Despite being out for years, Planetside 2 is a unique gaming experience. It allows combined arms combat similar to a battlefield title with aircraft, ground vehicles, and infantry. Battle takes place over continents that feature battles with upwards of several hundred players fighting at once. The continent state remains constant for each server - when you log out, the battle continues without you. I've yet to find a game that has squad and platoon tactics to this degree.

The game is entirely free to play. Membership confers some nice benefits, but they're not required. Additional configurable loadouts for your vehicles and infantry, discounted rates on items in the store, bonus exp, bonus certs (which are used to purchase equipment), faster queue times, more of the ingame resource that you generate every minute that allows you to pull vehicles. That kind of thing.

The game has it's share of bugs, which are a nuisance, but not gamebreaking. Frankly I'm surprised it runs as well as it does, with the sheer scale of some of the battles I've participated in.

Recently, there have been large developments. A new hub area, new vendors, new equipment that's purchasable simply from playing, awesome Bastion Fleet Carriers (which add an entirely new component to the battlefield), incentives on joining an outfit (guilds, clans, you get the idea), new deployables, new cosmetics, and some rebalancing. And on the horizon, an enormous multi-seater tank is going to be added to the game. I'm excited for future content.

All in all, a ton of fun. If you get bored or frustrated in one area of the game, you can swap to many different roles. The infantry loadouts are Engineer, Medic, Light Assault (jetpacks, bombs), Heavy Assault (heavy weapons, rocket launchers), Infiltrators, and MAXes (think small mechsuits). Each of these classes have different playstyles, and can be given equipment that then vastly changes their roles too.

For vehicles, there's plenty of variation too. And that playstyle difference comes into effect here - for example you can pull a light, fast tank and fight armor, or you can slap an anti-air cannon that tank and have a totally different role.

If any of this review sounds interesting to you, give it a try, it's a great time, and as I mentioned, totally free.

Despite being out for years, Planetside 2 is a unique gaming experience. It allows combined arms combat similar to a battlefield title with aircraft, ground vehicles, and infantry. Battle takes place over continents that feature battles with upwards of several hundred players fighting at once. The continent state remains constant for each server - when you log out, the battle continues without you. I've yet to find a game that has squad and platoon tactics to this degree. The game is entirely free to play. Membership confers some nice benefits, but they're not required. Additional configurable loadouts for your vehicles and infantry, discounted rates on items in the store, bonus exp, bonus certs (which are used to purchase equipment), faster queue times, more of the ingame resource that you generate every minute that allows you to pull vehicles. That kind of thing. The game has it's share of bugs, which are a nuisance, but not gamebreaking. Frankly I'm surprised it runs as well as it does, with the sheer scale of some of the battles I've participated in. Recently, there have been large developments. A new hub area, new vendors, new equipment that's purchasable simply from playing, awesome Bastion Fleet Carriers (which add an entirely new component to the battlefield), incentives on joining an outfit (guilds, clans, you get the idea), new deployables, new cosmetics, and some rebalancing. And on the horizon, an enormous multi-seater tank is going to be added to the game. I'm excited for future content. All in all, a ton of fun. If you get bored or frustrated in one area of the game, you can swap to many different roles. The infantry loadouts are Engineer, Medic, Light Assault (jetpacks, bombs), Heavy Assault (heavy weapons, rocket launchers), Infiltrators, and MAXes (think small mechsuits). Each of these classes have different playstyles, and can be given equipment that then vastly changes their roles too. For vehicles, there's plenty of variation too. And that playstyle difference comes into effect here - for example you can pull a light, fast tank and fight armor, or you can slap an anti-air cannon that tank and have a totally different role. If any of this review sounds interesting to you, give it a try, it's a great time, and as I mentioned, totally free.