Planetside 2 Impressions - PAX Prime 2012
We’re looking to have 2,000 people on a server. In a single map.” Those are some of the first words from Executive Producer Josh Hackney the minute I sit down at a Planetside 2 console for a preview during PAX Prime. A bold and daunting claim, especially for an MMOFPS that is still in a very tightly closed beta, but one that should be opening up within the next few months. Then again, based on scale alone, having 2,000 players in one persistent game doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Planetside 2 Impressions - PAX Prime 2012 Review
The first map to ship with the game is an 8Km x 8Km megasquare, 64 square kilometers of terrain to cover and control at any given point of the game. Split into hundreds of smaller sections to control, players, squads, platoons, or entire empires can wage war on a single hexagonal region of land at any time.
You won’t want to throw all your forces at one piece of land though, not with around 1,300 other potential players vying for precious land. Taking control of additional land has two basic functions besides for moving the front line: adding additional currency and materials to make special weapons and vehicles, and improving the various spawn points on the map.
Three different materials collected, all dependent on the land earned, are used to build consumable weapons (like grenades) and 11 different vehicle types. Five vehicles are identical for all factions, and the other six are empire-specific. Each faction has three unique tanks and jets, from massive tanks to troop transports to flying saucers. Suffice it to say, the land grab for those resources is huge.
As an FPS, players can expect a pretty standard load out selection from the six available classes, like Assault, Engineer, etc. The difference is that as players level up any of the classes, they level up two different tech trees: one player specific, and the other class specific. Jump in as a soldier and play for a few hours, and when you switch to a sniper, you don’t start from scratch. Not entirely, anyways. Planetside 2 is all about experience buildup, so don’t be worried about players buying their way to the top. It just won’t happen, because the only in-game purchases there are (currently) are for weapons and convenience items. To level them up, you’ll have to play and use them.
That said, the entire game can be played and enjoyed without spending a dime, but you may want to if there are some guns currently out of reach except with your wallet. But even if you do put down coin, anything purchased still requires time and effort to level up those weapon tech trees. Nothing you pay for offers up an unfair advantage.
And player tech trees work very similar to perks, although as a futuristic FPS they act as implants to enable players to do more, such as reload faster, carry more ammo, etc. These implants are gained through the fourth resource, actual currency. As players take control of more land, they essentially plunder the area and earn money from it, which can then be put to bettering themselves.
With so many players on the map, there needs to be some structure of organization, so Sony Online Entertainment set up a simple system for getting into groups. Individuals can still be Rambo if they choose, but after 15 minutes of doing so, it becomes a little ridiculous. Joining a squad of 12 is as easy as going into the menu and finding any individuals not in a squad, or anyone in a squad that isn’t full. Platoons, which include up for four squads, work exactly the same.
Just don’t expect to win. Sure, as a persistent MMOFPS it isn’t really expected for any one team to ever fully capture such a massive map, but in my mind games like this still mimic real life, so eventually that should happen. As of now, each faction has a foothold which takes up three spaces on the map that cannot be captured. They act as a permanent home base in the very corner of each faction’s starting area. With one more map already being made, perhaps in the future SOE will make the map fully capture-able, just for the heck of it. It would be an amazing achievement to fully take over a map in a 2,000 player game…hell, it would be exciting to watch too.
Deployments into any area of the map are heavily restricted, so don’t expect Planetside 2 to work like Section 8. Hot drops are based on where player’s died, so if you were far in enemy territory and want to head back, tough. It’ll be the next closest region, or home base. If you went down in your own territory, there is a lot more leeway to where you can spawn. Though, using warp gates, users can return at any time to the home base, though it’ll kill them in the process. So don’t expect to just flee from a firefight you can’t win.
Currently, Planetside 2 has 2 equally sized (8x8) maps planned for release. Hackney told me that the game should run fine at a reasonable resolution and spec with an NVIDIA 8600 at the minimum. The game will also release with a Planetside 2 mobile app that supports both text and voice chat (through Ventrilo), so even if you aren’t on the game you can still communicate with teammates and see their progress. There still isn’t a firm release date for Planetside 2 as we're writing this Planetside 2 preview, but the beta will be opening up soon enough. And we may have some codes to give out as well, so stay tuned.
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© 2012 - DevilsMMO.com
by James Pikover
from PAX 2012