PlanetSide

"Combining the best of FPS and MMORPGs"

PlanetSide

Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you about PlanetSide, the new MMOFPS. This is my first review so don’t be harsh.

OVERVIEW:

Planetside is an Massively Multi player Online First Person Shooter. I combines the best of MMORPGs, such as everquest, with the best of First Person Shooters, like Half-life and Halo.
What is the best of MMO’s? Well I would say that it is meeting with your friends playing with 1,000's of other players at a time. What is the best of FPSs? Well I would say that it is...well killing stuff. PlanetSide also adds a unique aspect of strategy, that is if you have a high enough CR, or Command Rank, you can send messages to all of you fellow teammates, I was recently in a massive raid, 100's, almost 1,000's of players gathering together to accomplish a goal.

Game play:

In planetSide, your main objective is to capture Facilities, or “Bases”. You do this by working as a team, and hacking the facilities control console. This turns the base neutral for 15 minuets during which time you have to defend the control console so you can get the base. Now lets talk about what you can do. You can: hack control consoles, be an anti-personnel person, anti-vehicular person an anti-aircraft, Healer, engineer and even an infiltrator. In order to become these things you need certification points to buy certificates, lets say I wanted to be an anti vehicle guy, I first need to buy a medium weapons certificate as a prerequisite, then I need a anti-vehicular weapons certificate, and then, a reenforced exosuit. Of course, you could chose to ignore these aspects of the game and go right on in with standard armor and a suppressor. However, this is extremely n00bish, and you are bound to get killed extremely fast. If you are not the best and fps’s you could always pilot an aircraft, or land vehicle, 1 of the more popular vehicle is the galaxy, used as a transport, and pilots can (if they choose) not fight at all, another strategy is to drop off your squad, and then go park you galaxy somewhere and start sniping. A sniper can kill any regular person in 2 shots, however they have to reload after every shot. These are just some examples of the roles you can play in PlanetSide.

Graphics:

PlanetSide graphics are nothing spectacular, they aren’t terrible, but of their not great, they are some of the best in their genre, however they could be a lot better.

Sound:
The Sound makes excellent background music, but unfortunately that is about it....its nothing that your gonna hum all day, nor is it something that your gonna turn your speakers off for, its Average, at best.

Replayability:
PlanetSide is one hulluva replayable game, while its no everquest, you will still play this game a lot, you can meet up with friends, and raid other bases with them, however if you want to play with your friends you have to make sure that they go on the same server as you, and that they join the same empire as you.
Other:

PlanetSide suffers some major lag issues, especially when you enter a world, it can get very laggy for the first couple of seconds.
Also, you can change your character type whenever you want, although you can only change 1 skill, before you can change another

SCORE:
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 7
GAME PLAY: 10
REPLAYABLITY: 10


TOTAL SCORE: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/03, Updated 06/04/03