PlanetSide Hands-On

When you think Massively Multiplayer gaming, one has to think Sony. You think Happy Little Elves who wave their hands and summon flowers while a Dwarf stands near by and polishes his ax. That is Sony's past. Sony's future is PlanetSide.

Sony Online Entertainment is trying something new for their next Massively Multiplayer Online Only Game. PlanetSide started its Beta program this week and Actiontrip was lucky enough to get access. So just what is it? Take the best parts of Tribes, the few good parts (VERY few) of Command & Conquer: Renegade, add in a customized character skill system and set it in a persistent world where three races battle it out for domination in a constant war of attrition and you have PlanetSide.

Good thing I have these headlights...

Oh you're going down, man!

You hear MMORPGs and you think... "Fantasy world, swords, sorcery, elves, third person perspective, yadda yadda yadda." Let's get one thing straight: PlanetSide is not your normal MMORPG! It's a hybrid. A Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter with role-playing elements. Screw the Swords and Sorcery, pass the Plasma Grenades! It's a first person shooter with science fiction technology: Rifles, pistols, grenades, mines, personal energy shields, heavy battle armor, cybernetic implants and a wealth of other equipment are available. Hop into a battle wagon like a Sunderer or a Prowler Heavy Tank, all terrain vehicles like Gun Buggies or Wraiths and drive around the map while a teammate (or mates) man the guns! Drive around! See the world! Meet new and interesting people! And if they are not part of your faction, kill them!

Everyone starts off with a pistol, a rifle and a hacking tool. The hacking tool is used to gain entrance to enemy structures and then take control of the building by hacking the command console. A variety of land vehicles, such as the aforementioned Battle Wagon and Gun Buggie, as well as aircraft are also available for your destructive pleasure. So I know what you're thinking: "The vehicles and weapons sound a little like Tribes, right?" In passing, yes. "Capturing enemy buildings? I did that in Renegade!" Just relax, Francis. The difference is that in PlanetSide you have to use experience points to certify or gain skills before you can use all these lovely toys. Points are gained through combat, capturing building or meeting objectives. The game incorporates features from a fantasy RPG in that you have to plan where you are going to spend your points because some skills are only available to certain specializations. Also, you will not be able to certify in every piece of technology so you can, if you like, choose to create a master hacker who can bypass system security in 1/5th the normal time.

The persistence of the world is another thing that is exciting. In Tribes or Renegade, each map had a pre-defined time limit. Either the objective was met or the clock ran, and poof! The map changed, and you were whisked away to a new setting. I've always enjoyed this style of play, but the knowledge that the round was ending and all your hard work was ultimately for naught, I've always found myself wanting more somehow. In PlanetSide, the structures you capture for your faction and the defensives you erect stay that way until the enemy forces change it. There are ten continents that you can transport to via drop ship that provide different maps and combat environments. Structures are scattered over the map that, when captured, allow new spawn points for fallen comrades, or access to updated technology and vehicles. Capturing these buildings takes teamwork and coordination of skills and weaponry. You can go solo if you like, but you will not have as much success or gain as many points as you would if grouped. The name of the game here is teamwork. In Tribes and Renegade, even though you were on a team, it was a crapshoot if your teammates wanted to work together. The developers of PlanetSide have engineered the point system along with the persistence of the world in order to foster more of a team mentality - no one player can be an army to himself, and objectives can be much more easily achieved with strike teams of specialists than one man running in, guns blazing.

Ultimately, questions must be asked:

Why do I care about taking these bases?
Is there a reward or payoff for all this combat?
Are there going to be system wide events (like Asheron's Call has implemented) to keep players interested?
Is there a story?
Where did my pants go?

As of right now, we do not have an answer to those questions. In order to keep people playing, however, these questions will have to be addressed.

Since the game is in its first stage of the Beta test, there are a lot of features that are not implemented but will be added as the test continues and the program is patched. Likewise, the code is not perfect yet. I was booted back to my desktop three times in the two hours I played on the first day. Graphics are nothing to write home about as of yet, but character models are customizable and are well animated. The bases and vehicles look very good and I have not witnessed any stuttering of clipping problems while in the driver's seat. There are very few weapon effects at this point, but they have plenty of time to add graphical flourishes before the game goes Gold.

OK, that's more than enough background; let's get to the game play!

Where in the hell is the john here?!

We're going for a little joyride!

I fired up the Beta Sony sent to me: 3 CD's. The Sony boys ain't kidding around on this one. After firing up the game and connecting to the server I had to download update files, of course. This process took about 5 minutes and the next thing I knew, I was in the PlanetSide lobby. There was one game running and it listed 45 players. Not a bad start! I jumped into the game and was asked to choose which faction I wanted to fight for. The recruitment letter I was sent via email said I was to fight for the Terrans, so I selected that group and started to create my virtual self. You'll be happy to know my virtual self is a petite Asian woman with a blue tattoo under her left eye. I'm a total babe!!! After selecting my name I was transported to my base that was overlooking a wind sweep valley. Off the distance, I could see a single pulsing red light that shone down from the heavens onto another structure. Apparently this was my first target. I opened my inventory and equipped my hacking tool into my left hand and kept my rifle at the ready in my right hand. As I was equipping another player appeared off to my right. Looking him over I could see he had the same outfit and his name appeared in Green over his head: He was friendly. I walked over to him, and as I was playing around with the icons in my upper right hand corner of the screen, I invited him into a group. He accepted and soon we were chatting about our objective. This guy was a wellspring of help and information. He offered a tour of our base that we had spawned in front of. As he was showing around inside he pointed out the DNA Imprinter where you can store a copy of your DNA in case you die on the battle and need to be reconstructed. It's essentially a Bind point like you would see in EverQuest. Next, it was onto the flying vehicle console. You order up aircraft here and then hop into them out on the landing pads. He also showed me the command console. If the enemy were to break into this building, they would have to get to the command console and hack it in order to take it over. We went downstairs and outside where we started running towards our objective. While we were running, my squad mate kept telling me to invite others to our group. I did not see anyone else so I dumped it back on him. I opened the squad window and promoted him to group leader. Very nice. Once he was in control, he quickly added 4 more members to our strike force. We were about halfway to our target by this time and he began instructing me on how we were going to take this base over, once we got there. As he was explaining things, I began to suspect that this was not an ordinary player. I asked him if he was one of the developers. He laughed and said 'Guilty'. Turns out he was not 'a' developer, but the production lead. I would suggest to everyone that if you get the chance to have the guy that wrote the game you are trying for the first time, to show you around and how to play, take him or her up on the opportunity.

Once we reached the enemy compound, he had finished his instruction on hacking and I quickly got us past security and into the building. My guide led us upstairs and to the command room and its console that we needed to hack. As I got busy on the hacking, he scouted around outside to make sure we did not have any company. Since I was unskilled at hacking, it took me about 2 minutes to gain control of the base. I can imagine how nerve wracking it must be trying to get the job done while your squad is in a firefight outside the door trying to hold the enemy off. After I had hacked the console, he warned me that the enemy had 10 minutes to mount a defense before the base and all its resources were ours. We passed the time by chatting and waiting for our new squad mates to join up with us. After the rest of the squad arrived and the building was ours (the enemy was in another sector wrecking havoc), I got a chance to check out the base defenses. Gun turrets were mounted around the edge of the base and as I walked by them, I could jump into the gunner seat and fire off some rounds by hitting the use key. Very cool. The animation of my avatar popping the turret open and jumping inside was a nice touch. I was called downstairs and we ported via drop ship to the area where our enemy was grouped.

By the time I made my way outside the base, our squad leader had gotten a battle wagon (the name of this specific type of vehicle in the game is "Sunderer" -- Ed). He was driving, so I manned the front turret. Another squad member manned the rear turret and the other two member rode along inside. The battle wagon produced a throaty growl and I noticed no stuttering or lag as we trundled up to the enemy's base. As we arrived, we began to receive fire from the base defenders. Our squad bailed out and began returning fire. I used the turret gun to cover my team as they moved in. I am happy to say I mowed down two of the bastards on the other team before something big lumbered into view. It was an enemy in powered armor (in PlanetSide, this power armor is called VS MAX -- Ed) and he was shooting something that looked like glowing balls of lightening at our battle wagon. Whatever the hell that thing was, it was tearing though our armor. I bailed out and dove for cover just as the wagon exploded. As I looked around I saw my squad mates cut to pieces. I took one of the unarmored enemies before Mr.Roboto (this other player's handle) in his Powered Armor roasted me. I had to wait 30 seconds before I could respawn and as I waited, I was able to look at the map. I saw several buildings that were ours. They had glowing green circles inside them indicating I could choose to spawn there. I was about to do so when I noticed another glowing circle close to the base we had been killed at. I knew it was the one we had been fighting at because there was a glowing explosion around the base throbbing off and on. I selected the circle closest to it and popped out of a mobile command center one of my squad had moved up during the battle. As I re-outfitted myself, I stepped away from the truck and noticed it was cloaked!! No wonder the enemy had neglected to take it out! You can't hit what you cannot see. I grabbed a plasma grenade for my dear friend, Mr.Roboto, and started running back towards the base. They may not have known where our base was, but they were massing near their entrance. As we moved up to the base entrance covering each other, we began trading fire with the enemy. I took out a lone warrior as he was trying to pin down my teammate. Just as he went down, huge bolts of fire started raining down around us as Mr.Roboto came over the wall using some sort of jump jets. I switched to my plasma grenade and let fly. The grenade took a majestic arc, and came to a rest about 4 feet from me. Damn. Clearly, I need to learn a bit more before I try that again, I thought as I dove for cover. The grenade blew and I took a little damage but Mr.Roboto was focusing on me. I switched to my rifle and started unloading clip after clip into his armored butt as I dodged around. He was tough, but slow as well. As I was reloading I got dumped from the game. I had lost contact with the server. My time was up.

The Beta itself is being run in an odd fashion: game play only occurs on Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 4 to 6 PM PST. I can see the logic behind this as it will maximize the number of players on the server; given the short time frame; and provide for some intense battles.

Will PlanetSide pack the paying customers in like EverQuest? Only time will tell. Sony, thankfully, is taking a risk by mixing the better of two types of games. Hopefully the end result will be one that meshes perfectly to produce a game that captures the imagination and hearts of paying gamers everywhere. Personally, I am counting the hours until I can play again.

T-Minus 5 Hours 7 Minutes and Counting...