PlanetSide

These days, BFRs seem to sit more comfortably in the game's combat. That sense of comradeship may be hard to find, however. PlanetSide was always tough for the uninitiated; the array of permutations and practicalities you had to get your head around on first entry was bewildering. Today, it's doubly harsh for a newbie or rusty player, as the population seems to consist almost entirely of a hardcore of veterans. If you don't have an in, and don't garner buddies who you can coordinate with on Teamspeak or Ventrillo, it can be a lonely experience.

That said, the game offers the lone wolf player plenty of options - to man solo fighter aircraft, snipe or wear light-weight stealth gear and creep into enemy bases to wreak havoc. Indeed, hacking is one area of the game that's had some recent input from the developers, with a February 2008 patch introducing new hacking options, such as the ability to infect enemy hardware with debilitating viruses, which, for example, cause their automated gun-turrets to turn on them. There's a whiff of irony to the fact that in-game hacking was one of the last areas to receive any attention, as one abiding grievance of honest players is the nagging presence of cheats who hack the game itself. Plus ça change...

PlanetSide does have a levelling system, where you accrue points after building up experience from kills or successful hacks. These points can then be spent on character choices - whether you want to sow a road with mines, or fly a bomber, or hack enemy bases faster. Although this ranking up nominally sounds like a traditional RPG levelling system, it's decidedly different. By and large, PlanetSide is skill-based, reliant on FPS skills in tandem with the wider tactical coordination conducted by commanders. It's also a game that you can jump in and out of. As such, it's a refreshing alternative to massively multiplayer RPGs, with their culture of stat obsession, grinding, and getting locked into protracted instance runs.

Instancing might be part of the overall narrative thrust of your MMORPG experience, but it can get tiresome. Entering a battle on Auraxis, or just exploring by land or air, the game just happens on the fly; it's a fluid, ongoing personal narrative. The constantly evolving story of the battlefield may lack plot and depth, but at least it's unique at every turn, especially when you can engage in combat in such a variety of ways: from grunt, specialising in anti-personal, anti-vehicular or anti-aircraft weapons, to tank gunner, to medic, to pilot manning a fighter, bomber or transport ship.

Nothing is done at the behest of an NPC who mutters the same scripted lines ad infinitum, nothing is done as part of an interminable quest chain, nothing is scripted or part of a linear story mode. It's just you and other gamers, in the endless ebb and flow of conflict. This, of course, is both an extraordinary situation, and arguably a failing of the game.

In the glory days of PlanetSide, thrilling base and tower battles, as well as smaller running skirmishes, could be found on several corners of Auraxis. Today, with the dwindling populations, the action tends to be concentrated on just one continent/planetoid, and take the form of one base siege. For someone who played in the old days, it's sad, disappointing. My best ever gaming experiences were in PlanetSide, but today's play can't compare with the memories.