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Game Review: Planetside 2 (video)
In this video (with transcript), we review Planetside 2, a new MMOFPS game from Sony Online Entertainment. The game is a true first-person shooter, using its MMO nature to bring a persistent world into play, with battles sometimes involving hundreds of players, and it does so without trying to shoe-horn in ill-fitting MMORPG tropes like questing, story development, or insurmountable gear disparities. The combat favors relative realism (you won't be rocket jumping around, and nobody gets to be Rambo), but it's mixed with vehicle combat in a way that manages to be entertaining without being unfair. Planetside 2 is free to play, using microtransactions to support itself. It wisely avoids selling gear you can't acquire in-game (aside from cosmetic stuff), and doesn't require purchases to be competitive. Hit the link below to see/read our review.
So what does the rootkit that it installs do?
"...or insurmountable gear disparities."
A lot of people are whining about how PlanetSide 2 is strictly P2W (pay to win), but it really isn't. You can do just fine with the default kits, granted, it takes a long time to unlock some of the cooler stuff, but it fits the MMO model just fine. The advantages gained from purchases unlocks is very insubstantial. Anyone else who tells you otherwise has no idea how to play the game properly. I've seen entire outfits of free to play players that stand as proof that you do not need to spend a dime to "win".
until you go to upgrade anything and it all costs money, ridiculous amounts of money.
No, you get certs as you gain xp. New weapons require certs or station cash. The average cost for a new weapon is $6.00. The cert points are higher which a casual player can gain enough after a week or two to get a new weapon. Then, certs can also be used to enhance your class, weapon, or vehicle. You cannot spend station cash to upgrade a vehicle beyond unlocking a weapon.
a great game shackled with a horrible 'pay for every little piece of functionality' mode.
Again you do not need to spend any money to play the game and unlock weapons or buy the enhancements. You have an option to pay cash to unlock weapons but in no way are you required to spend any money at all. Cert points are required no matter what and have to be earned by playing the game.
The hardest thing about PS2 is getting past the first 15 minutes.
You make a character, pick a faction, then get dropped into battle. Active battle. You have a near 100% chance of dying as soon as you land. Enemy players will be looking for the drop pods and will instantly target and kill you. You then will be shown a map with places you can respawn. If you run outside, you have about an 95% chance of dying instantly.
It is very unforgiving if you are used to playing other MMOs.
Are you on crack? The game is free to play. After playing it for a few hours at the weekend I can safely say that tactics matter way more than equipment. Get into a MAX suit and you'll still be taken out in seconds if you don't know what you're doing yet (ahem).
which is totally what she said
Having played Planetside 1 from beta (sill have cd's!) and for a few years after launch, a lot of the people I used to play that with were pretty excited about planetside 2, until we actually got to play it. The summary about it was pretty much this:
Everything you hated about planetside 1? We took it out.
Everything you liked about planetside 1? We dropped most of that too!
Things you thought were missing from Planetside 1? We put some of those in.
This one feels like pretty much a large map rip-off of all the other fps's out on the scene now, and I've taken to calling it Planetfieldfall2: modern agenda.
Graphics are pretty good, maps are still huge, but all the things that would make us get 20-30 people together to storm around and kick some butt together are gone. Thanks for nothing and you won't be getting any cash from me.
01:36AM up 426 days, 2:46, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.11, 0.05
That's entirely not true.
Most of the important upgrades cannot be bought with real money and only the in game certifications which cannot be obtained for real money.
The class skills, the weapon upgrades, the vehicle upgrades are all certification only. You absolutely cannot pay real money to get them.
Want to be able to drop C4? Want that all imporant dogfighting chassis for your striek fighter? That 12x zoom scope for your sniper rifle?
You can't buy any of that with real money. You have to grind certifications for that (read: xp/levels.)
What you can buy with real money (and certifications)
- New weapons can be bought with money or certifications, however, a in most cases the new weapons are more or less side grades or more specalized.
- Cosmetic skins for your vehicles / characters
- XP boosts
So far I've found on the weapons, while yes, you can buy them with real money they're decidedly not necessary, and it doesn't take long to buy the few you really want with just in game currency. So far the only thing I've spent real money on was a new weapon for my medic class, and a few skins for the max / tank. Everything else has come, quite easily from just in game certifications. Upgrade the stock stuff a little (can only be done with in game currency) and use that to get the credits for other stuff you want.
Yes, if you want to unlock -everything- it's going to take a while, but really it's not necessary, even if the completionist in me wants to unlock everything.
Total amount I've spent on the game so far: $10, far from a huge money sink.
A few weeks? I'm on 1100 certs after a week of (intensive) playing. On a good night when playing in a platoon capping points you easily grab 100/150 certs. Also keep in mind that when unlocking better weapons and the likes and customizing your classes to your liking you will get more effective and gain certs faster.
I'm not sure how you got modded +3 for this inane post, but congrats on spewing so much disinformation.
For those unaware of how Planetside 2's RMT (Real-Money Transactions) work, there are only two things you can actually buy that involve real money:
1. New guns (whether for infantry or vehicles)
2. Cosmetic stuff
All of the new guns can also be unlocked using in-game certifications. Note that NONE of their upgrades can be unlocked with real money. You pay money to unlock a gun, but then if you want to specialize into it, you'll need to use the in-game certifications that you earn while playing.
Cosmetic stuff can't be unlocked for in-game certs, but seeing as cosmetics don't actually confer an advantage, it really doesn't matter.
Money won't make you good at this game. It can give you a wider range of options more quickly, but it won't make you better than other players. Planetside 2 isn't a money sink unless you want it to be.
^^ This 100 times over.
I've been playing the game a lot and love it. Real money will buy you some weapon upgrades sooner rather then having to wait to build up the cert points to buy them. Even then the weapon upgrades for ground troops aren't worth it. Weapon upgrades for ground and flying vehicles are a help but again no real money is even needed to get them. You can not buy upgrades to your current weapons using real money. This can only be done from playing the game and earning cert points.
There are pure cosmetic items that can only be bought using real money. These are just funny decals or cooler looking armor and camouflage.
The 105 Zephyr gun from the Liberty says Hi.
So does the Additional Burster for the Burster max.
The T-9 Carv S, which is in all ways a direct upgrade of the T9 Carv you start with as a heavy....
In fact there is a rather large room full of weapons that have sprouted arms and mouths saying "Over here! You haven't seen me yet!"
I've been around. I have had so many highs like getting a 2600 and playing Space Invaders one Christmas, booting up Lemmings for the first time on my Amiga, beating Kid Icarus on my NES, rescuing the princess in Link to the Past on the SNES, blowing people up in Doom with three other people sitting next to me, slaying Dragons for the first time in Everquest with 50 people, toppling enemy mechs with a few other players in Chromehounds, and now finally being in a squad of soldiers, being led by a platoon leader across an alien world with thousands of other soldiers made up of different outfits that consist of multiple platoons. All tasked with taking specific objectives. Blinding the enemy installations with smoke grenades and turning on your IR vision and sneaking around taking people out. Jumping into a huge flying whale of an airship that can carry over a dozen people. Being flown over a distant enemy base to drop out onto the roof and storming into buildings. Leaping over obstacles and into the air with your jet pack and over 5 enemy guys who dont see you. You look over the ledge and drop a grande onto them racking up the kills. You secure the base. Load up and move to another. All with real voice coms chatting back and forth warning of mines, and enemy armor.
Not only is this one of the best looking games I've ever seen, it can give you one of the most epic war moments you will ever experience at this time. Two dozen troopers running over a hilltop flanked by tanks as your air support swoops down ahead of you to soften up the line. IT IS THAT EPIC.
The free part makes this a no brainer to try at the very least. I would hate to see someone pass by the opportunity. It is one of gamings greats.
No, I don't work for Sony. But I love this game. A lot. Try it! We need you!
Steam tells me I've played Planetside 2 for 72 hours. In general, it's a valid review that covers a lot of good points, despite noticing that the reviewer's player was obviously low-level.
Some that I would add however, is:
a) The game does not offer a comfortable intro to the brand-new player, it will probably spawn you into instant death and there are a lot of things to figure out. The flipside is much of the reason for that is depth.
b) It's not so vital to play with actual friends, but rather a good squad. When you join the game look at the squad tab and go through them looking for someone using voice comms and setting waypoints on the map. Provided I do look for one, I will usually find an enjoyable squad and that is despite playing at off-peak hours. Playing without a decent squad is very tiresome, lonesome, has no direction and you'll find yourself wondering what to do. Playing with a good squad is the opposite and the trouble is keeping up!
c) Unless I missed it, he didn't mention that there are 3 factions (hence the 3 colours demonstrating control on the map screen) and they are not quite symmetric. The reviewer is playing as Vanu which is the only one that has that alien-ish theme with ultra futuristic uniforms and laser type weapons. The other two are more conventional. Each faction's weapons and vehicles have attributes with that factions trend e.g. one faction has lower damage per projectile but higher rate of fire, another faction the opposite.
d) He's a bit harsh implying individual skill doesn't matter. Your l33t skillz might not be quite so obvious to everyone, you're unlikely to "pwn" everyone quite so hard with ridiculous k/d ratios. But the game is balanced pretty well so skilled fraggers will have higher k/d and certainly will make a difference, all else being equal - it's just that you cannot solely rely on your skills and will also need teamplay.
e) I think this is also where the reviewer goes wrong saying that it's hard to feel you are contributing. In an okay squad it's actually very easy and the game gives you congratulatory messages and experience point rewards making it very clear. Players are generous with the "thank you" voice command. There's also a lot more variety in the ways you can contribute than any game I can think of. Maybe you're not actually any good at FPS shooting, but maybe you'll be good at tank tactics, dogfighting, support roles like engineer or medic, infiltrating and hacking, or simply ferrying people around.
f) Agreeing with the reviewer and contradicting some other posters, I'm having difficulty finding a need to put real money into this game. I've spent about half the cost of a typical new game so far, and all of that was a splurge because I felt I should contribute given the hours I've gotten from the game. Sure you could spend a lot of money but there's really no need to. Aside from a couple of vehicle items, anything items to buy where to experience-point cost is high thus viable for real-money, they're sidegrades more for preference, like trading short-range raw damage for longer range accuracy. A complete set would cost a ton of money, but you don't want a complete set and anyway you can get everything with enough experience points so if you stick with the game you can be finding yourself picking up rare-use options for no money.
g) There is no other game where you can experience the epic, massive battles that this game can offer. If that is what you are looking for - you can also easily avoid those and go running around with a small or moderately sized squad.
God forbid you actually trust people to use their own money the way they want to, rather than tell them they're the village idiot for enjoying something you don't.
You're telling me that allowing people to play the game for free, then to make their own decision whether they want to put money into it, is vampirism? You'd rather pay $50 or more up front for a game you've only seen through advertising or reviews? What if it sucks? You're out $50 and you never play the game again. Here, if the game sucks, you're out $0. It gives the company incentive to make a good game, because they have to do more than get your foot in the door - they have to keep you around and make you happy. And it means they don't throw as much $$ behind bullshit piracy suits, because they can't claim they're losing money to piracy when their game is free. Everyone claims piracy is the result of a broken business model, then attacks the industry when they update their business model.
Everything is better with chainsaws.