Planetside was a very fun game. Im surprised to see an editorial on it considering it is showing its age, but the concept was a good one.

Someday I hope some CEO in a gaming company gets a clue and realizes that a game like BF2142 or SW Battlefront would make for a extremely fun and popular mmo and be a very good change from the fantasy genre. Imagine Planetside with everything Star Wars related instead, that game would rock!

You keep having mmo companies spit out these hybrid wanna-be fps type games like SWG or Tabula Rasa, but I never understand why they just dont commit to making an true fps mmo.

Used to love this game back in 2003 but they ruined it with many things like removing the glow from the vanu force blade and the core combat expansion and then BFR's and "the bending" which was a total cheesy stupid idea. By that time everyone quit and the big battles just don't exist like they used to anymore so no point playing with sooo few people.

They needed to change the bases so they looked different instead of fighting over the same old same old boring generic layout.

Originally posted by greenstumps

Used to love this game back in 2003 but they ruined it with many things like removing the glow from the vanu force blade and the core combat expansion and then BFR's and "the bending" which was a total cheesy stupid idea. By that time everyone quit and the big battles just don't exist like they used to anymore so no point playing with sooo few people.

They needed to change the bases so they looked different instead of fighting over the same old same old boring generic layout.

i really wish they would make a second one.

They havent got rid of BFR or Core Combat
and they are making new maps
they have some ready that are just going though some final tests on the Test Server
as well as a bunch of new weapons and vehicles since you left

Originally posted by greenstumps

Used to love this game back in 2003 but they ruined it with many things like removing the glow from the vanu force blade and the core combat expansion and then BFR's and "the bending" which was a total cheesy stupid idea. By that time everyone quit and the big battles just don't exist like they used to anymore so no point playing with sooo few people.

They needed to change the bases so they looked different instead of fighting over the same old same old boring generic layout.

Planetside is still great fun, but don't take my or anyone else's word for it - give it a try.

A tip for new player try to grow friends ingame so you can join up in squads platoons etc and on top of that use ts then it will be a blast .

if its a game that you truly need voicecom this is the game for it.

Planetside is one of the most fun MMO in the market nowadays.

Even after few years of its launch, the game has plenty of fun in it.

If you bring 2 or 3 friends, the fun is even greater!

You can drive tanks and air crafts and take your friends to be you gunner.

A person at battle rank 1 can be effective in the field of battle as one person who is battle rank 25.

This is one of the most important point in this game because a battle rank 1 player can be a greater gunner at the tanks guns and kill a lot of other players.

I love planetside and i have an active acc.


http://www.calil.net/

The thing I've hated most about Planetside's changes since launch is that it used to put 40-60 FPS in most places on a P4 2GHz and FX5200 (dipping to 20 in heavy fighting) just after launch.  Every time they made "optimizations" to the engine, they made it faster for the top 5% of computers and slower for everyone else.  (And those high end machines are running faster enough as it is - why would you not optimize for the machine a notch below the average?  That's the whole point of Valve's continuous hardware surverys.)

I've never really had too much to complain about for gameplay.  BFRs were never a problem for me, even when they were new and very overused, but I like giant robot anime anyway.  They need to make up their mind about with aircraft are supposed to be anti-infantry and anti-vehicular, and make them properly weak against the other - paper thin armor would also be a start, "exciting air battles" be damned, they can learn to dodge.  If you don't mind the idea that you won't be going outside on foot unless you can count on your squad or empire mates to be running anti-air, the game is okay to try out.

My biggest complaint is the size of the playerbase - each empire really only has one good fight at any given time.  Because of the small playerbase, it's mostly "hardcore" guys, and the most active outfits are far too structured and littered with current and former military, and they have an unhealthy attachment to a military organization that they bring to the game with them.  (To be fair, it's extremely effective when the enemies you're coming up against are not similarly trained.  It just stops being fun real quick, which makes you want to unsubscribe, and drive those player numbers right back down.)

MMO PvP at its finest, just dont be in the wrong place at the wrong time and you'll have a ball.

It's also very balanced despite what those who left years ago might say.
Age is this games only problem, release an upgraded sequel and problem solved.

the picture is perfect because thats pretty much all you will see in the game ... aircraft. Oh and if you arent in an aircraft (to the "vets") you are an unskilled moron who wants to "footzerg" (basically infantry).

then when you get inside the base you will be fighting these same "vets", who think hiding behind a wall in third person view, being able to see you perfectly when you can't see them is "skillful". And of course these vets who strafe while tapping the crouch button to induce warping and exploit the Client side hit detection and will call that part of thier skill as well.

oh and don't complain about any of these things because you will just be told you're a moron and need to "lern2play" or of course the usual "go back to playing RPGs".

And with the populations the way they are now, you would get better fights in any free FPS (CoD4, TF2). As a former beta tester and LONG time player I wouldn't suggest planetside to my worse enemy.

I like alot of the concepts in Planetside, but there's one thing that I just can't handle in a FPS: unrefined controls.

The game plays horrible for a FPS. It's just not smooth enough for me.

Besides that all of you hardcore Planetside vets would absolutely love Warhawk for the PS3. The controls are smooth and fluid, the dogfights in the aircraft are a thing of beauty, tanks, jeeps with mounted guns, ground combat with tons of weapons., and the devs are really on top of booting and reseting stats of the people that cheat or boost.

Awhile back I was hoping that Huxley would be an update and improved MMOFPS fix, but it's been so long that I've pretty much lost the steam that fueled my excitement.

Planetside is awesome. I quit a few months ago because of the low population in-game.

I remember in my last days in-game there were times when I was the only person in the whole galaxy online. Or I was the only person on my team and I couldn't cap any other bases because there was one person on the other team and we just took turns killing each other until we got bored and logged off.

Don't get me wrong. Planetside was the funnest MMO since UO in my opinion. If there was still a high population, I'd play it everyday. It's one of the only MMOs that I had fun in even when I was getting my butt kicked.

- Phos

I played PlanetSide for 5-6 months, loved the game, actually still do, but it's way too repetitive to pay $12.95 a month to play. Would play it again if it was free with an item mall.

The longest battle I ever had on an MMO was on Planetside. A four hour battle for control of a bridge between the NC (us) and the TR. It was the early days of PS when there were no Mechs, no expansions or new technology. There where hundreds of players on both sides but by hour 4 we finally were able to establish a foot hold on the other side of the bridge and start our advance to their base.

God, that was so much fun.

I played Planetside for years. One of my funniest MMO memories is from doing an ant run on a base we were capturing. I nailed out the airfraft at the wrong time, landed on an upper floor, managed to drive over the railing, flipped the ANT but still made it to the silo in time.

Originally posted by Ravanos

the picture is perfect because thats pretty much all you will see in the game ... aircraft. Oh and if you arent in an aircraft (to the "vets") you are an unskilled moron who wants to "footzerg" (basically infantry).

Well seeing as you owould be a vet also, I am, played since Beta 3.  I guess this applies to me and you. The only problem is I never said anything you claim vets say. Do some? Yes, but name me a game where you don't find people bad mouthing others.

As for the planes, I would have agreed with you, but I went over to my brothers house of Christmas. He still plays, to my surprise planes aren't a dominating force anymore. The day of plane only squadrons is gone.  I'd say about 90% of the people playing were ground based, probably more. And the planes I did see, most were bombers.

I have played Planetside since launch, went to the first convention in florida, and have been an avid fan since its birth. Its my number one all time favorite game. To the person who didn't like The Bending event, BAH! lol. I still have screenshots on burned cds of me and other people getting smashed by falling rocks. I thought it was so cool :P I do have regrets about the BFR thing. They never turned out like how we talked about them when we wre throwing out ideas for them at the convention with Devs. I think a few too many of us were over doing the drinking of Bawls which were provided free by the case. I still have the  drawing one of the designers did for me on a napkin of the stealth aircraft transport lol.

I've been playing PlanetSide, on and off, for 4+ years.   It is without doubt the most fun I have had in any online game.  But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.  There are plenty of games as old or older than PS which are still being developed; sadly, this is not one of them.  SOE has all but abandoned it. 

Sure, you could log on and find a little fun here and there but overall the game is in a sorrowful state.  I recently signed up for a month (out of sheer boredom) and uninstalled after 3 days.  Considering this is my favorite game of all time, that says it all.

I'm surprised to see a article on PlanetSide. I haven't seen one on any site for quite sometime.

This is by far the best game I have played in my life.

I started playing back in October of 2004 and just recently cancelled my sub due to many reasons. The biggest being the group I played with had parted ways with the game. I'm still playing with many of the people I met in the game over 3 years ago too. The way in which you can meet people in MMOs is unparraled compared to what other games offer.

All the concepts in the game where perfect. SOE just didn't apply them correctly in the long run with what they introduced (BFRs). I'm really hoping that there will be a PS2 one day or a game similar in design .

I would agree that this is the most fun MMO i've ever played. I've pretty much been an MMO tourist, playing every beta/trial and even purchasing a wide number of commercial MMO's. But ive never had as much raw fun as I did when playing Planetside. ww2 online came close, back when it was populated, but Planetside takes the cake.

Ive always had an average PC and broadband. Never had problems with clentside or server lag. Its usually always been decent, apart from those times where you get spikes. I've never felt there was a gross inbalance in the game. Every weapon or vehicle has a counter. You just have to be observant, patient, and clever. Dont just run right up to the enemy blasting away until you (inevitably) die. You have to use tactics AND skill, not just click the attack button and let random dice rolls determine who wins.

The only time i felt balance was totally borked was when BFR's were new. But now the balance has been tweaked and they usually end up just burned out husks on the battlefield.. infact, i have taken out several using clever infantry tactics. I even disabled one using nothing but a pistol. Kept running under its feet attacking its shield gen. Then the pilot got real angry and decided to jump out and kill me with his rifle. Lets just say I dropped him with some good placed autopistol bursts. Then hacked the BFR for myself ; ) Thats the thing about planetside. If you are clever enough, you can have a ball of a time and pull off some amazing victories.

Ive been in massive battles (lately too, mid 2007) that rage on for hours. The most classic epic battles that ive ever had, that get your blood pumping and really suck you in, were in planetside. These battles arent as common these days. But dont be fooled, there IS still a server population playing in PS. US east and west are still good. In off peak times you can find persistent battles maybe 20 vs 20. On peak time, and weekends, it can grow to epic proportions.

A big downside to planetside is that it can get repetetive and there is little else to do if you get tired of capturing the same forts over and over. If an MMO could combine the action of planetside, with some more social elements common to mainstream MMO's (such as economy, customization, character progression, crafting, cities ect) it really would be awesome. I really am tired of mainstream MMO's "combat" systems, which take no real strategy or skill. More like click and watch, no involvement. Planetside is always a hoot to fall back on when I am bored.

Definitely my all time favourite game. Played since '03/'04 and still reactivate subsciption every so often. No other game has held my interest so long. Usual MMO's burn out and become dull after a few months of slaying orcs (lets face it, they are all about that). But I just keep getting back to planetside, the roots of real gaming, to remind me what it SHOULD be about. Fun, and the contest between players.

Great game in its day with some trully great moments ...."2 full gals hot dropping on a cc roof" superb. But like many people, it got repetetive after a few years and faded away. If you have never played it - give it a try but populations are low now so the glory days of PS have past....

Battlefield + PLanetside - now there is an idea :)

Maybe I will try this game, is there a trial for this?

there was a 15 day free trial and a buddy programme (invite a friend to try free for xx days) but i am not sure if it still running. Have a look at the main website

I used to love it back in the day yeah and was sooo addicted I got kicked outta college cause I played Planetside all day and never went to my class. Just it doesn't play like it used to in 2003 and with all these new FPS games Planetside feels sooo dated now anyways and I have more fun with TF2. PRoblems I have now when I tried it again late last year was that the battles are sooo small you'd have to wait for peak time for a battle to start and even then it isn't very big.

I remember in 2003 after launch a battle in forseral (think it's spelt like that) a battle that went on between two bases for that weekend and sooo many people it just never stopped and was sooo amazing! I got my mates to play it and just remember the foot zergs going on between bases and it's hard to explain but if you played back then and played now then you'd understand.

I also remember defending Amerish all the time and that place was foot zerg central and it was the first ever battle I had there when I logged in for the first time at launch and the ammount of people was crazy. Just sooo amazing back then it was my fave online FPS and nothing came close to it.

Just after core combat though all my mates quit cause the expansion sucked and the population went down abit and just remember being really disappointed. The caverns not only look horrible but they add more surface area to Planetside and it was tooo big anyways so that just spreads everyone out even further. What they needed to do was to put cities on the main planet and remove a few of the uneeded islands to bring everyone closer toether then start to work on making bases different.

I also don't like the idea of veteran vehicles and weapons because it stops making the game about skill but starting to give a edge to newer players, they already had mor eimplants they don't need a weapons edge. Also all the content they seemed to add is just a rehash of the same stuff we got but with different weapons and it felt very cheap and easy way to add stuff in. The art in Planetside I dunno became quickly really generic and boring and just like a kid designed it or something and that contributes to the dated feel of it for me.

They ruined it totally with BFR's and The bending though and thats when people started to leave, the new map they designed too was just horrible. Just everything about Planetside after that felt cheap and they were going the wrong direction with it. CR obital strikes I reckon they should have removed because now everyone has them and it's just spam all the time and really ruins battles + they have nothing to do with commanding.

To this day the only updates I liked were the ones just after launch with the Skyguard and Lib.

The bending bug where you could access the enemies sanc;

Vanu Force blade glow glory;

I think this is Lasher 2.0 I could be wrong but i'm sure the only pic i kept was of 2.0;

i recently resubscribed to planetside cus i just cant get away from this game it is so damn good if you like shooting games and you like mmos this game is def worth trying if i knew of any free trials i would give you guys a link but i dont know

I love Planetside.  I was lucky, and fell in with a very dedicated outfit within two weeks.  Voicechat is *absolutely* required to have fun.  Otherwise you're just running, dying, running, dying.  With voicechat and a squad, it's hellaciously fun.  I still have an active sub, and love it.

I'm always amused when people complain about BFRs.  BFRs are the best thing *ever* to happen, because they make it so much easier to take bases.  Because you just park your BFR outside the base, and watch as the entire enemy force panics, runs around, and spends the next 30 minutes reacting.  Meanwhile, everyone else goes around taking bases....

Another Planetside fan here.  One of my favorite games ever - I've played it off and on for years.  The massive battles are something else.

But I doubt I'll log on again as it is too repetitive and old.  I can't understand how SOE could just let this game go - If they spent some reasonable effort on continually upgrading this game, PS would absolutely rock with a completely dedicated large population of players.  I know I would be there. 

As it is though, PS is dying away - but at least I have the fond memories.

wow this is the biggest collection of fond memories of a game i've seen in a long time. 

Fans ought to document and catalog the game mechanics so they're not lost in time and submit them as a proposal for additions to other games.

What a great game. I was one of the first few VS CR5's on our server. I remember Wind I think it was, was one of our main ones. The days of the 2 -3 Gal hot drops on a base, storming the door, covering each other down the hallways. So much fun. Then there was your frist CR5 OS, trying to place it perfectly for maximum kills. Or just burning an OS to take out an ANT as they were about to refill a base. I also remember sitting in a base waiting, knowing one of the other armies were coming, then just seeing a mass of vehicles and infantry coming over the hill. So many good times playing this.

Originally posted by greenstumps

Used to love this game back in 2003 but they ruined it with many things like removing the glow from the vanu force blade and the core combat expansion and then BFR's and "the bending" which was a total cheesy stupid idea. By that time everyone quit and the big battles just don't exist like they used to anymore so no point playing with sooo few people.

They needed to change the bases so they looked different instead of fighting over the same old same old boring generic layout.

they did a "SoE money grab" on this one... "the bending" destroyed what was left of this ones good game.. not great but good ^^ "Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills"

planetside was and is fun but i cant play it for more than a week now i usually just look at the site to see whats enw and its usually nothing special. the game needed to have a lot more done to it to prolong its fun factor... I'm surprised it still running and people are still paying the 15$/mo bill i find that ridiculous considering the population the game has and not to mention sony has been running ads in the game forever.. imo the game should have been made free a long time ago then and only then would it have the population it did in 2003 and become fun again. But as it stands right now every other fps out there offers servers with more ppl than you will find in 90% of battles fought in planetside.

all in all the game was fun lacked a lot gets way too repetitive   and is just a never ending battle that you can't win not worth your 15$ spend it elsewhere imo. BTW i am cr 5 br 25 Emerald incase some people reading this disagree and think im some random noob talking crap about PS.

;lol

Originally posted by Ravanos

...

then when you get inside the base you will be fighting these same "vets", who think hiding behind a wall in third person view, being able to see you perfectly when you can't see them is "skillful". And of course these vets who strafe while tapping the crouch button to induce warping and exploit the Client side hit detection and will call that part of thier skill as well.

oh and don't complain about any of these things because you will just be told you're a moron and need to "lern2play" or of course the usual "go back to playing RPGs".

And with the populations the way they are now, you would get better fights in any free FPS (CoD4, TF2). As a former beta tester and LONG time player I wouldn't suggest planetside to my worse enemy.

The other things that people have said about the low populations are all true as well.  You will get one nice fight thoughout all zones (possibly), maybe 2 if you are really, really lucky during peak hours, but it's just a dim shadow of its former glory.  It's a shame considering all the fun I used to have with this game, and just can't anymore because there are simply no good fights going on due to lack of players.

I never liked the bending either.  I think the zones should have been kept as "continents".  When they became "planets" I was never able to follow the map properly.  Warpgates just got all screwed up with the randomness of where they were linked to.  Then Oshur (I think) broke up and became "battle islands", nothing was right.

I can't say many negative things about BFRs.  I was one of the very few who actually liked them, though I absolutely hated the caves and cave battles you had to go through to get them.  Towards the end of my time playing, even if you wanted to cert a BFR, it was extremely difficult because you needed to fight in the caves in order to cert a BFR, but there was never anyone there to fight.  Core Combat is arguably the WORST expansion to ever come out for an MMO.

Originally posted by greenstumps

CR obital strikes I reckon they should have removed because now everyone has them and it's just spam all the time and really ruins battles + they have nothing to do with commanding.

I agree with this too.  Since everyone seems to have them now, all you see are orbital strikes during good fights.  It is most definitely no longer a nice tactical tool to sway the tide of a stalled battle.  When just a small handful of people had them, they could break a nice stalemate.  Now, to me, it seems like they break up a nice conventional battle that you may have going.  OSes coming down so frequently just seem to disrupt the flow of a really fun fight on both sides.

Originally posted by Centhan

 

Originally posted by greenstumps

CR obital strikes I reckon they should have removed because now everyone has them and it's just spam all the time and really ruins battles + they have nothing to do with commanding.

 

I agree with this too.  Since everyone seems to have them now, all you see are orbital strikes during good fights.  It is most definitely no longer a nice tactical tool to sway the tide of a stalled battle.  When just a small handful of people had them, they could break a nice stalemate.  Now, to me, it seems like they break up a nice conventional battle that you may have going.  OSes coming down so frequently just seem to disrupt the flow of a really fun fight on both sides.

My only problem about PS is the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG  wait for bases to hack! Nothing like being so bored that you start TKing just to liven things up. My Outfit Leader liked to OS all the camped people outside a base we were hacking when the action was slow! Then all the ADV MEDs would run around and revive them all.

Good Times!

does anyone else besides me think that mmorpg.com is being paid by companies to write articles about their game? i mean, who would dig up such an old thing like planetside... Also, all the time I see the same articles about the same stupid games over and over again, like lord of the rings online, warhammer, eve online, and conan. no coverage on aion at all even though it will be one of the biggest mmorpgs later this year. I am betting that mmorpg.com is getting paid by game companies to hype up new games (and dying old games) by putting more focus on them using front page articles.  

Originally posted by Centhan

 

Originally posted by Ravanos

...

then when you get inside the base you will be fighting these same "vets", who think hiding behind a wall in third person view, being able to see you perfectly when you can't see them is "skillful". And of course these vets who strafe while tapping the crouch button to induce warping and exploit the Client side hit detection and will call that part of thier skill as well.

oh and don't complain about any of these things because you will just be told you're a moron and need to "lern2play" or of course the usual "go back to playing RPGs".

And with the populations the way they are now, you would get better fights in any free FPS (CoD4, TF2). As a former beta tester and LONG time player I wouldn't suggest planetside to my worse enemy.

As much I love Planetside.  This is all mostly true.  In fact, the one thing I would take out of the game if I were given the choice is that 3rd person view nonsense while on foot.  I know a few years ago there was a long discussion on their forums with a dev explaining why it should be kept in.  I never agreed with it.  It's nothing more than giving a "defending" player an overwhelmingly unfair advantage by being able to look around a corner, see you before you see him, and jump out at the last second taking you completely by surprise.

 

The other things that people have said about the low populations are all true as well.  You will get one nice fight thoughout all zones (possibly), maybe 2 if you are really, really lucky during peak hours, but it's just a dim shadow of its former glory.  It's a shame considering all the fun I used to have with this game, and just can't anymore because there are simply no good fights going on due to lack of players.

I never liked the bending either.  I think the zones should have been kept as "continents".  When they became "planets" I was never able to follow the map properly.  Warpgates just got all screwed up with the randomness of where they were linked to.  Then Oshur (I think) broke up and became "battle islands", nothing was right.

I can't say many negative things about BFRs.  I was one of the very few who actually liked them, though I absolutely hated the caves and cave battles you had to go through to get them.  Towards the end of my time playing, even if you wanted to cert a BFR, it was extremely difficult because you needed to fight in the caves in order to cert a BFR, but there was never anyone there to fight.  Core Combat is arguably the WORST expansion to ever come out for an MMO.

Planetside was great right before the release of BFR's they ruined the game, the minor content patches have been good since them but all the major ones have kinda blown.  especialy BFRs and blackops. SUPER SOLDIERS IN A FPS, IDIOTS oh yes and the introduction of the Chinese. iv played for 4 years now, i still enjoy the game, howver i cant bring myself to play for days onend like i used to, with diminishing pops, bad fights its hard to stay online for more than an hour at a time.

What I hate about BFRs now is that it's impossible for a new player to get one. You can't get enough cave fights to do it because the few players who are online these days never fight in the caves!

- Phos

OKay i played PS the day it came out, and have some good chars still... is it worth coming back too? is the pop. really that low now?

Why the hell is he reviewing planetside? lol

The game is pretty close to dead.... (wish it wasnt but it had a good run)

I loved planetside,  sure there was alot of stuff I didn't like , but NO game is perfect. I would probably play again if it was f2p via ads or something, but thats not likely.

So now I look for other mmofps like huxley, agency, or all points bulletin (maybe even planetside 2 eventually)

I don't understand why everyone complains about BFRs, they are the easiest vehicles to take down. I usually find them to be a joke.

Eh...

Fun times...

Pulling forces off of one planet by taking a sqaud of 5 to another and holding it until more people show up...

The random suicide runs with sundys through bases just blasting randomly...

Holding a tower with one other person and killing a BFR that goes  by with a sniper.. (that one was amusing).

Been a while though..

I only play when they give the month free every year to old players. I forget when that is though.....i'll have to look.

I still have my Alpha development logs.

I've played Planetside since one of the first stable builds. I still am playing it. I still enjoy it.

The population is quite a bit less than it used to be, but everyone who pretends the game is a ghost town is lying outright - You should never have a hard time finding a fight, especially using the Instant Action (typing /ia into chat will do this) feature.

The game has relatively new and quite active developers, while they are inexperienced with the engine and it's capabilities, they are doing far better than most of the replacements that have worked on the game since the original team was pulled to SOE's other projects. They have implemented what the previous teams were too lazy to finish, they have created new content, and are dedicated to continuing the growth and expansion of the game with new game types and introducing new vehicles and certifications. They have fixed bugs that have existed for over 4 years.

Many people have a lot of negative things to say about this game, but take it from the subscribers who are still enjoying it - give it a try if you havent, there's trial keys to be had. Give it a try if you quit a number of years ago, you may enjoy yourself again.

I LOVED planetside. It was one of the best game. Even Core Combat didn't hurt it.  I'm sorry BFR's are when the game went down hill.  I don't care what other people who still play say. Use to a group of 2 snipers could actively harass a base. Not if there is a BFR don't even bother trying. There will NEVER be the 200vs 200 vs 200 fights over a bridge as long as BFR's still remain. Hell if they did a non BFR server I'd come back in a heart beat.

"Oh they are easy to take out"

I don't care how YOU people find it easy. You have an ANTI - BFR set up don't you. They nerfed Vanu's Max suits, Made tanks pointless with BFR's and broke the main point of how the game should run. How it was meant to be ran.

I'll try it again. But it'll just be more of the same crap I left.

Nothing like Alpha, beta, open beta, or the first 6-8 months of live.

Speaking of snipers and BFRs, two snipers can quickly cripple a BFR and destroy all it's ammunition, as well as disable all it's systems, slow it down, blind it, and damage it's weapons into uselessness.

As the reviewer said, the game has complexities so deep they can never all be taken into consideration by a single player. I'm sure the devs themselves are constantly forgetting functions and features - for example: the Lashers had their lash range set to activate after 5 feet of flight to avoid friendly fire that was continually occurring. Friendly fire was eventually entirely removed from the lash effect of Lashers, but the lash range was never put back to activation on exiting the barrel, leaving the Lasher in a reduced capability for close quarters combat.

For all the negative things being said, the game continues to see every facet exploited as all sorts of players and people repeatedly discover and rediscover new ways to play the game. With considerations such as damage degradation and weapon lethality in a given situation, ammunition availability, resource management, supply chains, base maintenance and upkeep, enemy influence detection range, electronic and counter-electronic warfare, and too many more things to post without creating a massive and long-winded list, there is a lot for strategists, commanders, and the regular G.I. to take in and process, allowing each player to contribute to the battle in ways that their enemies may not foresee.

A single person can change the entire flow of a battle by sneaking behind enemy lines and capturing facilities and vehicles, suddenly allowing their entire army to spawn in the center of a contested base. One well placed clip from a Beamer pistol on AP can slay a wounded MAX that has already taken 15 lives, or even in standard mode eliminate the engineer who is repairing that and several other MAX units that have created an impenetrable wall of firepower. In the big scheme of things the heroes are the little gears that make the war machine move and there are few MMOs, let alone FPS games, which rely so heavily on the individual rather than the masses.

It may not immediately be so clear to a random onlooker who is gripped by a sense of doom, but when five BattleFrame Robotics come stomping over the horizon and begin laying down a hailstorm of death on a base, the two anonymous soldiers with Anti-Vehicular weaponry who resolutely stand firm against the wall of lead, aided by brave airmen in Reavers and Mosquitos overhead, and the not-so-sane but very skilled Fury bikers who rev forward and underfoot, all have an unsaid understanding that they will send those giant stomping machines home crying to their mamas. They will do it by working in concert with no communication what-so-ever, save the screaming rockets and crackling beams of light they let loose in their own storm of death. The BFR crews will be left wishing they never marched so boldly into sight.

No one in that base will know just who all was in that concert, but they will hear the crescendo of force and the thundering explosions as limbs are shorn away from those metal giants that many needlessly fear. Five people stand against the five machines of destruction and save the lives of hundreds.

That's quality game play.

(Edit: Reduced font size.)