#MAKEWARSTORIES
PlanetSide 2 is a well-oiled war machine set to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Looking for warfare gameplay on an epic scale? 100% free-to-play, PlanetSide 2 provides exactly that. From small squad infiltration of a single base to continent-sized Alert assaults to player-coordinated server versus server fights – as well as offering a variety of roles to fill through numerous different infantry classes and vehicle and aircraft choices – PlanetSide 2 gameplay offers ample opportunities for anyone to walk away with something to talk about.
1. The World is Massive, Pretty, Stable.
Hossin - picturesque, yet rage-inducing.
Not just a multiplayer FPS, PlanetSide 2 is massively multiplayer, and its world reflects this in size and function, allowing for breath-taking, record-breaking battles on its featured maps. Despite the large number of players that can be involved in those fights and the amount of detail put into the ambiance of its enormous continents, which makes for some ridiculously pretty backdrops to devastating skirmishes, the game maintains its smoothness and stability along with depth of action.
2. The Maps are Gigantic, Diverse.
A large air v. air assault on Indar overlooking a single base, the heart of a solitary lattice pice among several dozen others that make up the whole of the continent.
Each map has its own unique terrain that can either hinder or promote certain types of warfare or siege tactics. Snowy Esamir hosts mostly flat, wide-open tracts of land and clear skies, while the desert continent of Indar is home to towering cliffs, canyons, and sweeping mesas, making both maps ideal for rolling out armor columns to counter air attacks. Meanwhile, the woods and hills of Amerish and the swampland of Hossin, with its mesh of tree roots and obtrusive plantlife, both make ground maneuverability a slow, painstaking process.
When there's only 50 seconds left to reach the point, how you're able to deploy to it matters, and terrain can suddenly become as much of an obstacle as your opponent.
3. Exciting, Expansive Team Play.
“A thousand soldiers can start a revolution.” That's a lot of cats to herd.
Just like the world, the team play aspect is huge. Squads accommodate up to 12 players. Platoons hold up to 4 squads.
During an Alert, multiple platoons can coordinate over the Command channel and large scale tactical war breaks out. Objectives and specific roles can be assigned per squad, or multiple platoons can be sent in at once to overpower a single point. In the end, it is all about players leading a mass of other players against masses of other players, and cooperation and attention to command is critical if your empire is going to stand a fighting chance against the will and force of your opponents, which may sound hyperbolic, but is the absolute reality of the game you're playing.
4. Logistics Add Spice.
Things are looking beyond grim for the Terran Republic on Esamir with both the NC and VS cuddling up to their warpgate.
While numbers are always useful and can help tip the scales in your favor, the game is far more than just cutting a swath of destruction across a large battlefield. Strategy is essential.
Continents are divided into dozens of lattices. Certain lattices across the continent house key structures that provide boosts or resources to whichever empire owns it, and what lattice points you currently control determine what lattices you can hope to take next. In deciding which lattices to defend or give up, and which points you can take for yourself, strategy determines resources, mobility, and ultimately determines victory.
5. Different Flavored Gameplay for Different Factions.
Meet the empires and what they're fighting for.
A Terran Republic MAX is not a New Conglomerate MAX is not a Vanu Sovereignty MAX for reasons beyond just the thematic or aesthetic.
While each faction shares the same classes and basic vehicles and aircraft, each also has its own specialized gameplay, weapons type, and faction-specific vehicles and aircraft. Experience pew-pew alien tech lasers as a Vanu, the BLAM BLAM shotgun everything as an NC freedom fighter, or the firepower of TR's near endless brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt (also known by its scientific name: Dakka). There is a palpable difference in gameplay between the three factions due to this, with each shining in different arenas – something to keep in mind when choosing a side.
6. It's Noob Friendly.
Above the base in the Virtual Reality Training map, getting a feel for how the Valkryie handles.
If you're new to this type of game, or even just this SIZE of this type of game, and it's making you leery of hitting the “instant action” button and diving face first into a fight, don't worry. With VR Training, all players can test out whatever class, weapon, ground vehicle or aircraft they like, and generally get a feel for how their game and different classes play while in a consequence-free environment.
It's also an ideal time and place to adjust your mouse and HUD settings. In addition to the option of VR training, all new characters go through an extensive tutorial, and finding a squad and a fight when you're ready to play is incredibly easy. With a recent update, nooblets are awarded an extra 100 credits with every rank they gain up to 15 in order to help them kit themselves out.
And, lastly, PlanetSide 2's official youtube channel is overflowing with Learn2PlayPS2 videos and also offers a Basic Training series that covers gameplay and quick class overview videos.
7. Solo Play and Special Ops Are Viable.
For the lone wolf, there's sniping, hacking enemy turrets and consoles, and ghostcapping points.
While PlanetSide 2's gameplay is built for large-scale assaults, it also lends well to solo gameplay and special ops. Here, large and small complement each other well.
Go as an Infiltrator to hack enemy weapon or vehicle terminals to use for your faction. Team up with a friend in a tank or a liberator to take out mobile enemy spawn points. Form a squad that performs special strikes, stealing territory out from under the other faction's nose while their attention is focused elsewhere, or create a diversion to take pressure off of the main force. Each play style has its place.
8. The Ability to Change it Up.
Tired of being meat? Slip into a MAX suit. This one belongs to the Terran Republic.
When fighting as plain infantry starts to feel a little stale, turn to your nanites. Nanites, a resource that replenishes itself over time until it reaches its cap, are used to construct MAX units, air and ground vehicles, and various consumables such as grenades and ammo packs.
Use them to build a fast yet fragile all terrain vehicle, speed into a group of your enemies, and run them all over. Grab a tank or sunderer and go on a nice drive through the countryside playing chicken with other armor, or take to the skies and rain down destruction. As long as you have the nanites, you have options.
9. Enormous Server v. Server Competitions.
Montage of Server Smash gameplay and Twitch commentary in leadup to the match that would break the Guinness World Record for most players online in a single FPS battle.
Taking massive open warfare to record-breaking heights, Daybreak Game Company (formerly SOE) provides a host server and competition accounts for all participants in the community-organized Server Smashes.
During a Server Smash, a faction is assigned to each server for round-robin style face-offs against other servers until a victor emerges. This results in fierce 2-hours long battles between hundreds upon hundreds of players at a time, and, like a full-on eSport, it's broadcast live over Twitch complete with commentary so you can cheer along if you're not participating in it.
10. Dirty Tricks: They're Fun. They're Just. Plain. Fun.
Don't let anyone dull your sparkle, C4 Fairy.
While few things are more rewarding than teamwork and tactics combining to snatch an Alert away from the dominant force on the continent at the last second and achieve victory for the underdogs to the sudden eruption of whoops and cheers over voice chat of said underdogs, the steady procession of names flashing up on your screen from the deaths that your C4-fairy antics have racked up is a joy that feels so wrong yet so very right. Other players may decry your actions as cheap, but there is no denying its effectiveness or the fact that it does take practice and skill to be worthy of the panic that the shadow of a Light Assault Trooper can inspire in anything below it.
But don't let ingenuity stop there. After all, C4 isn't just for Light Assault, and it's a big game full of possibility.
Collide your beefy Galaxy into other aircraft, destroying them on impact, or belly slam ground troops under your Sky Whale-ish might. Use your Scythe to fly into or knock defending players off of the landing pads of a biolab. Cloak yourself and your ATV and plow through a group of enemies like you're bowling for people.
Haters are going to hate, but even when it goes wrong, finding new, creative ways to obliterate unsuspecting opposition can be a hilarious and ridiculously satisfying experience. The bottom line is: explore and have fun.
PlanetSide 2 is fun, free, and functional. It's exciting and intense. It makes you proud of your faction and proud of your server. It's rewarding. And, despite the number of players and sometimes unwieldy cacophony of voices going at once in proximity chat, few (if any) players sit around boasting about knowing your mother in the biblical sense, which is always a plus.
When it comes down to it, PlanetSide 2 isn't just massive. Its gameplay and variety proves that it's also got the moves, and is guaranteed to provide a satisfying experience.
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