Back in 2003, SOE made one of the best MMOFPS games in the industry. These days, however, Planetside will only be remembered as the MMO that SOE forgot.

Ever since I reviewed my first FPS (First Person Shooter) MMORPG, I've held the fairly pessimistic view that it will be very tough, if not impossible, for someone to come out with a good MMOFPS. You see, I've always had the qualm that most MMOs that try to incorporate the FPS element end up creating Counter-Strike with persistent cosmetic items and persistent weaponry; I've always felt that this was a cheap way of stirring the genres without actually mixing them. In fact, it was this disgruntlement with MMOFPSs in general that finally led me to follow the many suggestions that pointed to one of the first (and only?) 'true' MMOFPSs in the market: Sony Online Entertainment's Planetside. Interestingly, while Planetside is probably one of the best FPSMMORPGs I've played to date, it's also very sad to see that it's one of the most abandoned MMOs I've seen in quite some time.

Planetside was published and released by SOE in May, 2003, which effectively makes it a little over six years old. What's surprising about its age, however, is the fact that most development for Planetside seems to have taken place within the first two years of its inception, and from then on, most updates have been in the form of community events rather than game expansions. I checked up on the official Planetside website, and under 'Future Plans,' they have a letter from the Producer, dated 2005. That 2005 date appears to be the latest date for anything, as they have nothing under game updates (they literally have no archive) and they have "Revamped Galactic Lattice" as the only concept 'in development,' but all of the forum links to discuss this concept lead to dead links. As I noticed all of these things while installing the via Sony's Station Launcher, you can imagine that these signs did not bode well for the health of the game.

Before I go any further on this, I'd really like to reiterate the fact that I enjoyed this game. Gameplay wise, Planetside is actually fun, despite being old. Combat in Planetside reminds me a lot of an older version of Battlefield 2142, with players given the opportunity to fight on foot with a ton of different weapons, or enter the battlefield on wings and wheels, as there are a massive number of vehicles in this game, each with a unique role to play in any fight.

The persistent aspect of Planetside comes from the fact that there are three factions constantly fighting over huge territories, and by getting kills and leading successful base invasions, players can level up in Battle Rank and Command Rank. Battle Rank allows you to get 'certifications' which is basically a fancy term for unlocking specific weapons and armour. Command Rank is different, as players who go up in Command Rank can eventually gain some awesome abilities that allow them to 'command' other troops by calling in Air Strikes, monitoring enemy troop movements and globally broadcasting to everyone in their faction. As well, because Planetside is entirely focused on Player versus Player conflict, the game has a great amount of depth behind the simple motive of "blow things up and take stuff over."

If I were to have any qualms about the game itself, it would probably have to be the fact that it's old and it's definitely showing it. There are games that seem to be getting much better with time (Final Fantasy XI is a great example), but Planetside feels, and plays, like an ancient FPS - even Counter-Strike feels much more responsive than this game! The chat system is also cumbersome and really gets in the way of playing, despite the fact that communication is important when it comes to coordinating defence and offence. On the plus side, however, kills were quite satisfying to get, and there is a great deal of accessibility when it comes to getting right to the action - although I'll admit that I died a great deal, so I was walking and respawning quite a bit.

As the old adage goes, however, all good things come to an end, and Planetside managed to exemplify this proverb perfectly when my 'good things' came to an end every 30 to 45 minutes or so. After these perfectly timed sessions were up, my game decided to crash to my desktop and crash every time I tried to log back in, unless I waited at least an hour before I logged back in. I actually feel quite bad when I criticize a game as old as this, but, in reality, there are parts of the game that I excuse for being old (the chat system feels really old), but then there are parts of the game that are downright inexcusable.

For example, it actually took me a full morning and late afternoon to play this game, as it is virtually incompatible with Windows Vista and SOE's all-in-one Launcher. Yes, you heard me, Planetside is still incompatible with an OS that has been released for two years and it doesn't work on SOE's official launcher that has been around for almost a year and a half. In order to get this game working for myself, I had to, literally, dig through five pages of Vista-related tech support problems, re-download the old standalone launcher for Planetside, and then tinker with the compatibility settings on the shortcuts. I did all of this just so I could start the game. To this day I still experience frequent crashes every half hour, and I have to hop off for an hour or so before it will let me play without crashing. From my cursory examination of the dates indicated from Vista-related tech support, it seems as though these problems have been around for at least half a year to a year without any official fixes.

All in all, Planetside had a lot of potential to be a great demonstration of what a real MMOFPS could have been capable of. I'm making very sure to say 'had' here instead of 'has,' because it is clear that this is a game that SOE has forgotten entirely. I find it troublesome that there continues to be a $13 USD subscription fee, yet even its very loyal fan base (and having such a fan base is a testament to the fun of this game) is the first to note that "while EQ's ten year gets a huge blow out celebration; PlanetSide's six years was all but ignored," and when talking about SOE's Fan Faire, "even Matrix Online (which is officially scheduled to be terminated July 31, 2009) has a scheduled item for Fan Faire.  But, Planetside does not." I think that it's time Planetside's fans got some attention from their absentee landlords - this game ought to go Free-To-Play, or perhaps give the option of purchasing a lifetime subscription for a small fee or, dare I say, maybe come under the development scope once more? Or maybe I'll just wait for Huxley Online, or SOE's latest MMOFPS, "The Agency," to see if anyone's learned from the abandoned game that is Planetside.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
ZAM.com