PlanetSide

"A MMOFPS that appeals to most but not all."

Planetside is a MMOFPS, I beleve it is the first FPS ever to be placed in a persistant world and requires a Monthly Fee of I think 12.00/month. Planetside is Much fun with alot of room for expansion. I have a few Quirks with it but well get to that later.

FIRST LETS POST THE SPEC, VERY MASSIVE!!!!!
Min req.
-P3 1 Ghz
-256 Mb Ram
-GeForce2 Class Card with 64 MB or more
-Directx8
-56k Internet Connection
-4x Cdrom
-3 Gig Hard Drive Space

On a System that meets these Min req.''ONLY'', Expect a massive Performance hit.Extremly Choppy it will be.

GRAPHICS: Hmmm, I wish I sould tell you the full extent of the graphics system but sadly I dont have a computer that can run it to its full potential. From what I can display the Graphics look Medoicre but I dont have my Shadows/PArticle Effects/Warping Effects and so forth on so It may look better on a more tweaked out system. The Performace of the Game graphics wise, seems best on a 128 Mb Vid Card. The Evironment in the Game could use some more detail but the Sky looks Gorgeous.

SCORE:6/10 on a Min Spec Sys, ?/10 on a Tweaked out one (assuming 8/10)

Sound: Ehh, the music is soso. Fits the game very well, like a eerie soundtrack that would be on the ALIEN movies or Starship Troopers. Nothing to go out and buy soundtracks for but not bad enough to turn off.

SCORE:7/10

GamePlay: Alright first lets get this one thing out of the way. This is a MMO game. Its is very slow paced at times with occasional hits of lag and rude people like all online games. Im gonna base this section on the Typical MMO game not games in general.
The gameplay is mainly based on 1 thing that branched off to several other. The #1 thing to play for in this game is XP. With more XP you increase your BR (battleRank) and with an increase in BR you get Certifacte points that can be cashed in for the privlege to use Better Weapons, Vehicles, And Armor types. In order to get those BR and XP you must participate in Either two things. Fighting enemies And killing them or Hacking a base from the opposite Empires. In order to get XP by hacking you must have either been part of a squad ( more on that later) that was killing enemies or you must kill enemies. In short meaning you must have actually took it from them, not just hacked it while your all alone and theres no resistance.

Like most MMO you can form Groups or partys and join Guild. Well in Planetside its the same concept with differant names. You form Squads, with people from your empire and they allow up to 10 people, While in a Squad you get your own form of XP for enemies your squad memeber kill along with being able to pinpoint all your Memebers on your map. This allows more coordination on the Battlefeild. Outfits are the Guild of PlanetSide, unlike a Squad that dissapears after you log off Outfits last for as long as you are playing and are a part of it. It is Exteremly East to join squads unlike other MMO games where you have to be certain lvls and what not, people need squad memebers and are extermly Nice to you.

One Downfall is that sometime the battles can be unbalanced and either its hard to find action or the action is too intense and you keep dieing. Sometimes you are caught spending Hours online and not fight anything, and the lands are massive. The fights are only as intense as the people that are playing play like. Since everyone in the game is a Player and there are no NPC to shoot at.

SCORE:8/10

Story:There Are 3 Empires Vanu Soverignty, Terran republic, New Conglomerate. Theres not much of a story besides the reason for the war that neverends. The Terran Republic used to be the only Empire in the General Universe area (I think). For some reason the entered a wormhole to this planet. When the entered the planet the wormhole Collasped and they were stranded on the planet. Eventually certain sections of the TR disliked the ways of the TR and disbanded and formed there own empires. The Vanu Soveringty decided to harness the power of the Vanu witch was a old ancient alien Race on this planet, they feel that no other empire is capable of harnessing the relics of old and fight to protect them. The New Conglomerate are the ture Rebels they broke from the TR and formed a Anti-Republic so to speak and choose to harness the Vanu Technology and oppose the TR. Then the Terran Republic just wants all the Empires to Form with the TR and be ruled under one Central Governement.

I beleve thats the story brokendown. I think some of it may be a bit inaccuarte but nonetheless all you need to know is that there are PEOPLE trying to hurt your people and you must fight back.

SCORE:7/10

Replayability:Well folk, this is a MMOFPS and the Replayability is as long as you can stand to play it. The game never ends and therefore can be played for Many Years Techniically but it really comes down to when you are bored and tired of playing.

SCORE:1/10 or 10/10 its all up to you.

FINAL SCORE AND CONCLUSION: 8/10, If you like FPS but want to be more involed in the World and the people this is a great game. SOme people complain about it getting boring fast. Thats all up to you. If you dont mind just waiting and guarding or talking and forming strategys then you should have fun. If all you wanna do is fight constantly then you might want to stay with CS or MOHAA. The people whom play this game are great people and are very kind.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/03, Updated 05/28/03