Danny Puff

The first few explosive (and crashy) hours.

Day 1: The First Few Hours

There's nothing quite like the first few hours of a big multiplayer game. These moments will never happen again. The tech, the server, and the player are under a unique stress. I'm not going to judge PlanetSide 2 on its first few moments of officially being "live," because you should never judge something as large and as complicated as this from that initial burst, but being here is an interesting experience, and it's worth talking about. 

If you value brute force above all else, by all means join the New Conglomerate. I will enjoy killing you.

PlanetSide 2's a game about territorial control. Three factions -- each with hundreds of players -- are battling for the right to rule three continents. I slipped into the sleek purple space-Lycra of Vanu. They're the science team, with slow, weakish weapons that are none the less deadly accurate. If you value brute force above all else, by all means join the New Conglomerate. I will enjoy killing you. Or, if you're undecided, then the Terran Republic is for you. It's a middle-of-the-road faction full of uncertain people, and you'll fit right in. There are relatively few options to pick other than that: server, character name, face.

Into The Thick Of It

The other choices are already made for me. I'm placed in a squad from the moment I enter the battle, I'm assigned as Light Assault class, and I'm tossed right into the middle of a huge battle. It's overwhelming, but I can kind of see SOE's point: this is a shooter, so everyone knows the thing in front of them makes the bad people run and hop and die. You can figure out the rest when you respawn. But if you need help, watch and learn.


This is a world without quest givers. Instead, gameplay driven by the growth of each faction. That growth over the map is something I'll get to in more detail in a later article, but a few notes to set the scene: each side fights for a hexagonal chunks of land. The chunks spread out from each faction's jumpgate, which is the only place where you're relatively safe from attack. Throughout the world are facilities of all sizes that you can capture, and when the fronts meet on those facilities it brings at least two opposing forces together.

Moving in Force

And that's just what I dropped into. I burned in from orbit into the chilly Esamir continent and landed on a slip of land. Everything is exploding and nothing is clear. There are Magriders, which are Vanu hovertanks, sliding along the ice, plus at least four Scythe fighters cutting the air above, all followed by a trail of dozens of players, all blasting and ducking, or flying on jetpacks. It felt like a vast military maneuver. They were working towards a small group of buildings. I check the icons over the buildings: we were supposed to be defending them. That's all the structure I needed: get to the little group of nondescript buildings and keep them under the Vanu's control. With guns.

Things were falling out of the sky every 20 seconds.

It felt like the entire continent of players was squeezed into this small space. I couldn't see what people were shooting, but fired a few bullets in the same direction to feel part of it. It was chaos. Just a little too crowded to make sense of the action. Things were falling out of the sky every 20 seconds, I was being stung from bullets and I couldn't gauge where from. I nearly made it to cover, but was killed by a sniper.

Against The Wall

Time to take stock. The map showed the Vanu were pretty much gone on this continent. We were crammed into this little area around the Man Bio Lab, the little cluster of buildings. They were all that was left. This isn't good for a number of reasons. It means we wouldn't get any XP boosts from territorial control. Resources, the real reason for the fighting, would be reduced. We could claw back, but from this position we'd be better off regrouping on another continent. But that's a decision for another day. Right then there was only one clear course -- I chose to fight.

I stayed as a Light Assault, as I had plans for the jetpack.

At least I could spawn inside the buildings. I stayed as a Light Assault, as I had plans for the jetpack: the best thing about jetpacks is using them to fly to awkward places. Buildings often have little ledges you can hop to. If someone is shot from above, they'll instinctively look to the highest point, missing the lower edge.

Death From Above

As it happened, we were being pressed into the building by the New Conglomerate, but only from one direction. I slipped out the back, listening to the rumble of the fight. This is something people have to learn about PlanetSide 2: there is always another way around. I floated up to the top of the largest building and dropped down onto the lip on the other side. The fighting is fairly contained in a corridor between buildings, and I could see the NC and one end and Vanu at the other. A grenade I dropped thinned out the NC briefly, but there were so many that it's like putting a thumb over a Coke bottle filled with Mentos. The space was almost immediately filled, and not by newbs either -- these guys were likely hardened in the beta. I blasted down and was stung by return fire. I laughed it off and jetpacked my way up and backwards, over the top of the building aiming for safety. That's when I was caught in a bombing run by a Reaver, the NC's air-bastard. There's not a lot you can do when ordinance burns everything within a 10m radius around you. You just die.

Things will settle soon and it'll be an easier ride.

Then the server crashed.

Constant war, cut down by shaky tech. Though it was impressive while it lasted. Since then I've had one more attempt to login stymied by an extended server downtime, and another similar battle where the press of people again overrode any of PlanetSide 2's subtleties. Things will settle soon and it'll be an easier ride, and I'll be able to get to grips with the vehicles, the speed and worth of unlocks, the metagame, and more. My initial take, augmented by a lot of beta play, is hugely positive. The weapons are lovely, the scale makes Battlefield 3 look puny, and in the quieter moments it's a world that's strikingly beautiful. Until then I can handle a few spectacularly over-the-top battles that will mean very little in the grand scheme of things.

Source : http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/planetside-2/1226727p1.html