De-evolution of Planetside?!

[Access]

As most old-school gamers I was growing more and more sceptical towards the
gaming industry over the past years, since it seemed to hit a serious dead end
in terms of innovation or evolution of their games. I was getting bored, annoyed,
and finally angry at how the industry doesnt even care to try anymore.
Even more annoying is the fact that they gloriously succeeded in constantly
dumbing down their customers to a point where there is nothing more important
about a game but the name of the frenchise and technological advancements of
a games engine.

But than, at last, a deep and unspoken hope was answered last year with the
official announcement of Planetside 2. Hell yeah! I survived the drought-stricken
years of boring killgames, horrid rpgs and empty and lifeless mmos to embrace the
goddess called Planetside once again to entertain me for years to come.
Or so I thought...

I was excited and thrilled over every video we got to see, every stream,
interview and information we got to fantasize with. Well... that is until I got
to see the gameplay at the E3 livestream the last few days. And there it was,
like a lump on the testicles, the slowly rising realisation that things might
not work out as perfectly as you imagined.

After seeing the gameplay footage these past days I'm actually pretty amazed
how most of the so called "veteran" players tend to ignore the fact that nearly
all of the tactical gameplay, which was pretty much the backbone of Planetside,
is close to nonexistant in the sequel...

And what we are left with today is roughly:

1. killing stuff with a handgun
2. killing stuff with a vehicle
3. killing stuff with an aircraft
4. killing stuff with landing droppods on their heads
5. domination gametype

I'm very dissappointed since as of now the game got no kind of tactical depth
what so ever compared to the original. Without tactical hotspots like command
centers, generator rooms or even destroyable spawn points/equipment
terminals I honestly dont see a need for any planned out tactical gameplay
anymore which made Planetside the game we all loved. All we get is a massive
killgame as seen ever so often before.

Character/Weapon/Vehicle customization does not make a game interesting, the
gameplay does. And it is lacking way behind of what any honest veteran Planetside
player should expect it to be.
I dont really like what is advertised in the visual customization department either.
It is seriously lackluster and behind on what should be possible with the engine
or even is appealing enough to even pay for it. For example the oh so boring
different 20th century camo skins... why...?! this is not CoD MoH or hatever,
this is the 28th century, a time appropriate customization should not be too much
to ask for. I really hope theres much more interesting customization planned until
release, like nanowired or battleworn armor, since I honestly cant see the game
manage its finances with just the booster sells in the long run.

Dont get me wrong, I love the engine, the fast paced action, skies burning up
from airbattles, falling debree and the design and textures of the models. (the
vehicle and base ones, the weapons on the other hand are really in need of some
workover sound/modelwise)

But please, why the freck does it have to be a so damn simplified Planetside?

Welcome to the de-evolution of games, where the developers nowadays accredit
the avarage gamer the attention span of a squirrel. (which is according to a
random internet person up to 4 minutes)

[The Janitor]

ohlookitsthisthreadagain.jpg

Just wait for beta. The Devs will listen if there are any major problems to iron out. They're cool like that.

[ThermalReaper]

What was that phrase that was used around this forums thousands of times?

Wait for the beta.

It's the only way to make sure your concerns are correct/incorrect.

[lolroflroflcake]

While the E3 demo was shallow, remember they especially rigged it for E3. In a few of the interviews Higby even mentioned that they were considering adding tactical objectives such as generators and the like into the game.

[Death2All]

I know where you're coming from and how you feel. A LOT of the features and mechanics that were present in PS1 are no longer a part of PS2, and have instead, been replaced with more modern FPS mechanics that don't really add a whole lot of depth to a game.

However, I still feel there's a lot of room in PS2 for tactical gameplay, albeit lackluster in depth compared to the original. Whether or not this is true, we'll just have to wait until beta (cop out answer, I know).

Unfortunately, as you have obviously noticed, game developers are making more and more compromises to appeal the a wider audience. There aren't a whole lot of games being developed nowadays for the "hardcore" audience. Everything is being simplified and mainstreamed to appeal to a more casual gamer.

I think we can all agree that PS1 was the greatest game ever made and nothing will ever touch it. PS2 may be very close contender, but unfortunately, do to compromises from game developers and evolution (or de-evolution as you put) of games, I don't think it will ever surpass PS1's greatness. The game just had an amazing amount of depth, logistics and potential that no other games of this generation could ever aspire for.

[davek]

there will be plenty tactical game play with this community and its outfits it doesn't mater whether theres gen rooms or hot spots where there is not strategy we will make some

[McFeeble]

I agree some of the new changes do seem daunting, but I am willing to give them a try before I decide anything. My primary concern is the longevity of the game, with what appears to be more a zerg centric meta game, supported by missions and hex influence on hack times.
In ps1, I enjoyed the zerg and all of the fun that went with trying everything out initially, but soon grew tired of this, as it was just repeat with a slightly different walk from the tower/AMS. I then joined foehammer (forget outfit name, sorry) spec ops group, doing cc holds and gen take downs, close enough to the action to attract opposition and this really was great fun. I dont see how this is possible this time round hence mentioning it as a concern.

[Dairian]

ARE YOU NUTZ! I think your just trolling. With the new map system its going to take more organization than PS1. They have talked about taking down shield generators and spawn points. And as for the terms there really isn't a need to take them down because you will spawn with your gear. This is needed to speed up game play and since the TTK is lower do you really think you will have time to access a term with someone shooting at you?

There will be plenty of Large Outfits that will be very organized. And my experience of planetside 1 were still lots of people just pressing instant action and funneling themselves into a fight without any organization. This is just ALPHA not release and if your so disappointed just don't play the game.

[Verruna]

I love PS1, but really nothing i've seen thus far really indicates to me that PS2 will be any less strategic than the first. Its a bit sad the general NTU/Ant/Gen system is being changed/removed.. as it was a interesting gameplay mechanic, but otherwise - i just don't see it being radically different than PS1 gameplay wise. Their adding a bunch of modernized crap to PS2 like killcams, stats, and camos ect. But that doesn't effect much on the strategic side of things.

No one should make assumptions based off e3's singular 3-way base deathmatch fest, what amounts to a single base area with 3 uncappable towers directly surrounding said base. The simple truth is we don't know all that much in detail about PS2's resource/base capture systems and how we can exploit those strategically.

Regardless, i don't want a completely washed down planetside for braindeads, but some compromises must be made to ensure Planetside 2 being absolutely successful. I'll be throwing alot of feedback at them come beta, when i know more.

[wasdie]

You have to think about these features that you consider "hardcore" and ask yourself if they were hardcore because they actually added a really strong layer to the gameplay, or just added some tedious elements that you were forced to use. More often than not with older games, the complexity is over stated by the core audience and the gameplay mechanics just brought tedium with them.

That said, this E3 demo is nothing like what Planetside 2 is going to be. This was like Planetside 2: Battlefield edition. They had to customize so many aspects of the game so that they could effectively demo it in 10-15 minute play sessions. Planetside is best played over hours, not minutes.

[Kurtz]

Wait for beta but be prepared to bitch like crazy after.

[Sabot]

Originally Posted by wasdie

That said, this E3 demo is nothing like what Planetside 2 is going to be. This was like Planetside 2: Battlefield edition. They had to customize so many aspects of the game so that they could effectively demo it in 10-15 minute play sessions. Planetside is best played over hours, not minutes.

This.

Honestly... how are you even going to play tacticly when people come and go every 10 mins? Don't judge PS2 gameplay and tactical elements on the E3 streams. People trying it for the first time, most of them were probably not even that familiar with the controls on the stations.

So... no gen drops you say? Well I say that more capture points is > gen drops and tube max crash... you can still do all of these things! It's just a bit different now.. instead of attacking a generator and holding it, you attack a capture point and hold it... max crash a capture point if you want... drop from a gal on the point that is on the oposite side of the base is basically the same thing as a BD drop. Difference now is that you actually have to hold all of them to cap the base... which requiers even more coordination and tactics from your faction than before.. not just drop the gen and wait... or backhack every other base on the cont with one infil and then gogogo.

One thing that I am going to miss though are the ANT runs... NTU were great for clearing up stalemates at bases, but as defending faction you could still avoid it with skill and luck.

[GhettoPrince]

Being good at video games doesn't make you special, liking hard video games doesn't make you smart. It's just entertainment.

It's a video game, and it isn't as hard or as clunky as the old planetside, the gameplay looks solid and the combat looks fun. You just have a really bad case of nostalgia.

[Zebasiz]

Also it seems by your post that you're mainly judging this from the E3 livestream, which they said was a "simplified" version of the game. With set up spawn locations for each faction, a few control points, and short respawn timers.
Mainly it was set up so people could get a feel for what the large combat would look/ feel like. But there wasn't enough time to really display any of the tactical gameplay. They had only 10 odd minutes for each person.

Gah, ninja!

[Landtank]

You can't look at the E3 gameplay at call that PlanetSide 2. There was a limited area, forward base spawns with vehicle pads, and everyone was trying to do everything the game had to offer in 15 minutes.

For E3 they made it very much like a CoD or BF3 map, limited in scope, designed to get you into the action as fast as possible, very unlike PlanetSide 2. The game is about 64 square kilometers of warfare, this was only 2% of that map.

While I understand your concerns, you shouldn't be worried. If we play Beta and its like the E3 demo, then we can be concerned