Gameplay

Phased plasma rifle in the forty-watt range

Furthermore, PlanetSide doesn't exclude new players from its best content. In an MMO like EverQuest, there's a lot of the game you're not going to experience until you're a higher level. But in PlanetSide, the content is laid open to players of almost all skill levels. You can go into a training area to test all of the guns and vehicles. What's more, you can periodically re-spend the skill points you use to 'unlock' weapons and vehicles. You aren't shunted into one-way choices. If you don't like the gun you're using, or if you just want a change of pace, unspend the points and put them into something else. Trouble with commitment? PlanetSide's your game.

Disembarking

Best dressed faction

My what a big gun you have

Which is not to say PlanetSide is easy to jump into. It's not. Some helpful tutorials explain the basics of the interface, and the virtual training area is great for familiarizing yourself with different hardware. But it’s not easy to figure out how to fit into the action. Every now and then, you’ll run across a lone figure jogging across the landscape in the middle of nowhere, miles from a friendly base or even a battle. You quickly kill him, of course, but you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor sod who probably just jumped into the game and didn’t know where to go. When you’re starting out, your best bet is to join a squad with someone you know. Barring that, just join a squad. Playing solo right off the bat is one of the quickest ways to give up in frustration.

Have you seen a war around here?

Then there are problems actually finding the action. You can chase battle symbols on the map, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll find an actual battle. The instant action option, which is supposed to instantly drop you into action, is hit or miss; you're just as liable to show up at the tail end of a tiny spat as a full-fledged fight. One of the most difficult parts of PlanetSide's learning curve is figuring out how to read the ebb and flow of combat, which is as much an art as a science. It's like chasing weather patterns.

Hike in the woods

Maxes lead the way

Truckin'

But even after you've mastered the meteorology of melee, and even if you've fallen in with a cooperative squad, there's still a lot of downtime: waiting for hacks after defenders have long since given up a base, moving to the front after a respawn, queuing for a vehicle, holding for your Max to be available again, gathering your squad, and so forth. In PlanetSide, there's a lot of hang fire that you don't get with Tribes or Battlefield 1942. The fact that this isn't necessarily a flaw, but a facet of the design, might not matter to action gamers unused to a tactical wargame shell built around their first person shooters. It's not all shoot-shoot-shoot. More than any other action game, PlanetSide requires patience.