PlanetSide 2 (PS4) – you’ll never play alone

The latest free-to-play game for PS4 promises thousands of players in Halo-like battles, but does it work as well as the PC version?

The massively multiplayer online game should be one of the broadest genres in all gaming. All its name means is that you get to play with hundreds rather than dozens of people at a time. It doesn’t imply anything about the gameplay or the setting, and yet invariably the games always turn out to be some Tolkien-esque dungeon crawler – Word Of Warcraft or one of its many pretenders. But PlanetSide 2 proves it doesn’t have to be like that.



We assume the original PlanetSide must’ve been at least relatively popular to a sequel, but it’s certainly one of gaming’s quieter successes. Launched on PC in 2003, it had a very simple idea: to mix the action of a first person shooter with the community of a massively multiplayer online game. That sums up PlanetSide 2 just as succinctly, because in this case bigger, better, more is exactly the approach you want from a sequel.

PlanetSide 2 is thankfully not a game that wants to bludgeon you over the head with its hours of background lore. The set-up here is very simple: you’re a member of one of three factions vying for control of a planet called Auraxis. You can be part of the faintly fascist Terran Republic, a hippy freedom fighter in the New Conglomerate, or part of the alien tech-using Vanu Sovereignty.


But here’s where it gets interesting: on each continent there can be up to 2,000 players at once, all able to take part in battles on foot, in various land vehicles, or in aircraft. Taking over the planet is achieved one territory at a time, creating a top level strategy element where the front line changes dynamically hour by hour – depending on which factions are winning and losing.

Those are the sort of things you think about as you first drop into battle, as you look forward to being part of some of the biggest multiplayer battles gaming has ever seen. And then you realise the reality: war is hell and you can be snuffed out in an instant without anyone ever noticing you were there.

This isn’t Call Of Duty, in more ways than one, and you will not be saving the world single-handedly. But as dispiriting as the first hour or so on PlanetSide 2 can be you quickly learn to lower your sights towards more achievable goals. As you’d expect there’s a variety of class types to play as and extra abilities to unlock, but your initial efforts are just as likely to be inspired by the open world scenery and all the cool toys everyone but you seems to have.

Given the large number of vehicles the Battlefield series is perhaps the most obvious comparison for the gameplay, but naturally PlanetSide 2 is not so obsessed with pseudo realism. In strictest terms the gunplay is not up to the standards of the top games in the genre. Movement and aiming feels a bit fluffy (maybe the gravity is meant to be lower on Auraxis?) and there’s not much imagination evident in the armoury of weapons.



The art design is also highly generic, which creates a real problem in telling friend from foe at a moment’s glance. The size and population of the game world place unavoidable limitations on exactly how good the graphics can be on a technical level, but impressively this PlayStation 4 version does look almost as good as the PC version at maximum settings. This is at the cost of the frame rate though, which at this stage is still uneven and subject to quite a bit of screen tearing.

But it’s by no means a deal-breaker, and the fact that the game is already so close to the PC version, just a week after release, is impressive. The exact maximum of the player count is still unclear but you never actually have the full 2,000 in one battle anyway, with the record achieved by the PC version being 1,158.

That had to be carefully organised in advance though and you’ll often see no more than about 50 other players in one spot. But because this is an open world game there are no lobbies or games to join. You just use the instant action option to instantly teleport to a nearby battle, and yet if you just want to wander around or practise using a tank on your own the game doesn’t care.

PlanetSide 2 (PS4) – a team effort

Perhaps the most surprising part of PlanetSide 2 though is just how generous Daybreak (the company previously known as Sony Online Entertainment) is being with the free-to-play model. There are very few restrictions on what classes and equipment you can use without paying anything. And although you can certainly buy more weapons and items before you’ve earned them the scope of the game naturally reduces their effectiveness, compared to a standard shooter.


Rather than the microtransactions or slightly woollen gunplay the biggest problem for PlanetSide 2 is simply organising yourself enough to make an impact, after the first day or so of culture shock. Clearly you’re not going to get anywhere without working in a team, and yet the game makes it bizarrely difficult to tell one faction from another. In fact the whole front end and user interface is pretty poor, and although the earlier PC version ensures there are now plenty of useful tutorials the whole game is far harder to get into than it should be.

The process of turning raw recruits into effective soldiers still needs to be streamlined, but the premise alone is intriguing enough to get you through the difficult first few hours. There’s nothing else quite like it on consoles, and PlanetSide 2 is a great example of both massively multiplayer and microtransactions done right.

PlanetSide 2 In Short: One of the most interesting things to happen to both massively multiplayer online games and shooters in years, and already a hugely enjoyable game in its own right. Pros: Enormous scale that’s used sensibly, and to unique visual and gameplay effect. Wide range of vehicles, weapons and equipment. Surprisingly generous free-to-play options. Cons: Gunplay is good but not great. Confusing interface and generally unhelpful towards new players. Very hard to distinguish faction types. Frame rate can be an issue. Score: 8/10

Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed) and PC.

Price: Free-to-play

Publisher: Daybreak

Developer: Daybreak

Release Date: 23rd June 2015

Age Rating: 16

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