig deep to really find something to rant about.

With all that SOE is doing to fix current and potential problems, and already adding to the content of the game, I Have to highly recommend this game.  It has come along way from just a few weeks ago when I was playing the beta version.  Yes, it still has some shortcomings that I'm sure will be worked out soon.  For $12.99 a month (the price of a movie and some popcorn and soda) you will definitely get your entertainment dollars out of this one.  It does carry a hefty MSRP of $50.00 a game you cannot play stand alone, but first 30 days are free! 

Gameplay: 8.5
Overall smooth and fluid.  Crashes and patches still are present, as this is still a new game.  The default controls can have the novice player fumbling around hitting the wrong keys.  The chat text blends in to closely to the environment, which makes it difficult to read.  Using voice chat with your 10 man squad is great when it works, but more often then not, the bugs are still present.

Graphics: 8
Visually the game is brilliant.  There is no motion with wind or anything like that, and the players and vehicles are nicely rendered.  The landscapes are nicely done, but after awhile, one portion of a continent looks like any other, with very few exceptions.  This means you can get turned around rather easily so follow your waypoints and compass.  The weather effects like rain and fog bring added realism to the game.

Sound: 8
Nothing that’s gonna shock your eardrums or anything but not to shabby either.  A nice musical score that is pleasing to the ears is definitely present.

Difficulty: Medium
An extensive learning curve can only be shortened by hands on experience.  The documentation that comes in the retail box is enough to get started, but you really won't learn all the ins-and-outs unless you play. Listen to your squad or outfit, they can wield a lot of knowledge your way without having to scroll through message boards to find out how you obliterate a max with a good strafing run with a reaver.

Concept: 9
A MMOFPS with an RPG element to it is just awesome in its own right.  Bringing thousands of players online at the same time is just insane.  But so far it's working great.

Multiplayer: 9.5

Truly a multiplayer game.  Actually there is no stand-alone version, so if MP is not for you, you may want to pass on this one.  At time of review 99% of the people are really cool and have not seen any problems.  The voice chat really draws you into the game as you try and take over a hostile environment hearing and barking out commands.  Leaving your fingers to control your player or vehicle rather then type.  The team aspect in my opinion is paramount and only then can the game is played to its full potential.

Overall: 9.0
Though I have a list of shortcomings that may sound extensive, mostly it is just nagging a really great product.  I have not had this much fun in years playing a MMO anything and I highly recommend this title as a must have if you’re a fan of the genre.  See you in the game!