Online game "PlanetSide 2"

This game is already more than eleven years old - it was released in the fall of 2012. But, nevertheless, it is still unrivaled in a number of ways. In no other free-to-play MMO you will find the same large-scale battles: day and night without respite thousands of gamers share the surface of the planet Auraxis in skirmishes, using all the means of the science fiction universe, from huge flying ships to tanks and power armor. Battlefield and Enlisted offer something similar in terms of mass appeal, but they still don't compare to Daybreak's project. What is the reason for the unrelenting interest in the classics?

After creating an account on the official site, you can install two clients at once - the standard and the test client, which is used to test the upcoming patches. We need, of course, the first one. On it everything starts with the choice of faction. Several factions are fighting for control over a distant planet. Separatists from the New Conglomerate are fighting for freedom from any dictatorship, the Terran Republic, on the contrary, subordinates everything to its iron will, and the Vanu Sovereignty pursues a scientific goal - to get as many artifacts of the dead civilization as possible. There is also a fourth side to the conflict, the robotic operatives of the Nanite Systems Corporation, but they are only available to players with a rank above 20, so the newcomer chooses from three units.

Further, having got into the character editor, you can play a little with the appearance of the hero and think up a name for him. There are no special frills here - just a choice of gender and skin tone. But, on the other hand, this is a dynamic shooter with a first-person view, so there will be no time and no reason to admire yourself. But it won't hurt to learn the basics of the game by passing the tutorial missions. Until recently, by the way, there were no such missions - people were immediately thrown into battle, because of which many people immediately dropped their hands. Now everything is done in a human way: you can briefly learn the background of the war on Auraxis, shoot at bots with different weapons, try out several classes and then drive an armored car. It's clear why unprepared gamers were confused during the debut - PlanetSide 2 is too different from its competitors.

On a basic level, everything seems clear. The usual management of running, shooting and vehicles, there are points to capture, their own and foreign soldiers - what's so complicated? But we must, first of all, take into account the peculiarities of the classes. There are six of them: saboteur, medic, paratrooper, engineer, stormtrooper and M.A.K.S. - the last one is a power armor with guns and is called on the battlefield for special resources. The Stormtrooper, for example, has a little more health and a grenade launcher for eliminating tanks, the Saboteur fires sniper weapons, the Paratrooper can fly on a jetpack, the Engineer repairs broken things and puts turrets, and the Medic shadow follows his comrades and uses a healing tool more often than a rifle. Secondly, the game doesn't have the usual conditions from shooters. There is no beginning of the match, no end, no rounds with the awarding of champions.

The whole planet is engulfed in war, which does not subside for a minute, and the respite comes only during the maintenance of servers. That's why from the peaceful zone you get to the battlefield, where something has been going on for a long time, explosions are rumbling, someone is running, driving or flying somewhere. The commander explains the task: now we are advancing in this direction and fighting for this point. That's it, then you're on your own. Go wherever you want and do whatever you want, as long as you are useful. Killing here is very fast, because there is no selection of fighters by level, and a newcomer runs the risk of running into a squad of veterans who have been playing for several years on pumped up characters. Because of these situations, many beginners are confused. Indeed, at first it is difficult to find your place in this global action.

But start with a simple - with mastering one of the classes. Take, for example, a medic and just follow your allies without setting yourself up and staying out of cover. As soon as one of your friends falls, you need to approach him and heal him with a special gadget. This way you can gain experience points and see what's going on around you. Every now and then you'll get reports that another section of the map has been captured or surrendered to the enemy - and everyone should go there. But the locations here are just huge, so to move you have to open the map, choose a landing point and wait for a few seconds. On a new place everything repeats: the guys started without you long ago, so it remains only to choose a class and act according to this choice.

Once here, you feel like a cog in a big mechanism. The feeling is reinforced by the premium equipment of other players - one player breaks through the enemy lines on the M.A.K.S., another has ordered a huge Colossus tank, and others use the clan aircraft carrier and attack the opponents' positions from the air. Nevertheless, you will be helped to become a part of the community in one way or another - for example, you will be invited to join a team. You can also ask to join someone else's group by yourself by pressing the Insert button on your keyboard, after which you will be automatically thrown into a random team nearby. And there - just watch what others are doing and follow them to gain experience.

The action of the game, as already mentioned, is set on the planet Auraxis. It is divided into peaceful and military zones. The former includes the Polygon, where the faction's fighters train and test various weapons, and the orbital Sanctuary, where you are given missions and from where you are transported to the surface of the world. To descend from the Sanctuary to the battlefield, you must select a continent. Indar is available by default, but as you level up, Hossin, Amerish, Yesamir, and Oshur also open up. Each of these areas has a different landscape and climate. And in the window on the right you are immediately shown a diagram of the balance of power: somewhere, for example, more lands are controlled by the New Conglomerate, and somewhere - by the Vanu Sovereignty.

Each continent is a huge map with a length of tens of kilometers, divided into locations - hexes. There are no borders inside the map - nothing prevents you from getting on a car and driving around the deserted expanses for hours. Another thing is that there is simply nothing to do outside the combat zones. Any area can be colored either in the color of the faction that owns it, or be neutral, if the troops have not yet gone there. Also, all of these hexes have from one to four checkpoints on their territory - whoever holds them owns the location. Goals are determined by clan commanders: they simply indicate where to make an effort, and the battle begins there.

Let's say that the battle for a hex is won by one side. What to do next? You can press the U button to go to the global map and assign yourself the next landing point. In case the battle is boiling far away from it, there are custom markers - it's easy to navigate by them after landing. Or you can do it easier - and press J to be automatically thrown to the nearest battle. It's also worth noting that capturing or surrendering checkpoints doesn't mean you stop fighting for them. War in PlanetSide 2 doesn't stop anywhere and never stops.

Hundreds of heroes can fight on one map. But not all of them are crowded in one place, although the game occasionally sets records for crowded battles. For example, in 2015, the action game entered the Guinness Book of Records when 1158 gamers fought simultaneously for one hex, and in 2020 the record was broken by a battle with 1283 participants. You are unlikely to get to such a grandiose battle, but you will still be able to appreciate the scale of what is happening, especially after joining a clan, or, as they are called here, an outfit. Being a part of this grouping, you will attack and defend your positions with the whole army, which can repaint a couple or three hexes on the map in a short time. Interestingly, the outfit is not faction-based, meaning that members of different forces can be members of the same clan, and they will fight each other if necessary.

All progression in the game is based on experience: the more gamers spend on the battlefield, the more they can afford. Along with experience points, new modes and factions become available, weapon and character modifications are unlocked. The upgrades themselves can be purchased for a special resource - certificates, which are given for activity. Taking into account that there is no selection of battle participants by level, you can imagine the difficulties faced by a newcomer. The problem is solved by joining a squad first, and then an outfit, which will give not only the support of comrades, but also accelerate the accumulation of experience with resources. Singles are not welcome here.

PlanetSide 2's base currency is nanites, which are available to everyone. To accumulate them, you just need to stay alive during battles and you'll receive a certain amount of money every minute. You'll also receive credits for eliminating enemies and helping your friends. For example, a Lightning light tank costs 300 nanites, a Vanguard heavy tank costs 450, and a Sunderer armored vehicle that can turn into a revival point for allies costs 200. Not ready to fight in vehicles? You can also order M.A.C.S. for nanites to boost your infantry attack.

The rest of the pumping, including gaining ranks, is related to participation in squads and clans. If a loner manages to accumulate a maximum of 750 nanites per battle, then for groups, in addition to this currency, there are special types of resources. Merit, for example, is used to prepare hexes for defense - you can buy mines and anti-tank barriers for it, and A7 is a resource for giving you and your comrades a unique appearance. Of course, the accumulation and use of such currencies is only available as part of the outfit.

PlanetSide 2 is a very unusual multiplayer action movie with a high threshold of entry. On the one hand, here the gamer has much more freedom than in any other representative of the genre, and the entertainment is available for free. On the other hand, for effective action and development must master a lot of mechanics - from the management of different classes of characters and modes of transportation to the correct orientation on the map. Only after learning the wisdom of war, you will turn from a small cog in the machine of science fiction warfare into a hero, changing the shape of the possessions on the planet. But the real sign of quality is the fact that the game has remained popular since 2012 - very rarely such a project lives for more than a decade, keeping the interest of the audience and the beauty of the graphics.

Zarium. January 2024