Recent reviews by Oscarcar2

It's a free student game, so it's harsh to complain. Even so, the core of mechanics simply does not support the gameplay.

The semi random generation dominates outcomes.
The player controls are awkward and unsatisfying.
There's no real depth to mastering the game.

These are core elements you can still achieve and master with a basic demo build, and they're not there.
Unfortunately this wasn't worth the 20 minutes i spent trying it, even if it was made with love and effort.

More of a demo than a full game, but also free.

If you enjoy 1st person platforming with focus on momentum, there's a few hours of fun to be had here especially with a built in speedrunning feature.

Great game, super fun.

Sony gave up. I love democracy.

PlanetSide 2 is without a doubt the greatest game I would not recommend, and that’s honestly a sad thing. With that said, I will try to explain why so you can decide if it’s worth trying it or not.

TL;DR There is a long grind to get maxed out stats and new tools, putting new players at an unfair disadvantage.


(If you are already familiar with what kind of game PlanetSide 2 is, skip to the next section: “The grind”)

PlanetSide 2 is a large scale, combined arms MMOFPS in the style of games like the Battlefield series. Instead of matches, fights happen over several bases scattered across a large open-world map. Players are in charge of every aspect of combat, from providing spawn points for the grunts to maintaining air superiority with fighters. The scale and unrestricted roles give PlanetSide 2 an experience completely unique to any other game on the market, combining grand scale with almost total player involvement. PlanetSide 2 features strong gunplay mechanics with good weapon and class balance. It has varied and fully fleshed out combined arms gameplay, with multiple vehicles filling multiple roles providing a large variety of gameplay styles. The game has 3 factions all fighting each other at any given time. They all have unique equipment without any one faction having anything truly overpowered.

At its core, PlanetSide 2 is a great game with completely unique and good underlying mechanics.


I’ve explained why PlanetSide 2 is a good game, so here is the reason I still don’t recommend it.

PlanetSide 2 features a slow progression system revolving around power upgrades, (meaning you can take less damage or shoot faster with some passive upgrades). It can take well over 100 in-game hours depending on player skill and playstyle to accumulate enough currency to fully upgrade single roles, especially vehicles. These upgrades aren’t interesting, usually being percentage increases. The interesting unlocks, like new guns, are sidegrades to the default weapons and veterans consider the noob traps. This isn’t a PvE title where the grind is part of the content, you’re just at a general disadvantage until you get the stat unlocks, the gameplay itself doesn’t change.

Let me be clear, PlanetSide 2 is NOT Pay-to-Win, but it IS Play-to-Win because more invested playtime = more in-game power (Until your equipment is maxed). This power gap is small, especially for infantry, and can easily be overcome with skill and experience.
If this bothers you, I would skip PlanetSide 2.
If this doesn’t bother you, I would give PlanetSide 2 a try.

I say this as a player that has done the grind (multiple times) and tried to get friends invested in the game, almost all of them grow frustrated with their limited kit and the high time investment to expand it. Want to fly a plane? Need to upgrade it to be somewhat useful first. Want to drive a tank? Same story. The game itself is playable for them, but just too restrictive to remain fun for long and that is exactly the warning I want to give anyone looking at this game.