After I ran out of steam with Eve Online, I was somehow missing a main game. Now on Linux, Destiny 2 wasn’t an option, Bungie still refuses to release the game for Linux, even though it would run without problems. New World, on the other hand, couldn’t hold me permanently - maybe I was just missing fellow players.

Somehow I then stumbled across Planetside 2. A game that a Steam notification (“Jezaja is playing Planetside 2”) had already drawn my attention to over a year ago. Back then I uninstalled it after 30 minutes, confused. But I wanted to give the game another chance and conscripted Jezaja to play a round with me. Unfortunately, he’s not that deep into the game either, and I realized: This won’t work alone.

After a short search and extensive comparison, I landed with German Sovereignty (Discord) on the Cobalt server. With a new character, since my only character so far was with the wrong faction. And off went my entry into the world of Auraxis.

Some Lore in Advance

The Story of War

I’m one of the probably few players who are happy about a backstory in games. Planetside 2 has this backstory, albeit very spartan. I still want to roughly summarize it here so you can better understand what’s going on in the game.

In our near future, humanity sinks into chaos. Resources are running out and there’s war all over Earth. It takes several centuries of conflict until the Terran Republic was founded. Though democratic, strict laws are introduced to secure a stable society.

Shortly thereafter, a wormhole opens near Pluto. But before it can be examined more closely, the wormhole collapses, destroying Pluto in the process. Years later, an adventurer with a crew goes to the debris of the planet and finds an alien artifact there. Upon touch, this shows the chief scientist a vision and is inactive from then on. It’s decided that the find will be kept secret, as the wormhole should open again soon. This is assumed because the wormhole was already open 90 years before the Pluto incident and the 90 years will soon be over.

The adventurer uses his fame to become president of the Terran Republic and receives support from it, after his resignation, for a fleet to explore the upcoming wormhole. And as hoped, the wormhole opens as predicted and the fleet begins to traverse it. But what must happen happens: During the flight, the wormhole collapses. Of the ships that were already on the other side, many were destroyed by the collapse. In the end, only a few ships remained, including the adventurer’s - sometimes it pays to be first.

There was no habitable planet in sight. Deprived of most of their resources, however, harsh rules had to be introduced in the fleet. This led to unrest, which ultimately resulted in the assassination of the former president and the tightening of rules. This is also where the New Conglomerate, an association of entrepreneurs with a penchant for independence, began to form.

Unexpectedly, a planet called Auraxis was then discovered, terraforming began, and colonization started. It didn’t take long until the first artifacts of the aliens - called Vanu - were discovered. Research on these artifacts was banned by the Terran Republic, so scientists had to research in secret.

One day, tensions between the Terran Republic and the New Conglomerate escalated into war. The secretly grown Vanu Sovereignty took the opportunity to declare war on the other two factions in turn.

That’s where we stand in Planetside 2: As a soldier for one of the three factions, you fight for supremacy over Auraxis.

By Land, by Water, by Air

A Large Arsenal Wants to Be Used

That was more history than I had planned. But now to the game itself. Let’s start with the genre: Planetside 2 calls itself an MMOFPS. A first-person shooter with more players than you’re used to. Auraxis consists in the game of five continents, of which only a portion can be played on - depending on the number of active players on the server. During the day, often only one continent is open, in the evening two, and briefly a maximum of three. What does open mean in this case? At some point, a continent goes into an alarm mode, which starts a countdown. The faction that has the largest share of the continent when the countdown expires is then declared the winner and the continent is closed. Another continent then opens, if not enough are already open.

As briefly touched upon, each continent is divided into territories. These are either evenly distributed among the factions at the beginning or inactive, depending on the number of players, more or fewer territories are opened. Hence the MMO in MMOFPS. Up to 900 players can be active per continent, so 300 from each faction. In world record attempts, there have been over 1,200 players. Accordingly, there’s not just one conflict in the middle, but small skirmishes at all border regions and usually one to two larger battles at critical points.

You choose one of five classes, the sixth can only be activated for payment:

• Infiltrator: Can become invisible, hack terminals, and use sniper rifles.
• Light Assault: With his jetpack, the Light Assault quickly gets to almost anywhere.
• Medic: As a Medic, you heal your teammates or bring them back to life.
• Engineer: Repair of vehicles, but also the use of stationary gadgets like shields or gun turrets are the Engineer’s specialty.
• Heavy: Heavy weapons, strong armor, and a rocket launcher.
• MAX: A powerful body armor and strong weapons. But costs 450 Nanites.

To intervene directly: The MAX doesn’t cost real money, but Nanites. You start with 750 Nanites and get 50 Nanites back to your account every minute. This is to prevent players from being able to use the MAX, but also other large war equipment too often.

And there’s quite a bit of this war equipment. Several jeeps, flying and driving troop transporters, fighter planes, and tanks. There’s something for everyone. But don’t worry, in my experience so far, these vehicles are support for infantry and can rarely operate alone.

From spawn, the goal is now to get to the front as quickly as possible and either defend your own territory or capture an enemy one. In most territories, there are, as in Battlefield, one or more flags. If you approach these without an enemy nearby, you capture them. If you’ve captured at least 50% of the flags, a countdown starts counting down for your own faction. If this reaches zero, you’ve captured the territory. As an alternative, there are territories that you capture through Capture the Flag. That’s less fun, to be honest.

The gunplay is very well done and the different weapons offer a lot of variety. This applies both to the different types like sniper rifles, shotguns, SMGs, and so on, but also between the factions. While the Terran Republic has a higher rate of fire, many weapons of the Vanu Sovereignty have a horizontal trajectory. Each weapon and each vehicle has its own advantages and disadvantages, without being completely useless.

Graphics and Sound

2012 Says Hello

With the graphics, you can tell the game is from 2012. Although it has received some improvements over the years, in the end it’s a 2012 game engine. Textures are very washed out, edges barely smoothed, and details like grass hardly present. The graphics are functional but not beautiful. The only advantage is that the game runs quite smoothly on normal PCs. Due to the number of players, the CPU is heavily loaded in this game, so a stronger model should definitely be used here.

Particle effects and shadows are okay and shouldn’t be turned down too far. You often recognize more when both effects are activated at least in basic form.

The sound is appropriate. Weapons sound different, vehicles are distinguishable. Some would prefer a bit more punch, but for me the sounds are realistic. The music? As in most competitive games, I disabled it right away. In the end, it overlays important sounds or voice chat.

Conclusion and Game Feel

What I Expected from the Battlefield Series

Unfortunately, I came across Planetside 2 quite late. At first glance, the game already looked quite dated to me, and the many possibilities in the game are overwhelming at the beginning. I can definitely recommend finding an Outfit aka Clan. Getting started is quick, but understanding all the equipment and overseeing all the mechanics isn’t without difficulty.

But that’s also what makes the game appealing. It’s not Call of Duty. It’s the clear further development of the Battlefield series. Not the new parts, but of Battlefield 2. Not kills count, but teamplay and tactics. If the formula of Battlefield 2 had been further developed and enlarged, something like Planetside would have resulted. But would it still be successful then? Who knows.

If you like science fiction and shooters, and had fun with Battlefield 2, then definitely check out Planetside. But important: Check it out for at least 20 hours of gameplay. Otherwise, you won’t get a feel for the full complexity of the game. If you’re alone and need support, feel free to contact me.