PlanetSide Open Beta Impressions

Section: 

I played some more PlanetSide last night, before they gave us the "fully optimized" patch that "fully crashed" every five minutes or so. Hey, it's a free beta right now, so it didn't even upset me. And I got to go to bed on time. I posted my impressions from my first day in the forums, but I've cleaned them up a little and I'm running them up the front page flagpole now.

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There is a lot of fun to be had playing PlanetSide. Since that's my primary concern when playing any game, this one has already scored bonus points. It is an engaging FPS on a scale we haven't seen before. The urge to compare the game to Tribes is overwhelming from the start. You hit an inventory machine and wander around lost in the corrugated corridors of a meandering base until you finally find an exit into the bright sunshine where you are promptly pummeled by incoming plasma. When you are lucky enough to make it out of your base alive, you are given options to place turrets and sensors, fly around and buzz the citizenry, defend your generators, or capture an enemy base. I haven't captured any flags yet, but, let's face it, this is the sequel to Starsiege: Tribes we never got. More bonus points.

The options available to the new player are very refreshing. I don't feel restricted as a brand new player like in many online games. As soon as a fellow player was kind enough to point me to the big building that said "Training" on it, I was able to try out virtually every weapon and vehicle our faction had. Not only was I allowed to put on full heavy armor and blast simulated aircraft out of the shooting range sky, but I was given experience to do it. Something will probably have to be done for those who have already completed training once so they can still get those initial two battle rank promotions, but it's definitely more exciting than whacking rats with sticks for an hour.

Those initial ranks and points you get from training allow you to become an effective player for even your first battle. You spend your points on certifications in various armor, weapons, vehicles, and technical skills. There is enough variety so you don't end up with a "path of least resistance" formula where everyone is a clone. I happened to like driving the Harrasser (mainly because it reminded me of the G.I.Joe A.W.E. Striker I had as a kid) when I was trying out the different vehicles so I dropped a couple points into it and, just like that, I get to do it in-game. You don't have to be level 30 to fly a Galaxy troop transport. You don't even need hand-eye coordination, as Gaald proved. In fact, you can load up a Harrasser into a Galaxy and hot drop IN the Harrasser INSIDE a base! It was definitely one of those highlight moments we have every now and then in gaming.

Ooh! Let me tell you another from last night. I was booting around in my Harrasser buggy with Certis in the passenger seat as my gunner. I actually got to say, "Meet me at the car!" to him after he stealthed into an enemy-held tower and I secured it while he hacked it and claimed it for Vanu. Anyway, we were heading across the countryside to a distant base that our map told us was being compromised. We happened to cross paths with an enemy vehicle probably headed back to reclaim the tower we just captured. I pull behind them and Certis begins to rip into them with the mounted machine gun. They try some evasive maneuvering, but in swoops our close air support to finish the task. If we were in the same squad as the person flying the aircraft, we would have shared the experience he earned, but it wasn't terribly disappointing because any victory helps.

The squad-based gameplay is where PlanetSide shines for me, though. The game makes it very easy to team up and become a cohesive unit. Everything from the big numbers representing your squad-mates on the map to the highlighting of their name onscreen when they type or say something or even use the menu-based quick chat commands just adds to the team experience. The voice chat might have been the cause of some of my lag, but even that was implemented very well. It would be great if squad leaders could get some sort of command interface and set waypoints and directives for members of the team, but nobody is saying it won't be added later [EDIT: Yomm has kindly informed me that at Commander Level 2, squad leaders can, in fact, set waypoints for others. Thanks, Yomm]. With shared experience points, easily shared objectives, and methods for transporting your entire squad as a group, good squads can remain a very tight team.

I've gushed enough now. It's time for the bad news. The game is a massively multiplayer online first person shooter. You get points for shooting others. Completely distilled of all extraneous gameplay, PlanetSide is about shooting the bad guy before he shoots you. If that is the core game, then that should be the best-developed portion. It is not. At least it wasn't on my computer. I've got a P4 1.7, 512 DDR, Radeon 9500 Pro and it went slideshow on me during a 30-person firefight. Maybe that's just an ideal battle size, but even when I'm going one on one the framerate still takes a noticeable hit. If I am to be rewarded for my ability to react quickly and accurately then I want it to be my fault when I fail, not the game's. Now, if, for instance, I could get points for shuttling important personnel between bases in my Harrasser, or for healing the wounded, or for repairing equipment, or for hacking bases, I would be much more supportive of the overall gameplay. But if it's an FPS, I should at least be able to play it as such.

I also have a couple minor gripes about the FPS aspect. The guns all feel sort of underpowered. I don't need a gun to do tons of damage as long as it "feels" like it's doing tons of damage. I understand explosions can get expensive if there are a lot on the screen. But if you're not going to let me see how much life the enemy is losing, at least give me some indication he is actually taking damage. Evidently there are implants you can get which will allow you to see enemy health, but at least give me some noticeable damage decals and skins or something. Also, there shouldn't be any warfare going on around spawn tubes. On paper it's a good tactical strategy. In practice, there is a lot of loading on the player's machine at that time and it's just not fun to load into a corpse.

And, of course, the big complaint. What is there to accomplish? This one is more of a concern to me at some times than others. When compared to MMORPGs (which I don't think is a valid comparison) the game seems futile, even when compared to the realm vs. realm in DAOC. The relics in DAOC affect the skills of the realm that owns them. It's not just a fight for territory. I'm sure we'll end up seeing something like that added into PlanetSide. How about any faction with a locked continent has their spare ammo pack capacity extended by 10%? If the game isn't supposed to be about getting to level 60, then give us some other goals. This makes me wonder why PlanetSide wasn't developed so that a faction could "win". What's wrong with an end-game? How about every time a continent is locked by a faction, anyone in that faction on that continent gets a medal? That would cause a couple things to happen. There would be a new medal ladder which would give players a sense of accomplishment that is less fleeting than a captured base. It would also cause everyone in the faction that is about to lock the continent to flock to that place for the medal, thereby leaving a lot of territory undefended elsewhere. Or how about adding a monetary reward system where you can buy expensive little enhancements like custom helmets or sexy boots? Hopefully we'll also see bases "owned" and branded by outfits (again similar to DAOC). Those in a big enough outfit will likely be able to hold bases for weeks at a time. These features would go far in adding purpose to the game. Other times I feel like any point beyond just playing to have fun would be moot. The game has stats and a rudimentary skill system and experience points. That should be more than enough for a FPS. I think people are mainly concerned with the lack of any way to make any sort of difference in a world that is basically persistent. This also stems from the fact that most MMOGs up to this point have been of the RPG variety.

It seems that the majority of players will agree that PlanetSide is a good game. Personally, I think it's a great game with huge potential. The hesitation always occurs at the subscription portion. I don't doubt that PlanetSide will be remade several times over the course of time, just like we've seen with EQ and its expansion and evolution. The game is great now and it will definitely get better. However I cannot bring myself to pay MSRP for the box, plus more than about another $5 a month. Bring on the product placement and banner ads to subsidize the costs! I watch ads in every Battle.net channel to help keep it free. I'm more than happy to capture the Continent of Frito-Lay so that I can keep playing this game at a reasonable price. And, just to make it clear, I'm not willing to pay $12 for any game now, not just PlanetSide. I'll have to re-examine my budget when World of Warcraft is released. Until the beta ends...see you PlanetSide.

- Sway

Comments

Excellent write up, you've pretty much summed up my feelings for the game so far. I'm hoping the performance improves before the beta grinds to a halt so I can get some good final impressions of the game before it hits retail.

Regardless, this is one that won't be buying at launch.

Yup, I pretty much have to agree with everything said.  I might have liked more anecdotes with me in them instead of that glory hog Certis, but other than that, good stuff.

I would like to comment on the beta, but I haven't been able to download it. Remember kids: File Planet sucks.

 

Excellent job Sway!

I am having a one of a kind blast in this game!  I stayed up till 4 am on sunday.  I had some nagging nose sniffling at that point but I think that late night foray made me sick on monday.  I may have even had a fever!  It was nothing some good rest couldnt cure.

There is a big difference when something is free vs. something that you purchase and pay monthly for.  I will also not be buying this.  This is not to say its not a terrific game.  It is a terrific game!  The minor faults would stick out a whole lot more if I were paying monthly.  I am not like Sway, I have payed and am willing to pay for up to 3 monthly fees for games at $10-12.95 a pop.

If they can't get people like me and they can't get people like Sway they could be in big trouble.  It would be ashame because I would like to see MMORPG's go this route.  Especialy if they want to have some portion of PvP or RvR.

The last comment I would like to make is some ugliness finally surfaced last night.  Our side had totally dominated a base with 20+ vehicles and well over 30 infantry not including MAX's.  When the base was captured everyone wanted to jump to the next hot spot so there was a massive line at the vehicle terminal.  People at the end and middle of the line were Female Doggoing because people were spawning a lot of single seat vehicles.  They felt some sort of priority was in order for mass transport so they could move out quicker.  One of our own army shot a female pilot climbing into a single seat fighter.  Now not only is this futile because now you have to wait several more seconds for the aircraft to despawn, but he in turn was capped by outraged on-lookers.  The situation ended there but there was a lot of tension and the resentment of people taking single seat aircraft was still strong.  The grief points really need to have some sort of mechanism for intent.  People do this in other areas as well.  Fellow army hackers from another squad do at times kill a fellow hacker so that their squad gets the prestige, points, whatever.

We saw the exact same thing happen last night, too, iam. I wouldn't be surprised if you were at the same vehicle station. It was definitely a problem. While I was repeatedly clicking on the Buy button I was trying to think of a better method. One of the ideas I had was allow requests to queue up and make it clear when your vehicle spawned. So we could line up along the sides of the platform and, when the vehicle with the big flashing "MrSway's" label (or whatever) popped up, I'd jump in and drive off. They could even have queued orders cancel if the purchaser moved too far from the platform so unwanted vehicles wouldn't be spawned.

I was with you Sway!  Its me Fang.

Iam is a old email reference joke with Elysium.  He called me a machine for whatever reason   so Iam = I am Machine

Could somebody please change me to Fang?!  Or should I reregister?

I've renamed you to Fang, you will probabaly need to log back into the main page for it to take effect!

I'll admit I'm new to the site, and really only showed up because PlanetSide-Universe.com has this particular article linked.  I just thought that the review was good all the way up to the last paragraph.  Having a p/review of a MMO subscription based game done by someone who admits they will not pay for any such game with a subscription (at least over $5) is extremely misleading and biased.  I understand this is labelled as opinion in nature, it just seems that the opinion is worth a lot less when blanketed statements such as that are made.

So for clarification, I'm curious exactly why you won't pay for online games Sway?  Is it simply a matter of financial need?  Don't feel they're worth it?  Just curious for the reason so I can understand the opinion better.

Thanks,

Indreju

Yeah, Indreju, that was a little unclear. I have paid for online games in the past. In fact, judging from my last credit card statement, I may still have one to cancel. I've paid for EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, and Asheron's Call 2 subscriptions. What I meant to say in the article was that at this point I don't really see any games that are tempting me to spend over $10 a month to play. I have read a lot of comments how people wouldn't spend $12 a month to play PlanetSide. I wanted to put it on a level playing field with the rest of the online games out there and explain how I wasn't singling out PlanetSide for this criticism. For me, the price is too high for any subscription right now.

Did that clear up your question or have I only confused the matter?

Indreju,

Since the Impressions were not based on the mothly fee, I don't think there's any bias or misleading information.  My reading of Sway's article solidly gives in game impressions of what is good and what is bad, and largely paints a positive picture of Planetside.  I think to be hung up on Sway's valid complaints about the bloated industry standard of $12.95 is to miss the point, which was that Planetside is in fact a very fun game, with a lot of potential and a few hurdles.

Elysium

Nope, that pretty much clears up the reasoning for the statemnet.  Thanks.

Two quick things.

1) Saying that a fee of $12.95 is bloated is a gross misunderstanding of economics in my mind.

2) When dealing with a subscription based game that you say you will not buy because of the monthly fee, then yes, the entire p/review is in strong question to me since the game is based off of continued play.

 

As a side, I've beta'd the game for a while, I'm buying the game for a number of reasons upon release.

I don't know indreju.  I think we'd probably disagree on both those points.  I think there's been good solid argument that a lower monthly fee to facilitate more players and greater revenue would probably be a more profitable route.  I actually pay at least one monthly fee for a game, so I'm not staunchly against the idea.  I do think it is bloated, but to each their own.  On #2, I think Sway's response really addresses that as well as I could. 

Personally, I'm still on the fence about Planetside.  Either way, I think the article gives a fair and accurate representation of the game.  On those grounds I can't see it as being at all misleading.  That said, to each their own.  Thanks for the input.

- Elysium

I was just curious what you think about the idea of the SOE all access pass?  An account that allows you to play Planetside, everquest, everquest II, everquest adventures and all station pass games for $21.99.  

Considering that I am really interested in Planetside and am going to give it a go on release day and I might want to jump back into Everquest I think it is a good idea and it will save me $2 a month until the release of EQ2.

Just a reminder the all access pass isn't scheduled for use until some time this fall.

For those playing 2 or more of SOE's games, it's a fantastic idea.  Everybody wins, and cheers to Sony for thinking of it and implementing it.  Still doesn't excuse the fact that Planetside is $12.95/month but makes it a helluva lot more likely that I might someday pick it up if I get EQ or EQ2.  Additionally Tanarus and Infantry, which are both included in the bundle, are terrific games on their own, and should deservedly get additional players through the deal.

-Elysium