Baddish Review.

Twitch · 2003-04-12, 11:09 AM

Just read this -

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I was in the beta for quite a while, as were a few others in the crowd, so maybe we can give a better perspective of what the game really is.

It's really not MMOG CounterStrike. I really liked the game for about 2 weeks, and then it just got really stale. I guess DaoC RvR flashbacks, with bases switching sides constantly, and the benefits of capturing them being, well, nothing that made me want to keep playing.

The levelling system is fairly insignificant, in the beginning you specialize in one or two things, as you gain exp/levels, you can broaden your character, but you never gain anything that someone else can't take on day 1, you just become more versatile. So while in the beginning you may be able to drive one vehicle, and use medium weapons, and fly one aircraft, later on you can pick up different vehicles, or add a different weapon specialization; sniper or anti-vehicle, or pick up an aircraft cert, or a transport cert, you get the idea.

The no hitzones was a huge turnoff, that whole twitch skill thing from Quake/CS was pretty nonexistant. Fights were usually kill 2-3 people, die, respawn, kill 2-3 people, rinse repeat til one side just got bored to tears and moved to a different area. When you die, you respawn at the closest base in your control to where you died. Late in beta they allowed you to spawn in towers (Which are normally right next to bases), so it turned the fights into endless swarms of people just throwing themselves at you, it was a little better than the slow pace of the earlier builds, but it takes a lot away from the strategic aspects of the game. When you kill someone, they're (in a lot of cases) about 30 seconds away from being back in the action.

The graphics are top notch, and the world is huge, but if the servers can handle the amount of people they'll need to have the entire world busy may be a big issue. Lag was never a problem for me, and even in fights with 100+ people, I never had a problem. But we also ran beta with less than 1k people on for the most part, and with 7? continents, you could easily fit 5 times that into the world and not have a serious crowding problem.

So, I'd anticipated playing PS with the normal 4 friends I play CS with every weekend. Instead of paying a monthly fee, I think we're just going to stick with CS.

I think it's a great game, if there wasn't a monthly fee, I'd have no problem playing it. Unfortunately, I don't think the gameplay has the longevity, or replayability to balance out 10-12$/month. While I can sit down and waste an evening in AC2, EQ or DaoC, I have a hard time playing PS for more than an hour at a time, but I have that problem with most FPS games, so it could just be me.

Anyways, it definitely isn't something I'll be playing after release, but I'm sure it will appeal to some people, so hopefully some of the others that have played it already can share their opinions of the game.

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So, as a relative noob and in celebration of the just released NDA just 2 general questions -

- Is the respawn close enough to the combat zone that dying effectively has nil penalties?

- Are there no effective bonuses / any point in capturing and holding a continent?

The reason I ask is that I was thinking that Planetside would be a strategy RPG FPS rather than, well a MMPFPS. If death has no attrition effect and ground control has no overall strategic effect you might as well be playing CS with resets every 5 minutes - hoping hes wrong.

Hamma · 2003-04-12, 11:19 AM

Too many people are thinking of this game as a Solo experience, not a teamplay experience as they should. You havent truely played PS, unless you have played with a fully organised squad.

None the less, nice writeup

Filsinger · 2003-04-12, 11:26 AM

ive played the last week or so with a full squad every night for a few hours and like me and many others have said.

This game has SO much potential in being one of the greats... but if a few things dont change the game will get stale for a lot of people and it wont be worth 10-12/month for very long.

Hamma · 2003-04-12, 11:39 AM

Oh well, more subscriber room for the thousands of people who will want to play it

TimberWolf2K · 2003-04-12, 11:45 AM

things such as?

Pilgrim · 2003-04-12, 11:58 AM

It's a well written review for sure, and all accurate.

But I also got to agree with Hamma the fun factor went up by a factor of 20 once I got into a well organized squad... of course, in 2 weeks of playing every night (when the servers were up) I have only been in 1 well organized squad. All the others seem to form up, fly to battle zone, get shot up real good... respawn, kinda drift apart.

2 things will fix this...

Voice over net in game, and that's comming soon.

And players with more experience.

I spent my time in a squad last night explaining how to deploy a MAX and use the run feature... All the time thinking in my head, SPEND 5 SECONDS IN VR NOOB!

They also need to do something about incentive. Taking a base means next to nothing... Locking a contenent is hard as hell to do then simple to break, any solo hacker can pull it off. There is a really good post about this in the beta boards with a good suggestion for HARD-Lock... check it out if you can.

So I can see why this game has a potential to Stagnate for some people. A few thoughts I have...

Fewer towers, and put them further away from bases. This makes the AMS for more valuable, and stops alot of the People SPAM that smashes into bases currently.
Make the AMS Squad only. or at least have a Matrix reader requiring you to go to it, and record yourslef first. Same reason as above, stops the SPAM!!!

Give XP for deffense!

Not all of these are going to be done, but watch... The Devs aren't dumb, and have been adjusting the game to our needs as we go. Watch, a few subtle changes and every problem listed above is gone, and PS will Rock even more then it allready does!

PAX

Twitch · 2003-04-12, 12:02 PM

Nicely done Hunter, you give me hope matey. Ahem.

AcidCat · 2003-04-12, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by Hamma
Too many people are thinking of this game as a Solo experience, not a teamplay experience as they should. You havent truely played PS, unless you have played with a fully organised squad.

Definitely. Planetside is ALL about the squad, period. It is such a rewarding and enjoyable experience being in a squad that works together.

And, from the original post :

"The levelling system is fairly insignificant, in the beginning you specialize in one or two things, as you gain exp/levels, you can broaden your character, but you never gain anything that someone else can't take on day 1, you just become more versatile. So while in the beginning you may be able to drive one vehicle, and use medium weapons, and fly one aircraft,..."

I think this poster is forgetting that he probably started as many Beta testers did, when they were starting us at battle rank 10 - which means you have 13 certs to work with. Experience points and leveling will be much more important when you start the actual game at level 1 with a mere 3 certificates. But granted the point remains that at some point experience points become insignificant - but that's ok, I don't want to see an endless level-fest like many RPGs, and the real draw of this game is the combat itself, not the sick, twisted joy of leveling forever and ever.

Jimbo · 2003-04-12, 02:04 PM

I'd anticipated playing PS with the normal 4 friends I play CS with every weekend. Instead of paying a monthly fee, I think we're just going to stick with CS.

I would think that would stagnate quicker than a game with hundreds of other players but that's just me.

Also, the way it seems to me is levelling, while important, is not required to be a good player. Some BR1 noob can kill a BR20 player if the more experienced player isn't paying attention. That's the great thing about it; player skill is important. Battle ranks certainly help but they won't assure victory unless you know what you are doing.