Planetside 2004

[Morreion]

I played Planetside back in 2004. This was a 3-faction RvR game by SOE, a sci-fi shooter with persistent elements. You could advance through 20 levels, but instead of becoming more powerful, you just gained more gameplay options as you leveled up. It was quite unique, the first MMOFPS that I'm aware of.

The planet you fought over had different continents, with bases scattered over the land. These installations were important to control.



Each of the 3 factions had a home base. You could get to bases on the different continents via dropship, or hitch a ride on one of the big player-flown transport planes.





In the courtyard of a base. Many big battles took place over these installations, or at strategic areas around them such as bridges or outposts. Notice the vehicles, which were a big part of the game. You could fly aircraft or drive ATVs, APCs, tanks or other specialty vehicles. The higher you leveled up, the more vehicles you could learn to operate.



A couple of the big player-flown transport aircraft. You could coordinate your own invasions with this type of equipment.



One of the popular dune-buggy cars. I played the New Combine faction which was yellow and blue, hence that's why most of the screenshots show this faction



Vehicles could also have gunners firing support and heavy weapons- this was quite fun. Of course drivers could run over enemy infantry as well.



This buggy has an anti-tank launcher on the back.



Checking out a base from a personal ATV, very fast but unarmored.



This trooper is hacking a vehicle station so that his side could spawn vehicles from it. Infantry roles included gunners, snipers, medics, engineers and stealthy hackers.



These guys wait their turn to spawn a vehicle that they can operate.



Defending a room in a base. There was plenty of options for weapons, ranging from stealth pistols to assault rifles, chain guns and anti-tank or anti-aircraft launchers.



Getting ready to breach a door to attack a station.



This door is open, and the assault begins. Notice the variety of weapons equipped.



Players respawn at a portable player-driven respawn vehicle, allowing them to get back in the action quicker. These vehicles were high-value targets. They had their own 'cloaking device' that shielded them from view of enemy forces unless the enemy saw them from close range.



A few snipers supported by an anti-tank rocket launcher in an open-field battle.



Defending a base's critical computer room from invaders. Notice the powered armor suit, a one-man tank.



Aircraft strafe a base. Turrets could shoot back at them.



Battles were fast-paced and fun.

Planetside was fun, though it had flaws. Probably the biggest problem- there wasn't enough incentive to defend a base, resulting in round-robin base takeovers only to abandon them soon after. Also, FPS players were used to playing games for free, not a subscription. This is a sticking point for MMOFPS games.

SOE is currently working on Planetside 2- I'll be checking it out

[Loendal]

I played Planetside for a while, still got me disks too

It's recently (Recently being in a past few years) gone F2P I thought; though I could be mistaken. Since my PC was a bit on the clunkier side back then, I had to deal with alot of lag and FPS delay problems but I still had fun. I loved the multiplayer vehicles, such as the tanks. One person drove, a second person operated the heavy cannon and a third would operate the smaller Anti-personal machine gun on the top. Same with the Player-flown drop assault ships (The big T-shaped thing up above, Image 5 from the top. Jupiter? Galaxy? One of those names I think). It had machine gun cupola's with limited arc of fire if I remember correctly.

I owned a Buggy and one of those cars with the heavy cannon on the back you show up there. Never could get the hang of the planes, flying by mouse is an evil evil invention

[Morreion]

I think the big transport planes were Galaxies, now that you mention it Loendal! I too wasn't very good at flying but looooved driving vehicles. Man, people would whip out rocket launchers and blast away at you, what fun.

I remember one incident vividly. I was on my hacker character named Kirth, I was stealthed and running around on a hillside next to a base that had just been taken from my side. A guy was on the hill looking like he was talking (typing) to others because he wasn't moving much- I thought, 'aha, maybe an officer'. I went up behind him and with my pistol at point blank range blew him away. I re-stealthed as a few of his comrades ran up the hill looking for me- you could use a stealth-detector with a limited range- but I circled around and got away from them. That was very exciting!

I firmly believe that Planetside was ahead of its time. It reminded me of DAoC with its 3-way fights and bases that you could take from the enemy. I hope Planetside 2 works out well, I'll give it a try!