Planetside 2 is a major disappointment - Page 10

PClownPosse · 2012-10-20, 10:48 AM

I just tried it out for the first time recently and while it's not bad, and there are definitely a lot of redeeming qualities, a lot of the great "nostalgic" elements--that made PS1 so great in my opinion--are gone.

Granted, I haven't been following this game's development at all (and I played blindly without reading anything), here are my first impressions (that I'm sure have been mentioned ad nauseum):

1. Tried "hot-dropping" out of reaver (where's the mosquito?) and ended up suiciding, lol.
2. Spent 5 minutes trying to equip an anti-tank weapon with a light load out, lol.
3. Spent 10 minutes trying to comprehend the clunky certifications and I still really don't understand them.
4. Was a bit strange to discover the sunderer is the new AMS. No cloaking bubble?
5. No infiltrators?
6. No hacking doors?
7. Really hate that I can't mix and match equipment with different "classes." This is really annoying to me.
8. There's really no "behind the lines" element of base attacking and hacking (diversions) that made PS1 so fun. At least I haven't seen it yet.
9. There's no "training" room to try out guns and vehicles before certing? Or I haven't found it yet.
10. The vehicles are decent and nostalgic, but something is still missing?
11. Spent 10 minutes crashing my reaver trying to hover. Can I hover???
12. Graphics are decent.
13. The maxes seem to be all the same?

Oh and,

14. Where are the voice emotes, like "Your best is my worst" lol. I couldn't find them. Do they exist?

J Baley · 2012-10-20, 12:09 PM

No VR training, no hover, for emotes press "v" you'll see them on screen.

As for the rest, welcome to my nightmare

PClownPosse · 2012-10-20, 08:16 PM

Lol, just figured out how to hover, kind of. Not as easy and mindless as ps1, but it's possible.

PClownPosse · 2012-10-22, 09:54 PM

Well, after playing it for a few hours per night for a week, here are my updated impressions:

1. I am having a lot of fun, but it seems really shallow compared to PS1, at least to me. Maybe it's a combination of my low BR (only got to 7), but the classifications really limits what I can do. I'm sure SOE had their reasons for this design change, I just hope it has longevity because I used to always be able to switch to any number of "roles" in PS1 and have fun if I get bored of tower humping, mosquito sniping, light assault fun. Here, I don't feel like I have that option.

2. Really dislike the no dedicated, cloaking bubble AMS.

3. Hate not being able to hack bases/terminals/vehicles and I mean this from a light assault player, not an infiltrator. Heck, I'm not even sure if an infiltrator can do this? Having hacking capabilities was something I had on all of my characters.

4. Flying is a bit more difficult than PS1, but that's okay, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

5. No backpacks hurts my play style as well. Killing people and replenishing ammo was crutch for me.

6. Bases seem too spread out and interior choke points are non-existent. In fact interior anything seems like an afterthought. These crucial interior locations in PS1 (spawn rooms) provided for some memorable, fun fights and I haven't witnessed anything like this yet.

7. Haven't seen many maxes, nor tried them out, yet.

8. The engineer's role seems weird to me and not nearly as fun as it was in PS1. Mines, turrets, etc. Just don't get the same satisfaction playing the role of the engineer here as I did in PS1.

9. It's still fun, but eh, I think they tried to incorporate too many elements from other games, such as BF and kind of gutted the elements that made ps1 so enjoyable to me. Regardless, I'll still give it a good run.

HKPlane · 2012-10-28, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by Mox

The problem is atm that ps2 is nothing really special. It is just another online shooter.
Ps1 on the other hand was really special at its time. So let us think about what were the unique selling propositions of ps1. I would say the following three major points:

1) the massive scale of battles
2) the persistence of the world
3) mmo style character development

Now we have to ask what is wrong with ps2 regarding these aspects scince we agree that these Aspects have still a potential to make ps2 successfull game.

1) in the last months of beta there were just a few battles that can be called massive or epic. Most time they were medium sized skirmish battle or no battles at all (ghost captures). The problem is that the pkayers are still spread over the whole continent. Therefore ps2 need the proper mechanics to lead the players to the epic battles.

2) The persistence of the world of ps2 is a fact. Nevertheless persistence is meaningless atm since there are no metagame elements in the game atm. Futhermore intercontinental warefare is important to make the persistence meaningfull.

3) regarding charakter development ps2 already do a.good job imo.

Couldn't agree more with you. I've played PS1 for about 6 to 7 years and I think PS1 is way better. PS1 was designed for massive fight in the first place like the base/tower design, the shooting style, the BR/inventory design, true outfit and teamwork, the continents concept., etcs.

This all stuffs combined made it as a very unique game though some of the design might not be that good but still, it's a very unique one, and this is the key made it a big success in history.

PS2 on the other hand, just borrow the COD/BF small battle concept/style and try to increase a little bit the battle scale to pretend it as a Planetside. Big disappointment here.

C'mon SOE .... No innovation? no creativity? I see nothing new, special or unique stuffs in PS2. They couldn't just copy COD/BF and replace it to Planetside graphics and think that this is still a Planetside game. Well, I'm not saying any bad words on COD/BF multi-play, they are good and successful games but they are focus on small battle and more about solo things. So, two conflict design they are trying to mixed up without real planning and the result is bad.

IceyCold · 2012-10-28, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by HKPlane

C'mon SOE .... No innovation? no creativity? I see nothing new, special or unique stuffs in PS2. They couldn't just copy COD/BF and replace it to Planetside graphics and think that this is still a Planetside game. Well, I'm not saying any bad words on COD/BF multi-play, they are good and successful games but they are focus on small battle and more about solo things. So, two conflict design they are trying to mixed up without real planning and the result is bad.

You are completely right! I mean the obviously copied the 2000 player 64 KM maps from CoD, the vehicle customization from BF, and even had the nerve to straight steal the concept for three faction warfare from Halo!

Can't you do anything original SOE!?! ANYTHING!?!?!

No but seriously, PS2 is far from a disappointment for me but it still could use more Planetside 1 concepts. It does feel like the developers overlooked some of the things that made the first game work simply because they felt those systems would not work here.

Granted many of PS1's systems would not work in a faster paced game if they were just straight copied over (the inventory and the Lattice system just off the top of my head); but the concepts behind those systems could have been salvaged and reworked to better fit and not simply scrapped altogether.

On the same hand, I really do question why many vets on this board simply want to throw old systems into the new game without thinking even for a second about the issues those systems would cause not only for gameplay pacing and overall inherent design philosophy; but also the challenges associated with working around systems that are not designed to work in this game as it stands.

A major part of game design is experimentation, and falling back on "what works" is a major reason why every BF/CoD game is just a carbon copy of the last one with new textures.

You sit here lambasting the devs for their use of more modern systems and accusing them of going the easy route with this game; which considering that just reskinning the first game for an easy cash grab would have been much cheaper and much easier of a 'cash grab', I can not help but laugh at the irony.

Planetside 2 is a technical nightmare to take from concept to creation, and the fact that the devs even had the gall to ATTEMPT a shooter on this scale is short of a fucking miracle. They could have just as easily made a lobby based game with a "real time" map influenced by 16v16v16 battles and been done with it; but they didn't.

Cut them a little slack here.

SztEltviz · 2012-10-28, 07:42 PM

My main problem with Ps2, if it blows it's chance, then not only Ps2 goes down the drain, but we won't get a proper Ps1:Facelift from any company, because they will be afraid to try the MMOFPS at all.

(I firmly believe, that Ps1 could be a success, only need a proper netcode, no BFR, BR20 and some visual facelift, and ADVERTISEMENT (Actually i don't even care about visuals, i play UT'99 still))

SKYeXile · 2012-10-28, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by Morsong

I hear mixed reviews all the time but all of the positive reviews say PS2 is almost a requirement that in order to have fun you must roll with an outfit or good squad at least. That's fine with me though since I belong to an awesome outfit, but sucks for players who like to solo.

I still haven't played of course and this is just what I hear, but I hear more good stuff than bad just like any other game.

As somebody who plays solo a lot or even when grouped goes off solo to be a hero. While i had my concerns about how well you could solo. its not as bad as i first anticipated.

The main issues you still have though is:
Ammo
health
killing multiple people at once.

The only class that can reliably mow people extremely fast is the Heavy assault, its also the only class with AV it also has good survivability because of the nanite mesh generator. and if you're a player like me who likes to be able to kill whatever they come across, this is the only option for you. but you have a problem. attrition, you can heal yourself with medpacks on the go, but you can only carry afew on you. unless you can get to a terminal to resupply(unlikely if you're a hero like me and are deep into enemy lines) your next problem is ammo, you can resupply from an enemy ammo pack, but its hard to find one and you will likely run out of ammo.

but yea the faster TTK is a 2 pronged sword, its easy to get the jump on several people and wipe them out, but at the same time if you get flanked or something you can be dropped before you can even react. obviously looking enemy ammo and better healing without a medic would help things. i guess you could go medic though.

this ga,e is better than i thought it would be, but before any of the gameplay issues are looked at they need to fix the games stabilty and performance, crashing this much and the constant issues with server performance are unacceptable.

HKPlane · 2012-10-28, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by IceyCold

You are completely right! I mean the obviously copied the 2000 player 64 KM maps from CoD, the vehicle customization from BF, and even had the nerve to straight steal the concept for three faction warfare from Halo!

Can't you do anything original SOE!?! ANYTHING!?!?!

I much prefer the old PS1 system same with the other old vets here because we are still having fun with PS1 indeed but it's just too old and second reason is not worth to pay $15 anymore. We actually want an upgraded Planetside1 2.0 rather than a completely new Planetside2. There is a good example out there X-Com:Enemy Unknown.

Actually, the design in PS1 is okay, it has some disappointment because the design is too focus on large/long battle in mind but the same thing do also happened in BF/COD they put too much focus on small/quick battle.

To be fair, Planetside2 is playable and I will still vote it over BF/COD because I love PS weapons but it's just nothing new or special compared to BF/COD, we have been played these things in BF/COD/Halo.

You are right if SOE decided to go this way, they should borrow more things from PS1 and prehaps do something original. At this time, they steal from PS1 only the weapons level and the graphics, the rest things in PS2 is still BF/COD/Halo in my opinions.

Qwan · 2012-10-29, 08:20 AM

Damn duke no more drinking on sunday nights ok buddy.

FireWater · 2012-10-29, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Valcron

Planetside 2 is one of the greatest gaming disappointments I have ever personally experienced. I equate this to Star Wars Episode 1, they should just added Jar Jar binks into the game to put the icing on the cake.

The stripping of classes, no inventory system, poor mindless base designs and battle flow have seriously turned this into a Battlefieldesque type of franchise.

As of right now- when I log into I can't even play more than 5 minutes without being bored to tears. This just isn't the Planetside game I or lots of other people envisioned.

Maybe thats a good thing.

The first planetside didn't do well commercially

PredatorFour · 2012-10-29, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by FireWater

Maybe thats a good thing.

The first planetside didn't do well commercially

Maybe thats down to it having 0% advertisement.

FireWater · 2012-10-29, 11:06 AM

sure that was probably it. Though I remember seeing web ads, PC Gamer ads, etc...

I think the game was advertised no different than any other game out there.

My bet though is that SOE recognized the unprofitable limitations of PS1, and are trying to avoid the same mistakes they make from PS1.

Don't get me wrong, I think PS1 was ahead of its time, perhaps a little too far ahead. Significantly better game and server hardware is making the new experience significantly more enjoyable, at least for me.

EVILoHOMER · 2012-10-29, 01:10 PM

Planetside didn't fail, it made a profit and carried on making a profit, it should have changed the genre but it didn't, I have no idea why but probably because not even consoles had online FPS games in 2003.

Planetside was ahead of its time, it came before WoW and before WoW the mainstream wasn't happy about paying an online subscription. Suddenly after WoW the MMO genre got so much attention and every release after sold millions and then quickly dropped off as people realised the hype wasn't justified.

Also the problem Planetside had was SWG was suffering huge problems and EQ2 was falling behind in development. So lots of the Planetside Dev team got shifted about constantly and the original budget of the game was dropped. Planetside really just became a low budget experimental game with a cannibalized dev team. It wasn't allowed to develop into the original idea the developers had for the game.

After launch Planetside suffered as a result because people got bored real quick of fighting for the same base and towers with no gameplay variation. The biggest thing people wanted was infantry type combat like cities. SOE set out to sort this with Core Combat, only it had 3 months of development, was released after like 2 weeks of tested and was hugely disappointing. The biggest flaw with it was the caverns spread out the population even more spread out and were so much effort to travel to. The caverns weren't ever used, I cannot remember any big battles in there really, people just carried on fighting above ground. What SOE should have done was build them caverns above ground in the form of cities like we asked lol.

After Core Combat lots of people just left, fed up of a crap expansion and the lack of any content from SOE. After the Skyguard and Lodestar, there wasn't anything till CC and then nothing after that. Until of course The Bending and BFRs.

Now The Bending made the map look like it had been designed in MSPaint and the new smaller islands just didn't work out, like the Caverns people didn't bother with them because battles never lasted long, you never had a true sense of progression. If they weren't all split up but were one big map then they'd probably have worked much better. Then we had BFRs which ruined the whole balance of the game, SOE refused to rollback and EVERYONE, I mean EVERYONE quit the game. I was in an Outfit at the time with so many people and after BFRs only like 5 people were left and they quit soon after. In one small BFR patch, SOE killed the game like a year after launch.

Planetside made a profit, it didn't fail but SOE killed that game and ruined the reputation. It's like SWG where it had so much potential, it was so innovative and people just kept asking for bug fixes and content but SOE never delivered it. All SOE kept doing was adding new stuff that ruined the balance like Jedi and then kept focusing on Jedi and then BHs got all the focus and then they had to balance Jedi vs BH lol. Once JTLS was out which was another Fail Expansion all they had to do was focus on Bug fixing and content, don't even worry about balance at that point. Instead they decided to do the CU and NGE and work on two more fail expansions and kill the game. Sure the game had problems like OP buffs and armour, but the focus needed to be on content and bug fixing and then focus on that stuff later.

I could get into Luclin and PoP with Everquest but I wont...

fangxiaodong · 2012-10-30, 10:36 AM

我觉得这是太早写的游戏，尤其是因� �很多改变和/或尚未完成。但同时，我必须承认，� �已经很失望，到目前为止，除非事情� ��生很大的变化，在发射前，我也没有真正看到它是一个成功。!!!