Planetside 2 is an Massive Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter (MMOFPS). Three factions, - The Terran Republic, - New Conglomerate, - Vanu Sovereignty, - Fight for control of the planet Auraxis.
-The Factions
The armaments each faction uses is different, Terran Republic use gunpowder firearms with high rates of fire, New Conglomerate utilize Gauss powered weaponry dishing out huge damage (and recoil!), The Vanu Sovereignty equip laser and plasma weapons. The faction weapon types are also on Faction specific air and ground vehicles, there are different strategies to make depending on which force is being fought.
- The Classes
There are 5 classes each with their own role on the battlefield and 1 mobile suit to help clear out areas.
Infiltrator for disruption and sniping, Light Assault for jetpack assisted hit and run, Medic to heal and revive, Engineer for defensive emplacements and vehicle repair, Heavy Assault to destroy vehicles and lead the charge.
MAX suit is great for target rich environments
Each faction has their own version of the MAX suit.
- The Vehicles
Vehicles are a big part of the game that can change the tide of battle. Lets start with ground vehicles!
All factions have access to these.
Top row: Flash: Two seater bike. Harasser: Three seater with turret on top.
Bottom row: Lightning tank: One seat, fast tank. Sunderer: twelve seat troop transport with two turrets.
Each faction gets its own faction specific vehicle for ground and air, Here are the faction specific ground vehicles:
The Vanu Magrider. It hovers a few meters above the ground and hurls a plasma slug from its main cannon.
Terran Republic Prowler. It features two cannons and can anchor itself in position to shoot faster.
New Conglomerate Vanguard. It has more armor than the other two and its cannon does massive damage! PLUS it can activate a shield that protects from forward and side hits.
And for Air vehicles all factions can use:
Valkyire, Six seater support ship. Liberator, Three seater attack gunship. Galaxy, Air transport that can airdrop 11 players.
Faction specific airships:
Vanu Scythe. Slow but hard to hit in a 1v1 due to its thin size, Reload time on this ship is fast.
Terran Republic Mosquito. Fast in and out ship that has a huge ammo count before needing to reload.
New Conglomerate Reaver. Biggest profile with moderate speed, does loads of damage with its cannons.
Upgrading vehicles instead of infantry is viable and some players actually only play the game for the vehicles! They're the most unstoppable I think. Seeing the different faction vehicles duke it out on the field is pretty exciting and sometimes I just watch them fight before I get taken out by a sniper.
You can upgrade the class perks and weaponry using CERTS, which you earn by playing the game and gaining XP.
Top row: Merits, Only gained when playing with outfit(clan) members. A7, gained from specific directives/missions. Nanites, used to spawn vehicles, gained over time of play.
Bottom row: DB: Premium currency used to buy cosmetics. CERTS, Ingame currency used to purchase weapons and upgrade abilities. ISO-4, used to upgrade and craft implants.
- The Map
The main goal of the game is to control more points than the enemy. The points are connected by a Lattice network, so a faction has to have at least one point connected to try to gain control.
Connect the dots!
One useful feature is the REGION tab that shows how many friendlies/enemies are in the area and a pie chart giving percentages of which side has the more opposition.
It's awesome seeing three factions fight for a single point
Now that I've explained everything please allow me to move towards...
- The Main Purpose of this post
I played Planetside 2 when it first released back in 2012 and it was so clunky and buggy it was a miracle it made it out of alpha/beta testing phase. The community for the game is strong and has kept it alive and well and followed the game along its handoff to different owners. I decided to reinstall it after needing a break from doing two challenges this year in the month of November, NaPodPoMo for podcasting and NaJoPoMo for Journaling.
I was stunned at how detailed the game looked now and how smooth the gameplay was when it had hundreds of players packed in one area fighting over the zone, the fact that there were groups of people playing and having fun was a good sign for sure! I joined a platoon and marveled how the leaders communicated doing their best to take over zones from the enemy while defending points that were understaffed and marking spots for each squad member to hold.
It didn't take long for me to get the CERTS I needed to acquire new weapons and upgrade my abilities to better help my team mates. I would recommend Planetside 2 if hosting a large group as anybody can create a squad and start roaming the battle zone with their mates, either doing the objective or looking for targets.
The month of December would be a good time to join as every weekend the game is hosting a Double XP event and on the 6th they announced Auraximas, a seasonal event with rewards to be earned.
To finish out this post I'll share some screenshots I took:
Platoon lead called a supply crate
Watching two Magriders fight a Mosquito
Driving with a small convoy and air support!
Well that's all for now. Thank you for reading my post and let me know what you thought in the comments below!
Happy Gaming!