Which side? Planetside!

One of our resident Planetside junkies and all around good guy Kegboy was kind enough to share his thoughts on the newest (and first) Planetside: Core Combat expansion. Do the new weapons, vehicles, locations and other features spice up the established game? Read on and find out!

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When Certis asked me to do a review for GWJ I was honoured and a little terrified. IÂ've never written a review before. Normally I just blab away endlessly to anyone whoÂ'll listen about how good or bad Game X is until people tell me to shut up or they walk away. So bear with me folks.

First of all, I have to admit to being a fanboi of Planetside since it came out in the UK. IÂ've played it more than any other game since Diablo2, so when SOE announced an Expansion I immediately pre-ordered as soon as the option became available. My anticipation on loading up Core Combat for the first time was pretty high. I couldnÂ't wait to see what the new play areas were like. Boy, was I in for a shock and not a pleasant one.

It really pains me to say this – since I LOVE Planetside – but Core Combat left me cold and disheartened. ItÂ's been a long time since I felt such disappointment in a game release. LetÂ's start at the beginning though.

The artwork is fantastic and the first time you go into one of the caverns is pretty amazing. Like the above ground continents the caverns are different in theme and size. Some areas are snowy, some volcanic and some are even all shiny gold, silver and blue. The closest resemblance I can think of is that they resemble a giant Geod. I do have a gripe with the way the Core area has been labelled with the Â"urban style combatÂ" tag. Only in the very loosest sense of the word can it be called Â"UrbanÂ" in that the Core areas have doors and stuff to hide behind and combat is at close range for the most part. Aside from that itÂ's not the cityscape that I expect when I hear the phrase Â"Urban CombatÂ"

 

The new modules that you can obtain from theses areas are also extremely helpful to have in your teamÂ's possession and add another tactical feather to PlanetsideÂ's cap. There are six types of modules available and all of them can go in one base which makes it a much tougher nut to crack than a standard base setup. The Equipment Module allows you to access the Core Combat weapons (provided you bought Core Combat and are certified for their use that is) and it also reduces the timer for acquiring MAXs. The Vehicle Module allows you to access the Core Combat vehicles from the vehicle terminal, again provided you have Core Combat and are certified for that class of vehicle.

Now the Pain module (my favourite) creates a damaging radiation field in critical areas of a base like the spawn room CC and generator, handy for killing preventing spawn camping. The Health Module allows troops to spawn with 120 health instead of 100 and also slowly heals troops in the sphere of influence of that facility. The Shield Module creates a shield at the gates of the facility and is handy for defenders as they can sit and wait for attackers who have to physically penetrate the shield to hit defenders. Of course itÂ's useless against air attacks and mortar style attacks.

Lastly the Speed Module reduces the respawn timer and increases the foot-speed of soldiers in the area of the facility. This is very annoying as it also increases the speed of surging units making them even harder to hit than they already are.

The new weapons are a mixed bag and since they need to be recharged instead of using the usual ammo supplies. They tend to be pretty useless outside of the Core areas unless you happen to have a weapons module in one of your bases. Recharging is accomplished by recharge crystals scattered about the caverns in various facilities. There are also health and armour recharge crystals too that you just need to stand close to in order to repair yourself. TheyÂ're pretty handy if you donÂ't have a medic or engineer nearby.

First up and of most useful to the infiltrator class is a new energy pistol. This has a charged shot so the longer you hold down the trigger the more powerful the shot. If you donÂ't release in time the shot goes back to a weedy blast so timing is everything.

Next up is the Maelstrom. This is a Heavy assault class weapon and itÂ's easily more powerful up close than the NC Jack Hammer. It fires a lightning type energy beam which you walk into people and it also has a secondary fire mode that launches grenades that lash a target like the VS Lasher weapon although this is pretty ineffective feature compared to the thumper plasma grenades.

Last up we have what to me is the most interesting of the weapons: The Radiator. This is a Special Assault class weapon that fires grenades that irradiate a target area for about 3-5 seconds making it a good area denial weapon. But the most interesting thing about this weapon is that it bypasses armour and does damage straight to the health of the target, making it great for killing drivers of vehicles while leaving their vehicles intact for stealing. ItÂ's also VERY useful against anyone foolish enough to stand still for about 20 seconds.

 

The new vehicles are hit and miss, they mostly look very alien with flowing curves and saucer shapes (which is nice) but they also have very bland textures. The most interesting of these is The Flail which is a one man mobile artillery piece. It comes with a removable laser pointer which you can give to a squad member (preferably a cloaker) and have him sneak up to targets and laser them which enables the gunner to accurately lay down fire over great distances. The blast radius on this weapon is also immense so even a shot fired a little wide will kill ground troops and light vehicles.

The second vehicle and the one that offers the most tactical use is The Router. Looking like a hovering UFO this disc shaped vehicle acts like a teleport gate. What you need to do is get someone to take a telepad from the vehicle to a target area and have them place it. Then you can step below the router and get teleported to that location which can be very handy for teleporting into enemy held bases for surprise attacks. Unfortunately at the moment it has a couple of bugs such as making you invisible and stuck which is annoying and prevent players from using it.

The last of the new vehicles is my personal favourite, The Switchblade. This is an ATV class vehicle that fires energy bolts but can also be deployed into a stationary rapid firing turret.

All of the new vehicles have an advantage that was once exclusive to the Vanu - namely their ability to float over water. This adds to their tactical uses but some players also feel that the Vanu lose some of their uniqueness and others say that they donÂ't fit with their empireÂ's image and that they should have made an empire specific version of each.

These additions all sound pretty good and youÂ'd think that they would make the case for what I feel is an underappreciated game right? Yes? ThatÂ's what I thought too until I actually played in the Core areas for a while - talk about confusing and hard to navigate! The multiple layers of the caverns, the ground levels, mid levels and roof areas are all tied together by mobile Â"stringsÂ" called Ziplines which along with telepads placed all over the map are meant to help you quickly navigate the caverns.

The problem is they seem to be placed haphazardly and almost as an afterthought. Trying to hold a team together is a nightmare and for me these areas are too much like a giant UT map with the translocator enabled.

Never mind the tricky-to-navigate levels – actually trying to find anybody to fight against in the caverns is the biggest problem right now. The last couple of times I was down in the caverns there were maybe six people in total there. I know it wonÂ't be released in Europe for some time but from the number of people in the core areas is very low.

This is in part caused by the decision to only open two of the caverns at any one time. Usually half the entrances to the caverns are on enemy held continents that you have to fight your way onto to get to the entrance in the first place. I just canÂ't be bothered since there are a limited number of modules allowed in the world (and a limited number in transit at any one time too) so a lot of the time after all that effort youÂ'll find you canÂ't actually obtain the module you fought your way down to get.

One of the reasons the population count is so low is that the number of bugs in the expansion parts of the game are staggering. Not too surprising considering the open beta lasted less than a week before launch.

Now I know that a lot of people playing Planetside suffer bugs but IÂ've been one of the rare few who havenÂ't really encountered them too often. All that changed after Core Combat though. After an hour of play down there my machine hard locks and I have to ctrl-alt-delete to restart Planetside which obviously doesnÂ't encourage me or anyone else with similar problems to go down there to fight over something we might not be able to obtain anyway.

Much as I really wanted to say lots of good things about Core Combat I find the negatives outweigh the positives right now. IÂ've spent the first three or four days trying to enjoy the Core Combat areas but since then IÂ've just spent all my time on the traditional above-ground battles that have been much more fun than the frustrating Core Combat areas. For a diehard Planetside fan such as myself thatÂ's a real tragedy.

- Kegboy