Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sick, sick game. I love/hate it., June 20, 2003
I'm playing way too much Planetside. I played 'til 4:00 in the morning last night. That got me into trouble with my girlfriend--big time.Thing is, I don't even know why I played it so late. If I were to make the decision again, right now, there's no way I'd say "Hmmm... stay up 'til 4 playing a game on a weeknight? Sure!" Planetside is just one of those games that sucks you in, that has you saying "5 more minutes--just one more kill" over and over and over again from 10:00pm until, well, sunrise. I think the biggest reason why it's such a major time assassin is that there's no way to quit the game when you're dead. Yep--you can only quit out of the program when your character is alive and well. And who wants to quit when you're at 100% health? Sick, sick game. I love/hate it. Review: Planetside is a sci-fi first person shooter that is also a persistent massively multiplayer online game. That means that the game persists even after you've quit--the objectives you took last night might be retaken while you're away. Players create a character for one of three warring factions (each with a unique look and a few unique weapons/abilities) then battle it out across several islands. Gameplay is centered on the taking of objectives such as gun towers or major bases. Objectives serve as respawn points and also give access to useful facilities such as vehicle creation terminals. It's fun attacking or defending a base, as the fight moves from the a huge infantry and tank battle in the surrounding fields and forests, to the gun turret-mounted walls, to the inner courtyard, to a desperate struggle in the base's tunnels. Good stuff. As players invest time, take objectives, and kill enemies, their character gains experience points that can be spent on "Certifications". Certs give access to classes of equipment (such as Assault or Anti Vehicular weapons), armor (such as Power Armor or stealth Infilitration Suits), abilities (such as Hacker, Combat Engineer, and Medic), or vehicles (which range from armored personnel carriers to buggies to various sizes of tanks to fighter planes to big troop transports). The cool thing is, a player can swap out his character's certs at any time. Tired of being a sniper? Swap out the certs for a tank driver license. Ground pounding losing its appeal? Take to the skies. The ability to trade in old abilities for new abilities is a cool feature that will hopefully be seen in other games. Speaking of other games: this is what Star Wars Galaxies should have been. Fast paced, exciting, easy to learn but challenging to master, simple and forgiving reward system, and plenty of interesting guns, vehicles, and gadgets. Alas. This game is definitely a good time, but beware, because it's definitely a *lot* of time.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Frustrating, yet highly addictive, October 27, 2003
I've been playing this game for over a month and although there are times of incredible frustration, I can't seem to stop playing. First of all, for those of you unfamiliar with this game, it is unlike any other game out there right now. It's unlike a typical MMORPG as there is no mind-numbing exp treadmill to waste away countless hours of one's life on. Gaining exp to learn new skill often goes quickly, but isn't absolutley neccessary to have fun as new players are given enough "certification points" to cert in a decent weapon/vehicle/skill, etc., as an utter noob. It is also unlike any other first person shooter out there in that the servers are massive. No 16 players max limit (which ruins what would otherwise have been great games, i.e. Halo). Battles often escalate from a handfull of players fighting with carried weaponry (rifles, etc.) to a full scale, hours long, all out war with a 100+ players from all three empires. This is when the game really shows it's unique and addictively satisfiying flavor. However, on the negative side, and often in the middle of these big battles, the problems start to surface. One of the worst being lag. Even those with high end machines (radeon 9800 pro, athlonXP 3200+ barton, 1 gig of 400mhz ram, etc.) run into times when frame rates drop to teens or worse. Also, bugs still continue to pop up, get squished with a patch, only to reveal even more bugs (example; my 8RDA+ mobo's onboard sound has issues with this game). To conlcude and factor all the faults and fun together, this is still one of the BEST games available for the PC, period. Adding in the fact that the devs ARE working hard to not only add usefull new content, but ironing out all existing bugs as well. And yes it is worth the monthly fee, if only to know there is always a server up and running (without having to worry about one of the players maintaining it) and a battle somewhere to jump in the middle of, even if your lan party friends or typical teammates aren't available. Sorry for being so long-winded, but I hope someone finds this review useful.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PS will raise your heart rate!, April 29, 2003
I had the good fortune of being invited into the PS open beta, and I have to say I'm impressed. I'm actually not a huge fan of FPS games, but the strategy and, more importantly, the *tension* that PS brings to the table makes it a real heart-pounder.The other evening I was caught in a massive battle for control of a strategic bridge. I snuck around to flank our opposition and try to disrupt their troop supply a little, and was truly amazed at the site: literally hundreds of them streaming along the roads and over hills. My jaw dropped at the sight of it, and heart sank as I realized how unstoppable the enemy numbers were. And not only were we outnumbered at least 2 to 1, but I was deep in their territory now, completely surrounded, and praying nobody noticed the shimmer of my stealth suit moving among the trees for cover. Once in a while someone would catch a glimse of me out of the corner of their eye and turn - I could only freeze and wait while their gun barrel swept back and forth over where I was standing cloaked, hoping they wouldn't pull the trigger. We sent word out, begging for reinforcements, but half our forces were busy battling the other enemy empire far away on another continent. We had to hold out as long as we could with what we had. (we lost the bridge eventually, but made our attackers earn every last inch of it, fighting until we were backed into a single basement room in a nearby watch tower) Planetside has many different roles to fill, and can accomodate both squad and, to some degree, solo play as well (I particularly enjoy covert work behind enemy lines). It actually has a similar overall feel (but a much larger scope, and better graphics) as Sony's 2D, isometric view, online game 'Infantry' (which you can play a limited version for free at station.sony.com), so if you've played that, you'll have a good idea of why PS is so fun. Everyone has a job (or jobs, depending on which, and how many certifications you rack up): light/med/heavy assault, driver/pilot, engineer, medic, infiltrator/hacker. All are lethal on their own, and a force to be reconed with when they're all together and in capable hands.
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