Planetside 2: A game that promises massive open battles that veterans of the FPS genre would die for, only just barely falls short of fulfilling it. It's a difficult game to rate or reccomend succinctly with complete confidence. Having put a considerable amount of time into this game, I feel like in order to provide a fair reccomendation I need to address how the game was at launch, and how it is now. This I feel is the best way of illustrating how this game plays during its boom and bust periods.

At launch, there was no shortage of combat; people everywhere and plenty of fights for everyone. The game looks stunning during large fights, and you really feel like you were part of an organized ARMY. Not a squad with a dozen of players or so, but the feeling of taking part in a fight with 100 or more on each side simply cannot be beat. Players were welcoming and actually enthusiastic about following orders and carrying out specific roles.

However, the lack of a real metagame and the performance issues really hurt player interest and numbers started to decline. With this decline, outfits started falling apart and becomming dysfunctional and for a long time, PS2 was at a loss in terms of competing with other interesting titles and offering endgame content to the more dedicated players.

As it is now, Planetside 2 has undergone a significant metagame and optimization pass that will hopefully spark some more interest to being back a portion of the "boom" population without the cloying issues of poor netcode, lackluster metagame and terrible optimization.

Mechanically I'm a little on the fence. Weapons as the game went on felt like they were actually becomming more difficult to control, and sporadic, rather than predictable, accurate or fun to use. Due to the game's 300 meter draw distance for infantry, the weapon stats are all wierdly skewed and difficult to get used to. Bullets and other bullet-like projectiles feel as if they move quite slowly, requiring a heavy lead on moving targets (on top of any latency or graphical stuttering you may get).

Right now, there is no mid or endgame content. There are no infantry weapons that make any faction really stand out (aside form rocket launchers and some max weapons). It feels as if each factions weapons are equally balanced with one another so that they all have comprable ttk, and they all have weapons for each niche so that for the time being it feels like Empire traits have taken a back seat.

For me, this leads to a very boring game. There is no reason to play another faction because for all intents and purposes their weapons are identical to the ones I have already unlocked. I have all the class unlocks I need, as well as all the weapons and attachments I care to use. Don't get me wrong though; this game isn't going to die with a wimper. Once SOE starts working on content again I feel like interest will grow once more. Another continet, fully integrated lattice system and new weapons, gadgets and gear are all what this game desperately needs. Until then, all this game can offer is a serene and peaceful tour of the interesting Auraxian landscapes because there just isn't enough people on during prime hours.

Planetside 2: A game that promises massive open battles that veterans of the FPS genre would die for, only just barely falls short of fulfilling it. It's a difficult game to rate or reccomend succinctly with complete confidence. Having put a considerable amount of time into this game, I feel like in order to provide a fair reccomendation I need to address how the game was at launch, and how it is now. This I feel is the best way of illustrating how this game plays during its boom and bust periods. At launch, there was no shortage of combat; people everywhere and plenty of fights for everyone. The game looks stunning during large fights, and you really feel like you were part of an organized ARMY. Not a squad with a dozen of players or so, but the feeling of taking part in a fight with 100 or more on each side simply cannot be beat. Players were welcoming and actually enthusiastic about following orders and carrying out specific roles. However, the lack of a real metagame and the performance issues really hurt player interest and numbers started to decline. With this decline, outfits started falling apart and becomming dysfunctional and for a long time, PS2 was at a loss in terms of competing with other interesting titles and offering endgame content to the more dedicated players. As it is now, Planetside 2 has undergone a significant metagame and optimization pass that will hopefully spark some more interest to being back a portion of the "boom" population without the cloying issues of poor netcode, lackluster metagame and terrible optimization. Mechanically I'm a little on the fence. Weapons as the game went on felt like they were actually becomming more difficult to control, and sporadic, rather than predictable, accurate or fun to use. Due to the game's 300 meter draw distance for infantry, the weapon stats are all wierdly skewed and difficult to get used to. Bullets and other bullet-like projectiles feel as if they move quite slowly, requiring a heavy lead on moving targets (on top of any latency or graphical stuttering you may get). Right now, there is no mid or endgame content. There are no infantry weapons that make any faction really stand out (aside form rocket launchers and some max weapons). It feels as if each factions weapons are equally balanced with one another so that they all have comprable ttk, and they all have weapons for each niche so that for the time being it feels like Empire traits have taken a back seat. For me, this leads to a very boring game. There is no reason to play another faction because for all intents and purposes their weapons are identical to the ones I have already unlocked. I have all the class unlocks I need, as well as all the weapons and attachments I care to use. Don't get me wrong though; this game isn't going to die with a wimper. Once SOE starts working on content again I feel like interest will grow once more. Another continet, fully integrated lattice system and new weapons, gadgets and gear are all what this game desperately needs. Until then, all this game can offer is a serene and peaceful tour of the interesting Auraxian landscapes because there just isn't enough people on during prime hours.