S
shatter
Guest
So here it is, my first experience at Planetside. Now I was never in the Beta so this is game is pretty much all new and frosty to me. Yesterday I started the tutorial and almost straight away fell foul of a bug in training mission and was thus denied the other informative missions. Come on guys (developers) I know you can't get all the bugs, but stuff like this should be found. Use CLEAN systems for testing (PQ Disc Image is the only way to go) is my general advice. So, five minutes out of the box and I'm not impressed. But fortunately there is a workaround (see my other thread for a link to the solution) and in the end I was able to finish the training missions which were "okay" and at least saved me reading the manual. Now into the game.
Okay.... This is better. The Virtual training areas were much more fun. All of the weapons and vehicles to play with, and lots of merriment to be had flinging a Reaver around the sky and lobbing camera guided rockets at holographic enemy targets. I even managed to go up a battle rank and earn some certificate points into the bargain. Of course the reality check was entering a "real" equipment terminal and finding all my nice shiny toys are now unavailable to me :-( Bah!
I picked up an AGI suit for more pockets and a snipers certificate. I then got the bolt driver and some amo and some med packs, wacked in a Hacker thing and away I went ready for it. Up for it. Wanting it...
Trouble was, how to get to it.
First I tried dropping in with a HART. In the lobby I teamed up with some people, but they referred to the target Island in slang terms (from Beta?) and I ended up somewhere else. Bah! Complexly lost I recalled back to the sanctuary so I could figure out what the feck was going on.
One thing for sure, this aint SOF2.
Outside a Galaxy was waiting and without thinking I jumped in. Right away I realised this was a mistake as the damn thing skated around like a fart in a library. We teleported and then the piolet flew out of the sheilded area and straight into the gun sights of some Reavers who were tearing up the galaxy so much that it had to fly back to the shield. The pilot tried it a couple of times, but each time Reaver bullets tore into the big fat bus. We then Teleported back to Sanctuary and landed with such delicacy that the entire plane was destroyed. Bah! Twenty minutes into the game and I was still to see any action. Other than how pretty Reaver tracer bullets look as they streak towards you.
At last I found some others who seemed a little more organised and had a galaxy waiting with a way point to guide in recruited squad members. This was looking better. We ported over and flew towards the action. That was something else, cruising along looking out of the plane while various battles kicked off beneath us. Then we were over the hot spot, which was so hot the Galaxy couldn?t land. Instead the order came to jump. Quickly I obeyed, dropping a few meters to an enemy outpost. Right on the top balcony in fact, right between two enemy wall turrets indeed!!! Yep, I was pretty much cut to ribbons in less time than it takes to be bored with Ulrike Johnsons autobiography. Bah!
But all was not lost. A nearby ANT saved the day and within a few seconds I was back into the fray looking for a likely sniper spot. This didn?t work to well because most of the bases were only sparsely populated and as we moved from base to base, liberating facilities in the name of the New Conglomerates, we encounterd only light to intermediate resistance, although I still managed to die a large number of times. This defiantly aint Quake III.
After getting a much needed certificate I changed tactics and got some heavy weaponry (the punisher I think) and also the right to drive the two seated beach buggy thing. Now this was more like it. I picked up a squad member (TUNE) and we started zipping around the island killing and hacking at the hot spots of our choice. A moment of excitement occurred when one of our bases signalled it was being hacked. Of we raced like madmen, found the lone hacker (opportunistic lone wolf) and returned the facility to its rightful owners. After that we chased over to the last remaining facilty, crashed the car in a river before beaming back to sanctuary with the whole island belonging to NC. So, about two maybe three hours play there. Not bad. Had its moments, but I wasn?t really being gripped. Not yet.
My squad mate and I then re-equipped and dived back into a HART, kicking out over an island full of hotspots the first of which was roasting hot. Now this WAS more like it as we dived into a facility and tried to defend it against waves of Maxs and reavers and infiltrators and just about everybody else. This was a battle fought over such a wide front that it began to feel realistic. Gone were the flag rushes of SOF2, or endless slaughtering of Quake and in came tactical play, air support and heavy artillery.
Sadly after much playing we were pretty much pushed back and eventually had our collective asses handed to us. But, I did get to do the sniper thing, I did rank up to Battle Rank 4 (possibly 5 now, have to check) and I did have a real good time... Surprisingly I didn't kill as many people as I thought, but then I tended to be playing more of a support role, back up the Maxs from a turret or driving a gunner along at breack neck speed while we chassed a Reaver that was out of ammo. Still it was lots of fun.
This game has a lot of potential. But I am still doubtfull about the monthly fee. Will I play it for that long? Will the similar landscapes and facilites layouts become boring after a while? I am drawn back to SOF2 time and time again because a)the servers are always there and cost me only the conection costs and b) the game is simplitic enough for a stress release but complex enough to use my brain (a bit anyway). Planetside excedes SOF2 in the interaction and the total imersion factor. But is that really going to make me want to pay after my free month has been and gone???
I cant answer that yet. I am too much of a newbee. I need to play this game, get myself into the Barrys Squad and start playing it for real. Then perhaps I will have an answer.
Shatter
Okay.... This is better. The Virtual training areas were much more fun. All of the weapons and vehicles to play with, and lots of merriment to be had flinging a Reaver around the sky and lobbing camera guided rockets at holographic enemy targets. I even managed to go up a battle rank and earn some certificate points into the bargain. Of course the reality check was entering a "real" equipment terminal and finding all my nice shiny toys are now unavailable to me :-( Bah!
I picked up an AGI suit for more pockets and a snipers certificate. I then got the bolt driver and some amo and some med packs, wacked in a Hacker thing and away I went ready for it. Up for it. Wanting it...
Trouble was, how to get to it.
First I tried dropping in with a HART. In the lobby I teamed up with some people, but they referred to the target Island in slang terms (from Beta?) and I ended up somewhere else. Bah! Complexly lost I recalled back to the sanctuary so I could figure out what the feck was going on.
One thing for sure, this aint SOF2.
Outside a Galaxy was waiting and without thinking I jumped in. Right away I realised this was a mistake as the damn thing skated around like a fart in a library. We teleported and then the piolet flew out of the sheilded area and straight into the gun sights of some Reavers who were tearing up the galaxy so much that it had to fly back to the shield. The pilot tried it a couple of times, but each time Reaver bullets tore into the big fat bus. We then Teleported back to Sanctuary and landed with such delicacy that the entire plane was destroyed. Bah! Twenty minutes into the game and I was still to see any action. Other than how pretty Reaver tracer bullets look as they streak towards you.
At last I found some others who seemed a little more organised and had a galaxy waiting with a way point to guide in recruited squad members. This was looking better. We ported over and flew towards the action. That was something else, cruising along looking out of the plane while various battles kicked off beneath us. Then we were over the hot spot, which was so hot the Galaxy couldn?t land. Instead the order came to jump. Quickly I obeyed, dropping a few meters to an enemy outpost. Right on the top balcony in fact, right between two enemy wall turrets indeed!!! Yep, I was pretty much cut to ribbons in less time than it takes to be bored with Ulrike Johnsons autobiography. Bah!
But all was not lost. A nearby ANT saved the day and within a few seconds I was back into the fray looking for a likely sniper spot. This didn?t work to well because most of the bases were only sparsely populated and as we moved from base to base, liberating facilities in the name of the New Conglomerates, we encounterd only light to intermediate resistance, although I still managed to die a large number of times. This defiantly aint Quake III.
After getting a much needed certificate I changed tactics and got some heavy weaponry (the punisher I think) and also the right to drive the two seated beach buggy thing. Now this was more like it. I picked up a squad member (TUNE) and we started zipping around the island killing and hacking at the hot spots of our choice. A moment of excitement occurred when one of our bases signalled it was being hacked. Of we raced like madmen, found the lone hacker (opportunistic lone wolf) and returned the facility to its rightful owners. After that we chased over to the last remaining facilty, crashed the car in a river before beaming back to sanctuary with the whole island belonging to NC. So, about two maybe three hours play there. Not bad. Had its moments, but I wasn?t really being gripped. Not yet.
My squad mate and I then re-equipped and dived back into a HART, kicking out over an island full of hotspots the first of which was roasting hot. Now this WAS more like it as we dived into a facility and tried to defend it against waves of Maxs and reavers and infiltrators and just about everybody else. This was a battle fought over such a wide front that it began to feel realistic. Gone were the flag rushes of SOF2, or endless slaughtering of Quake and in came tactical play, air support and heavy artillery.
Sadly after much playing we were pretty much pushed back and eventually had our collective asses handed to us. But, I did get to do the sniper thing, I did rank up to Battle Rank 4 (possibly 5 now, have to check) and I did have a real good time... Surprisingly I didn't kill as many people as I thought, but then I tended to be playing more of a support role, back up the Maxs from a turret or driving a gunner along at breack neck speed while we chassed a Reaver that was out of ammo. Still it was lots of fun.
This game has a lot of potential. But I am still doubtfull about the monthly fee. Will I play it for that long? Will the similar landscapes and facilites layouts become boring after a while? I am drawn back to SOF2 time and time again because a)the servers are always there and cost me only the conection costs and b) the game is simplitic enough for a stress release but complex enough to use my brain (a bit anyway). Planetside excedes SOF2 in the interaction and the total imersion factor. But is that really going to make me want to pay after my free month has been and gone???
I cant answer that yet. I am too much of a newbee. I need to play this game, get myself into the Barrys Squad and start playing it for real. Then perhaps I will have an answer.
Shatter