Are you tired of paying upwards of sixty dollars for a new triple A game? I was too, at least until I discovered PLANETSIDE 2! Planetside 2 is a game developed by SOE or Sony Online Entertainment. It is a free to play game, so you can download it off of Steam for free, and you can play the game forever without having to drop a penny.
Entering the game you get to pick one of three factions, the Vanu Sovereignty, the Terran Republic, and the New Conglomerate. The Vanu Sovereignty are a technological cult that rely on laser weaponry, doing less damage but making up for it in accuracy and fire rate. The Terran Republic are an authoritarian government that want absolute control of the other factions. They favor very hard hitting and slow firing weapons to bring down their enemies. Finally we have the New Conglomerate, a rebel faction trying to break away from the controlling government. They use traditional weapons that fire bullets, serving as a comfortable medium between the fast low damage of the Vanu, and the heavy damage and slow fire rate of the Terran.
After choosing your faction, you are put through a tutorial that shows you the bare bones basics of the game, how to walk, run, crouch, and shoot. Now that the player is a small toddler, no longer an infant, you are dropped from the sky in a rocket pod into the area of the map that currently has the most intense battle raging. Alone.
This brings us to the combat of Planetside 2. If the little toddler player tries to play by themselves they will die, thats the short and long of it. This game must be played as part of a group, so as soon as you can find an outfit to join and play with. Communication is essential to this game, as there will be up to 2000 people on a map at one time; buy a headset.
Once the toddler has there outfit then they can begin the path to becoming a medium sized child. In playing with your outfit you will try to capture all the territories in a continent, and hold them as long as possible. Beyond that there is no greater objective, the player can also buy new weapons, upgrade their character, and buy sexy new armor.
Planetside 2 is a free game which generates its revenue by means of the dreaded micro transaction. There are two types of in game currency, the first being Station Cash or SC and the second being Certification points or Certs. Cert points are earned at a disgustingly slow rate by killing enemy infantry and vehicles, and capturing territories. My average is about 25 Certs in an hour, seemingly large at first but in context very small. Buying a gun with Certs costs anywhere from 100 to 1000, so for me that could be anywhere from four to forty hours of time for just one gun, which is just outrageous. The real cash cow for Planetside 2 is SC, a gun the would cost 1000 Certs would cost 700 SC, so thats forty hours of time or seven dollars for a gun; Stupidly expensive every way you look at it.
The last big mechanic is the leveling system, a system which does literally nothing except show other players how much time you have wasted on the game. After one day of playtime I have reached level 16, so I can happily say I am now and adolescent.
Thats how Planetside 2 works more or less, over all it is a "good" game, and in the moments when it really comes together with planes soaring overhead and tanks rumbling along beside you it really is an incredible game, totally unique in what its trying to do. So if you ever do become a fully fledged adult, having wasted hundreds and hundreds of hours I have but one thing to say: Congrats.
Entering the game you get to pick one of three factions, the Vanu Sovereignty, the Terran Republic, and the New Conglomerate. The Vanu Sovereignty are a technological cult that rely on laser weaponry, doing less damage but making up for it in accuracy and fire rate. The Terran Republic are an authoritarian government that want absolute control of the other factions. They favor very hard hitting and slow firing weapons to bring down their enemies. Finally we have the New Conglomerate, a rebel faction trying to break away from the controlling government. They use traditional weapons that fire bullets, serving as a comfortable medium between the fast low damage of the Vanu, and the heavy damage and slow fire rate of the Terran.
After choosing your faction, you are put through a tutorial that shows you the bare bones basics of the game, how to walk, run, crouch, and shoot. Now that the player is a small toddler, no longer an infant, you are dropped from the sky in a rocket pod into the area of the map that currently has the most intense battle raging. Alone.
This brings us to the combat of Planetside 2. If the little toddler player tries to play by themselves they will die, thats the short and long of it. This game must be played as part of a group, so as soon as you can find an outfit to join and play with. Communication is essential to this game, as there will be up to 2000 people on a map at one time; buy a headset.
Once the toddler has there outfit then they can begin the path to becoming a medium sized child. In playing with your outfit you will try to capture all the territories in a continent, and hold them as long as possible. Beyond that there is no greater objective, the player can also buy new weapons, upgrade their character, and buy sexy new armor.
Planetside 2 is a free game which generates its revenue by means of the dreaded micro transaction. There are two types of in game currency, the first being Station Cash or SC and the second being Certification points or Certs. Cert points are earned at a disgustingly slow rate by killing enemy infantry and vehicles, and capturing territories. My average is about 25 Certs in an hour, seemingly large at first but in context very small. Buying a gun with Certs costs anywhere from 100 to 1000, so for me that could be anywhere from four to forty hours of time for just one gun, which is just outrageous. The real cash cow for Planetside 2 is SC, a gun the would cost 1000 Certs would cost 700 SC, so thats forty hours of time or seven dollars for a gun; Stupidly expensive every way you look at it.
The last big mechanic is the leveling system, a system which does literally nothing except show other players how much time you have wasted on the game. After one day of playtime I have reached level 16, so I can happily say I am now and adolescent.Thats how Planetside 2 works more or less, over all it is a "good" game, and in the moments when it really comes together with planes soaring overhead and tanks rumbling along beside you it really is an incredible game, totally unique in what its trying to do. So if you ever do become a fully fledged adult, having wasted hundreds and hundreds of hours I have but one thing to say: Congrats.
