What are your thoughts on PlanetSide 2 now that you have played?

[Gatekeeper]

Hey all... long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I'm a PS1 vet, played it for years (from a month or so after release, till well after BFRs came on the scene) and I'd say that overall it was my favourite game of all time.

I've only played in the PS2 beta a little bit so far, because unfortunately it's almost unplayable on my PC, but these are my impressions so far:

The Good:

The bases and landscape are epic: the world is impressive and fun to explore.
The new outposts and expanded towers: seem like a fun break from the main bases and allow battles of various scales.
The scale: it remains impressive, even if it tends to feel slightly smaller than PS1.

The Bad:

TTK is way too fast: there's little point to shields or medics when you die almost at once whenever you're shot. And this also means you tend to spend much more time respawning and getting to the fights than you do actually fighting.

It's hard to tell what's going on: spotting enemies is difficult, and telling friend from foe is even harder. In a game where an instant of hesitation can mean death, this is a pretty major problem.

Essential tools need grinding or cash to unlock: MAX and infantry AA weapons should be unlocked by default. Being able to spawn a tank or a plane right from the start, but infantry not being able to defend themselves in the field from constant air attack is just crazy.

Tank drivers being gunners: this is just dumbing down, plain and simple. Requiring coordination for MBTs was one of my favourite features in PS1, and I've always felt that the way PS1 handled vehicles was hands-down better than every other shooter. Giving up on that just to appease fans of those weaker games is a terrible choice. Stand up for the strengths of PS1! Else what's the point of making PS2 in the first place?

Also the justification for MBTs working this way "players who spawn vehicles should get the kills from them" makes no sense - none of the other multi-player vehicles work that way. If gals, sundies and libs can give the big guns over to dedicated gunners - why can't tanks?

Dodgy base design: walls that defend the attackers instead of the defenders and teleporters that are unassailable kill-farms. Hopefully the devs are taking notice of criticism here, and are making changes already.


I won't list performance and overall balance as issues, because hopefully those will improve - but currently they seem pretty dreadful.

Overall, I'm dreadfully disappointed in this game right now. It's a beta, and performance issues are currently ruining the game for me, so hopefully it'll improve as we go along (and/or when I get a new rig) - but right now I'm worried.