"Fun, engaging, and able to hold its own with any FPS"

After a history of using First Person Shooters I wasn't expecting Planetside to be much better. Boy was I surprised.

Graphics: 10
The scenery is beautiful even on the lowest detail. The customized viewing distance allows you to cut down on lag WITHOUT decreasing the detail if you wish. The guns, explosions, vehicles, and infantry textures and designs are beautiful to behold. Basically, it's the first game I've seen that looks high quality on low quality. As an added plus it works on my old Geforce3 video card with no problems.

Gameplay: 10
I've never seen a game with this much in the way of versatility. There are a total of over 20 certifications in the game, ranging from gun certifications to engineer certifications. If you like sniping, you've got a gun called the Bolt Driver which you can use for that express purpose. If you want to be a cloaker, whose job it is to hack the base while your friends keep them busy outside, you can do that too. There are so many roles you can play, there's no way to get bored. If you don't feel like being a MAX for the day, make a new character who's a combat engineer. The Cone of Fire system is well done, the aircrafts move realistically (and can be shot down unlike many other games), the tanks are well designed, and the amount of people you can get in one battle is staggering. This is the only game you'll ever find with over 100 people fighting in one spot, and over 500 people fighting on one continent.

Sound & Music: 10
I expected the sound to be much worse than it was. The gunfire sounds like gunfire, the futuristic guns sound futuristic, the chainguns sound like chainguns, and the aircraft and tanks make realistic engine noises. The explosion sounds are well done, the voice acting for the voice emotes is well done, and the music is very moody and reflects your situation.

Longevity: 10
At first I started getting bored with this game. Then I realized that I hadn't even filled a third of the roles possible. You can play until you're up to BR20 and still not have tried all the things possible, you could have spent an entire half year playing the VS and not tried the other groups once, you could have specialized in tanks and aircraft and never gotten the heavy weaponry. In any case, you never have done everything. Once I realized this I started to get characters in different empires. Characters with different specialties. After I had experimented for a while, I realized that I WASN'T BORED ANYMORE! I may not have realized it at the time, but any game gets boring if you do the same things over and over again. This game wins in longevity because it has more roles than I could fill in a YEAR. For that reason it's never lost its appeal to me.

Overall: 10
An excellent game in every respect, I suggest a quick buy if you're a fan of First Person Shooters. If you're not, don't be surprised if you start getting bored. This game is not the best MMORPG around, it's the best MMOFPS around.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/03, Updated 06/19/03