Download Planetside 2 NOW

It's Battlefield 3... in space... with 6000 concurrent players on the server... AND FREE TO PLAY

I'm not posting any flashy pictures... there will be no real review... I'm going to give you a few reasons why I love it and a few negative parts of the Planetside 2 experience.  Then you're going to go download it and join me on Matherson as the Terran Republic.  VICTORY IS OUR TRADITION!

Click on the link above and start downloading the game.  Read this, log in, and get going!


Okay, so why do I love this game?

• Massively Multiplayer First Person Shooter done right.  Hit detection, latency, fluidity of movement, and everything you expect out of a typical adversarial FPS with up to 6,000 players per server at any given time
• Class based system where every class is desperately needed.
• Class customization all over the place.  Guns for miles, upgrades for miles, endless ways to make your character exactly the way you want it.
• Organized tactical game play when you want it... meat grinder to throw yourself into when you don't
• Vehicles that can be customized as thoroughly as your soldier.
• Beautiful sprawling landscape that is a joy to fight in.  Reel feeling of scale that you can't get anywhere else.
• 3 factions that are asymmetrically balanced.  Each faction has their strengths and weaknesses and it makes for some interesting situations.
• In game VOIP for those that want to talk in any of the typical chat channels (proximity, squad, platoon, outfit [read: guild/clan/alliance/etc]) 
• Stat tracking that is only getting better.
• "Certification" system similar to Riot Games "Influence Points" that you can spend to get any upgrades you can buy other than cosmetics (also similar to Riot Games).  AKA free as long as you want it to be.
• EXTREMELY easy to get into a group when you log in.  You press "insert" and you're put into the nearest open squad.  Then with the in game VOIP and chat channels you can quickly be brought up to speed and into the action.
• EXTREMELY easy to get into a fight the second you log in.  There's a function called "instant action" you access from the map that allows you to "hot drop" into contested areas or on your squad leader's position.  It doesn't get easier than this.
• In game streaming/youtube option.  All I had to do was log into my twitch.tv account and my stream went live!
• SOE is making huge money off this game and intends to support it with new content all the time.  The game hasn't been out a month and they just released a ton of new stuff.

Downsides

• OPTIMIZED POORLY - I run a super computer (that's 1 year old) and it's okay, but I can't stream it without suffering... which is a damned if I do damned if I don't situation.  I love streaming, but I also love being able to play without dropping to 15 frames per second.  SOE is going to release a massive patch (many gigs) in January that will fix the frame rate issue, but for now, it's very hard on your CPU.
• The first time you log in the game will hot drop you into the biggest fight it can find.  You will die instantly.  You'll have no idea from where, why, or how... but you're dead and looking at a confusing re-deploy menu.  This will turn people off... fight through it, soldier!
• Difficult to understand what's going on at first - I had played for >10 hours before I even knew what was going on.  I'm going to try and explain that either later in this post or in another post so I can help the newbie get his boots on the ground and guns live!
• Certification gain is very slow at first.  "Certs" are SOE's earned currency.  Someone said it's about 2 kills and an assist for 1 certification.  I think it's closer to 3 kills, but I haven't really looked into it.  You also get certs for flipping control points which takes a few minutes even if it's uncontested.  As the new player who's not racking up kills your cert gain will be slow which makes unlocking guns/attachments/upgrades difficult.  Everything is a "sidegrade" but when you factor in things like rocket pods for the light aircraft or flak armor for your soldier... there are upgrades that would be nice to get earlier.  [NOTE: SOE is open to changing things if it turns "too grindy"]
• Guns cost 1,000 certs (but there are daily 50% off sales).  Sights cost 30 certs.  I get a couple hundred certs a night playing a lot... because I'm not killing a thousand people an hour... I'll get into this
• The outfit you choose can have a MASSIVE impact on your enjoyment of the game/cert rate/etc.  This goes for every MMO ever, but in Planetside 2 you're either in the fight and mocked for being part of the "zerg" (which is just a blanket derogatory term thrown out any time a large force moves around doing things together) or you're moving around the map 50 deep taking uncontested outposts for hours.  You have to do your research and find a group of guys you like running with or you're not going to enjoy your time online.
• ALERT... THIS IS HEARSAY: hackers... I THINK I ran into a group of them the other day, but I can't confirm/deny that there are hackers because I don't know how to tell.  People have released videos of themselves running all sorts of aimbots/speed hacks/etc on youtube with links to buy the hacks, but that doesn't mean they work or that SOE isn't catching them.  SOE name and shames hackers as they catch them (which is hilarious) with a broadcast that goes out to everyone with a sound effect.... it's awesome... but I hear more and more about hackers.  This could just be angry people who were bested and don't believe it to be possible or it could really be a problem... I don't know... take it as a "yeah, duh" statement and move on.

So, what do you do in Planetside 2?

You fight for land vs 2 other factions.  The heroes of Auraxis are the Terran Republic.  They are dreamy and are the only hope for the human race.  The best of the Terran Republic's army are on Matherson, so join us. If you're a huge jerk and hate freedom you can join either the New Conglomerate or the Vanu Sovereignty.  NC is all "corporations rule!" and VS is all "Want to talk about Thetans?"  They both hate freedom, apple pie, puppies, babies, and happiness. 

So, you and your TR buddies go out there and murder the faces off the NC and VS while holding control points on the map.  Those points grant you resources per minute.  Those resources are used to make tanks, planes, and infantry gear.  So, if you control all the resources you have a nearly unlimited supply of explosives, vehicles, and happiness.  If you don't, you could be at a terminal unable to re-equip grenades, tanks, etc.  On top of that, your faction gets access to other benefits when they control major control points. Bio Labs give regen, Tech Plants give access to your faction's heavy tanks, etc.  When you take the whole continent you get another massive bonus.  There are 3 continents (with more on the way) to fight on... so you get a nice variety on top of everything else.

Like I said above, you will die seconds from spawning the first time because Sony thought it would be a good idea to drop someone who's never played into the most brutal fight on the server in the middle of the action.  When you are ready to respawn you can select from all the nearby spawn points (represented as green dots on the map).  These could be mobile spawn points like Sunderers, they could be control points your faction controls, or they could be the "Warp gate" which is how you change continents.  There is a shield around the warp gate that prevents all damage and it can't be taken over, so it's a safe place if you want to take a few minutes to go over everything.  

So, when you respawn, press "insert" and you'll be dropped into a squad.  Open the map and it will show you where they all are.  Go to them.  Murder the NC/VS and have fun.

There's plenty of depth beyond that, but that's the overview at 30,000 feet.  I'll get into more later.

SO GET IN THERE AND START BOMBING THE SCUM OF AURAXIS WITH FREEDOM!