The Planetside Recipe (working title) (rough draft)

[OneManArmy]

Planetside, The game many have been waiting years for, myself included. So now why do a lot of people find themselves playing it less and less already? A game that on the surface seems to have everything you would need or want for a great time in a FPS. Not to mention its one of the first games to truly stress team play. Nevertheless something is missing from Planetside that�s holding it back.

First let�s take a quick look at some other FPS out there that people currently play. For example Counter-Strike, Natural Selection, and various other Half-Life mods are still popular today, despite being based of a game that came out 5 years ago. I suppose many could say they still played it because of the extremely low computer requirements by today�s standards but Games such as BattleField:1942, Medal of Honor and Unreal Tournament 2003 that require a much more powerful PS to run are quite popular and have staying power as well. So what do these games have that Planetside does not? Planetside has everything these games do and then some. The only thing different, aside from the scale of Planetside, is the story or the flavor, if you will.

Planetside is set up in a beautiful world with diverse settings and weaponry yet there�s no flavor to them. Planetside is sort of like an empty house, it may have been built wonderfully using the best materials and contractors but it�s still an empty house no paint or furniture, nothing making it a home, and as beautiful as it may be on the outside no one wants to live in an empty house. But before I get to far off into left field lets continue. Looking at some of the games I mentioned you can see flavor in them. Counter-Strike is about as simple as you can get yet it can still be fun, why? It has real world context such as the guns the locales and even the characters you use. While it may be fictitious those ties into the real world allow the gamer to relate somewhat to what he�s playing. Same for Battlefield: 1942, the real locales, weaponry and units allow the player to relate at some level and thus get into the game a bit better.

Planetside on the other hand set up what could be a great story for its Sci-Fi setting but didn�t carry much of it into the game. They set up the three factions with their different looks and weaponry but that�s about it. To offer a suggestion; show us that the New Conglomerate and Vanu Sovereignty are rebelling against the Terran Republic, show us that each side really has its differences other than the soldiers� just look different. As it is all the bases are the same no matter who you�re attacking. I�m sure there are many ways to inject this game with a bit more flavor, or story. As Andrew Park from GameSpot wrote:

However, neither the landscapes nor the game's character, weapon, or vehicle designs are particularly inspired. They all look decent enough, but you, your teammates, and your enemies all look like futuristic soldiers wearing futuristic heavy armor, driving futuristic vehicles, and using conventional weapons, kind of like what you might expect from just about any sci-fi themed game.

Of course, even as I write this I must remind myself that while it may be easy to criticize its not easy to actually make a game, let alone a huge game that Planetside is. But this is just something to consider, while adding all kinds of new weapons and vehicles may sound great to everyone people will get bored of those too. All in all though my hats off to the Devs� for a fantastic job and may you find away to keep people in this game for a long time.