Planetside 2: Size. Always. Matters. Giggity. - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 06 June 2012 / 5,048 Views
Sony Online Entertainment has been working towards perfecting free to play MMOFPSs and they sure look to be doing great things with their upcoming futuristic space shooter Planetside 2. For those that don’t know the story of Planetside, here’s a quick rundown.
A wormhole was discovered that led to a new habitable planet and it was an opportunity that the Terran Empire couldn’t pass up. Unfortunately for them, the wormhole suddenly collapsed and stranded them far from Earth. Tempers reached a boiling point and the Empire divided into three. Where the Terran Empire is your standard military group, the New Conglomerate is more of a “ragtag bunch of rebels” who arm themselves with a lot of repurposed weapons and armor. Then there is the Vanu Sovereignty who is the only Empire to think it was a good idea to try and use the alien tech they discovered on the planet. Each group has its strengths and weaknesses in combat that changes gameplay significantly.
Within the different factions you have six different classes. These range from the Inflitrator (a sniper class that can cloak their location), Light Assault, Heavy Assault, Medics, Engineers, and Max classes. Max class has the most armor and slowest speed, but dual wields weapons. Each class can hold their own in a fight and really it boils down to your preferred playstyle.
On top of these three different empires with their six different classes, you have a multitude of vehicles you can also use. The maps are quite enormous and getting around quickly is quite beneficial. You have small ground vehicles that will take you around the map quickly as well as massive ground units that can move many of your teammates at once. Less mobile but more damaging are the battletanks. It is this vehicle where you can best notice how each empire has different units. The Terrans have a standard military tank, where the New Conglomerate has a more agile but more piecemeal tank. The Vanu use their alien tech to have hovertanks which gives them access to a tank that can strafe while firing.
The big change that the sequel is bringing is using their new Forge Light engine. With this engine running they can take the number of players on a single map from a few hundred to a few thousand at once. Gameplay revolves around taking over a territory by capturing bases. Because this is an MMO the battle never truly ends as other factions can reclaim their territory when you aren’t playing.
One thing that will help you conquer the planet is filling out your character’s skill tree. As you play you will earn certification points which can be spent on improving your character’s skill with different weapons, armor, and other stats. You can also spend these points on customization options which allows your troops to all coordinate in zebra print armor … or whatever else might float your boat.
They also look to be improving the connection you have to the game when you are not playing, featuring a website that updates in realtime with information on how your empire is faring while you are away. iOS apps are also in the works so you can use your iPhone to check the map, update your character, or even chat with your teammates through text or voice.
The gameplay is fast and responsive. Obviously they could not have thousands of players all playing for demo purposes, but what I played had many more players than most matches I’d ever seen and everything ran smoothly. If the idea of waging war on a global scale with thousands of other players has you interested be sure to sign up for their beta (found here:http://www.planetside2.com/overview) that should be releasing soon.
