A Biased Review: Planetside - The first MMO I ever touched, and I am thrilled to have been there for it.
I can say that I am honestly majorly disappointed with the future that SoE decided to take this game.
The initial release was spectacular, and the calling of the CR5's was superb, as they were true team leaders, and had true tactics and skills... unfortunately several outfits (the equivalent of guilds or clans) that were not very... well the best word I can think of is "honorable" started to become very popular and began to detract from the skill of other outfits, and of course the content and intellectual value of the players in the games. With the balance of control being taken by new factions such as Sturmgrenadier, outfits such as SEPH, and others were slowly or quickly taken out of the picture, and thus a large degree of CR5's decided to no longer play, or to take up new characters or even a new server.
These events, as well as the patches and updates, and the immature behavior that is the generally accepted norm in mmo's these days (and it seems online play as a whole) started to... break apart the maturity of the game community, the intelligence, the tactical apparatus's, and of course the skill of other players.
However, this game lacked cheats, hacks, or really any such vibrant form of hurting others in the game, and so still remained solid, though many complained of "Newbhammers" and "Lashers", and other insults for the weapon users of the factions Republic, Sovereignty, and Conglomerate... (you'll have to forgive me for not remembering them all, as I haven't played for a while) and thus still remained a solid form of entertainment... unlike good games like C&C Renegade, and other such multi fps's (though this was in a different breed of its own).
However the problems started the most when the community wanted a big CHANGE, and so Core Combat was made... and though it had great potential, the story wasn't fleshed out enough unfortunately, and it just added new outposts, and a few new clever, but simple weapons and cheap vehicles (such as the flail).
The underground portion was widely underused aside from some module runners, and new players enjoying the area (though in reality new players didn't have the necessarily tech to really survive or enjoy it to the most), and with the lack of bugs or glitches in the whole game, as well as such an underground level... well things were still stable, but with the lack of use, many people didn't even decide to buy Core Combat.
But that was just the schism... the real destruction game when the literal schism did occur. "Aftershock" brought "Battle-frame Robotics" or to most immature people "Big f-ing robots" that were individualized but balanced for each faction, and basically destroyed many of the tactics and skill required to play the game.
I haven't touched this game for a very long time, as now they've made it near free... and they are trying their best to get people back into it, but when they made a new "appealing site" in place for their intelligent, gathered, and VASTLY SUPERIOR one, it was obvious that the focus was changing, and they didn't want to spend that MANY resources on an uncertain product, which is only uncertain because of their changes.
In total the game was grand, but it is now nothing more than a 4.5, in my eyes.
I suggest anyone willing to try it, do so however, as the touch of the past can still be seen, and it is still a fun game I hear... but with a much less mature and involved community.
- Cere.