what's wrong with the critics?? this game is painfully dull and pointless. fps on a mmo scale? great idea except for the massive lagg which kills the whole zergfest. even being free this does not worth the bandwidth to download

I am an original Tech Tester from wave 1. I have seen a LOT of improvements, overall the game is moving in the right direction all be it very slowly. I can't help but feel this is still in Beta, there's a LOT of major features that should have launched with the game. As of right now Planetside 2 is simply an enjoyable FPS and the promised massive emersive metagame is non existant. Some of my biggest gripes are uncapturable warpgates, bases that can be back capped by 1 or 2 people, the ability for anyone to pilot any vehicle at any time (No vehicle certs are required), The total lack of an actual front line, Cutting off enemy the enemy gives no real benefits. No inventory system, no way of picking up enemy equipment off of dead soliders, no way of hacking or capping enemy vehicles. So the entire "Immersive metagame" is missing. It's not all bad, the scale of the battles are incredible, but again, with no metagame it still feels like battlefield. You could spend a solid 1-2 hours fighting over a territory and once capped you move on pushing deeper into enemy territory... 20 minutes later you open your map only to find that 2 or 3 enemy troops were able to ghost cap all that hard work you've done because nobody is interested in chasing 3 rogue soldiers all over the map at abondoned zones. So what took you and 100 of your buddies 2 hours of hard fighting takes them 3 men and 10 minutes. Wheres the metagame in that? where's the feeling of a lasting victory? However dispite its glaring flaws, PS2 is still a very enjoyable game if played simply as a FPS. If you're looking for any kind of grand strategy you will only get frustrated and disappointed
Hopefully SOE will change that and fast, because people like me are simply starting to lose interest in the same grind.… Expand

New player experience is horrible in this game. No tutorial, no training grounds, nothing. You just spawn in the middle of a warzone having no idea what the objectives are or how to achieve them. While you try to figure out how the game works you keep getting killed over and over. Worst first impression ever. For me, this is indicative of an unfinished product. Uninstalled after 20 minutes. I'll check back when it's a complete game and not a torso.… Expand

Epic battles in an epic environment, with day and night cycle, feels like an MMO since there are no "rounds", its a persistent world in war. It gives you the choice to engage in big battles, small battles, or maybe camp in the nearby mountains sniping from a far? You choose. Best Battlefield I ever played.

One greatest MMOs out there. It makes you feel like an absolute badass when you roll out with an army of tanks and obliterate the bases. I also am deeply in love with the creators of this game, because they aren't money-sucking whores like most MMO creators. It's pretty simple to get the currency needed to buy stuff, this game is the only true free-to-play game around probably. But anyway, this game is all-round really fun.… Expand

The scale of the game and the sheer excitement of being in an epic battle will have you smiling ear to ear. Fantastic game, great graphics and well balanced. Way more fun if you are playing with friends though and my only gripe is that I played it about 15-20 hours and felt a bit burnt out after and have yet to go back to it. Its F2P though so it honestly deserves a chance from everyone who enjoys shooters.… 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

I've been having a lot of fun in Planetside 2. There is no other shooter of this scope on the market. With vehicles, weapons, and terrain galore, this game truly feels like war. 2000 players on a giant single continent fighting each other with tanks, planes, bombers, etc, etc? Cmon, have you seen anything more awesome? There are so many things to do! My favorites are flying a fighter jet, flanking enemy platoons with a dune buggy, and raking up kills as an engineer. I find the game as enjoyable solo as when playing in a squad. If you get bored of one playstyle, there's a plethora of other options to try.

That said, the game isn't perfect. While SOE is doing a great job (in my opinion) of ironing out bugs (compare the game at launch and now!) and adding new content (the Harasser FAV just came out, the lattice system is coming out with the next update), there are balance issues, occasional server-side lag, and numerous small quirks that need to be addressed. But I am happy to know that the developers are on top of it. Future content is also very exciting.

Oh, and the game is free to play. It's a AAA title with high production values and you don't have to drop a penny into it if you don't want to (there are various things that can be purchased with money, such as XP boosts and cosmetics to make your character stand out, but that's entirely optional). There's absolutely no excuse why you shouldn't give PS2 a try!… 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

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

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

Gameplay wise the game is great. Sure there may be some balance issues especially concerning the infantry vs vehicles part, but in general it plays very nicely. Battles lasting through day and night cycles are something I've personally enjoyed the most. But there are some problems not related to the gameplay itself that prevent the game from being truly good. The first one is the last of ANY tutorial, lack of ANY explanation of what all the icons means, lack of ANY objective information for the player which left me simply disoriented for first few hours. Sure, once you figure it out, the game becomes much better, but seriously I'm probably not the only one with this problem considering a very small subset of players who actually follows the objectives rather than mindlessly shoot each other. The second, and in my opinion - much more important - issue is the F2P model. The game was being advertised as not being Pay2Win game, which after a couple of hours becomes an obvious lie. Everything in game starting with abilities, weapons, mods, vehicle stuff, cosmetics, etc. is unlocked with a single currency you gain while playing the game. Now the problem is that on average you make about 25-30 credits per hour (about 1 credit per 4 kills) and upgrading a single perk to max level costs about 1500 credits - that's about 60 hours of gameplay for one perk on a single class on a single character. New weapon? No problem, 700-1000 credits + 200 credits for the mods. As you can see fully unlocking a single class takes about an eternity. This means that you end up buying weapons for 7-9$ each which is yet another misunderstood implementation of the MICROtransactions model. If this was a $60 priced title it would score at least 8 (because of the lack of initial tutorial and some game balance issues), but thanks to the greedy, falsely advertised payment model the rating does down to 3.… Expand

Yeah this game is pretty overhyped. It was a poor choice to take on such extreme graphics for a F2P game. It looks great, but runs like trash. The scaling in reduction of graphical settings is subpar at best. This leaves anyone with a mid to entry level gaming rig excluded from enjoying this game. The gameplay is a whole different story. The map is a **** giving you so much information you cant process what is going on. There is no clear objective as to where you should be headed or going unless you are in a squad and receiving orders from another player. The scale of the game is questionable at best. The game draws heavily from the Battlefield series, but fails to deliver a controled mechanism for preventing an all out **** to occur. I have found myself kill spawned over and over and over. I have found myself spawning in a group of friendlies only to be pinned down by superior enemy forces. There really is no protection or passive base defenses. Aside from this the battles can last for hours, or dare I say days? This kind of scaling isnt fun for the average gamers, if you cant sit down and accomplish something significant in a 30-60 minute period, than the game development has been designed to accomodate a niche group of hardcore players. All in all Planetside 2 really has some potential for further development. The scale of the game and the sheer rigorous pacing of the game will turn many players off.… Expand

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

I can give everyone the straight dope here in a few in a brief summary. I played continuously for a couple weeks or so and got up to about lvl 20 so I know the game mechanics well. I was absolutely blown away with P2 initially. It was almost everything I ever wanted in an FPS and seemed to fulfill all the promise of PC gaming. It ran fine(mostly), looked great and had all the large scale conflict and tactics a hardcore ,high-skill ceiling, pc game should. I will tell you what killed it. I knew these two things would eventually be a problem from the outset and they were. Number one: The conflict is meaningless as there is NOTHING at stake for gaining/losing your territory. Sure the fight is fun but for how long when there's absolutely no payoff. A war of this scale without any reward in the offing makes no sense and kills any long term enjoyment. Problem 2: P2 caters to the newer gen Ritalin children who can't comprehend the value of earning a kill in-game and so anybody can get the drop on you at anytime and 1 automatic burst later your dead. You'll spend most of your time in this game dying and trying to get back into the fight. The whole point of the game feels like it revolves around dying. It's absolutely horrendous and ridiculous. By having two hit-points you eliminate 75% of any skill or tactics the conflicts here have. If you had time in a firefight to utilize terrain and tactics the conflicts would be fierce and meaningful as they are in other games that allow for some damage. Instead you just zerg around the map dying and spawning until you outzerg the zergers. Even the heavy's vaporize under minimal fire. I just don't get it. Twice the hitpoints, and it soon becomes apparent who is the more skillful opponent and who deserves to control the battlefield. Why devs don't get this is beyond me and I don't feel like returning to this game even though they'll probably address my first issue. This fantastic game is utterly ruined because you can't sustain any damage. Just like all the other mainstream shooters Ritalin kids thrive on. I don't know who to blame so I jokingly pick on the Ritalin kids. Ridiculous, I'm done.… 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.

I'm not enitrely sure of the words to sum this game up. Ambitious, yes. Technically brilliant, yes. Amazing idea, certainly. But there are also other words that apply. Boring, buggy, overrated, uninspiring, underachieving, poorly reviewed by 'critics' (as always) and rage inducingly unfair. This is a free2play game, so some might say being overly negative isn't appropriate. I disagree however, the game is still an income source and therefore should be revealed as it is, an image different to that shouted out by the masses it would appear.
Positives- The big battles. This, apart from ambition, is the only thing I can find good here. When hundreds of people actually bother to attack a target instead of pretending to be lone rangers the action gets intense, tactical and most importantly, fun. It's also important to note the technical achievement. Que applause. The Negatives- Where to start? People. They kill this, ironically. The forums are a hotbed of rather pathetic trolls and juvenile kiddies. Ask a question, expect 9 trolls, 6x10-7 flamers and 1 genuine answer. F2PNewbs. In game, team killing is common, and rather annoying. It is a good concept to add, but nobody bothers where they land/drive/walk. They then complain and revenge team kill because they can't accept their mistake. Coordination is also particularly hard if you aren't in an outfit, as everybody disappears or gives up halfway through battles. I'm forever suddenly finding myself alone in the middle of an enemy base because nobody can be arsed to drive another few sundy's up, or spawn a tank. The much hyped big battles are cool, but so rare that anyone who isnt blinded by a shiny new game will instantly realise the game's main point isn't so 'main'. Flying is dame near impossible. Even if you make it out of the spawn area, good luck mastering the controls before you're shot down. They make absolutely no sense whatsoever to anyone who's ever flown a real plane, or a simulator, or even ace combat. Health intrigues me. Countless time in my play testing, both in beta and the 1.0 release I have flanked and shot AFK's at the enemy rear. One clip later they turn and headshot you. Clearly a bug, but an extremely common one, unfortunately. The same occurs during firefights, I've emptied whole clips into individuals (and hit, flamers) and they still kill me with a 1 second burst when I pursue them. Weapons. Or water pistols, whichever you prefer. They all look the same, sound the same and do puny amounts of damage to the rather large health bars. I haven't once felt like I've been carrying a real weapon, even in a hugely overpowered MAX. Bugs. I couldn't even begin to list them, there are far to many. Learning curve. Point and shoot isnt hard. Abilities, flying, deploying tactics etc. are never explained and rather backwards in their implementation. Anti-air is useless. You can sit on the crowns top level shooting away all day and probably get only one or two kills. Fighters are too fast to hit, defeating the purpose of anti-air as MAX's and tanks can hit the galaxy's better than turrets. Direction. There is none, and as previously said, rarely do people actually attack en masse.

Conclusion-
Whilst this game has potential, it is killed by these factors:
-People(kiddies) thinking they're clever ruining the games online rep through immature forum antics
-People not playing properly
-People team killing
-People pretending it's a solo game
-Endless bugs
-Poor direction
-Poor controls
-Completely atrocious health/damage balance.
-Terrible guns(underpowered, generic etc.)
-A pervading sense of boredom and frustration.

That last point is most important. You can look over the game's endless drawback after one good firefight, but its just like a drug, alcohol for example. Once the effect wears off and you realise whats actually going on you're left feeling crap and swearing never to play again. Especially when you read the sickeningly stupid 'critics' reviews. I'll admit, I see their profession as next to pointless. That's why I spend my time on this site. People's opinions are often far more 'on Earth' than these strange layabouts. But in this case, both are outrageously pathetic, although some have seen the light and look at the game past its face value, something which the ordinary bullet spamming, COD noob masses fail to do, making this game seem so much better than the failure it actually is.… 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

The best part about about PS2 is the epic scale of combined arms warfare. It still takes my breath away to watch dozens of tanks exchanging fire in the field while aircraft and bombers blaze in the sky above and hundreds of infantry blasting each other in a beautiful persistent world ALL AT THE SAME TIME. You just can't get that with any other game out there today. POSITIVE: It's free to play. The developers are actually talking to the players and changing the game based on player suggestions which is very rare these days. Just a few days ago a patch got released which added lots of new content that players were asking for.

NEGATIVE: Having played through the whole beta, I was very disappointed that a lot bugs and faction balance issues are still not fixed in the live version. A lot of continents and weapons from the original Planetside 1 didn't make it to launch. However, it's free to play so I don't have to waste money until they fix the problems . You also will need a decent PC to play the game until performance optimization will be adjusted in future patches.

I was going to give PS2 a 9 score but the game got released way too early for obvious SOE $$$ reasons so I bumped the score down to 7. I'm confident that the game will only get better over time.… Expand

PS2 get tops marks for innovation, something that is rare in today's market. They also get pretty good marks for execution. This is war on a grand scale. It's hard to pick faults. The game itself is free. Despite what some people say it doesn't feel like a play to win model. Yes the certs (ingame reward currency) take a long time to accumulate to unlock items but apart from guns, there is not actually that much that can be bought to make a real difference on the battlefield and nothing that you couldn't eventually unlock with certs anyway.

For a game that has just launched the balance feels excellent (apart from rocket pods decimating infantry too easily *shakes fist*). I've seen the odd aim botter but when you spot them it's very obvious and you can /report them.

This game really shines when you find a good squad, with a leader who is setting objectives and even some voice communication and coordination going. There is nothing like a few squads supported by air and amour assets rolling into a bio lab to crush the opposition.

Give it a whirl.… 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

This game, Planetside 2 is hands down the best free to play game I have ever played. It is an amazingly huge game with astonishingly large landmasses and varied lands and environments to wage all out intense, thrilling, and immersing war in. You can play as one of three factions all with their own quirks. The game play has a lot of depth, and it may take a while to get used to. You can take control of many different kinds of vehicles. From light and agile air crafts to strong and bulky tanks. There are three continents you will wage war over, with a total of two thousand soldiers on a server. There are no matches or loading screens, how power fluctuates is dependent on how well your team fights. Oh, did I mention the graphics for this game are simply amazing? If you're skeptical, you should just download and try this gem. It is free to play so you have nothing to lose. Beware of the learning curve though. The game takes getting used to, so I suggest looking up some tutorials on Youtube.… Expand

Pointlessly overcomplicated Noob killing fest. Let's start, that my experience on online shooters ranges from the early-early Desert Combat games, all the way to BF3. I'm not really into the MMORPG, but for this review, doesn't need any.
So, let's start with the positives. I like the idea. I like the ambitious effort and pushing the envelope to make online shooters progress to new, uncharted territories. I like the idea of giant battlefields and mixture of doing different things at once. I also like the seems to be endless upgrades and making the players progress somewhere, let that be new weapons, outfits, vehicles and higher ranks. All these are all present but a diamond in a rough form in Planetside 2. Here comes my rant. I can understand the fact, that after a while everyone gets a grip of what is going on and how to read the map and figure out how to upgrade etc. But I'm afraid, it may be too late by then, since the immediate impression will turn off many, before they would start become interesting. Lacking any tutorials, or perhaps off-line maps with bots would help a lot. Almost all games we play including shooters- has some sort of an introduction into the mechanics and/or a walk through in real-time (not youtube videos!) In other words The game is making every newbie UNWELCOME. 1. Sign up; choose your passwords; pick a class; pick a side
2. Get dropped into the battlezone and get shot dead.
3. Try different things; run around the map; be confused about many things, get shot dead within a few minutes. 4. Rinse and repeat step 2 and 3 for a while. ...
Problems right off from the first impression: I. The mini map is utterly confusing and pointlessly over complicated to a point, where it isn't even functioning as a map. Congested and displaying all sorts of stuff not really useful, or just simply too much. I'm not sure if it can be customized or not, I haven't found the option yet, which I would assume most newbie neither. II. The whole design of the large deployment map. I'm trying to figure out, if there are any differences between the middle; the corners and between, regarding what buildings/terrain/objectives variations there are, but after 9-10 hours of gameplay, it all looks like a photoshop pattern of basically repeating features and buildings. Actually, giving in a thought, they could have used 1/4 of the size of the maps, since it doesn't really matter when you get dropped into the fight zone, you know exactly what buildings you gonna find and you just gonna follow to find the power generators and the capture points. There isn't a memorable location, since you won't be able to memorize much, but you will know exactly what is what. III. Upgrades. There seems to be unlimited number of upgrades, but they all seem to be unreachable for those, who doesn't want to spend a bucket load of money. I leave that right there.
IV. Balance. Many game in similar category gives the players the chance to familiarize themselves with the game, so they usually give the option of servers, based on experience level. We could have novice, intermediate and pro servers, just for this purpose. They could have made the game, that a newbie could enjoy a pro-server, but count on being the cannon fodder, but perhaps reward his bravery by making him gain exp. points faster, than on a noob server. Same deal in reverse. Pro player joining with high hopes of mass murdering the noobs, would end up not gaining much, perhaps revoke their super-duper maxed out equipment and make them fight with the basic given weapon and outfit. Or perhaps "ship" the pro players to a new planet or continent, where they face off similar high-level pro players. But no. Instead pro players seem to be mass-r.ping the newbies to gain more exp. points. Basically the game rewards those, who rather play like bullies, while leaving the newcomer in the dust. It may sound fun, if you got the equipment, but eventually it will destroy the game on the long run. Why? Because new people won't be joining, and old pro-players may just move on to whatever newer game come out in the near future. Eventually the servers will be abandoned to a point, where you gonna have these giant maps and only 10-20 people playing instead of 100. V. No real rewards. Weapons, outfits, masks, optics, extra ammo all sounds great, but what's the point? You gonna be doing the same thing with them over and over! What happened to rewards given to teams? Or what about giving rewards for platoons and factions, who conquered half of the map? What's good about having 3/4 of the map conquered compared to only half or 1/4 of it? Nothing. There should be team/platoon/squad based experiences given. How about a tactical nuke, or ability to call in airstrikes, indirect/direct artillery or orbital strike? Just some ideas. As of right now, this game is still just a newbie-hostile beta test, with missing objectives and limited real feel of progress.… Expand

I've played this game since release, and there have been many improvements since launch. I've got over 600 hours in, at BR82, with a good sampling of all the factions.

The new player experience has been streamlined significantly. Players can expect to end up in a friendly spawn at a large battle to start things out. The addition of a virtual reality training area, in which all items and all attachments can be trialed, is a huge benefit to old and new players you no longer have to guess at how effective an item will be. The VR area also includes vehicles, and all attachments now as well. I feel much more comfortable introducing new players to the game now, as opposed to release.

The action itself has benefited from many recent additions as well. There is now an 'alert system' which gives all the players on a server a territory objective, specific to one of the continents. The expansion of this system will lend itself to more of an 'objective-based' feel as more content is added.

The combat will feel familiar to those who have played Battlefield 3, or the original Planetside. Infantry play forms the core of the Planetside 2 experience during base battles, while vehicle play is most of the non-base combat. Infantry engagements are fairly short-ranged, the only notable exceptions being snipers in open areas, and the New Conglomerate being able to use longer-range infantry weaponry.

The game still has flaws; there are some frustrating mechanics in the form of one-hit kill weapons: shotguns, high explosive tank shells, and high explosive liberator shelling. The devs, however, have been responsive to balancing these issues for a better experience.

Overall, I'd recommend this game to any first person shooter fans who want to experience combat on a huge scale often in the area of 96 versus 96, or more.… Expand

Impossibly huge in scope and scale. I can't believe that it's a free game. The fact that it's an MMO astounds me. Nowhere do I see the slightest gameplay sacrifices because of it, even though the game can support literally thousands of players in a server. This game is a gameplay gem, and a technical masterpiece. There just isn't anything else like it.

The TTK or "time to kill" is absurdly low; 0.49 for most guns. That's crazy for a laggy game like Planetside 2. If you don't discover the person first then you'll be dead. There isn't any time to react. This is what brings Planetside 2 down. Not to mention the fact that using the Auto Join Squad feature puts you in squads that clans use who then proceed to kick you from said squad. Crappy UI mechanics also bring Planetside 2 down.… Expand

Promising game by SOE, maps are huge and battles have an epic feel to it (when during peak hrs). Graphics are beautiful but overall the game is marred by the following:
1) poor tutorial - after creating character game throws player into battle immediately without allowing them to even bind keys or figure out what to do.
2) bugs - flickering screen, falling thru the maps.
3) sloppy cheat detection and policing by GMs - well-known aimbot hackers are able to keep playing to ruin the game even after being reported in game and outside of game via support tickets. 4) overpriced cash shop items - 7 USD for a gun that is single class only, single character. 5 USD for a weapon skin. To earn some essential weapons (like anti air missiles or rocket pods) normally in game, need over 50hrs of playtime on average.… 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

approach with caution.
Not a bad fps, but its got faults. Its very zergtastic, you wont often get into big battles, people just endlessly zerg undefended bases. And whilst there is supposedly pop control, there is no population balance on continents, meaning that each continent tends to eb dominated by one faction.
Air is stupidly overpowered, and ground based AA is pathetic. And cert prices for weapons is very very steep. It is bordering on P2W.

However, if you can get a decent infantry battle going on in a Tech/amp/biolab or such, then this game shines. but endemic hacks is ruining it right now, speed hacks, wall hacks, aimbots....and no anti-hack program to stop it.

Couldbe a great game, but SOE need to get a handle on balance and hacks asap.… 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

Excellent free 2 play game. Factions (and overall gameplay) are extremely well balanced . Skill always wins over $$. Graphics and performance are good. Epic scale. This is my favorite hardcore mp shooter on the market. Well worth learning how to play if you are up for a challenge.

Been playing this game since the early beta. It has come a long way since then. Optimization is still a must but my god is this game fun. Solid gun mechanics (nearly perfect ttk), great environments, fun vehicles, and excellent team play. Nothing seems severely imbalanced. The outfit (clan) functionality is excellent and the inbuilt voip makes coordination very easy. First game I've seen that people are actually working together efficiently. Once you witness a tank column of 20 rolling through a ravine while you are perched on top looking across the battlefield cloaked as an infiltrator you will realize that no other fps really compares. Landmark achievement. I'm worried that it's high learning curve might scare some people off so please give it a chance and support the game. We need more epic games like this.… Expand

Let me start out by telling what Planetside 2 gets right. The maps are large and made to feel like what a war zone should be like, and the sheer fact that the game is actually an constant everlasting MMO-FPS like promised is something mind-boggling. That alone deserves praise from people all around, whether you like the game or not.

But about right there is where the good times stop, very abruptly. You spawn in for the first anywhere: you don't get to choose. You could end up lucky and spawn at a deserted base, or you'll get completely screwed over and spawn in the middle of hell with enemy fire hitting you from all directions. Either way though, you're still practically a sitting duck because you'll immediately have to go through the controls to learn how to PLAY the game. I don't care who you are, a tutorial is ALWAYS a good idea for those that are new to the series and have no clue what the hell they're doing.

Another major problem is that it is as repetitive as every single modern shooter with very little to no change. The only change you may see is that you've been blown up by five tanks instead of five rocket launchers. Go to this base, shoot this guy, die because he's played more, go to that base, shoot that guy, die again, get in a "plane," crash because you weren't given a tutorial on how to fly, and then wait for another spawn, and so on, and so on until you get bored or until your computer mercifully crashes to save your sanity.

The third problem of the game is it's major lack of story. Yes, there are three factions, yes it's on another planet, but which planet the game's on nobody knows. Why the three factions are warring is a question only people majorly invested in learning the cannon know. Or who leads any of the factions is left to speculation as far as I'm aware. The game has less story than a game that doesn't look like it needs one (i.e. TF2).

But the major, overall problem with almost every SOE Free2play MMO is their incessant love for in-game currency or real-money in-game purchases for better weapons. In other words, the game is a pay-to-win system where the rich get to use fancy weapons and hi-tech gear that can kill any player just by looking, while the new player just sits back and repeatedly slams his head into a wall because it's more entertaining.

Overall, the game is a grand promise of grandeur and amazement marred by horrible design choices, a pay-to-win system, multiple glitches, hackers, and spawn campers, and NO story at all. As far as a F2P game goes, I would recommend anything from Team Fortress 2 to Warframe. Yet, as it is a F2P game, you won't lose any money off of playing, so... test it...? Maybe you'll like it, but I sure as hell wouldn't even begin to call this game good, let alone call it an MMO of the year.… Expand

-April 3rd patch destroyed all confidence in this game i.e. tons of lag (and no, I know it is NOT on my end)
-Default weapons are not worthless (I used default only for 2/3 months I've been playing)
-Squad-based fighting is freakin' awesome and the battles get really intense
-Overall game is a BLAST, they just need to get their asses in gear and actually work out the bugs

With PS2, the future of fps looks bright. It's very addicting and shows what evolving technology can do for this genre. It's basically a BF3 on crack. Although the fps mechanics are not as smooth as BF3, they are still very solid and what this game makes up for it is the epic scale and excellent team play. This game has more Battlefield moments than all Battlefield titles combined.

Some warnings though. It's an MMO which means a lot of stuff is not in the game yet. Most notoriously a mission system that should help new players get some direction and additional content that allows for a more strategic meta game. These will all be added though and should not stop you from having a blast already. Just make sure you join an outfit or team up with others to get the best out of this game.… Expand

The first few hours you play this game, you'll most likely be very frustrated. Once you figure out where things are, and how the world works. You'll have a great time, and It's unbelievable how well this game handles mass scale battles (300+ people in a small area).

Getting is a squad/platoon of people who actually communicates, and work together, can make for some insanely fun online times.

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.

I am not quite sure what everyone is talking about with in game bugs as I have not experienced any game breaking ones over the course of my play time thus far, at least nothing worth giving this game a 0.... The only inexcusable bug would be the total lack of optimization for AMD based processors... I am lucky enough to have had a Intel/Nvidia based system so it runs beautifully for me. I did not play Planetside 1 so I have nothing to base this game on but as it stands I have never played a FPS MMO that is this engaging. I can almost RP in this game, patrolling, guarding, attacking, infiltrating, outposts and small bases on my own. And the sheer volume of players in the large skirmishes on the map is mind boggling. If you have never played the first one and have an Intel Based System give it a shot! Its like no other FPS you have played.. If you are familiar with the first Planetside game you might be a tad disappointed in this one. And since it is free what is there to lose? Bandwidth? Try it out either way your not losing anything.... AMD users wait for a patch.… Expand

Planet Side 2 is all about size. Just 1 of the 3 continents is larger than all the MW3 maps put together. The small skirmishes in this game tend to be 20 on 20, medium ones can easily be 50 plus. But where this game really shines is the big battles. Hundreds of people split up across 3 armies all fighting for control of the same zones with dozens of tanks and aircraft supporting them. If you are a lone wolf you will probably become easily bored, but if you enjoy team/squad based tactics there is nothing on the market that compares with PS2.

The big battles when you get lots of particle effects flying around can be a bit of a resource hog. I have heard of people using AMD builds having more issues but can not testify to that as I run AMD and Nvidia. You also want a broadband network connection, being a shooter latency is very important. The good news if you are unsure about what your system can run the game is F2P so there is no reason not to try it.

The one part we need to keep an eye on is the F2P element. While it is nice that anyone can try it time will tell if it becomes pay to win. So far it does not seem to do that. Mostly you buy XP boosts or cosmetic items. You can spend money on purchasing weapons also, so far there are not that many weapons to purchase and none of those that I have tried have been ridiculously overpowered. Most have trade offs like higher rate of fire but greater bullet spread. In the end they so far seem to balance themselves out.

In the end it is a great change of pace from most all modern shooters on the market. As someone who enjoys being another soldier instead of a 1 man army I find the team based game play to be amazing. If you have the machine to do it the graphics look amazing good at higher settings. The servers also seem to be well made, even in the largest of battles I do not experience any real lag. You will occasionally see the random guy blinking across the battlefield but that is them lagging not the server. I would give it 8.5 if I could but will go with an 8. It has room to improve but so far so good.… 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

The Game: Planetside 2 has the potential to be a great game marketed as a Freep2Play game there are a huge number of issues and if you really want every weapon you will have to shell out a whopping 400 USD for every weapon + subscription that costs you 15$ a month. Air: huge pay2win advantage (People who pay real money get rocket pods and AA rockets which are both overpowered hard) Tanks: mild pay2win (Regular tanks are hugely competetive and pay2win is almost non existant here.)
Infantry: mild to high (Free2play guns are super effective but you do gain some advantages with paid guns)


All in all i won't be playing this for a long time because it's based on such a blatant model,I mean seriously 7$ for a gun.

The GamePlay: Planetside 2 has it's charm,it's a fun game I admit but there's a big number of glitches,none of the game-breaking just annoying at times.The class system is well thought out and the upgrades are reasonable.The maps are huge and it's fairly balanced with some discrepancies here and there.

Conclusion:


All in all a descent game 7/10 but with the pay2win model it's really not the game for the intermediate-hardcore gamer this is a game for 9-5 person who has 2-3 hours to play and a lot of spare cash (kids,job people)
As a hardcore gamer I can say this is not a game for me,but I recommend you to try it and if you have an extra 400$ over a year to really enjoy it. I prefer my games in the 50$ area.… Expand

amazing game! best fun you can ever have :)

been playing it for 2 days , very addictive, great graphics, wonderful game play through out.

best online experience I've ever had

PAY TO WIN...YOU ARE WARNED

I give this game a 3 out of 10 only because they created a f2p MMOFPS on a massive scale...but that's it. The gameplay feels cheap, the controls feel clunky and the combat is not as exciting as they make it out to be. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers here, most people are being blown away by the sheer size of the game and the fact its f2p. Well, just because a big budget game and f2p, does not make it a 10 out 10 blockbuster game. This game has pay2win all over it. It takes a hell of a long time to earn anything in the game and the teams are horribly unbalanced... every time i log in, my team is pushed back to furthest corner on the map and we have no chance of pushing back. It seems as if most gamer's jump ship to the winning faction and call it a day. For the last two weeks, we have been stuck in the same corner trying to fight our way out and we are not making any progress. If your looking for that next mmo/fps hybrid, look past this one. Great idea, poorly executed. Hey SOE, maybe you should of created some sort of cap or auto balance for the teams. The fact that anybody can join the wining and steam roll the entire map is BS. And why on earth would you make it so hard to actually earn better weapons?? It does not sucker people into buying your premium crap, it turns people away from the game. Look at what GW2 did right and learn from them. I suspect this community if going to die real quick. Especially with the release of Firefall coming soon. You guys need to get over the fact that you can create huge worlds, you need to work on balancing, gameplay mechanics, combat, and..well...just about everything else in the game. Huge worlds do not cut it anymore. The game is boring... FAIL… Expand

Having never played PlanetSide, but having heard lots about it, I was quite intrigued to try PlanetSide 2. The whole idea of scale and options within a FREE game seem very appealing to me. I knew what i was getting in for though. It's a pay to pwn game, but not as much as others in its class and I don't hold that against it. For first time players like me, the first few games are a little daunting - once you get over the learning curve and figure out whats actually going on - The game opens up and consumes the minutes, hours, days of your life and replaces them with some sort of satisfaction. The game is fast paced, its tactical, it has all of the elements of squad based FPS you would expect but at the same time adds more, the scale is unbelievable and theres a very cool feeling that washes over you as you convoy towards an enemy's base with 50 tanks and 100 troops around you.. Graphics: - Are okay, they obviously had to make some compromises to manage the scale, it's not a huge let down though. I play on a laptop (high spec gaming laptop) and it handles the settings on max without any problems. A fun game, worth picking up and enjoying!… 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

This game is Amazing its amazing what technology has brought us, but wow did Sony go the extra mile this game is fun if you can actually run it, the developers tried to make it to nice and in turn made one of the most advanced games requiring a fairly new graphics card and a bit more ram than typical these days, most games require 2-4 gigs of ram the recommended ram for this game is a whopping 8 gigs or was. But all in all if you can actually run this game you will have a fun time with the large map and constant battles for continents.… Expand

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

this game is so fun, i must say that saying this is not a pay to win game is pushing it for vehicles but infantry you don't need to pay. the scale of battles is unmatched by other games. playing alone is not the best you will need to get into an outfit or have a couple of friends in a squad to feel like you have a massive impact in the game. most bugs have been fix and i don't see many hacker has most people say there is. it has the worst tutorial i have seen has you are throw into the battle field. you will need to have a really good computer to run this on high with no fps drop. but through all the bad this is a good game.… Expand

Planetside 2 is a really good simulation of a massive multiplayer war that just never ends although there are some things that do need fixing. The first major issue is the lack of a tutorial, it's just a 2-3 minute video and then the game just drops you right in the middle of the fight before you can change any of your settings for try to figure out what's happening. Second issue is that you unlock certification points really slowly and it's pretty much pay to win. But the gameplay makes up for all of the games flaws. Planetside 2 is worth playing and it's absolutely free. 8/10… Expand

Sadly my review will mostly echo the main criticisms I've seen on here of the game. The learning curve is relatively steep, and though you won't generally get endlessly flamed by your teammates (one individual's failure, on average, can be a drop in the bucket given the sheer scale of combat in the game), unless you are EXTREMELY dedicated and or very very good, don't expect to be upgrading your character's certs with any sort of regularity without dropping some cash on the game. I had some extra Station Cash from my EQ2 F2p days and dropped them on some starting guns, but even that small initially boost was not enough to alleviate the utter curbstompering I experienced at the hands of the most modestly geared opponents. Add to that the insanely high system reqs (to be expected when there's a couple hundred people in one warzone), and you have a very frustrating gaming experience with very, very little payout in terms of seeing your "character" progress.… Expand

Great game. Has some issues including cluttered visuals, latency issue, and some player distribution trouble between areas of the map. These are minor complaints in my eyes though. Over all you can always find a good fight if you look hard enough. It is easy to learn, looks great, and isn't a grind Wow clone. What more do you want from an MMO.

This game is huge and I found myself immersed in a epic struggle for the domain of territory like I never seen If you like a massive competitive war for the domain of territory this is your game the only down side to it would be that it can get quite frustrating to play alone but so long as you have a group of friends to fight beside you you will have a great time

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

Best FPS i've played in a long time. Do you like large open maps? Ok, how about an entire planet?? So much better than Battlefield games, and its FREE. Totally worth at least trying it out.

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.

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

No other game quite like it, 2000 players on a seamless continent makes for some amazing massive battles which can sometimes last for hours. On top of that the game is free, of course there is a cash shop, but all weapons can be earned through gameplay and are made to be 'sidegrades' rather than just power increases.

It can take a while to get a handle of it, there's a lot to take in and finding out where you need to go on such massive continents can sometimes be difficult for new players. It all pays off though, well worth a download.… Expand

Planetside 2 is a very good game. the graphics are phenomenal, the controls feel tight and the sheer scale of the game is just astonishing. it's like playing 30 battlefield 3 matches at once in an area part of a gigantic continent in the world of Auraxis. The hit detection is also remarkable and the gunplay is very tight which would make any FPS fan squeal with joy. But since the game requires a lot of teamwork, i felt that finding friends could've been more simpler. Also, the game feels a bit unfinished, for example, the "Basic training" tutorial videos should've been part of the game instead of being only on their youtube channel which is inconvenient because the game is very complex and it makes you think that the developers were just lazy and didn't think about the newcomers for Planetside 2. But overall, Planetside 2 is an uncut diamond, it's not perfect and it feels a bit unfinished but if the developers shape it and polish it, then everyone will see the real beauty of Planetside 2.… 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

At times Planetside 2 feels like the best game I've played in a long time, but then all the little and not always so little things kick sand in my eyes reminding me why I also sometimes hate the damned game so much. I've been playing PS2 since closed beta.

People who like combined arms tactics and large fights with infantry, vehicles and air will most likely like this game if there computers can handle the stress, that said PS2 is not a light game, to run the game properly with high settings in all fights even those ~2000 player ones at 30fps or more, you'll need a proper i5/i7 system coupled with a descent graphics card HD7xxx series or GTX6xx series.

Being a MMOFPS it means the game is in a constant state of development, more content is being added, old content revamped redone. Stuff removed, or just plain moved around, stats tweaked. Weapons nerfed, others boosted, and so on. This is the stuff that might annoy the non MMO crowd who came for the FPS part and who might not be used to stuff being in a constant state of flux.

Each update adds, stuff, changes stuff and fixes bugs, adds new ones, changes old bugs into new ones, etc. So yea be in a MMO mindset and don't expect stuff to be ever constant and you might enjoy the game a lot. And as always in MMO's the community/players are the true content of the game, no NPC fights (yet) in the game so everyone and every vehicle you fight is another human being somewhere on the globe.… Expand

I hate it when I see people try to compare games like this to black ops or halo. We live in an age where people want to be great at a game from the start, instead of investing time into a game that requires some skill. I wonder what these people would have rated such classic games such as Team Fortress Classic, which had such a high skill curve that beginners would be demolished for a couple of weeks before learning some of the more difficult ways of moving around. When I first started playing I was so happy that the game lacked the super accurate Iron Sights of COD, that the scale of the game was massive, and that each faction was unique. Sure, there isn't a great tutorial, and at first the game is can be confusing and frustrating. After an hour or two of playing, you will quickly figure out where you should be, and get the gist of the classes. Pay to win exists to an extent in this game, but skill really will triumph in most cases. With any game of this scale, you can only expect it to improve with time, and SEO has stated mentioned some plans for the future. As it stands now, the game is a solid 8 and it looks to improve. Don't listen to the naysayers, the game offers a lot of good reasons to play, and as people get it better, it will only continue to offer a great MMOFPS experience.… 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.

In a genre that doesn't see an awful lot of games (good ones at that) Planetside 2 sure is a fresh breath of air for me. The choice to go Free 2 Play certainly doesn't hurt the playercount on the large continental maps that SOE have coughed up.

Visually the game has the potential to be great - On par with many modern day shooter if applied a few tweaks to unlock the "Ultra Settings".


The gameplay (the most important aspect of course) is great. Once you join an Outfit (clan) in the game and start playing in groups, you'll really see where PS2 shines. Planning coordinated strikes using a large selection of vehicles and capture (back) bases that are critical to your advance on the enemy.

There is still plenty of room for improvement - continents that aren't "square" shaped being one of my bigger gripes (and the complete lack of water on the playable battlefield), bugs in the marketplace module of the game and various launch day bugs that will hopefully be squashed soon enough.

Final Verdict: 9

Because the game is rather unique in its presentation, it has a dedicated dev team backing it and it shows great potential if nurtured - this may well become the single largest MMOFPS on the market in its lifespan.… Expand

Planetside 2 is a game that has unbelievable polish for what is a free game. while i admit that it has lag issues and bugs there are moments in this game that are absolutely spectacular. Plus its FREE so go play it for yourself

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

An addicting and and pleasant surprise to the MMO genre in short. The impressive draw distance coupled with impressive graphical fidelity for such a massive game does give the good impression of a massive, persistent open world. While the landscape and locations are decently varied from location to location somewhat less care was given to player assets such as weapons and vehicles. Roughly half of the vehicles available to each race are the same as the ones available to the others. As well as the vast majority of the weapons are shamelessly visual copy and pastes with very minor changes if any at all, only having changes in their stats. Despite this each race has a unique look and style that works for them. The game play is the old tried and true class based multi-player first person shooter. Each class has their own special abilities and equipment that can be upgraded using "certs". This is where the balance issues start to glare at you. Acquiring certs is paced like dragging a 1000 pound bag of sand down an endless road through 2 feet of snow, stopping every ten miles to receive a dollar to put towards a million dollar sleigh to help you pull the bag faster. What I'm trying to say is that it's a free to play game, but it's pay to win. The people who choose to invest in the game will stand head and shoulders above those who actually want a free to play game. This obvious issue turns certain players into bullet sponges while leaving others as glass tissues on the battlefield. While you're given bonuses for investing larger amounts in the game, the cost of weapons in the game probably lies between 6 and 7 dollars on average. Given that there are hundreds of things to buy, and certs and spent money don't carry over to other characters you create, this is a huge problem. I might be focusing a lot on this, but it really is a glaring issue. If you can find the time to acquire enough certs however you'll find a functional and enjoyable FPS that offers massive battles on a scale that we haven't seen in games since the total war franchise. The levels are laid out on a honeycomb gird that shows territories that are fought over by the three factions. The levels have varying terrain with strong holds and towns dotting the landscape. There's a unique feel to each of the continents you fight on, and each base type have a different strategy required to take control. While the actual bases and building are going to start to seem familiar to frequent players it's the area around the bases that creates a new and distinct feel at each location. A strange bit of poor design, being a little richer due to better environmental design. Overall, I give PlanetSide 2 a 7 out of 10.… 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.

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

I've paid 60 dollars for games that were less polished, less graphically pretty, less entertaining, less technically brilliant, and balanced worse than this totally free game. Under normal circumstances I might resent the cash shop, but given that the majority of what actually makes you a superior player needs to be unlocked via play and cannot be purchased, and given the fact that the cash shop is the only way that the developers are making money, I have absolutely no qualms. The gameplay is deep and the scale truly massive. Persistent war with hundreds of people fighting over territory in a never-ending battle across three huge continents using infantry as well as ground and air vehicles. They have create an enormous amount of content and made all of it relevant, available to everyone regardless of how much they paid, and crucial to gameplay. When I saw that this game was absolutely free I had my doubts about how deep the gameplay could be, or how much of it would be locked away behind a cash shop, but they really did go above and beyond, providing an experience that many triple-A premium-priced titles fail to deliver without segregating the paying players away from the free players.

I don't know how they did it. But they have managed something brilliant here, and I wish them great success. Not only for breaking new ground and taking a risk on giving their game away for free, but I would love to see more quality titles that follow in their footsteps.… 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

I'll be clear, if you are a person who wants a game easy to win, then this game is not for you go play world of warcraft or something for the average player. This game is amazing, in graphics and game play, battles of 200vs200 in one zone is great, you have to use tactics and learn from your errors. join a squad to be coordinated, I started to play this game and died ALOT I got used to the easy FPS games like COD or BF, but this is not easy and makes you want to be better everyday, and is NOT pay to win, you can get everything with game points, the only things you cant buy with game points are just visual nothing else. It's like league of legends. If you don't know how to play find an Outfit, log in the forums, ask for help, look the planet side 2 wiki google it! you will learn.… Expand

One thing i like is how everyone giving it a bad review complains about dying instantly and stuff being overpowered. I think some people just got owned too hard and wants to go back to easy call of duty.
This game is really addictive and amazing, with good graphics. They are coming out with regular updates and bug fixes so i dont see why people are complaining. You have access to everything that other people do even if you dont pay for the game. Maybe not the comestic stuff but weapons, and vehicle weapons, you just have to earn up certification points which is quite easy once you actually play good. One problem with the game is the infantry render distance. They are not rendered when you are far away which is hard for jets and snipers. But that is being fixed in the next patch.

So, i suggest people giving the game a bad review. Go back to something easier, more casual. Because you cannot handle Planetside 2.… Expand

Massively overrated. If your not being killed or run-over by your own team-mates, your either running to a fight and generally one-shotted by enemy players that you could have been unloading a whole clip into their head. Either that or they are lag jumpping around. I have a high end PC and i find the graphics for this disappointing. If you get in a good fight of 50 to 150+ it can be interesting but thats all this game is, an endless fight over buildings nothing else… Expand

This game is a FPS on massive scale. The point is to play together cohesively as vehicle, infantry, and air support, and compete against 2 other factions to hold your own, with hundreds of other online players on the same map. On a smaller scale, you can form squads with friends or randomly, and work together to take objectives. If that's not your style, you can go lone wolf as well, but the game rewards group play more, simply because you'll die less in a tight group. I've played since beta, there's a few kinks but those are just slight balancing issues. Overall, a solid multiplayer FPS.… Expand

Thoroughly fun and well executed game. You are a soldier allied to one of three factions partaking in massive battles across three large continents. There are various air and land vehicles you can drive, as well as several different classes of infantry. The combat is pretty solidly implemented with only minor changes necessary to certain aspects (such as the Infiltrator infantry class). The game looks good and I have had no performance problems on a high end i7 dekstop PC; which I am honestly very impressed with as MMOs traditionally have huge problems with lag at launch.

The bad parts of this game that I feel worth mentioning are the actual cost if you want all the bells and whistles, minor class problems (as previously mentioned), the continent system and vehicle zergs. Regarding the cost, if you want to buy everything it will cost you a large chunk of money. A lot of items are merely cosmetic, however, I wouldn't go so far as to say they all are (as SOE has claimed in the past). The continent system often leads to each faction dominating a continent each because people have swapped to the winning location. This means you don't get epic battles as often as you should, a lot of the time you are either being steamrolled or steamrolling. During peak times vehicles can become a little too numerous, forming massive groups that blow everything to shreds.… Expand

Great game. Massive battles with unlimited potential. The dev team listens to the community and really cares about their game. Look forward to a game that will evolve instead of being replaced by a new game 1 year after its release.

Game was not ready for launch there is rendering distance issues, server lag issues, and many other things that the beta testers made them aware of that they ignored. All unlocks bought with cash only stay on 1 character and are non transferable which they do not make clear when you purchase. Devs pretend to listen to the community but do nothing about the complaints so far. They just take the giant threads asking for them to change something broken and move them to the back corner of the forums and ignore them. Maybe it will get better and hey its F2P just don't bother spending any real money on it.… 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

Frustrating and not fun describes my initial reaction to this game. First and foremost is the learning curve. from the start you spawn in the middle of a fight with nothing telling you what your objectives are, or even where your teammates are. Should you be unfortunate enough to spawn in the middle of a tank fight (as was my first experience) you feel helpless as you die, respawn, and die again as soon as you respawn. An in-game "Newbie" area, some kind of zone where you go only when you first start a character would be greatly appreciated as throughout my first hour of gameplay I was consistantly pitted against players of level 38 or higher. The extremely large playing area makes snipers and tanks gods on the ground. I have not been able to fly any of the aircraft, yet because everytime I spawn an air vehicle it is destroyed immediately. I'm not an avid FPS player by any stretch of the means- I grew up on Doom, Quake, and UT, and I manage about a 1:1 Kill to death ratio in CoD, and tend to play support roles in TF2. On average I have 2 kills and over 50 deaths in planet side due to spawn camping. spawning at a point that is distant from the battle just means I get to run for 10 minutes to die from a sniper that I can't see. Playing a supporting role in PS2 is down right rage-inducing. Healing a friendly player may or may not reward XP, and unlike TF2, you cannot heal a heavy to keep them up while they sustain gunfire. Reviving fallen players is fairly pointless unless they died less than 2 seconds in front of you. The Engineer's turret is too inaccurate for the distances at which forces are regularly engaged in. The tanks are done well- and in many cases are over-powered. many of the bases are designed so you can just snipe away at the enemy generator with your tank and destroy it without worry of being engaged by the defenders. Running over your own teammates results in a suicide for them, and no penalty for yourself- great if you just want to troll your own team, as is often the case. What this game direly needs is level segregation of some form- whether it's designated levels for zones where as you out level the zone you do less damage, or you cannot respawn into a zone you are out leveled for, something needs to give a new player some fudge-factor to learn how the game works besides dropping you straight into a fight that you are grossly under leveled for.… Expand

So.... When I first looked at Planetside2, it was being described as an RTS/FPS, which made me slightly curious how something like that could be pulled off on the scale this game was being done in. Turns out, it's actually just an MMOFPS that takes the MMO part VERY seriously. Really, there are other games out there that call themselves MMOFPS, but aren't on the sort of scale that Planetside2 is. That alone was enough to make me want to stick around and play the game, being in a shooter where there aren't arena like battlefields that you have to let load up first, but a persistent world where there is always a battle happen some where that you can just jump right into!

It's a concept I'd never seen done for a shooter before, and I love it! It of course, isn't without a few gripes that I have despite obviously liking this game. To start, the game probably would have been even bigger and more epic if it was made on a megaserver, like how a game such as Eve Online is done, rather than being split up into different regional servers, but that's ultimately just nitpicking compared to my next point. There isn't a tutorial or training mode.

Some people might think this isn't a big deal since it's a shooter, but think about this. Planetside2 has ALOT of things happening in it at all times, and there are a few options you have, even when on foot, that you might not think about being able to do, since most other shooters only ever give you the options of, "walk, run, shoot, throw grenade, use that other thing your carrying". Planetside2 has that, and also adds in, "use the OTHER, other thing your carrying, whip out your squad command gear, oh, and we have other things to so you can practically micromanage your equipment! =D" and it's like that for the vehicles too! Now, that's all fine and dandy, it's always nice when a game gives you options, but if you don't know how to use those options then you've got a problem.

For those out there like myself who had never played the original Planetside, we're going into this totally blind. While it's good that the people running the game went out of their way to make some "training videos" for the game, unless someone actually knows they exist and are looking for them, then it's not going to help them much. From what I understand, the original game had a VR training mode that you could go into any time you wanted to dick around and experiment with what was available to you, so you could get a better feeling for the game, so why doesn't Planetside2 have this? What was so hard about putting the VR system in the new game? I proved a quick study for this game and was able to get down almost everything it had for features, but there are still people in the game that are as clueless as I was going in, and questions that in most other MMO style games that would be common sense and immediately flamed if asked, I can't really fault anyone for asking in this since the game tells you nothing about what you can do. It needs some kind of training mode... BADLY.

My other gripe is that I'd heard there would be some kind of mission system for the game to make the gameplay more diverse. Again, awesome thing! So... Where is it Planetside2? As much as I enjoy running raids against enemy buildings, or running defense against a raid on one of the buildings my people control, that can only hold my attention for a couple hours at a time at most without something more varied to do when the straight up combat isn't something I want to dive into. No recon work? Patrol missions? Escorts? Nothing? I don't know for sure if what I heard is true, but that is something I really want to see happen for Planetside2 as well.

My gripes about it aside though, this game has proven itself capable of impressing me with what it does have, and since the game is an MMO, it can stand to reason the some of the things I've heard will be in the game, or things that the game needs, will be put in at a later date, so for now, I'll have my fingers crossed that it will happen, and just enjoy the mayhem that presently exists.… Expand

Could be so good but it just isn't.
You as a new player will have little fun in this game unless you wanna spend a decent amount of money. After playing a good 20 hours i havent even got 1/10th of the points needed for a decent upgrade. The grind you would need to do as a new player is just ridiculous, and the starting weapons is utter useless, same goes for the tank and plane weapons, wich means not only will you have the disadvantage of not knowing the game, but you will also have your skill removed due to ridicilous spread and weapon recoil, lesser health lower wpn dmg ect. ect. As a guy who normal do average in shooters i ended with a K/D ratio less than 0.3. Nuff said.… Expand

PlanetSide2 is an amazing game, unique and normal at the same time. How things look is what strikes you first as you enter the huge world of Auraxis, the game is free2play and still has stunning graphics. The game is a ton of fun to play and keeps you interested because of their level system and the fact that it's so interactive. You have to play as much as possible to take over as much as possible, after all you don't want to let your faction down.… Expand

Well, I'll be short here. As soon as I figured out what to do and where to go, I fell in love with this game. Maybe the graphics and model movement are not the most vivid thing in Planetside 2, but somehow the atmosphere of massive fights take my breath away as I fly into the battle with my Scyth (Fighter Jet). This is yet my favorite game till Planetside 3, that's for sure!
I gave this game 12/10 but took 2 points for indoor graphics. Bio Labs look poor from inside, so as many other buildings.

Definitely going to recommend this game to everyone in the world!… Collapse

Planetside 2 certainly has flaws. The game will drop you into combat without any real direction. You can spend the first few hours dying constantly, leaving you with a sense of frustration. Which is understandable, because those first few hours are frustrating.

I stuck with the game and after a day found myself grinning from ear to ear. The scale of the battles is what keeps me coming back. I still die all the time and my kill-death ratio is a horrendous .4, yet I keep logging back in. The scene of a dozen tanks and aircraft vying for supremacy alongside dozens of infantry is just...stunning.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of Pay2Win in the game. The game is F2P, and you can unlock all the weapons in time without paying a dime, provided you're willing to spend several years at it. The certification points accrue slowly. After several days of game play I've managed to reach 255, just over 25% of what's necessary to unlock one of the better weapons.

If you can overlook the bugs and the fact that you'll be blown up by some guy who just dropped $100 on his aircraft then you'll be happy. I certainly am. If you're looking to be competitive without spending any money? Yeah, that's not happening.… Expand

To be able to enjoy this game completely you must join an outfit. Very frustrating at times but rewarding as well, scale is enormous but the entire war is repetitive and often you will find yourself pushing back the enemies advance only for your efforts to be undone soon after and enter a vicious cycle. Graphics are amazing on good rigs but of course that means lower powered computers can struggle in large battles(i myself have crashed aircraft numerous times after i temporarily freeze during a dogfight). It is a long grind to unlock new weapons and the alternative payment of Station Cash is $1 per 100 SC(often ending up a weapon costing around $7.… Expand

I've been playing Counter-Strike 1.6 since I the day I got internet. Friends from school were talking about that game whole day long and it directly was my favorite game on day one. I have never played such a great game after it...untill now... PlanetSide 2 is perfect. I'm playing this game since the first day of the beta and I have never played Counter-Strike again. The multiplayer experience is amazing, the graphics are very nice, the developers are very helpful and friendly and it's free to play! I am sure that i'm going to play this game for many years to come. Simply said: It's the best game EVER.… Expand

really great game. i played the beta so had a head start on others in terms of knowing how to play that does take a little while but its good fun. use the map to drop yourself into hotspots (big battles) then experiment with classes and join the fight, dont worry about setting up spawn locations etc more experienced players will do that for you. if you are confused by objectives etc just youtube tutorials or join a squad in game (i think its f11) and fight with them. need to put in a bit of time to learn everything the is to know but once you know that its easy. its basically a massive domination map with 2000 players per continent. just download it and play for yourself, i highly recommend.… Expand

some people are so insanely stupid that they forget to consider that this game is free...even though it suffers from a pay-to-win disease that is not something new to free to play games and especially the fps genre the game is quite balanced...and to be honest you have no reason to buy new weapons (excluding the rockets and machine guns that you can buy for the vehicles) since all of them look the same and almost all of them are well balanced...this game can get pretty boring only when you are not playing the game correctly and you keep dieing like me ...one drawback of this game is the certs (ingame currency) you have to use them for talent trees for each class individually,for each vehicle individually,for buying weapons for your classes and for your vehicles individually...and all that for only 1 out of the 3 characters you can create.. if you also consider the fact that certs are acquired in a slow rate and an assault rifle (for example) can have a price of 1000 and simple talents can reach more than 100 certs then this is a very very big drawback.Overall this game is quite fun but it still needs a few changes such as cert prices decrease or faster rates of cert acquirement..also some servers are either laggy or my pc needs a big update since im playing on low graphics and im still lagging...… Expand

Another great idea with poor making. The Beta hum well this is where one works on bugs. Not this group. Gcard driver problems leaves you looking at a white monitor. The makers should have worked with grapic makes for the game. Another BIG thumbs down it Tking in the game........ You wait all day to build up points to get your lets say tank and then some as....whipe kills you. Maybe they should have asked the so called beta testers what they need in a game... TK FORGIVE or TK PUNISH omg really??? So much more but the key points for me. Yeah I even paid for the year thing. Just another good idea but a bad build..… Expand

Great game altogether, but if it wasn't for those moments where you get into large battalions of tanks, aircraft, and infantry, the lack luster gun play would bring this game down, not to mention its many issues/bugs. But hey, its a Free-2-Play game that deserves to get more gratitude then most AAA titled games that will rip $60 and soon after lose its luster

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

This game has freemium written all over it.
For starters, the game looks pretty good.
Another great aspect is that this game is very strategic; provided there are these kinds of people online.
It's true that this game just throws you into battle but this is to make sure you don't meander your way into battle. Your thrown in and go.
The three factions are also well balanced with benefits given if your side has less people.
People are both a benefit and a drawback to this game. More people = more fun. Less people = less fun. This is very much an MMO.
One of the biggest drawbacks for Planetside 2 is the store. Everything just costs too much and it doesn't seem worth giving actual money to because no real advantage is given; just a few perks here and there.
This game is still very much not finished so it would be best to keep an eye on it but no necessarily get it.
This is a game I recommend with an asterix the size of the moon and you should consider carefully, even if it is free, whether this is for you.… Expand

Planetside 2 is pretty dang good. Here are some pros and cons: PROS - 1) Huge maps with tons of bases, outposts, and facilities to capture. 2) Awesome graphics (I have a high end pc so I can't speak for everyone). 3) Combat on a HUGE scale. I've been in battles with 80+ players. 4) Constant tweaking, patches, and bug fixes. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is constantly improving and fixing imbalances and glitches. And the developers actually listen to and engage with the Planetside 2 community. 5) It's free. The in game shop is only for aesthetic items (there aren't any hats, sorry) or to unlock weapons early, which you can unlock with certification points you get pretty easily in game - which means you never have to spend a cent to get the full experience. 6) The sound effects are awesome. It really feels like a battle. 7) Faction rivalries. Just a small part of the game and community but extremely entertaining. CONS - 1) There are some inbalances between factions, but nothing serious. 2) You will die. A lot. It's an online, first person shooter. There will be many players better than you or with better performing pc's than you. 3) Vehicles, especially aircraft, make mincemeat of infantry. It's hard when you first start out, but as you get more experience, learn how to fight against vehicles (if you're not in one) and learn to play better (and learn that dying only means a 5-10 second respawn) the game becomes much more fun. 4) You will die a lot. 5) It can be frustrating to play if you're not in an organized group like a squad or outfit. There are many squads and outfits out there. Go join one and see why. Way more fun to cooperate and get tactical. 6) You will die a lot. 7) The maps really are HUGE. It can take a while to get place to place unless you hitch a ride or drive yourself somewhere. 8) You will die a lot. Hopefully you're used to that by now. Don't let it bother you. You won't be an elite spec ops pro soldier on day one.

tl;dr

Get it. Play it. It's free. Don't get frustrated by dying a lot.… Expand

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.

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

If you have someone to play this with or a group of people than its one of the most enjoyable games, however if your caught alone game-play gets a bit repetitive. On a side note there's no real tutorial or way to learn the game, unless you have a friend that plays it. It basically forces you to use vehicles outside the bases because of all the tanks that normally roam around.

MMO/FPS Planetside gets you in never ending war between three factions. You must choose your factioand server n in the begining and you cant swich sides as you could i Battlefield. Game is free to play, which means oh yes you guess it, mictrotransactions. This game is simply pay to win, sometimes less, sometimes more but you have to accept it. Your character gains experience for killing, capturing bases, assist kills, healing, repairing etc. With experience you level up and gain certification points that unlocks you better abilities (better armor, more ammo, grenades, faster repair etc). But you will gain them pretty slowly, you will spend alot of time with basic equpment (if you dont want to buy them for and you will be crushed by players who does spend Your player skill means nothing when you meet enemy with top-notch equipment, he will hammers you with his worth equipment. If you are tough and endure this, you can offcourse get the same equipment without spending but it will be a realy hard work when you will spend more time on the deploy map when in the game. This counts not only for infantry, but also for aircraft and tanks. There are squads you can join, but mostly not cooperating together, or you can join a guild its called outfit here) But you have to be lucky that first thing you ever hear from your outfit leader wont be "spend some god damn dollars on equipment or go away" But the game itself is solid, often patched, player base is strong, servers are stable, atmosphere of the battle is awesome, graphics is awesome so the game is silod experince for every FPS player.… Expand