When I first heard about Planetside2 I was beyond psyched for the release. I was a die-hard fan/junkie/addict of Planetside 1 and the thought of a new, up-to-date version of what I would have considered to be one of the most groundbreaking FPS games of my generation gave me goose bumps. I was fortunate to get into late beta and played for the final 3 weeks of beta through release. I've currently logged well over 300 hours of post release play time.

That being said. I really wanted to like this game. Every time I log into the game I don't think, "this game is so awesome". I think, "Man, I really miss Planetside 1". The truth is that the developers, Sony Online Entertainment, took what was an amazing original game and essentially threw it away. This is NOT a sequel to Planetside 1. It is a dumbed down, watered down, shallow ghost of the original. They managed to turn what was an amazing online shooter with a rich degree of depth and character into little more than a large scale COD-like fragfest with virtually no strategy or depth of play and where everyone is focused on K/D instead of teamwork and strategy. Combine this with massive in-game vehicle and infantry balance issues and the fact that that the development team has very little interaction with the player base and you have a recipe for low population of players on most servers where the term "Massive" is starting to become a bit of a stretch.

Planetside2 was clearly released to market way too soon. The game should have stayed in Beta for at least another 4 months. There are many bugs in the game and way too many balance issues at this time to retain a strong player base. At its core I think its clear that the folks in charge of this title (with such amazing potential) at SOE are the wrong people for the job and are basically steering this title into the ground.… Expand

Hackers are everywhere. So far, I've seen Teleporters, Flash Gordons, Shoots Through Walls Man, Sees Through Walls Man, Magic OSHS(carbine) Engineer/Light Assault Guy, Invincible Man, the classic aimbotter, etc. I really regret spending money on this game considering hacking isn't going away. PS2 doesn't even have any anti-chest software, they ban solely on reports and stats. And sometime it takes a week for someone to get banned. Plus they only IP ban and we all know that isn't going to stop anyone from making a just new account with a different IP.… Expand

Oh. God. The. Bugs. 2/4 times I have played this the game glitches on respawn, the whole world becomes this half transparent mess were you can no longer see buildings or cover and requires a complete computer restart to fix. When the game does run it still has major problems. I managed to get enough cert points for the longest range sniper scope in the game. Turns out its completely unusable because the world draw distance is shorter then distance the scope zooms to making the scope completely useless. Iv been in fights were I see our teammates dieing, I zoom in on my scope from the rear of the fight and see absolutely nothing. but when I move to the front of the fight suddenly an entire army appears. An army I should have easily been able to see from my elevated snipeing spot behind our lines. Iv played Alpha Builds that had less bugs then this "finished" game.… Expand

Oh god when will the bugs end? I've put up with it since release, but I'm done now. After the most recent game update the game has become unplayable for me. I highly regret the money I've spent on this game as things continue to grow worse. In large battles I'm lucky to get 4-10 fps when a month ago I was getting 30-40. I have a Phenom II 960T and a 6870. It's ridiculous.

The biggest problem with Planetside 2 though is that is commits the cardinal sin of free to play games. Players that pay have a marked advantage over those who don't. Earning enough free credits for basic upgrades is agonizingly slow. If you want to play, expect to pony up some cash up front or be left in the dust.

Now to cover the other problems. Its poorly optimized. The servers aren't very good. The game looks bland on max settings. The controls aren't very tight. I've put in about 12 hours now, and every battle ends up being the exact same thing, one team corralling the other team in their base. There's no hope of a mass break out or of winning, yet the game can drag on for hours on end. The lack of any kind of tutorial is frustrating and will surely turn away casual players in droves the first time they're dropped into the middle of an active combat zone.

Players that participated in the beta are at a clear advantage with their knowledge of the maps and classes. New players are mere cannon fodder, which would be fine except for the fact that the learning curve is made steeper by the fact that those players that invested money in the game have an even bigger advantage.

Yes, the scale is impressive, but when it comes to balance and pure fun, Battlefield 3 has it beat hands down. For pure multi-player joy, CoD: Black Ops II is a much better and polished product with moments of grin inducing mayhem. And for those of you PC guys with an Xbox 360, Halo 4 multiplayer stomps PS2.

The game just feels low budget and generic. PS2 would have greatly benefitted if they had simply charged for the game up front instead of nickle and diming players.… Expand

AS a PS1 player it wasn't hard for me to get into PS2, and its by far a better game from the get go. The game runs pretty smooth for me and its got to be one of the most beautiful games to date, especially for how many players can be active at one time. It tops all multiplayer games in epicness. Its got its issues, but what new game doesn't, especially in the mmo department. The vehicles could be better but I feel I cannot judge them as you have to unlock so much potential which leaves me to this: I would rate it a 10/10 if it weren't for the FTP system. I think this game should have had a price tag and FTP system for cosmetics, but the unlocks take far to long to unlock and I'm not a fan of spending cash on items I don't even know if I will like. But for the base free game, spend a few dollars and you can have a butt load of fun in battles larger than anything you will see in that **** COD game.… Expand

Never played PlanetSide but heard wonderful things about it. Gave this a try while seeking something to replace Tribes Ascend. Needless to say the game did not live up to the hype. The gorgeous sprawling environments do not make up for a complete and utter lack of direction as it pertains to basic objectives within the game. Having logged a few hours I can say with reasonable certainty that I have no idea who is on what team, why they're all shooting at each other, or even if we are winning. Confusion of this level is only compounded by the terrible vehicle controls, counterintuitive interfaces at terminals, and frustrating lack of instruction regarding basic class advantages and disadvantages. I have no doubt that all of this will see its way into a future patch (should the game survive long enough) but one has to wonder why PlanetSide 2 was released at all as it is so obviously unfinished.… Expand

I'm giving this game a 10 to counter balance all the scorers who have given it a 0 cause their machines suck. That being said in reality this game is a solid 8, it has its faults, and can be glitchy at times, but if you are an FPS fan you will get an experience in PS2 that no other game in this generation will be able to touch. It is also NOT pay to win, some the the upgrades in the planes may be a little OP or need a tune, but this isn't anywhere close to being pay to win, so Ignore those idiots as well. Plus how can you give a 0 to something that is FREAKING FREE!… Expand

For me, this game is frustrating, not fun, and essentially pointless. I suppose part of the problem is the learning curve. You start out just thrown into the map somewhere, with no clear assistance in figuring out where you should go, what you should do, why you should be doing it, or how to succeed. In my experience, I just ran towards some apparent objective getting murdered over and over again. Either that, or I just ran around the humongous map with no one at all anywhere near me. The whole experience was just terrible. I pored several hours into this, but just couldn't find the motivation to stick it out to see if things would get better.… Expand

I used to think Battlefield 3 was bad, wait till you play Planetside 2, you can’t even compare the two as Battlefield 3 is miles ahead of this piece of garbage. Gameplay sucks, there is not much gameplay here it’s a big spam fest where supposedly 100s of players are working as part of a team to attack a base, there is no team work involved its everyone for themselves as a so called platoontoon leader screams down the microphone saying how he will kick those who do not follow orders and on top of that its pay to win, its a huge cert grind where all the weapons are overpriced and it takes you weeks to unlock a single weapon without spending any money on XP boosts. Graphics suck,yes they suck nothing new here plenty of other games have better graphics than this game even in 2004 doom 3, half life 2 had better graphics and lower system requirements than this. The community sucks, on the forums you see people “talking about the game” when they barely hit 20 hours in gameplay, I spent 600+ hours on this and regret it all especially now as soon as you begin climbing the leader boards every player you kill starts reporting you and telling their whole outfit to report you accusing you of cheating and making other false accusations when they barely play the game at all. I regret getting suckered into this game with the false advertising, because frankly this game is pointless to play there is no sense of achievement there is no metagame, all you do is run to capture a base which the opposing faction captures 10 minutes later, so you repeat the same thing all the time, as sony thought that grinding certs in order to unlock weapons would be a brilliant metagame. Feels like I’ve been to hell and back.Thank heaven there is Battlefield 3 it sure felt like a huge relief returning to a traditional shooter such as Battlefield 3, where I pay money for a finished product. Not this free to pay monstrosity that is attempting to sucker in the Average Joes money so that they buy a new weapon, yes last point to make, every single base, every single weapon, it all looks exactly the same. What did you expect from a pay to win lazy developer to give you? Better spend your money on a traditional retail game, even Black Ops 2 is money better spent. Never again will I spend money in a free to play cash cow.… Expand

Bad attempt to make awesome multiplayer. First this game have one of uglier graphics this year, but this is not crucial for multiplayer game anyways. But, game fail in all other aspects. Glitchy, bad spawn points ruining the action, bad shooting are only few of bad thins this game bring to the table. Only good thing is free to play because if they charge for this would be really cheating.

I love it in every single way, the maps are beautiful, the factions are balanced, the scale is massive, and it requires more than just a quick trigger finger to be good at. I've only played for a few hours and it's all been massively entertaining. If there's any game I would've wanted for Christmas, it would have been this, but it's free.

However, there are still a lot of glitches, especially clipping after death animations, and even sometimes falling through the map. Also, the fact that only one person can drive a vehicle is slightly aggravating, especially when your teammate is an idiot......

But Why am I complaining? IT'S FREEEEEEEEEEEE… Expand

In my opinion this is what Battlefield should have aspired to be. This is a multiplayer FPS that goes beyond your normal COD rip off. The game is huge but navigable, the classes are fun to play and you actually feel like you are taking part in a real war not put in a sand box arena for 20 minutes to shot at each other. Other developers should take note, this is the future of FPS. And as an added bonus its FREE (which actually bumped my review score up). The game isn't perfect. There should be a system where more experienced players get to allocate objectives for platoons and squads to follow with incentives for people to follow them, I've kind of been spoiled by MAG in this respects and miss it in all games now, but the shear scale and confusing nature of capture points in this game actually warrants some kind of top down, overall control. I can see the game getting a bit stale after playing for a long time, especially after maxing out all the upgrades, so I hope to see some updates in the future (new weapons, classes, vehicles etc). I might even be prepared to pay for them.… Expand

This game looks good; that's about the only good thing about it. There's no backstory or reason why these factions are fighting each other. There's a 30 second intro video and then you get dropped into battle. The first couple hours of me playing was me trying to look for a fight (playing at midnight) and when I did, I instantly got killed. High learning curve. Also, in a fight, you'll mostly be trying to get outside of your base because there's constant spawn camping. I REALLY REALLY tried to enjoy this game, but I couldn't. There's nothing to pull you in. This game isn't necessarily hard; it's more annoying or frustrating.… Expand

If you enjoy being canon fodder for spoiled geeks who never leave their mother's basement and spend their entire allowance purchasing upgrades to make them invincible then this game is for you! Absolutely NO BALANCE in this game! It takes for ever to upgrade your equipment because you're too busy being mascaraed every thirty seconds. No fun, extremely frustrating!

I wouldn't bother with this game, but chances are you will try it just due to all the hype.
Let me start with the main problem with planetside - It is far too graphically demanding. Even some of the top end PC's and gaming laptops struggle to make this game run smoothly and it may cause you to buy better software and still discover the game cannot run. "But wait!" I hear you cry "My PC is amazing!" Then go play a far more enjoyable Free to play FPS such as Team Fortress. There is nothing unique about planetside other than its large scale gameplay, and if MAG taught us anything it's that this simply doesn't work. Combat is frantic and guns have no attachment to the player since they all feel generally similar and scenarios often involve two players meeting and the one winning being the one who clicks first. After a while this just gets boring and repetitive.
Lastly, although it is beneficial for the creators to advertise this game as "Free" it is a micro transaction game, meaning if you really want to get anywhere with it your going to have to fork out.
To conclude, I'd just say it's shocking how some people would rather play this than decent FPS' like battlefield or Halo.… Expand

John Smedley failed with SWG sinking it into the ground. Within one year he took a game with 1,000,000 copies sold down to nearly 10,000 subscribers still playing, then lied to the public on his failures. Why anyone let him be in charge of Planetside 2 is beyond me..

Where to even begin? Well, it's buggy, laggy, poorly optimized, and completely imbalanced.

"Oh, it's got it's problems, sure," the other reviews say. "But it's all worth it for the huge glorious battles!" Those don't happen. Sure, you'll have ~100 people one one side of the battle, attacking in a giant convoy of vehicles. And they'll dominate the half a dozen brave souls who try to defend, rather than joining their attacking teammates. Who are on another continent. Because enemy numbers are lower there.

See, the whole "huge world" thing sounds good on paper, but in actuality it just encourages most people to take the path of least resistance. Battles are always lopsided, and the attackers always win because they have more people.

Now, ignoring all that, let's assume for the moment that this is actually a good game, rather than a bad game. A good game does deserve to be paid for, even if it's a free-to-play that borders on pay-to-win. However, Planetside 2 goes far beyond pay-to-win; it's more like "pay-a-substantial-amount-to-be-good-at-a-single-class-or-vehicle."

In short: complete garbage with no redeeming characteristics. I have nothing good to say about this game.… Expand

Great idea, poor execution. Overall, it's not a bad game, and it's pretty fun to play (but only if you have friends to play it with -- playing solo is significantly less entertaining due to how the game is structured). It is HUGELY demanding on your PC, even high-end gaming rigs like my own still sometimes struggle handling this game (not due to lack of PC power, but rather due to lack of optimization in the game itself). I'm the type of person who enjoys options and variety -- sometimes I feel like playing an engineer type, sometimes a medic, etc. But in PS2 you would need to shell out HUNDREDS of dollars in order to have "decent" gear for your characters. Focusing on a single character with a focused skill(s) would be expensive by itself, but you can forget about having multiple characters and any sort of variety in your options without shelling out cash. They have definitely gone as far as they could when it comes to milking players for their money. However, the battles in this game can be very huge, intense and downright amazing at times. But expect yourself to pay, either in huge amounts of invested time, or huge amounts of invested cash, in order to really experience this game to it's full potential.… Expand

My rig can play all the F2P games with no issues, except for this game. The FPS is so bad I could not be bothered to finish the training level. Optimization for this game is typical for many PC titles very poor as usual.

i have to give props to sony online entertainment for actually trying to make a triple-A MMOFPS title AND doing a great job at it!!!!!! most FPS games that come out now have a story mode and an online mode, while i believe that it should be one or the other (story mode OR online mode). if you love online FPS, you're gonna love planetside 2!!!!!!

PROs: Amazing game of teamwork in the far future. It's also free to play. This is a no brainer. Just go try it yourself.

CONS: It should have an in-game tutorial. Also, it could use a bit more of an intro video describing why your faction is the best and the others are the worst (I'm a big fan of immersion, and feeling as if you had a "real" reason to be fighting would be awesome). There are bugs, of course, but I'm shocked there aren't more given the scope of this game, and those that exist will get resolved in time, of course.

NOTE: when the initial heady rush of novelty begins to fade, plug in your microphone. The game's fun level easily doubles when you begin to join squads and communicate in real time during operations.… Expand

Planet Side 2 is freaking awesome! The graphics are really good and the gameplay is fun. There are much bugs, but they will be fixed soon. The game itself isn't really hard if you fight with your squadmates. The point of the game is to work as a team. The vehicles are really fun to drive, but the tanks are slightly overpowered and should be balanced. The classes should also be more balanced. Don't listen to the guys that is saying that this game is crap. The game is amazing and the bugs will be fixed soon. The game is still in beta you know. When the final version of the game is released, I will be playing this game 24/7. I will give this game 9/10. I recommend you to download and give it a try. You have nothing to lose! AND IT'S FREEEEEEEEE!!!… Expand

Planetside 2, some mix Massive shooter with RPG (?), in my opinion idea this game is great and underdone.
On the + : Big maps, vehicles, graphic (not bad textures for that big game maps), re-spawn protect (!),
On the - : Fight and flight too much arcade style, where is RPG system (?), after 40 min. is boring

The game is only free to play if your intentions are dying to spawn campers and the constant feel of losing. The game ultimately feels like a massive grind-fest if you do not give into their high priced bonuses and items.

Hackers. Hackers everywhere. Now the new hack added to all the regular ones is to somehow mess with the collision in the game to send you flying from the spawn half way across a continent to fall and die. This game is riddled with bugs and hackers everywhere.

The graphics are decent, the game play isn't bad. But the weapon physics are dreadful, paying players get everything immediately and you're either dropped right into battle (which for new joiners is a dreadful notion), or you're in the middle of frickin' no where with nothing around you and you can't jump on a vehicle because you don't have the necessary XP to activate one. Bull. ****

Planetside 2 is the best MMO of the last 5 years, it is very fun and pretty and addictive, if your PC can run it I highly recommend it (I use a midrange CPU from 3 years ago and a midrange video card I bought in 2012 and I run the game on Ultra just fine)

I'm not sure where the anger comes with regard to difficulty yes, if you try to charge out of your spawn room when you're alone and 2 platoons are capturing your base you are going to have a bad time, that's how the game works, you're supposed to spawn elsewhere if you get overrun. Also, the cash shop is very reasonable given that the game is totally free to download and all weapons can be earned through gameplay. Many of the most powerful and widely used weapons, like the CARV and the SAW and MBT HEAT rounds are available by default: the SAW and HEAT Rounds in particlar have only become more popular with successive patches. There's no conspiracy by SOE to make default guns worthless… Expand

Sorry but having to pay $7 for a single weapon for a single class that doesn't even look unique but is only a complete copy design-wise just isn't acceptable.

The concept of this game blew me away, I couldn't imagine such a great idea! The Graphics are so impressive, the World is so big and there are so many players. The gameplay is great aswell, it's similiar to a lot of other games out there but when that gameplay meets that big scale, then it just... Dies, litteraly dies. I hate running for 5 to 10 minutes just to get killed when I even get to the fight. The big World and the gameplay doesn't really fit, if you love to fight. Oh, and about those fights, then the classes you can play are so unbalanced, it's crazy. I know they all got some pros and cons which is good, but it isn't balanced enough. The conclusion: It's a game with great potential, putting all those great aspects together, but not all those great Things fit together, which is sad, when I really want to love the game.… Expand

Pros: Free. Graphics. Scale. Vehicles. Teamwork. Base designs.
Cons: Repetitive. Guns. Lag. Lots of traveling. Pay 2 Win. Pointless.

To sum it up... this game is a lot of fun if you just want to login to shoot other people and try to find the next big battle. It would be more rewarding if trying to level up wasn't so painfully slow. Also, the gun mechanics feel terrible. With the terrible recoil every gun has in combination with lag, you'd be lucky if 5% of your shots landed on your target. Luckily, this game is free and looks amazing... and when you actually have a large group that communicates and knows what they are doing the game is much more enjoyable.… Expand

I would like this game. If it wasn't so much pay to win. Say, you want a gun so you play for 5 hours straight and then you get it (only if you play good) BUT if you have the money, you buy expensive credits and get the gun instantly. Game should be called Pay 2 Winside 2

Where to begin? Planetside 2 is a free to play mmofps set on the planet Auraxis. Entirely multiplayer, it pits "thousands" of players against eachother on one of three continents. I will be dividing this review into sections, based on my personal experience in both squad, platoon and lonewolf play both in majority of beta and since release.

Visuals: It uses the Forgelight engine, developed specifically for PS2. Many boasts about what it was capable of and how much of "a leap forward" the technology is. The graphics are on the whole pretty good for 2012, but not the best. It suffers from a slight blurriness on everything which is noticeable if you look hard enough. "Ultra" settings are not even in the game yet since the game is extremely poorly optimized. When first playing, the graphics and particle effects are good enough to make you go "wow!".

Sound: If you have ever played Battlefield Bad Company 2, this game will sound average to you. In fact you should youtube videos of Bad Company 2 gameplay to hear the sound design and quality in that game. Why it did not win awards for best sound design nobody will ever know, but we all know it won in spirit. Planetside 2's sound design works, but it definitely will never leave you with a "Holy **** feeling.

Gameplay: It is your standard Battlefield/Cod FPS with the gunplay. You look down ironsights to shoot, you can buy ironsights to improve your ease of aiming etc. The vehicle combat is standard Battlefield 100%, with air vehicles noticeably harder to control than what has been done before since you must use the mouse and keyboard to fly properly. You gain experience exactly how you would in a Battlefield game, killing enemies, reviving, supplying etc. You gain certification points that are your currency to buy weapons, weapon attachments, and everything else in the game. Territory is captured by standing next to an enemy control points area, capturing it, then watching the enemy tickets go down and yours go up.

Scale: The game boasts thousands per continent, but you will never see more than a hundred or two in one area. As far as scale goes, it is bigger than any fps game before it and the game boasts that bigger is better but is it really? In my beta and live experience, no (more on this later). In an average battle, you could expect to be going up against 75 infantry for example and half a dozen tanks and aircraft. The continents themselves are smaller than implied, as if you were in a fighter craft flying from one end of the continent to the other would take about 45-60 seconds. Conclusion:
This game gets a 5/10 for me for very specific reasons i'll go into. The game is currently extremely poorly optimized. This means it runs poorly on even the best of machines. My machine is excellent, custom built with parts that are almost brand new, yet this game gets 40fps max on medium settings. If you are on a budget or have an average computer, this game will melt your brain. Considering my current setup can run BF3 on ultra in a full sized multiplayer server with destructible terrain, this is unacceptable. Technical aside, the game suffers from this exact disease: Numbers mean everything. If 50 guys are defending an outpost, and a Outfit brings 100 guys, it is impossible for the 50 guys to defend at all. The game does not really give unique defense tools, so the only way to defend anything is to have nearly equal or greater numbers than the enemy. Recently while playing, an extremely large enemy outfit massed hundreds of soldiers on a gigantic front, capturing 80% of the map in less than 10 minutes. To the uninitiated, this seems like it would be a sight to behold and fun, but there is no time to defend, since every time you fall back to a base there is seriously 150+ guys camping the spawn room. This game is not about player skill whatsoever but is instead about WW1 tactics, throwing bodies at areas. This might be bearable if the "Time To Kill" wasn't so low. You will be facing a respawn screen almost as much time as you are actually alive playing.

The game also suffers from terrible lag, server crashes, and hackers. Since it is a Free to Play game, expect legions of hackers pouring in that can never be stopped. Planetside 2 also has zero cheat detection system, so you know they are on top of things.

Final word: Sony must have paid big money to IGN, Eurogamer and others for the glowing reviews. All in all, if you are newer to FPS, Planetside 2 will likely wow and amaze you for the first few days of playing. Once the novelty of the shiny particle effects wears off, you will quickly discover a pointless territory tug of war that ultimately means nothing, and weapon "sidegrades" that mean nothing, because nothing you can unlock is necessarily better than the default weapons just different. Continents cannot be captured, and territory means nothing thus there is no point to any assaults or defenses. Its just laggy space-cod with lasers.… Expand

If you like futuristic FPS with setting in 27th century, somewhere in the space, with unrealistic projectile weapons and unguided missiles like from WW2 then this game will suit your needs. You may even try flying a machine which seems to have an antigravity engine but is controlled like biplane. If you like hugely unbalanced challenge with one side designed to win and one to loose then feel free to try it as you really don't have to pay for extra content which gives your opponents extreme boost.

Great concept of MMO FPS and design of the game world are two reasons I give it 2.… Expand

This game had potential, but SoE's pay structure ruined it. Anyone with skill who doesn't want to spend money on the game can't enjoy the game because it's a struggle to level. While children with equally childish player names who spent their allowance on Station Cash sky rocket to level 30+ and then commence to harass anyone with unearned levels. Games with pay structures that affect direct purchase of gear and leveling just don't work and won't last.… Expand

Free to play? lol. More like free to hack. Have fun spending $50+ dollars on items that are bound to a single character to get you your competitive edge, only to have a hacker spawn kill you for 10 minutes. This game is the most overrated game I have ever had the displeasure of playing. There are no active GMs, there is no anti-cheat detection. The only method SOE uses is reports from players followed by stats tracking. Sometimes it will take days to ban a hacker. Oh, but the game is FTP so what is stopping the banned hacker from just creating a new account? Nothing.… Expand

This game is far from being completed and will likely be added to for years. What they have already is amazing, and they are constantly patching and adding more stuff. If you are not working with a group, the game is not the same honestly. If you have a full platoon of 48 people all working together? Oh my god the feeling is unmatched. The feeling of turning the tide of a major battle involving hundreds of players? It is amazing! Orders are given and things get done and it is one of the most rewarding feelings I have ever had in any game ever. The game still needs a ton of work, but it is getting better daily. It is also free to play so really, there is no reason not to try it.… Expand

Really loved this game when it first came out. The persistent world, the graphics and I found it ran smoothly. However, it felt repetitive, without a sense of finale. The gunplay doesn't match up to other FPS I enjoy. Also not a huge fan of the credit of monetization model. I did purchase some weapons to give some support to the devs and for free or however much you want to pay the game is great value.… Expand

Great game that will continue to get better! Love it...while there are a few bugs that need some ironing out, this game has a bright future ahead of itself.

I wanted to like the game but, sadly, it comes short at a bit of points. 1st up, you will die. A LOT. VERY EASY.
2nd, snipers will kill you. A LOT. VERY EASY. This is very annoying as it seems a lot of players do nothing but sit on roofs and shoot at everything that moves, meaning that as soon as you walk outside of a building, you're a dead man. One of the gazillion enemy snipers will 1 shot you.

There is hardly any strafing as you won't hit anything without aiming and when you aim you move really slow and can't strafe.

Something else annoying is that you walk quite a lot to get to the fight, provided a sniper doesn't kill you on the way there, and then die in 2 seconds.… Expand

Planetside 2 is an FPS MMO. And right from the get-go the player is thrown into a conflict on a huge map that is divided up in sectors. Each sector offers the team he plays for (there are three teams to choose from, each with a different look) an advantage and the player is tasked, along with everyone else to either hold or capture a sector with the use of six different play-able classes and several vehicles that can be spawned. There is an item store but it seems that so far, all of the items can be unlocked by simply playing the game. I've never played anything like this before but I could best describe it as Battlefield 2142 meets APB: Reloaded and not just because they're both exciting games but also because they're rather buggy. Planetside 2 can be horribly laggy, flickering screens will force you to quit the game and start it up again and you'll find other people rubberbanding all over the place . The launch wasn't exactly easy either but Sony fixed the problem and it seems like EU players can play now. There are plenty of people on-line and there is more teamwork going on than I would have expected from a free MMO despite people still learning the ropes. This is one of the few times that I genuinly like a free-to-play game and I think it might have a future if they get to work on the performance issues and graphical glitches. If you're an FPS fan and love large scale combat and vehicles, you'll want to check out PlanetSide 2. Just don't expect a tutorial or storyline. The former doesn't exist and the latter is restricted to an extremely brief story told after you create a new character. As I have quit playing the game due to its highly repetitive nature, dwindling server populations (rendering certain continents completely unplayable) and Sony's lack of response to these issues I have lowered the score to 5 (from 8). Planetside 2 was a good idea but it was poorly executed. All that awaits now are server mergers and eventually, cancellation.… Expand

This is a great concept. poorly implemented. Pay to win feel but that's typical of F2P shooters. Biggest complaint is that battles are too large. Great idea in large scale battles, but cutting the maps into a 4th of their size would make combat more consistent. Instead you get a long period of firefights followed by monotonous base capturing without resistance because the other team is off doing something else. Capturing bases also feels way too long sometimes, my whole team stood at an enemy free base to capture it. Took 15mins of us standing around. The shooter mechanics are cool, but some of the classes feel strange. Only the heavy assault and medic feels right, all the others feel underpowered and the Max is way too beefy. Definitely worth a try, and I love how ambitious the developers were. Still, Blacklight and even Tribes:Ascend are better, albeit less original, F2P FPS games.… Expand

Key points ~ It's a shooter, and a persistent world. You can play any class at any time and optimize as you see fit . It has ground vehicle/infantry/aircraft mixture. It is a strategy game, caveat being it's largely MMO shooter based .. so can tend be be fairly random as to it's nature. Sometimes this emergence is fun, sometimes it's frustrating and defeating.

This is not a pay to win game. This is not a free to play game either in a sense of fairness, there are basic weapons you will want to buy.

this is a grind game, so in the initial start for instance very few .. very very few have even optimized a single class the way they see fit. You have to grindand even a scope may take you a couple hours to work toward. Advatage unanimously goes to the game whales, this means people paying money will be better off buying farmed characters than paying for gold (I don't recommend either the game is actually fun). The most disconcerting thing in this game is the sheer rockface of farming that ust happen to achieve, it is likely to create a very selective player base .. which has nothng to do with "what" type of game they prefer .. but what a couple hoursof your freetime a night will profit an average player.

This game is a descendent of tanarus and then planetside 1 both of which came out over 10 years ago.
The strategy and fun is still there even while farming for weapon upgrades ect. But the whales will have a significant advantage maybe 20% over the new guy .

I give this game an 7- 8 (going with 8 for now under benefit of doubt) for 2 reasons mainly ~ too many indistinguishable hacks/glitches, and 2 much farming. Otherwise I would give this game a 9 for it's creative / sandboxy feel and gameplay. This is also a very difficult game, in the sense a new player is going to have a rough time trying to get their feet in~ which is fine. But because it's bot farmy and difficult I think 2 strikes will not attract new players .. but rather only game abuses.… Expand

This game is free to play as a spectator, If you want to help your team or be anything other than cannon fodder then you have to spend money. I was looking for a game to play that I wouldn't mind paying some money for a couple extras, but, being defenseless and building my char around my credit card, terrible.

Planetside 2 is an ambitious FPS. Unfortunately it suffers from a high system requirements (don't even bother unless you have a 64 bit OS), laggy servers and unfriendly user interface. The lack of tutorials will hobble new players and the demanding system requirements will hamper your gameplay. If you do have a 64 bit OS on the other hand, it is fun...when the servers work. If you have a 32 bit OS, avoid.… Expand

Unoptimized beta. Bugs.
Don't get me wrong, every software has bugs but how can you release a game in beta stage? I sank into the ground 3 times for less than 1 hour. Just an example of what kind of bugs you will come across.
I like the idea of the game I'm looking forward to play it but please, Sony... Before you release a game make sure doesn't have at least trivial bugs.

This is a very addictive game and one that is well thought out although the execution is rough. It is a bit rushed and there are some HUGE balance issues (objective data has been assembled showing a massive advantage to the VS over the TR - slightly - but especially over the NC being in the basement in terms of Infantry and vehicles - particularly in the time to kill ratings) but this game is MUCH more about team work. If you try to Rambo this game and run and gun like any idiot in BF3 you will find you are killing your team mates, getting weapon locked and being hated by your side. In this game - friendly fire WILL kill you and no there are no servers where you can turn that off. The action is intense and the coordination required is at times mind blowing. The biggest issues in the game currently are technical followed by the need to better balance the factions. But this is an amazing game. You can be very effective with base equipment, but if you are like me and have a particular way you like to play, you will need to unlock a gun or two and some features for your vehicles. Realistically I would say that you could invest $25 and be set. The membership is only needed if you don't like standing in a queue.… Expand

The game is phenomenal. Its restored my faith in MMOs. There's nothing quite like shooting at a rational target for a change over NPC mobs with deterministic AIs. Player driven content is the future.

This game is EPIC, massive battles, medium and small skirmishes in 3 different continents. If you liked any of the Battlefield saga games you will love this one. It takes some time to get used to the mechanics of the game but now there are hundreds of videos showing the basic features/gameplay.. The game gains a lot if you play it along with some friends, up to 12 players in 1 squad. You can join 4 squads to create a platoon so there's enough room for everyone. The unlock system it's a little bit slow, so it's important which upgrades/unlocks you pick, decide carefully. The game requires a good connection and a decent pc. Probably one of the best shooters of the year.… Expand

Planetside 2 is a VERY solid game if you're the lover of the FPS genre. I tell my friends the following when trying to describe PS2: "Think of it as Halo, Battlefield 2142, WoW, Battlefield 3 and Crysis all melded into one", basically meaning that this game is futuristic, is massive in sheer scale, has amazing graphics and a great multiplayer experience.

I've been playing this game through the majority of beta, and the development team have changed so much throughout the process. They listen to our feedback, and have made changes accordingly.

However, the game still feels like it's under development, as there are minor bugs still apparent in the game. The biggest one for me however is the crashing to desktop bugs that are currently plaguing the game. There has been a lot of posts on the forums regarding this, and while SOE have made strides in correcting such problems, quite a lot of users are still experiencing bugs. However, thankfully, these bugs aren't affecting everyone. If you love FPS, and you love killing LOTS of people, all while looking at very pretty visuals and a streamlined experience, then this is the game for you.

Oh, I forgot to mention... its free!… Expand

This game offers everything: action, strategy, graphics, free to play, action, and even more free to play. The game play is amazing and just what a lot of people have been looking for in a game. While most in most games, a lot is 64 people to a server, this game increases all previous limits of game play. The maps are bigger, the player number is bigger, and altogether, it makes it seem like any war that would take place in real life. There is almost no way for one person to carry the entire race, no matter how much skill they have. With most games, skill is the most important factor, but with this game, while it still plays its part, strategy and numbers bring themselves in as dominating forces, making the game so much more realistic and exceeding all the expectations that I had for this game. SOE has done a brilliant job, and I hope to see more games like this in the future.… Expand

Personally so far with the game it is great. The game is rough around the edges but for what it is its very good. The first game sacrificed so much to have what it had and yet people say its better, the shooting was horrible. This game has fixed that, the devs listen to the community. And so many people also complain about technical difficulties, that's not really a game flaw. If you actually searched for the problem you would find it is most likely the render distance option. The lack of in game tutorials is mostly solved by the fact that there are lots of people willing to help you, the game automatically puts you in a squad so you can just ask them. But is it really hard to point and shoot at the people in different colours? My experience with the game was great, seeing huge battles last for days and finally after lots of work taking that continent and then dropping over to another to fight there. I love the game, and for a free game it beats any others I know of.… Expand

It seems most of the poor reviews are by people who have technical trouble. As someone with a decent gaming computer, I have no such issues and I'm thoroughly enjoying Planetside 2. As an Australian I find it an extra positive that theres a local server. The only negatives to me are the slowness of gaining certification points if you're a free player, and the lack of in game tutorials - the game is a little overwhelming at first if you don't spend the time to watch the tutorial videos.

These negatives are far outweighed by the sheer joy of joining a huge tank convoy and rolling across the map, or doing tactical air drops into strategic points and paving the way for your armor to roll in, or flying air support for airborne transports, or simply operating an anti aircraft turret.… Expand

Planetside 2 although it has potential, is fun and addictive (when it works) has many issues, bugs, glitches that ruin the game.

The lag issue sees enemy infantry turn invisible or teleport around your screen making it impossible to get a shot off. The terrain bug making the world invisible can be a minor issue (restart game or mess with full screen/windowed mode to fix) but is an issue that should not happen in a "release".
The games graphics look better on low than high and have less issues, why even have settings in the first place.
Balance I can't say much about since I have only played 1 faction but weapons are far from equivalent, and they are all far overpriced, this game gives a large advantage to people willing to pay for a free to play game.
The trial period so that you can use a weapon/mod is helpful in making a choice to buy a specific weapon but if you cannot compare weapons (8 hour cooldown between trials) then how useful of a tool is it really for comparisons, it is simply so you can see what that specific weapon is like, not to help you make a choice between multiple unobtained weapons. It might be better designed to give you the ability to trial all weapons for a short period so that you can compare your choices.
Anti-Spawn Camping Barriers allowing people to shoot out but not in, this is just reversing the grief in places that the offensive faction wants to get past. The offensive side if smart can still grief by just sitting just out of line of sight until they exit the barrier, yes they can run back inside but will likely not get that chance with 10+ people waiting for that free kill.

This game is NOT"polished" or even close to it yet, with the free to play model I would doubt it will ever be a priority to make the game what it could be, it seems much more likely that it will fix the major issues with time make some money and not worry about ever "polishing" the game.

The game is playable most of the time and I would still recommend it to people who are looking for something to do that is free for a few hours a day but there are much better games out there to spend money on, especially when you can buy and own a game instead of just 6 or so weapons.… Expand

Planetside 2 is truly a groundbreaking idea - however the current state of the game could be better described as open beta rather than a final release. Although the game is extremely fun in the odd chance it is running without problems you will often find yourself frustrated with extremely buggy gameplay, a horrid framerate, and unstable servers. You will find your jet packs not working, or you will find yourself dying from taking an innocent boost to a landing pad, or nobody will be moving and you will get shot through walls due to lag and extrapolation, or you will find tanks floating in mid air, or your VOIP won't work like it does not work for a big population of players, or you will find your current generation super computer can't pull more than 20fps in big battles. With all these problems this game does not deserve a positive score, no matter how much I would like to give it one.

I will revisit this review in two months by when hopefully this game will leave the open beta stage.… Expand

Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs. Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs. Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs. Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs. Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs. Huge scale battles and absolutely no game crashes or bugs.

This game is amazing, the environment, the vehicles, the battle, just everything is great. I am not going to say that the game is perfect, but it is pretty friggin' close. You do have to have a semi decent machine to run it at a decent frame rate, but you do not need the newest tech out there. Of course there are still some bugs, but one can easily overlook them when in the heat of a massive, and i do mean truly massive, battle. I love this game, since it is free to play, I would say at least give it a shot.… Expand

Okay, for a free to play its a masterpiece, but thats not saying anything now is it. Lets see here, its a bit of a free to play, the physics are BLEH (First time I bought a tank... i moved 3 feet, then fell out the world, and a few other players did the same). The gameplay consists mainly of finding where the action is, and when you find it, the game starts to open up and you see the beautiful flour that is Plantside 2, and it is beautiful. But when the action stops, you notice what a smelly flour the game is. The UI is complicated like all F2Ps, the flight controls are dumbed down, the exact opposite of a simulator, meaning your jet (that looks like a box with jet engines on the side of them) flys tight, so tight that it makes flying boring and dull. I did say the graphics are good, but the textures are bad when you look at them closely. The world is large, true, but its filled with nothing besides a few out posts and 3 massive structures for the main spawn. While we are on the spawn, spawn camping is a bit of a problem, you can have a firing squad outside your spawn and you cant do much about it besides pushing and grinding your way past. And while we are on grinding... this game is a grinding simulator, you need to spend hours and hours just to get a scope for your **** weapon. The bolt action sniper rifle is a 2 hit kill... whats wrong with that you might ask? Simple, it takes about 3 seconds to rechamber a round, and by then your opponent will be behind cover, rendering the rifle relativly useless for the player jumping into the game. This game deserves a 6. What the game can improve on is the physics, balancing, and optimization. My 7970 can run bf3 on ultra and have an average of 60 fps. In this I get an average of 50 on high... if I put everything on low... I get 53... so it needs tweaking. Go play it since its free, there really isnt anything interesting holding you there besides waiting for the next epic battle so you can watch your frames plumit… Expand

Its Great that there're a lot of people to play with and to communicate with, the gun play isnt reall skill based and isnt any fun really to play over long grinds. Plus the Beginning sucks

It is awesome to play and extremely addictive. It's got a very long learning curve but most people are willing to give out tips as there's no tutorial. Just stick with it, always find cover and expect to die a lot for a time. The games a little shallow if you have not got a mic but the teamwork and banter can be fantastic if you do have one. It's easy to make friends and I now play with regulars everyday. Joining an outfit and befriending a few select veterans really helps to keep the game fresh and you'll soon learn who the best platoon and squad leaders are within your chosen faction on your server. The sheer scale of the battles can be brilliant and being in a squad is essential to survival and capping territory. The game has got quite a few issues which will hopefully be addressed as it is still early days. There are lots of little bugs such as being killed by a turret when you finish repairing it and hackers sometimes ruin things etc etc but its still a great experience. My game lags like crazy when the scale of battle gets too large so having a decent setup helps. I'm worried that the novelty will ware off soon as there isnt any real sense of accomplishment in the grand scale of things, all you gain is XP and certs and leveling up doesnt really mean anything. Hopefully they will make the game more rewarding in the furture and give people reason to stick with it. As a game that is free it is pretty epic and a must try for anyone interetsed in team work and large scale battles. TR forever… Expand

At best, I would say "meh." I think the price is about right though.....I would have been upset if I paid for it. The graphics are alright, but the action is chaotic at times, but that's only when you find it. I am not sure exactly what it was, but I kept thinking about the fact that I had a perfectly good BF3 game in the next room....

Don't be fooled by the people that ragequit from this game because they only played 10 minutes. I will admit this game has bugs, and in your first few hours you will be a little overwhelmed. But as long as you bring a friend with you that already knows the game, then you will be fine. In the last update bugs sprouted like crazy, but within a day, SOE (the creators) Fixed most of them, and made the game normal once again. There are a huge amount of players in every server, so most of the time, you may be fighting a losing battle, if you are, simply retreat, or go to another continent until it cools down. Most of the bad reviews here are from a few weeks to a month after the game was released, and most, if not all of the bugs they are speaking of have all been patched. The graphics are really good for a MMOFPS F2P game, and can be turned down if needed. Teamwork is a must in this game, so the first thing you NEED to do is join a squad, or outfit. The game is greatly more fun when your playing with other people, and most people don't understand that. Next up is that the developers have now implemented their new "roadmap" system, which gives players the chance to say what, and how, they want certain features added, if at all. i have already seen three or four ideas not used in the newest update, due to players not wanting it in the game. This "roadmap" is MUCH more than i have seen any F2P game developers use to gauge a player wanting certain things. Most developers will just add it, and say "Meh, they will have to like it". Next on the list is that this game IS NOT "Pay 2 Win" Every gun is used in a specific way, and, while some are better than others, there is no "Super gun" that kills everyone and is unbeatable. each and every gun has it's strengths and weaknesses, like the gun i currently use has a small mag, for a LMG (50 bullets, instead of the usual 100), as well as lower power, but a higher fire rate than most LMG's used by the Heavy Gunner. At this point in the game, there isn't much Metagame, but the developers are planning on an achievement system, as well as a system that allows you to capture whole continents until one of the opposing teams has to FORCE their way back into a warpgate, making the conquerors feel accomplished that they have taken all the land in the area and continue to hold it. Some people say Max's (a Mech like suit) and Main battle Tanks are Too Overpowered. But As long as you know how to deal with them, you are fine. Tanks may be OP, but If you get hit with an HE shell in a battle in real life, you're going to get blown to pieces. Now, lets touch on the factions. There are three, The Vanu Sovereignty, The New Conglomerate, and The Terran Republic. Each one with their own strengths and weaknesses. Borrowed from a guide on steam about this*** The Vanu Sovereignty favors futuristic directed energy weapons. These weapons reload quite swiftly and generally don't require much deflection shooting ("leading the target"), but don't quite pack the punch of the New Conglomerate or have the numbers of the Terran Republic." "The Terran Republic favors standard bullet weapons that pack little damage per shot, but have high capacity cartridges, high fire rates, and high reload times." "The New Conglomerate believes in brute force. With a strong focus on massive, deliberate strength, the New Conglomerate can easily outgun the other factions, but only if they can make their shots count." Showing each faction has it's own strengths and weaknesses. This game is about as realistic as i have EVER seen a full-scale battle on another world, and i will continue to support it, until it dies out, or we Get Planetside 3. I give this game a ten, even if it has bugs and annoying people, because it is a great all around game, and the developers are at the very least TRYING to always game it better. As a final little thing, if you get bored, go try playing another faction on a different server, it will bring the game back, at the very least a little bit. ***http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113201458#2765… Expand

Planetside 2 falls short of Planetside 1 in about every category, but it's still a lot of fun and the best recent shooter out there. Be advised it's poorly optimized at the moment with some netcode issues, but hopefully when those are ironed out it will be fun for everyone.

Their customer service team is responsive and fast. Haven't run into any obvious hackers yet.

I had low expectations for this game because it was free to play. First impressions were 'damn this is hard...'. There's a steep learning curve and no tutorial as such, just jump in and fight to survive. And I died a lot. My next reaction was the indoor environments are kinda bland, although outdoors it's quite picturesque. I reckon I need better graphics card than the GTX 260 SLI I have to enjoy this game. Another thing is that there is no engaging storyline that I've grown to expect from these sort of FPS games. You are just dropped into the action and left to deal with it. However where this game outstrips every other sort of FPS in terms of scale. The maps are huge and battles can involve 2 to 100 individual units, from infantry to heavy armour, to air all in the scene at once. This is a phenomenal technical achievement. Additionally the squad command facilities are better than those I've seen in previous games. As a result stories form organically, and battle scenes that would be scripted in a COD game, evolve in Planetside out of the natural process where a group of humans have to complete an objective, defined by their platoon leader, like defend a base or capture a point. There's massive potential here for more to explored in terms of player coordinated squad based gameplay and Planetside has barely scratched the surface but has given us a taste of what things could be like.… Expand

I'd give the game a 7.5 out of 10 just because the game seems rushed and unfinished. It has a lot of potential later on, but I don't see the game doing very well unless they start working hard to fix the numerous problems in the game. From ridiculously poor optimization, bugs, lack of a tutorial, borderline pay2win, no story or lore to dig into for your factions, it makes this game hard to recommend to anyone in it's current state.… Expand

Free-to-play and MMOs are not my thing. I'm not able to invest much time in the game to get all the fancy stuff. And I do not want to spend money on the fancy stuff either. The game is not for casual gamers who want to shoot stuff for an hour or two and who do not like to get ripped apart by players who can invest more time. You always depend on finding an organised group so you have at least some effect on the battle. The massive scale of the battle makes you feel insignificant unless your team does everything right. Finding such a team is hard and unexperienced/casual players are more likely to get kicked from a well organised squad. And there is no real objective - no goal to achieve for casual gamers other than to fight for sectors and resources. Capturing an entire continent takes days. So this game is not for me. And I hope, the Battlefield series will continue to offer me a better home.… Expand

Incredibly addictive. Just as I thought I'd finally "grown up" and stopped playing PC games for good, Planetside 2 comes out and I find myself completely immersed in the gameplay. This game takes advantage of my decent PC hardware, so I am able to max out all settings and WOW the game really does look incredibly beautiful. At night, playing as Vanu, I see my empire mates' tank shells fly and they cast a blinding bright light that itself casts shadows as it wheezes by. I do have a deep concern about this game, though, which is why I've lowered my score from 10 to 8. It's addictive today, it'll be addictive tomorrow, .. but unlike some other sci-fi MMOs like, say, EVE Online, Planetside 2 really has absolutely no depth. There's no point in the chaotic fighting, except to just fight. After seeing my empire capture entire continents now four or five times since the game's launch (this review comes just a week or to after launch) I'm certain I'm going to get bored by the fact that there really is no point. Capturing a continent gets you bonus spending "money" for vehicles and aircraft, but there's no other real point. There's certainly no real story; I've come across a couple hack story ideas (some from Sony) on forums and blogs but there really is no story within the game, you're just out there fighting and respawning, ad nauseum.

There's also no real point in which empire you choose other than favorite music and colors. They're all pretty much the same. Oh, there are variations in vehicle speeds and power, but Sony played it very safe here on the balancing act and trying to keep all factions equal.

The shooter side of the game is solid, if sometimes a little bit plastic. Usually not, but sometimes I feel like I'm using a toy gun from Wal-mart. Sometimes the sound is weak and damage effect is light. The sniper rifle and the shotgun, for example, have no oomph, I suppose the sound engineers must not have very good speakers because I have studio monitors and these feel thin.

Overall, this is a fun game and being free it's definitely worth a shot. I would compare it best to Tribes: Ascend but on a much, much larger map scale in a persistent universe of equally absent meaning.… Expand

I was extremely excited for planetside 2 after hearing so many great things about it and watching all the videos, after playing it for roughly 10 hours excitement turned into disappointment. First thing players will notice is the massive scale of the game, 3 huge continents with hundreds of players battling over bases is amazing, the graphics are also quality and will require a powerful rig to even play the game at medium settings, but in the gameplay is where the game falls short. For starters there is no tutorial, the game already has a steep learning curve and the lack of help is enough to turn players off from the get go. The mouse sensitivity is way to high and even after turning it all the way down makes it difficult to aim, since it requires persistent aiming rather than COD style twitch aiming, the poor hit detection, shoddy animations and the fact that you have to hit a player 10-15 times to kill them makes the game extremely annoying and takes away the fun that could be had with it. The guns also feel floaty and seem like they do very little damage. The developers also claim this is a free to play game which is not true, players that pay have a clear advantage over non-paying players as they can buy better guns, gear and armor and those that subscribe have bonus perks like extra xp and cert points; which is the games currency. Playing without paying could take a huge amount of time to unlock a new gun or even weapon attachments making the game even less fun. The game could have been brilliant, the scope is massive and unseen before, giving the player land and air vehicles, skills, huge amount of customizable weapons and objectives. But going up against players that shed money is frustrating considering they are much better equipped than you are. If you are curious to find out for yourself i recommend trying it considering the game is free to download, but if you are after a solid team based shooter for a one off payment giving you everything at your disposal, stick to battlefield 3.

Pros:
+ massive scale with hundreds of players
+ massive maps with heaps of bases to fight over
+ looks amazing on a powerful machine
+ large amount of weapons, vehicles and items Cons:
- play to win
- very slow gameplay
- frustrating aiming and shoddy hit detection
- lack of tutorial and steep learning curve will turn off gamers
- takes too long to unlock gear without paying
- weak gun play and weapons feel wake and similar… Expand

It's fun. But be warned: you need a RIG to play this. On low settings with a good PC you'll still be at 20-30 fps. If your PC is outdated don't bother. The minimum requirements for this are not even close. ...As far as the game, It's just TDM. There's nothing really epic about it. --It'll feel epic at first. Give it a week though.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Anyone who rated this below a seven simply didn't bother to put the time into it. It badly needs a tutorial, which is why this didn't hit a perfect ten, but for chrissakes, PLAY a game before you damn it. Besides, there are tutorial vids that it shoves in your face in the gorram launcher but hell, I've been playing since before those, and it only took me about a half hour to figure everything out. Stop pissing yourselves and wrecking the score on an awesome game. Out.… Expand

Instructions: none. Tutorial: none. Upgrades after 4 hours of gameplay unnoticeable. Constant prompting to buy cert points via cash shop: annoying. Hacks: prominent. Maps poorly designed: windows everywhere in buildings. Support classes: easy targets. Spawn in middle of rocket blast: instantly dead. So many glaring issues: will not pay to play.

Having seen many negative reviews I was expecting a very flawed game. But on the contrary, I found Planetsi
de 2 to be a very enjoyable game. And its free!
I found the gun mechanics of the game very nice. The scale of it is amazing, specially when there are enough people in the server and 2 "zergs" clash. If that doesnt happen you might be facing boring moments, but these are avoidable most of the time. And seeing those huge battles is amazing. When I started the game I decided to play as medic to learn the game. I was expecting to get a crappy default gun and not being able to kill anyone. Not at all! Default gun (TR) was great. I found out the infantry gameplay very balanced. The things you purchase with Cert points (gained through experience) dont make such a huge difference, they are very cheap upgrades at first and there are plenty of ways to get constant (yet slow) stream of experience doing many different actions, not just plain killing. You get nearly the same ammount of exp for reviving a teammate as for killing someone. Who kills who in infantry gameplay is generally determined by a mixture of tactics and luck. Want some kills? Flank the enemy And if theres enough people in the server and you know the basics you can get to the frontline with no waiting time since there is generally always a mobile span point placed that will get you right into action.

Now for the cons. First of all the game definetely lacks a tutorial. You can spend a lot of time reading beginners guides in the internet before you start and still you will be completely clueless for a couple of hours until you learn the basics.
The optimization is horrible. But hey once I set the graphics to look like a game from a decade ago the game runs with perfect fps even in huge battles so thats great. I dont really care about graphics so much anyway as long as the fps is nice.
Strategical and teamplay is not encouraged and unless you are in an outfit it is generally nonexistent. This is generally mitigated by the fact that there are so many people but not that much. So generally fighting will be a mass of people behaving like cattle. So try to find a friend or join an outfit or otherwise you will be very dissappointed with your teamamtes. And resources are so abundant that no one really cares what gets captured or not.
One of the things that I liked most about this game was that it was free and to my surprise there was not a huge advantage to people that payed real money ... in infantry combat. People who pay get great advantages when using tanks or aircraft. You can see aircraft completely wiping out masses of infantry or vehicles while these cant do much against them. I just hope the developers now dont leave things as they are and strive to balance the game and encourage teamplay. If they do it could get to be a great game. But the game right now is very enjoyable for most of the time.… Expand

The gameplay itself is great, and while the empires are unbalanced, that can be easily fixed. The glaring problems with this game though is that there are too many hackers and the communities are full of **** On my server, the TR is the only one with a nice community, and I'm sure it varies from server to server, but the point is that most of the time the communities are full of raging jack-asses, and that's a serious problem because that will cause two sides to gang up against this one particular side because it's full of nice people, again, like on my server. I guess it's because the gaming community, especially for pvp games, has degenerated so much between planetside 1 and 2, because I remember in planetside 1 people had a sense of fairplay and if your outfit/ community acted like jackasses, you would get your ass stomped by everyone else, heck, even your own empire would betray you if you acted like a jackass. But that sense of fairplay and community is gone in this game, just gone, and that's what made planetside 2 fun, was that everyone played fair and kept everyone else in line. That community is gone, and instead in this game you have fanboys of their respective leaders (Toby (who has the worst fanboys), seananners, and that other british guy who's name I can't remember), griefers, hackers, People with severe cases of entitlement or unwarranted self importance, etc. Planetside 2's community problem is unfixable to be honest, and I don't play this game anymore because of that problem. I will give this game a 5 because this gameplay is good, but the community is beyond redemption… Expand

This game is amazing capturing immersion and epic sense of war no matter what gamer you owe it to yourself to download it. It can make you rage but the pros far out ways the cons

It's a decent shooter. Has a sense of Battlefield 3 injected with armored steroids with it. The factions are somewhat balanced: I played all three factions during the beta and kept a stable K:D for all of them. The New Conglomerate guns do a little bit of work though. Large scale battles allow you to choose from multiple sites to play from, and you have a variety of vehicles to fight with, if that's what you prefer. There are three major problems in my opinion: 1) It's not player friendly. There is no handson tutorial that shows you what to really do. You are literally dropped onto the middle of the battlefield hoping you know what to do and who's who. 2) The cert grind (which allows you to unlock new weapons) is a big grind. An average player can get around 50-80 certs per hour if they're in active battlefields, but you need to play a few of those hours to unlock one weapon. You also have the opportunity cost of saving those certs and just buying Station Cash, each weapon costing $3-$7. That's not a bad price compared to other games where perm weapons are $25+, but this is per character only so caveat. 3) The biggest problem of them all: THE STABILITY. There are times where your whole screen flashes rapidly, risking problems prone to seizure. The stability of the servers during peak hours are horrible. Players will jump around and phase in and out, making it almost impossible to actually hit them. There have been reports on some large servers that grenades, vehicles, and explosives dont actually explode. Abilities won't work. Granted, this game just came out and it's been pretty popular so far, but it really needs some work on the stability side. Outposts are currently being worked on to have a more defensive fortress type layout instead of "whack-a-mole" location system, so that's another plus.… Expand

Pros: - Beautiful graphics - Vehicles CONS = - No win condition. You fight over bases for Cert points. There's no other point. It seems like the whole game revolves around high Cert prices for items so players will be enticed to spend Station Cash on items instead. - Persistence does not matter. The game play is thus: Merry-Go-Round, Whack-A-Mole. It's like logging into a round of BF3 Conquest with an Infinite score limit.
- Sluggish weapon feel. There isn't any crispness here. If you're used to CS, COD, or BF, prepared to be disappointed.
- Abysmal base design. Bases are indefensible and are designed as simple TDM maps with a few Sabotage elements.
- Unoptimized. ATI users suffer the most.
- Boring and unappealing weapon unlocks. While listed as specific weapons most are copy/paste with a slight variation in stats and change to allowed accessories or firing modes. I.E.: Gun1 has burst, Gun2 has full auto.… Expand

While a pretty solid game from SoE it is not without its flaws. It has some very enjoyable large scale combat and the special skills each class possesses give you the ability to approach the battle in a variety of different ways. Another good point about this game is that while a player can simply make an account and buy all of the in game content straight away I have found that a majority of the time this does not cause the game to become unbalanced or unfair as winning a gunfight still largely comes down to the skill of the player and not the equipment he or she was using. While all of these points do give the impression that Planetside 2 is certainly an above average F2P game it does have some rather game breaking flaws. First being how horribly un-optimized it is, as a keep PC gamer I ensure my computers hardware is as up to date as my bank balance allows yet I still seem to encounter some serious FPS problems as I begin to enter larger battles. The FPS drop does not make the game unplayable but it is certainly noticeable and I believe that the FPS drops would be far more of a problem for people playing on lower end PC's. The next problem is that I have encountered more than my fair share of bugs while playing this game. While most are no real problem there are some that can cause some real annoyance, for example the sometimes non-existent hit registration and Sunderer spawn point sometimes clipping my character into the ground causing me to be unable to move.

Overall I believe Planetside 2 is a good game with a lot of potential but its current problems are simply too big to ignore. Hopefully SoE will work hard to patch the various bugs and better the optimization so that players are able to experience the game as it should be.… Expand

Frustrating game too big maps and too less players. You can run 2h and you don't see any enemies.
Graphic is nice but not on high-level. Is there few bugs. Planet Side 2 is next game pay for win not play for free.

The incredible scale of this game is amazing, when you and a few hundred other team mates go head to head with another couple hundred people to try and claim as much land as possible.
Though at first when you start the game it can be a bit overwhelming mainly because it is so big and so many people to kill you end up learning who is more of a threat and where to spawn to quickly get in the fight with out getting killed straight away.
I thoroughly enjoy this game and will continue to play as it is so different having a good fps mmo game that has such a great community (ask for help and you will probley get it due to the nature of the game you need to help team mates to concore as much ground as possible)… Expand

While the gameplay, graphics and sound are actually quite good, the game is just not suited for any true PvP player because of it's Pay2Win payment model. This may not stand out as much because of the frequent big battles in which the individual player doesn't have a big impact on, but it's still there.

PS2 has it's good moments when playing with several other people over voice comm, but that's just not enough for me when I want to play against other people on an equal footing.… Expand

The game is really fun but, but it is far from perfect.. It needs more ways to get into combat faster. I do understand that you can spawn vehicles, and being on big maps is part of the fun, seriously. The size isn't the problem. There also should be a variety of gametypes instead of going around and capturing bases. The level design is pretty good. The game is more fun IMO if you are on the losing side. You see enemies more frequent and it gets pretty fast paced when you charge out of your base and attack the enemy.

The shooting mechanics are excellent in PlanetSide 2. I wanted to give it an 8.5)

If I were to rate this on shotting mechanics, it would have a 9/10… Expand

Gonna go ahead and give this game a 10. I've never given anything a 10. Ocarina of time? Nah, that deserved a 9.5 at most. World of Warcraft? maybe a 7 for effort but Planetside 2 delivers on nearly every concept I've wanted in a video game since I've started playing them nearly 20 years ago. I've played 80+ hours of this game since the start of February... and I'm not the type to play games that much. It's seriously scary how addictive this game can be.

For those who dislike this game upon first play, Planetside 2 gives you as much as you put into it. You can't really just "jump in" unfortunately you've got to give it time, look up videos for newbs, and learn the basics. If you're a leading type, this game is for you. You can head your own platoons against the enemy forces using Air, Land vehicles, and Infantry forces all with a wide assortment of specialized weaponry and abilities. It's truly amazing how much variation there can be between players. Communication is key to winning and gathering large groups for organized assaults. If you're not much for talking to other people online, you're going to have a hard time having fun with planetside 2.… Expand

Ok as much as i'd love to sing planetside2's praised there are certain elements that have to be addressed. First lets start with the positives -Huge scale maps -Exciting gameplay -Actual point in snipers as maps are so huge -Amazing fun with friends -When the battle gets going IT GETS GOING Negatives -There's no real tutorial, a friend of mine had to teach me the ropes -Gun prices are extortionate
- Requires a beefy rig to run on anything more than medium
- Gun balancing is poor, for example the Terran republic first sniper takes 3 body shots or 2 head shots. a new conglomerate sniper will kill in 1 clean body shot.
- Hackers. They aren't there much but when they are you know about it.
- On your own can get very boring.… Expand

(Forewarning; I apologize for the inevitable slaughter of my format by Metacritic, huge walls of text are the only option :c) The PROS:

+The game has the largest battles to be found in any game, ever. Barring very special cases in certain strategy games (Namely, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and Total War) you will never see larger battles. It simply dwarves all contemporary games in sheer scale.

+Many of the mechanics from the original game (PlanetSide) have been completely revamped and/or replaced. It is no longer a chore to play. In fact, the gameplay is VASTLY improved, featuring full hitboxes, well-defined class roles and strategic thought simply not present before. Quite simply, its a blast

+The futuristic setting is very interesting visually and audibly. The lighting, draw distances, shadows and SFX are stunning. I especially enjoy when you fight at night, as it is one of the only modern games where the dark of night is... dark. I have a feeling you will enjoy looking at the immense star and moonscapes in awe, they're spectacular.

+ The game is Free to Play! In case you didn't know, "F2P" means "Free to Play"; Huzzuah! + There are three teams per server, as opposed to the regular two-sided fights that are the norm. This introduces an interesting dynamic with three-sided battles. Extremely fun.

+ While the factions share several things in common, notably certain vehicles and the classes, they each have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that give you incentive to play as all three. While the lore is not particularly strong (This is an MMO after all), I suspect you will choose your first faction based on their backstory. I prefer the Vanu, being a transhumanist scum in real life.

+As goes naturally with the large player counts, the maps are enormous; expect to travel in various gunships and APC's more than on foot when trying to get from place-to-place.

The CONS:

- My primary concern with the game is the system requirements; you will require a very powerful rig to run the game at a level of 30 FPS or higher. Lower-end computers or older ones will have some problems, most notably in the larger battles. I had no problems with this, as I very recently constructed my own computer with high-end parts, but for the majority of people performance will be a factor.

- There are quite a few bugs and glitches int he game as-is; friendly tanks running you over push you into geometry, muzzle flash sometimes continues even when not firing,You spawn from a "slanted" perspective... You know, pretty typical stuff.

- Game-enders; Every now and then, you will have a CATASTROPHIC crash that may require you to disable/reset your router and modem, or at least restart your computer. These are very infrequent (I've had it happen once) but keep this in mind.

-There are some balancing issues, most relating to the MAX quasi-class/mech and to the power of air vehicles/Anti-Air weaponry.

- The "Certification" system in the game allows you to purchase weapons and other gear/perks with in-game experience. You "buy" them with things called "Certs" (Short for certifications) which are earned in gameplay for doing essentially everything. The number of Certs you need to buy some things (Notably weapons) is huge, and you earn them very slowly. I place huge emphasis on "slowly" . You can, optionally, circumvent this problem by directly buying things with real money through microtransactions, or buying a $15/month subscription (Which isn't mandatory in any way!) to increase the rate at which you earn things.

- I mentioned the lighting effects, particle effects and such earlier? Those are great, but the actual TEXTURES in the game are not particularly good, on-par with the industry standard five years ago. This is for the sake of game performance, a necessary evil, but it is still a definite weakness.

-Tutorials are very weak, you are simply thrust into the game for lack of a better term. I suggest watching youtube videos to get a grasp of the game before you play

CONCLUSION:

PlanetSide 2 is FILLED with great times to be had if you have a decent computer, all for the low, low price of $0. Keep in mind the game is somewhat hindered graphically and in terms of performance by the large player counts and huge maps, but simultaneously remember the good vastly outweighs the bad!

It gets an 8/10 - The game is superb with several minor problems and one somewhat big one. I expect the developers will support the game for years to come, so I will likely amend my score to 9/10 in the future as the performance is boosted and the bigs patched. You have nothing to lose by downloading it, just do it!… Expand

Planetside 2 is not your typical CoD or BF shooter game. It has a steep, but satisfying learning curve. It does well on bringing large scale fights to the battlefield. This game is about team play, so don't think you can come in and solo everything. The game does face bugs, balancing, and optimization issues; however, they should be addressed shortly.

At first glance, Planetside 2 looks like what FPS fans would describe as a perfect FPS. Heaps of guns, huge maps, people running everywhere, vehicles and just generally massive scale warfare. Sadly, it is far from it, it could have been, but isn't. Planetside 2 is a game plagued with bugs that haven't been fixed, pay to win business model, especially when it comes to vehicles, optimization easily the worst I have ever seen (20-30 fps on my high end machine with every setting on dead low), disgusting textures (1997ish textures on low, impossible to play it higher), hackers everywhere with no solid attempt to overcome them (even though it is impossible to get rid of them in a F2P shooter so why bother i guess), awfully confusing UI, so bad that it actually causes performance issues, horrifically slow progression (after playing 70 hours I have unlocked 1 weapon which is the cheapest ones). Balance is pretty bad, players will never be able to be a pilot without spending money to unlock the must have items for the aircraft, and tanks can be improved as the default machine gun that most of the vehicles have are god awful. The price of the items are ridiculous, as usual with all free to play games, $15 subscriptions basically get you nothing and guns are like $7-10 dollars. Seriously, has any company actually tried selling their products at an acceptable price? Perhaps they would be more successful if they catered to people who aren't rich or have no sense of value with currency.

Planetside 2 could have easily been that amazing MMO-FPS game that fans are really wanting, but with all these horrible issues that still haven't been fixed, or even improved upon after I returned to playing Planetside 2, I am quite skeptical that this game will ever be worth your time.… Expand

If you like being frustrated and annoyed, play this game. If your sadomasochistic, spend money on this game. What I find most frustrating is the huge potential of this game, SOE just doesn't have what it takes to make this game into what it could have been, it's a shame really. I have been playing and waiting for it to deliver since the game first came out, but I have given up on PS2 and SOE.

Lol at all the noobs giving this game a bad rating because it isn't newbie friendly. Referencing games like WoW, CoD, MW3 which require hardly any skill and then crying because this game does require it. If you came from a BF3 background you will love this game! Sure it may cost money to get the better gear but even on the free subscription you can still own other players. I think the factions are a little unbalanced so far in gear/vehicles and I really hope they don't ruin it with BFRs like the first one. Overall a great free game - if you can't win with all the extra gear then maybe you should go back to WoW, Black Ops 2 or Hello Kitty adventures...… Expand

The PS2 isn't to bad for a F2P. Graphics are... ok could be better but whatever and they are doing pretty good with bug fixes. Big battles are pretty fun I have to say. I do hope they change a few things. Sometimes it just feels like you just zerg areas and why not they don't really reward you for defending a point. Why would you defend a point other than to just shoot enemies. Now if lets say point A would give you the ability to spawn air craft (like the 1st PlanetSide) unlike now when you can do it from day one. I think maybe the battles would be more... meaningful? Or maybe just boasts like extra ammo or faster travel speeds? Also the constant Nerf to items (IE hill climb which I don't know if its broken or a Nerf to he honest) Yes I know it happens but they should refund cert if that do major changes like this. Maybe I'm just not a F2P kinda gamer. But for a F2P game it's a good time with friends.… Expand

The core gameplay is fun, albeit with a few annoyances. The epic scale with smooth gameplay is very impressive. The game is addicting and causes time to fly by.

Pros: Massive scale, very fun, extremely team oriented. VOIP communication is critical for tactical gameplay. Play the way you want. Support classes are totally viable. Air combat is amazingly fun.

Cons: The business model. Free to play, but takes 6 months at 25 hours a week to max just one infantry and one vehicle. Subscribers who have bought a few weapons and boosts can do that in 3 weeks. Costs maybe $50 + $15 a month. Simply put, infrequent free players are going to be at a disadvantage. The game is definitely designed to sucker people into buying station cash. I have already spent $180 on the game and have a moderate advantage over new players, but hopefully that advantage will fade after 6 months or so.

The graphics do not appear to be state of the art because the ultra setting was removed from the game at the very end of beta due to stability issues. The game is not multithreaded, which is a big problem for people with slower CPUs or even high end AMD CPUs. i5 and i7 CPUs are required to have satisfactory framerates on high settings. CPU clock speed directly affects framerates (GPU not so much), so overclockers benefit a lot.

The annoyances to which I was refering are the invulnerable shield spawn locations where stalemate battles may continue for often 30 minutes at a time. I find these annoying and they are the epitome of spawning camping. You can literally die 20 times in 5 minutes to spawn camping. Some people like this, but I hate it.… Expand

Large battles featuring up to 2000 players per continent and is a complete blast, never had so much fun with an online FPS in my whole gaming-life PlanetSide 2 is awesometacular

Uninspired levels, horrid sound, boring bland weapons, lag lag lag lag and altogether wasted untapped potential that is just a few of the things that planetside 2 suffers from. Don't waste you're time with this atrocity until the developers pull up their pants, sew their heads back on, lace up their work boots and realise that just because you make it free it doesn't mean that you can spoon feed people crap and that you actually still have to make an effort...… Expand

I have no clue what people are talking about this is the best f2p game of all time no questions asked. Play it on a decent pc then come back complaining. There are no lag or bugs or whatnot people are complaining about.

What a joke at the dumb reviewers saying this game is way better than any battlefield or any other fps game out there.. and giving this game a 10 out of 10. If you think a broken, bland, pointless, game like planetside 2 is better than any other mutliplayer shooter out there then you have either never played 1 single damn game besides this, are 10 years old, or you have the worst taste in gaming that I have ever seen. About the game, all i can really say is, devs dont have the common sense to help out newbies so people get turned away from the game so less player base, and HOW can anyone say this is a better game than battlefield when all you do in this game is capture 1 base at a time with unbalanced classes and vehicles and you do nothing else.... at least in battlefield you can play many different game types, play with friends, better control of vehicles, more rewarding system, better scaling, just about everything is better in Battlefield besides the map is bigger in PS2.... BOOHOO… Expand

There are some great things about Planetside 2. For one, it's free. A very large game with a lot to potentially do, it has the makings of a great game. The problems though tend to outweigh the good parts. From the very first day, this game was essentially pay-to-win. All equipment upgrades in the game take an insanely long time to grind out enough certs to purchase, but you can spend $10-$20 and get the best possible weapon or other upgrade for any given class. This means that if you *aren't* paying to play, you're at a massive disadvantage. The other problem is that it takes place on a persistent world environment. While this seems like a great idea, you can't help but feel a sense of nihilism as you never actually gain anything from capturing an area (because tomorrow when you log on, you'll just have to conquer the same area again.) Essentially, uneven progression and a lack of any discernible goals make what could have been a great game into a "meh" kind of situation. Worth a try (you won't lose anything except some time) but don't get too excited.… Expand

The game has a great deal of potential. However in my opinion it falls flat on its face because of the horrendous lag that's encountered whenever there are huge battles. It's a shame, but until they get this sorted out it's strongest selling point is a huge disappointment. You can't play an fps when everyone is warping around the place and your screen starts to flicker after thirty mins of play.… Expand

Great game, played since beta. It's one major flaw is that's it's near impossible to unlock anything, even for a free game. You usually start with simple one point certifications, but then the price skyrockets to 100's for a simple bonus. In fact, there is not a single weapon in the game for under 100 certifications.

Planetside 2 has battles of epic scale and decent gfx but the gameplay is lacking and their F2P system went P2W even before the launch throwing everything balance related out of the window. Several bugs and lag issues along with the P2W factor make the game nearly unplayable.

+ Scale
+ Might get better
+ Cant get much worse

- P2W
- Balance