PlanetSide 2

I'll say again what I said at the beginning: Planetside 2 is a downright amazing game, especially for a Free to Play title.

Planetside 2 is a good free-to-play, strong functional and very funny, which does not envy anything to the founders of the first-person shooter genre.

Forget about AAA-Games… Here comes Planetside 2! Epic battles, beautiful graphics and catchy incidental music add up into one of the best MMOFPS experiences to date.

An astonishing technological and gameplay accomplishment, Planetside 2 leverages every ounce of today's broadband and processing power to deliver war on a truly epic scale. [Feb 2013, p.70]

Playing solo? Dock ten points. Otherwise, this is one of the online PC games for thrills. [Feb 2013, p.91]

A really well done game, with very rich and deep gameplay. The enormous battles, the good graphics and the rewarding mechanics make this game a must have. It costs nothing and the freemium model is not pushy like in some other titles, letting the game be satisfying per se. Planetside 2 may initially be a little difficult and will scare some players, but if you stick with it, you'll be rewarded.

PlanetSide 2 will make your heart pound. It will make you feel childlike, game-induced euphoria. In a sea of FPS copy-cats, it's a novel and refreshing experience.

Massive in scope without sacrificing strategy or teamplay, PlanetSide 2 shows us what only PC gaming is capable of. [Dec 2012, p.66]

The scale of PlanetSide 2's battles is often breathtaking, as lines of tanks fire at bases while aircraft light up the sky and hundreds of players fill the scene with healing beams and lethal weapons fire.

As a mix of shooter and MMO, PlanetSide 2 is nothing short of a triumph: not quite the best of both worlds, but certainly the best attempt anyone has ever made to fuse them together. Alone, it's worth checking out just to witness its epic scale for yourself - and with the right friends by your side, PlanetSide 2 is an unforgettable experience.

It still needs some work, but I'm very impressed with the end result. If you've got a powerful PC and a desire to bring some real tactics and organization to your team-based FPS fighting, then this game is a must-try. And with no material cost to get started, all you have to lose is the time it takes to download, patch, and give it a shot.

PlanetSide 2 shows the PC off. From the gorgeous lighting and huge draw distances, to the intense, multiplayer battles. It's based on something old, but that was so far ahead of its time that even now the template feels new. Exciting. It feels like the next generation has just landed.

For those with the machine to handle it, PlanetSide 2 is never anything less than staggering. On your own, it's a spectacle. Stand far enough back and you can almost take it all in, but there's just too much there to focus on. With teammates, the picture comes into glorious focus.

A game that changes the standard by which FPSs are measured.

It might look overly complicated, but PlanetSide 2 is nothing more than your average class-based, objective-oriented competitive FPS. What makes it stand apart from other F2P games (aside from the huge servers, of course) is the co-operation factor with other players. [February 2013]

A unique piece of beautiful and thrilling massive scale war. It's not for the lone warrior, but with a few friends or a larger outfit the battles become larger than life. Long term, some goals requiring and rewarding longer planning and actual defending your conquests are needed to keep things fresh, just farming certificates and unlocks goes only so far. [Jan 2013]

Making good on the aspirations of its predecessor, PlanetSide 2's vision of large-scale warfare is the most exuberantly realized yet. And with a payment model a good deal more generous than the 14 day trial teased by Everquest all those years ago, there's certainly little reason not to give it a go.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you're like me and you've been wishing to see what a game along the lines of Battlefield could be like with the scale of an MMO this is definitely a title you won't want to miss. And at the low price of free, why would you?

Really, it costs nothing to give the game a go, so if you're a PC Gamer who likes shooters and wants to try something truly different, you owe it to yourself to drop onto Auraxis. You won't regret it.

The feeling of potencythat grips you when you storm through the map alongside hundreds of your allies is one of a kind. Neither Call of Duty nor Battlefield can provide you with this impression of taking part in something grand. [1/2013, p.56]

If you've got the patience to learn as you play, then Planetside 2 will reward you with the tools of destruction required to bring its unique brand of chaos under control.

Surprisingly good, it offers a great free-to-play experience with dozens of hours of fun ahead. There are some technical issues waiting to be solved, but if the studio, the publisher and the players support PlanetSide 2, the future of PlanetSide 2 could be really bright.

PlanetSide 2 is colorful, huge, balanced, fresh and free. You can become stronger paying but you'll never be strong enough to beat a whole army.

PlanetSide 2 allows you to take part in a fully fledged war and write the history of the planet yourself - it's no scripted spectacle. Who wouldn't want to be a part of a small unit that has to stop an assault of a much bigger army while waiting for reinforcements? Remember - all of that happens in confrontation with a live, intelligent player. PlanetSide 2 works great for hardcore FPS fans, and for those players who simply want to shoot from time to time. The most important thing: the game is free (micro transactions are far from being problematic) and everyone should try it.

While some may argue there are better options in the market, Planetside 2 could stand on its toes with an ERP of 50€. Since it's absolutely free, simply blasts every competitor away.

PlanetSide 2 is a great MMOFPS that is unrivaled when it comes to recreating a battlefield. It is unusually large, intense, free to play and it offers many customization options.

It's not fantastic, as the many small problems drag down the experience and often lead to frustration. It's certainly not mediocre, though, as the large-scale battles and necessary teamwork elevate it above simple shooting drudgery. As it is an MMO, the minor problems will be ironed out over time, and the core mechanics are just far too intriguing to ignore.

For the moment, though, SOE's MMOG is a remarkable achievement. Games like it often have to sacrifice visual fidelity for performance, but PlanetSide 2 looks stunning, even on medium settings.

It's hard to believe that Planetside 2 is completely free with so much content and a huge world to explore. This excellent game will for sure set standards for this new sub genre.

Free-to-play online shooters have a new player in the field. If you prefer large scale battles PlanetSide 2 offers great potential. [Christmas 2012]

Hiding behind walls and corners with 40 other dudes, while in the thickest of crossfires, helping each other out with health and ammunition, providing covering fire and fighting for every inch of this vast battleground is just unbelievably compelling. And then there's even a case to be made for this game as a metaphor for the pointlessness of war. Planetside 2 is meaningful on so many more levels than other typical free-to-play titles.

One of the most interesting things to happen to both massively multiplayer online games and shooters in years, and already a hugely enjoyable game in its own right.

It might take a while to figure out how its various mechanics work and its pacing may be too slow for some, but PlanetSide 2 is a solid shooter that does a very good job of merging the social aspects of an MMO with the action-heavy game play of an FPS.

The shooter fundamentals are all there. The visuals are great but the progression just doesn't seem to deliver any payoff for players outside of the hardcore. It's not quite as much of a shameless cash grab as something out of Zynga, but it definitely sours the experience.

You should play it because its most exciting moments don't occur when you turn the corner and paint a target in your sights. They occur when you're sitting in a troop transport, rolling towards an opposing force, and wondering how the battle will unfold - even if those battles aren't always perfect.

Being a part of huge battles, the likes of which games like Battlefield 3 only dream of, is not to be understated. If there's a better free-to-play game to have a short-term fling with, I have yet to play it. Just don't expect any sort of meaningful commitment.

PlanetSide 2 is a hard game to sum up. It's a beautiful, solidly built shooter that presents large-scale conflict like nobody else in the business. The rest of the game's enjoyment, however, is entirely up to you. If you can dedicate the time to learning the systems, decoding the cumbersome UI, and finding a group of people that you like playing with, PlanetSide 2 will be a blast.

PlanetSide 2's uneven execution makes it fall short of what it aspires to be: the well-rounded MMOFPS many have been craving. It's fun to squad up with friends and make an impact on the game world with class synergy and the potency of vehicles behind you. However, sequences of enthusiastic, large-scale combat are marred by lag and frustrating bugs. It gets the FPS part right, but misses the mark with its shallow MMO qualities. If nothing else, PlanetSide 2 is a free-to-play game that can spark moments of excitement, but just don't set your expectations too high.

The ambitious PlanetSide 2 tries to make a massive and chaotic shooting game more alluring, in which it hasn't succeeded completely. It's a never ending, somewhat brainless deathmatch that is quite entertaining thanks to is firm and well balanced fundamentals. If the development continues on this path, PlanetSide 2 can only get better.