Game Title - Planetside
Developer - Sony Online Entertainment (SOE)
Genre - Futaristic MMORPG First Person Shooter
Rating - T
Release Date - May 19th, 2003
Platforms - Microsoft Windows
Game Overview
Planetside is an MMORPG game that not many people have heard about. The game is not only an MMORPG, but a FPS as well. Taking place in the future, the game is based around 3 factions. There is a backstory to the game so I will summarize it. In the future we have made many technological advances. Wormhole travel was eventually discovered and our exploration of the galaxy went into full thrust. At one point in time, one of the wormholes led us directly to a new star system. In this system was a lone planet. Fully habbitable, but no inhabitants. Nothing on the surface but plants, water, and to our suprise, a few abandoned alien structures, still fully powered and functional. After many years, we finally sent exploration teams to the world which we now call the Auraxis. (We at first wanted to pretend we did not see the planet, as we have come so far and did not want to chance throwing everything away by having a bad encounter with an unknown lifeform.).
While exploring the planet, probes were sent out to view the alien structures. They were abandoned, but safe. Eventually, one of the probes began to move toward a central beam of energy cascading into the sky. The moment it touched the beam, it dissapeared. Merely a split second later though, it re-appeared on the other side of the planet, nothing altered, nothing changed. We had discovere done of the alien's most amazing inventions, the Warpgates. To protect our home planet, the government put a quarentine on the Auraxis. Nothing from there came back. If you were to pass through the wormhole to live on the planet, it was permanent. Fearing that the aliens (who were far more advanced than us) could return at any moment and be possibly angry with us and could easily destroy us, we collapsed the wormhole to a minimal small size, to make it easier to close in case of emergency. Evetually we mapped out the entire planet of where each warpgate led to. We named each continent on the planet, and set up home bases of operation.
A few years had passed, until an event occured which caused us to discover an even greater alien technology. To test the safety of the warpgates, scientists began sending inert objects through the gates, studying the effects the gates had on the objects. One day, a veteran Drop Pilot took it upon himself out of his curiosity to see what would happen if you sent human lifeforms through the gates. He grabbed a fast air fighter, and entered the warp. He came out on the other side completely fine. The government was furious about this act though, fearing that causing contact with alien technology with a living being may trigger a defence mechanism. The pilot returned through the warp, only to be met on the other side by his advisors. He was sentenced to death on the spot, and executed from shot in the forehead. Later that week, an orbital satellite detected a life form in the mdidle of a desert continent where no patrols were assigned. An aircraft was sent to investigate, only to find, sitting under a palm tree, the same pilot who was executed earlier that week, perfectly healthy, alive and well. The alien planet supported a form of unknown immortality. The military was stunend.
Fearing the public masses, all information on the Auraxis was kept confidential from the public. Not wanting to beleive in the immortality, the military executed the pilot six more times before giving up. The last time they made sure to blow him to pieces, and incinerate them to a point of where he couldn't be scooped up. But he kept re-appearing at a warp gate platform, angry about his continuous death, but nonetheless alive and perfectly healthy. He came back exactly as he was before death, no pains aches or trauma, all of his memory there except for the shrot moment beforeh is death. After long experiements, they discovered than any human being who passes through a warp gate, becomes binded with the Auraxis, and becomes immortal.
Now jump ahead. Many years have passed, and the Auraxis is heavily inhabited (though due to the same old laws, only scientists and military personnel are alloed to pass through). The wormhole to Earth, our home, after a huge disaster, has collapsed. The people on the Auraxis are now abandoned there. Many alien technologies have been discovered, including weapons and armor. The government did not allow use of these discoveries though, for fear that they could alert the alien life forms. Non members of the military became rowdy over their own beleifs. The military began to break apart, and eventually split into 3 factions. The Terran Republic was the original military of Earth, who wanted to keep the world a military dictatorship of the human race. They kept the national colors of Red and Black. The second faction to break away was the Vanu Soverignty. They beleived that the humans should embrace this new technology for the best (the aliens by this point were named the Vanu). They sport the colors of purple and flourescent teal. Lastly came the New Conglomerate. They beleived that the world should be opened to the rest of earth as a safe home from disaster and not be restricted to military only, and that the government should become a democracy. They took up the colors of blue and yellow.
Shortly after the war began, something called "The Bending" occured in which all of the continents ripped apart, and became seperate planets. They were still however, accessable via warpgates. This is where the game picks up. You pick a faction to join up with. The entire point of the game is to work with your military to take control of the planets. You can join up into squads (like parties) or form/join an outfit (Like a Clan) to make your work easier. Joining a party causes you to share experience from every kill other members get. The unique thing about this game is it's levling system. You can't use just any vehicle or weapon. As you gain experience, you will ecventually level up. Each level you gain, you earn a Certification Point (you also get 6 right from the start). You can then use your centification points to certify you so you can use, for example, Sniper Rifles, Heavy Weapons, ability to drive a certain vehicle, ability to use Medical tools, wear different armor grades (Better armor makes you run slower, but you have more inventory and weapon holsters, and you have more protection) etc. So each person usually picks a class and sticks with it. You also have 3 "Implant" slots. At levels 6, 12, and 18, you unlock 1 implant slot instead of getting a cert. point. Implants are like abilities that you can use in battle.
There are many implants, like Surge, which drains your stamina but enables you to run 6x faster than normal, Darksight which allows you to see cloaked enemies, Meelee upgrade which makes your knife work as almost an instant kill, Second Wind which boostes your health back up to safe levels a moment before death (has a really long cooldown), and many others. There are tons of different weapons and vehicles in the game, from tanks to ATVs to Jets, bombers, troop transports, dune buggies, and much more. There are also support abilities, like comat medics, engineers, etc.
If you are the squad leader of your squad, you gain Command XP instead of combat XP. This goes toward your command rank (total of 5). Different level commanders get abilities like reveal enemies on radar, and Orbital Strike (giant omfg laser fires from the sky and annihilates the area it hits, scoring hundreds of kills). Rank 1 and 2 give you shinpads on your armor, 3 and 4 give wrist/forearm guards, and rank 5 gives a Communications backpack and a headset. The max combat level is 27. At level 26 your armor turns black (with trim of your factions color), and at 27 you can remove your helmet, swap it for a beret, or a cap, as well as sunglasses. Also, there is a sort of achievement system, called merits. Completing the merit allows you to display combat ribbons on your shoulder (you pick the 4 that are displayed). You get these from doing thigns like heal 25 friendlies, kill 100 enemies, blow up 20 tanks, etc.
The way combat works is each continent/world has a few bases, and a lot of tower outposts. If all of the bases of a world are captured by a faction then the world becomes their own. The towers can serve as respawn points if captured, by invaders. There are different bases that have different purposes. Like dropship bases allow you to spawn large aircraft, radar bases show enemies on radar, etc. They sort of give small buffs. The thing that mkaes this game so great is the battles are MASSIVE. Usually around 100-300+ members per faction in an all out battle. Infantry all over, tanks and jets, bombers. Mass chaos. The game has thousands of players and the battles for a single base can sometiems take hours. Strategy is key though. Destroy their vehicle terminals if you want to suppress the threat (until their engineers fix it), kill the power generator to knock out all terminals, destroy the spawn tubes to limit them to spawning in towers outside of the base, etc.
These are the following 10 planets which battles occur on.
Ceryshen
Ceryshen is a cold, arctic planet with tall mountains and high elevations. Due to the many cliffs and chasms, Ceryshen can be a tricky continent to navigate on foot or in a vehicle.
Amerish
Amerish is a temperate continent. Amerish is notable for the long-lasting bridge battles that often occur on the eastern side of the continent on either side of Mekala, a Tech Plant situated on a small island.
Cyssor
Cyssor is an earth-quake shattered buttemperate planet, and it is also one of the largest planets in PlanetSide. It is made of many islands conencted by long, narrow bridges. Because of its large size, conflicts can take a while, giving the planet the nickname of "CyssorSide" by players. It is also one of the most common planets on which to have a conflict, because it features easy warpgate access to all three home continents. Cyssor is famous for it's bridge battles. It has very long, but very narrow bridges that sides fight to cross to get to the next base. These bridge battles can take hours.
Solsar
Solsar is a dry, desert planet. The lattice structure on Solsar is designed around a nearly unavoidable progression of bases along the western side of the continent.
Ishundar
Ishundar is a dry, rocky, and mountainous planet that rivals Cyssor in size. The environment is similar to that of Oshur (before it was destroyed in The Bending). FPS fans may draw similarities to the outdoor section of Halo: Combat Evolved's final level, as the environment and landscape is rather similar. Driving ground-vehicles on Ishundar is often an exercise in frustration due to the extremely rocky terrain.
Searhus
Searhus mainly consists of a temperate climate around the perimeter of the continent, however it becomes increasingly desert-like as one reaches the top of the massive dormant volcano in the center. Whether the volcano is truly dormant is arguable, as there are several bubbling lava pools in the volcano's caldera. It is also the only world with neutral warpgates.
Oshur/Battle Islands
Originally, Oshur was a continent with terrain similar to Ishundar or Solsar. It also contained a giant avian skeleton, prompting discussions of the Ancients who might have been there. With the Bending event, Oshur was replaced with 4 islands, or the "Battle Islands", each one with a climate of each type in the game. The names of these isles are Ascension, Desolation, Extinction, and Nexus. Oshur is notable in that no Heavy Assault weapons are allowed and most heavy vehicles are forbidden as well, such as Tanks, Reavers, and Liberators.
Forseral
A mild and temperate planet which has charactaristics of a forest (Hence it's name). This planet was the first planet deemed habitable by the military when the Auraxis was first discovered.
Hossin
Hossin is a swamp-ridden temperate climate. The ground is shrouded in a dense, humid fog significantly reducing the viewing distance. The continent is divided in two by a huge river vertically through the centre, leaving Hossin's capital base, Voltan, on an island. Since Voltan is an Interlink on an island with an easily-defended Tech Plant nearby, and since it is a Capital base in which Orbital Strikes are forbidden, it is commonly recognized as the most easily-defended base in the world.
Esamir
Esamir is an arctic planet similar to Ceryshen, but is significantly larger.
Ok time for the rating.
1.
Audio - 9
The game has great sound effects. The soundtrack is also amazing, and one of my favorites. Here is the arctic battle theme (the music that starts when a battle begins on an arctic climate planet)
<object width="300" height="110"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/LibNd7oDpo/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/LibNd7oDpo/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="110" wmode="transparent"></embed><a href="http://www.imeem.com/people/GDGPsu/music/SVyI6CxN/soe_arctic_combat/">Arctic Combat - SOE</a></object>
2.
Graphics - 9
The game has great graphics for it's time, especially for an MMO. The models are a little blocky, but that's easy to ignore from the beautiful environments.
3.
Controls - 10
Perfect. And if you don't think so, change them. EVERY single control is customizable.
4.
Content - 10
It's hard to run out of things to do in this game. Especially since you can't use everything, you have to specialize in certain skills. Get bored? Un spec and try another route.
5.
Replayability - 8
The game is great fun and you'll get addicted. I usually find myself playing over and over again.
6.
Story - 10
Even though I typed a wall of text, the backstory is much longer than that (It actually has chapters) Every single thing in the game is explained and actually seems possible. It has a great story in it.
7.
Innovation - 9
Come on. It's an MMORPGFPS. It's a great idea that should of been done sooner.
8.
Getting Into It - 8
The game is so massive that learning it is a little confusing at first, but it is well worth it.
9.
Game Length - 10
It never ends. Lol.
10.
Spice - 9
Spice is the games variety. There is lots of different things to do and try in this game. It is truly massive.
OVERALL SCORE
9.2 out of
10
Final Comment
One of my favorite games, and my favorite MMO. Seriously, give it a try.
Møk3
