 |
| Source // Moby Games |
Massively Multiplayer Online titles asked players for a monthly subscription to keep logging into vast worlds where all sorts of action and interaction can take place. Usually, it was the RPG genre that provided the foundations for the game, and that generally went hand in hand with a fantasy setting of Elves, Dwarves and demonic hordes.
What if you could get rid of all that and have an MMOFPS, where sci-fi military factions vie for control of the land in all-out war, with players specialising in various roles, be they on foot, in vehicles or flying through the skies?
That was what PlanetSide asked, and that's what it provided for 13 years.
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
Frustrations
I have salvaged a copy of PlanetSide from the rubbish tip. It's not the grubbiest box I've seen, but it's not exactly one you'd show off on the shelf. Still, it contains a manual, three discs, a product key... but there's no point installing anything when the servers were permanently shut down in 2016, and players shuffled over to PlanetSide 2.
It happens. Some games need to call time on themselves, no matter how devoted the fans are, so all I've got to judge this title on are the odd YouTube video and whatever I can find on the box. Here goes.
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
Fun Times
Your first step in PlanetSide is to pick an empire. The Terran Republic is all about loyalty, unity and order. The New Conglomerate wish to burn everything down and start again, properly. Lastly, the Vanu Sovereignty see humans as nearing an evolutionary dead-end unless they step in and point them in the right direction.
If none of those appeals to you, you can jump into a losing side for an experience point boost, but what are you fighting over, anyway?
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
The answer is territory, and there's a lot of it. Each map has multiple control points and bases for factions to fight over, and as time goes on and as attackers come and go, they'll change hands all over the place, depending on how many people are logged in and actively trying to achieve something for their team.
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
You do that through picking a character progression path and aiming towards it. Various weapons and equipment belong to distinct classes and player types, and the more you play, the more you'll unlock and expand your options, apparently without too much disparity between the haves and the have-nots.
Not sure how that works, if you have to rank up to be able to drive vehicles, but hey, you need something personal to work towards in an MMO too.
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
Those vehicles come in all shapes and sizes too, and you'll probably need to drive or be driven, to cross the vast expanses of land between any two control points. These maps really are continental in their outlook. Bases are far enough apart to offer some protection the closer to home you are, but close enough to see an ideal target for expansion, if you could just muster up the forces to take it...
 | ||||
Source // Moby Games
|
Further Frustrations
Unless you're going into PlanetSide with a bunch of mates, or at least have some kind of plan as a team, you're likely going to see everything from a distance. War is quiet, until you're in the thick of it, at which point you need to have your FPS wits about you so that you can survive the assault, lest you face a lengthy respawn and a long run back to the action.
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
 |
| Source // Moby Games |
Mobile spawn points and medics are on hand, of course, but that's on the assumption that someone on your team has the smarts to set up a spawn point or spec into the medic abilities and then act like one. That might happen. It might not. You might feel like a lone wolf all too often.
Final Word
And yet, you might not. I literally don't know how well players worked together in PlanetSide. I don't know how much downtime there was, I don't know how frantic the fighting got, or how it even feels to control anything. I know nothing, save for that it provided a home for 13 years of first-person shooting on a global scale.
But it wasn't 'forever' like the box had said. It was even trademarked. "For Land. For Power. Forever." Come July 2nd, 2016, though, and that was that. Onwards to PlanetSide 2, please.
I actually played a bit of PlanetSide 2 on the PlayStation 4, which was free to play - a damn good incentive to get players on board, I suppose. From what little I remember, it was alright and well populated. You could definitely find where the fighting was taking place, but unless there was a coordinated effort, you might get the feeling of being lost in the shuffle.
Ultimately, it wasn't the level progression or anything that put me off playing it for too long, nor the controls, but the setting. Sci-fi isn't a problem, techno military isn't a problem, but somehow sci-fi militaries fighting over territory because reasons was a bit of problem. I felt no connection to any faction and didn't really care for the global game. Spawn, shoot, respawn if necessary, shoot, capture, respawn, shoot, level up, shoot...
It was too open, but then the whole idea of it is an open world with territory up for grabs. Go take it. Go on. However you want, whichever means you can manage, take it.
If that's something you're into - a thousand players shooting each other for the rights to change the colour of a flag, PlanetSide has come and gone, but PlanetSide 2 is still kicking, and PlanetSide 3 is in development. So plenty of opportunities to see how the gameplay has evolved over two decades, at least.
I could imagine myself playing this and having a good time, but then I can also imagine it as being a waste of time. I'm really not the person to ask.
Fun Facts
Mechs were introduced in an Aftershock expansion. They broke the balance and player counts dropped.
PlanetSide, developed by Sony Online Entertainment, first released in 2003.
Version watched: PC, 2003 (Zaphael, Steven Messner, MMOHuts)