Planetside 2: First Impressions

It’s landed with quite an impact. Plenty of people have turned out for Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) revival of its unique franchise, Planetside. Remarkably there have been no real attempts since the original to deliver multiplayer combat on a massive scale. Planetside 2 dwarfs rivals such as DICE’s Battlefield series. Thousands of players battle each other to take control of the planet Auraxis which is split over three huge continent maps.

The launch has had a few bumpy moments, leading to some quick server down time and quick patching. But for the most part, the game has done a good job of getting players straight into the action; giving them a real taste of the gameplay right from the start. Once you’re online; you pick from a choice of the three factions, character gender, name and face. Not a great deal of customisation, but for the most part you’ll rarely see an opponent’s face behind their helmet. The majority of the customisation comes from cosmetic items purchasable through the in-game shop.

As soon as you hit go, you’re given a brief introduction into your faction and the planet being fought over. After that you’re promptly deployed in a drop pod into the heart of a ground battle. I ended up in a close quarters scrap, defending a tech plant from an assault by the Vanu Sovereignty. Having played the beta, I was able to get my bearings pretty quickly and jump into the thick of the fighting. But for a new player; it will be a little overwhelming as none of the mechanics are explained, and there’s no tutorial to get you up to speed either.

This was my biggest criticism of the beta and SOE have done little to fix it. The first time you enter some of the menu screens, you get a pop-up to explain its purpose. But beyond that there’s no explanation of anything. Want to know how to capture that base? How to acquire vehicles? Customise your loadouts? Well you best find an explanation on the internet. There are some very useful video tutorials produced by SOE which are linked to on the game’s launcher. But why isn’t there an in-game wiki or help function? Providing an easy way for new players to get answers would build on the great first impression made by the initial drop into combat.

Most importantly, the game design leads to the natural formation of large scale conflicts between players. This is a big plus for the game. Seeing armoured columns roll out to the nearest battle is a sight to behold.  Objectives are clearly marked on the map, allowing you to set both squad and personal waypoints to advance too. The map also highlights areas of activity and allows you to redeploy reach the front lines faster.

When in range of a base, the current capture situation is displayed above your mini-map. Points are fought over in a tug of war style. Holding key objectives and killing opponents will increase your team’s score towards victory. However in some of the large scale facilities, this system can feel slow. Especially when your opponents are stuck in their spawn point with no chance of repelling you.

Spawning is generally well handled throughout the game. On the deployment screen you’re given an overview of the map with a current list of held locations and what vehicles can be obtained there. Added to this list will be any deployed Sunderers and squad spawn beacons. These are activated by players to create forward bases. Allowing teammates to quickly spawn nearby and support the offensive; rather than having to travel several hundred metres from the closest base.

To try and prevent any spawn camping. Which is always the most infuriating tactic in any multiplayer FPS; team colour coded shields cover the entrances of any base spawn point. This allows defenders to freely fire at any attacking force, without the risk of being killed as soon as they appear. This would be incredibly imbalanced, but clever placement of these areas means defenders still have to leave the sanctuary of the spawn point to achieve anything useful. As soon as the base falls, the ownership of any spawn points changes. This will slowly kill off any stubborn defenders who refuse to die like men and allow attackers entry to gun them down.

The gunplay is well done and up to the standard of any current FPS. There’s a wide selection of gun unlocks for all classes and vehicles. Each provides a unique feel though the combination of recoil, damage and ammunition capacity. Successful hits are displayed through the crosshairs flashing red; which hits a nice balance by being simple and unobtrusive, whilst providing satisfying feedback. There are plenty of additions to attach to every weapon to tweak its performance. However it will take a long time to customise any weapon with all the available options.

All unlocks are obtained through the certification system. Simply get two hundred and fifty experience points to earn one certification point. Everything costs a certain amount, but the order of unlocks is entirely your decision. No horrible, set linear progression system which has been the staple of many FPS recently. You can play however you want to earn experience, and then invest your hard earned points how you want.

Sadly this freedom of choice is let down by how the free-to-play economy is set up. Many useful weapons such as lock-on missile launchers cost a lot of certification points; representing a significant time investment. You can certainly have a good time with the default equipment, but unlocking one new weapon can feel like quite a grind.

Now obviously the time investment has to be fairly steep. SOE would like to make some money and they have to encourage players to get out their wallets somehow. So far developers like Riot have led the way by showing how popular purely aesthetic items are to the consumer. And SOE have followed this format somewhat. There’s already an excellent selection of helmets, body armours and camouflage patterns to buy. These will no doubt make a fair bit of money; nevertheless weapons are purchasable and at incredibly steep cash prices. At the moment, the combination of pricing structure and the default equipment comes across as a bit greedy.

So will Planetside 2 expand its player base and thrive in the free-to-play market? Almost certainly, as it offers an FPS experience like no other. Being part of the fight in Planetside is simply epic, both in the scale of combat and how it’s presented. The sound design is excellent, it puts you into a war where explosions are thunderous and gunfire is everywhere. Graphically it will make your PC chug for middling quality. I’ve ended up playing with many settings on low to keep the framerate high. Especially during night fights where gunfire lights up the sky in spectacular displays.

If you want to jump into the action, the game client is available directly from the Planetside 2 website and through Steam. 

Survival of the Fittest: Natural Selection 2

When I first heard about Natural Selection, I thought the concept was a little crazy. Mixing FPS with RTS, Natural Selection 2 is the spawn of Starcraft mating with Unreal Tournament. Players fight across large scale maps as either a Frontiersman or Kharaa. Simply it’s humans against aliens, do you prefer guns or teeth?

The RTS side of the game is the most interesting. There’s one commander per side who locks themselves away in a command structure. They swap their FPS viewpoint for a top down RTS role and gain a new set of abilities. These allow the commander to place structures to expand and upgrade. Whilst also allowing them to give commands to other teammates and dropping them supplies. Taking out the enemy base will stop players from re-spawning after death, leading to success.

Being on the front lines is wildly different for each side. Humans have to rely heavily on their equipment. Starting out with an assault rifle and torch, they are just about a match for the basic alien known as the Skulk. Sticking together is vital; a lone ranger is an easy ambush target. Crucially there is no friendly fire. So as soon as the lead alien leaps out the shadows, you can open fire without fear of hitting a friend. It creates some fantastically frantic gameplay for both sides. Also, backwards movement is quite slow, so you have to commit to entering a room. Scanning the ceiling and vents for any nasty lurking enemies is vital, or you’ll quickly find yourself chewed to pieces.

The mouth-cam of the Kharaa is a curios perspective to play an FPS from. Trying to line up fangs with flesh takes some practice. A glancing nibble deals reduced damage, whereas a solid bite cuts humans to chunks. You’ll spend a lot of time as the Skulk, a fragile, fast moving alien. Its party piece is climbing up walls and ceilings, giving you access to alternative routes and ambushing possibilities. Again it’s an important skill to learn to be an effective Kharaa player. I found it difficult to stick to the ceiling whilst going through bulkheads. I’d often end up falling to the floor in front of Frontiersmen and end up playing the part of living target practice.

Unlike the humans who power up with new weapons and equipment; the alien players evolve into other life forms. Available at the start of the game is the Gorge, a support and construction role. Its main job is to assist the commander by speeding construction with healing breath. It can also place a few defensive structures to slow human players. It would look like an adorable little Hippo if it weren’t for the horrible tentacles growing out of it. The other alien life forms let you take to the skies, play as a phase shifting assassin and spawn as a living battering ram. All upgrades cost you personal resource which is gained from map control and general play.

A good commander is the key to victory. Their priority is to use teammates to secure the resource nodes dotted around the map. These resources drive the teams’ economy, granting quicker access to upgrades, thus gaining the upper hand.  Each side has different base structures which defines the strategy for each team.

The Frontiersman can place structures wherever they please. This allows them to build outposts and hold quiet corners of the map easily. All humans are equipped with a construction tool. Running up to the outline of a building and holding ‘E’ will slowly build the structure. More players will increase the build speed, but you’ll need someone watching your back. A group of distracted humans is dinner on a plate for the aliens. Power is the Frontiersman weakness. If the Kharaa knock out the power source in an area, all buildings stop working and the lights go out! This denies the resource, and creates the perfect environment to use their night vision.

Kharaa are much more limited in their expansion plans. The base has to be linked by a connected line of Cysts. These small glowing orange blobs spread infestation around themselves like a plague. Any structures placed on the infestation will function and grow. But if the Frontiersman break the chain, the infestation will retreat leaving buildings to wither and die.

Controlling the map’s resources and constructing secondary bases is the main plan for both sides. As the game progresses, the resources earned are converted into research and upgrades. This escalates into an arms race as each side aims to get access to its best equipment first. Humans utilise a variety of weapons such as flamethrowers and grenade launchers, as well as jetpacks and devastating mech-suits.

The aliens can evolve into greater life forms, and add to them with unlocked perks. These can allow them to move faster and in silence. On top of that they can gain quick health regeneration enabling some deadly hit and run attacks. Playing as the assassinating Fade, you can move at warp speed when fully evolved. I’ve run straight past targets accidentally due to ridiculous movement and then had to keep going past them to avoid the bullets aimed at my hide.

Overall, the feel of the game is that of a more old-school arena shooter. The reference to Unreal Tournament is very apt due to the fast pace of the game and no iron sights. With a little practice, picking up the FPS role of either side is straight forward. The command role however is very tricky, but equally very rewarding. There’s links to video tutorials within the game which is handy, but it’s a bit annoying to sit through several videos instead of learning through play.

The biggest flaw with the game is that the mechanics lead to a rich-get-richer scenario. When a team is dominating, it becomes impossible to turn a game around through good paly alone. To add to the loosing team’s misery; they have the choice of suicidal attacks, or to sit around and wait for the inevitable. But that is the nature of Nautral Selection 2. To get the most from it, you’ll need to find a server that suits your skill level for more balanced games. The complexity of the game’s mechanics come together to create an interesting, and most importantly fun game. 

This Is The MMO You Were Looking For?

Free to play has finally reached the galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR) will be changing its subscription model from November 15^th. It’s only taken a year for what was expected to be EA’s flagship MMO, to be forced into a new revenue stream. And the retro fit really doesn’t work.

But before diving into the negatives of the change, there’s a big plus for anyone who hasn’t already tried it. The story content is fully unlocked to all free players. You can enjoy all eight class story arcs; if you have the patience to work your way through the arbitrary levelling mechanics. MMORPGs are often panned for poor story telling. SW:TOR genuinely bucked that trend. The story telling and character interaction got me incredibly invested in my character. I felt like an individual despite being surrounded by hundreds of other players. This is mostly down to the heavy use of instancing in the game. It’s odd to see lots of green barriers everywhere, but it works.

The only downside to the single player experience is that the planet story arcs are only interesting the first time. They’re also necessary to level up your character to continue your own personal story. So if you’re interested in playing more than one Republic or Empire character, you’ll have to put up with repeating a lot of content.

So if the game has gone free to play, how can there be any negatives? Well if you’re playing for free, you’re going to have to put up with some annoying travel handicaps. Sprint is a skill that can only be used by paying players to run faster. It’s really useful at low level for getting around. At the game’s launch, many players complained that it wasn’t unlocked at level one as it is now. Also, your quick travel uses will be limited. So you’ll need to get used public space transport.

Various other game elements have limited access for free players, or are entirely blocked. Most notable is the limitation on operations. Operations are SW:TOR’s  raid content, large dungeons pitting eight or sixteen players against the greatest threats to the galaxy. Like the rest of the game, operations are story driven and are good fun for a group of players. However as a free player, there’s no way to sample this content. You have to pay up front for something you might not enjoy.

This is just one element that will divide the player base. The idea of a free to play model is to let players sample content. Thus encouraging them spend money on accessing or getting more from the game for their time. But who will want to spend money on an unknown?

Ultimately, retro-fitting a free to play model to a subscription based game wasn’t going to be perfect.  It’s not surprising that a free player is treated like a second class citizen. But the smart choice would be to offer subscribers new benefits. There’s little reason to hang around once you’ve had your fill of the story. The endgame PvP and PvE isn’t as other MMOs. And with the imminent release of Planetside 2; and Guild Wars 2 offering a better experience overall. SW:TOR will need to carve out a fan base to survive in the market.

A full list of free to play limitations can be found here on the official website.

To Video!

Recently, I've tried my hand at converting the articles I post here on this blog into a video format. Hopefully this is just the beginning with more to follow, enjoy!