by Brian - November 25, 2003

Planetside was an ambitious effort by SOE to merge two very different genres into one massive game. Despite having a buggy and lag filled start, it has really rebounded into a very good game. Had SOE released the game as it was a month ago, my original review would have scored much higher, but they didn�t. Now, less than 6 months after Planetside�s release comes its first expansion, Core Combat. Many in the Planetside community thought it was too early to warrant another purchase on top of the monthly fees for the game, but one thing about the expansion is that you don�t need the expansion to enjoy most of its benefits.

Gameplay

The additions in Core Combat include new weapons, new vehicles, new underground continents, and base enhancements. That�s good and all, but once you play the game, you will realize that these enhancements aren�t all that appealing. For one, the new weapons suffer from one fundamental problem. They have no ammo boxes. In order to reload any of the new Ancient Vanu weaponry, you must find a crystal (which only reside underground) and stand next to it until your ammo is full. You might think that this is a benefit because no ammo boxes means you can have more room for other stuff like med kits, but I assure you, when you are in a heated battle with one of the new weapons, whether it be the Maelstrom (Heavy Assault), Radiator (Special Assault), or the Spiker (Medium Assault, Pistol), you will run out of ammo fast.

The other problem with the weapons that I noticed was that they aren�t great replacements for the weapons in the original game. The Maelstrom, which shoots a stream of electricity that does splash damage like the Vanu Lasher, is only really useful for the New Conglomerate because the Jackhammer (Their Heavy Assault Weapon) has much less range than the Maelstrom. The radiator, like all special assault guns, is only useful in very specific encounters, such as killing MAXs quickly and killing people occupying turrets. It shoots a grenade that creates a spherical radiation field around the point of impact that does constant damage to anyone in the field. The main advantage of this gun is that it can kill enemies in the confines of their MAX suits or vehicles because it does damage directly to the health of the enemy. This is the most useful of the new weapons in my opinion. The Spiker pistol shoots quickly propelled, low power grenades with a fast rate of fire. It is a decent gun, but the only characters that actually use pistols are cloakers, and due to the nature of the way cloaking works in the game, the Spiker does more to harm them than help. Surprisingly, the reason why it is not very useful for cloakers is the color. White objects glow like a fluorescent light when equipped and that makes you very visible to enemies, which negates the infiltrator�s only advantage.

Next, the Vehicles. Again, the new vehicles didn�t impress me as much as I thought they would. The Flail is arguably the only really useful of the 3 new vehicles. The Flail is a heavy mobile artillery vehicle. It does massive damage, can shoot targets miles away, but due to the cannon�s angle and for the sake of balance, it cannot hit targets up close. It also has slow moving projectiles. In order to fire, the Flail must be deployed. It also has a �laze� pointer that friendly soldiers can use to paint targets for you. A skilled team can clear out an entire courtyard or tower with one or two of these things, so that is definitely a benefit.

The Router is another support vehicle. You get it with the AMS certification. The Router has no weapons, and hovers higher than any other ground vehicle so that it cannot run people over easily. When the Router is deployed, the driver is automatically ejected and the trunk gets a teleportation pad. Anyone can take the pad but there is a limit of one per router. The person who takes the pad can then drop it anywhere within a certain radius of the deployed Router. This creates a two-way link between the Router and the pad in which anyone, both friendly and enemy, can use to transport themselves. The only problem I have with the Router is that the radius is too small, and if there are two Routers in the area, only one can be deployed in each radius. It is a very useful thing to have around in the caverns because traveling underground is not easy. If the vehicle had more deploy range though, it would be top notch.

The Switchblade comes with the ATV certification. Most people who have the ATV certification only have it because it has very fast vehicles that any armor type can drive. The low armor and weak firepower of the ATVs produce very few kills. The Switchblade is different in that it cannot be occupied by reinforced armor, and it has a moderately powerful gun. It�s also very fast, so it definitely comes out as the best ATV. When the Switchblade deploys, it doubles its rate of fire much like the Terran MAXs and becomes a stationary turret. This mode of fire is not very useful unless you are camping a doorway and that�s a lame tactic anyway.

The Caverns were a good idea, but not implemented well in my opinion. Planetside�s world is so huge that it has a hard time keeping action going on one or two continents unless you are on the Emerald server, which is the most populated. Adding more places to spread out forces is going to makes it even harder to find a fight. Furthermore, the zip lines, while a very neat addition, just make traveling in the caves confusing. Also, the fact that the caverns are pretty much empty most of the time doesn�t help. There really isn�t much reason to go down into the caverns because you can just as easily steal a module from another team�s base or carrier. Fighting in the caves is just a pain because the terrain makes it near impossible to travel in a ground vehicle and the confusing zip lines. The spawn rooms in the caves don�t even have equipment terminals, which makes spawn campers a common sight.

As for the base enhancing modules themselves, they are mediocre at best. I was expecting a lot more. There are six types of modules: Equipment, Vehicle, Speed, Health, Pain, and Shield. Equipment allows your empire to buy the ancient tech weapons at that facility (otherwise only available in the caverns). The Vehicle one does the same but for vehicles. Health grants anyone who spawns at a facility more health, and you regenerate health when in the sphere of influence (SOI). Speed increases the speed of soldiers in the SOI. Pain does constant damage to enemies in the facility. Shield makes a shield around the base that no enemy vehicles can enter. The only ones I really found to be worth the time to get were the health and shield modules. The pain module would be great but it only works in certain rooms in the facility like the generator and spawn rooms. Granted, those are 2 out of the 3 most important rooms, but its not enough in my opinion.

Overall, the new additions are fundamentally flawed. There are very few gameplay enhancements that are worthwhile.

Graphics

The graphics in Planetside are good, but it seems that with Core Combat the texture artists and level designers got lazy because the new visuals don�t compare to those in the original game. For example, all of the new vehicles are pretty much completely silver, with a little tiny spot of color indicating your empire. Most vehicles are completely their empires colors, but these new vehicles are solid silver making it hard to see whom you are shooting at in battle. I realize they are supposed to look �Futuristic� and �High Tech� but that isn�t a reason to mess up a basic gameplay mechanic.

Furthermore, the caves are ugly. The only thing I liked about the caves graphically is the doors. Instead of doors opening and causing your computer to freeze up while your graphics card renders the world behind that door, the new doors in the caverns dissipate as you near them. I thought that was a really cool effect. Otherwise, the crystalline structures in the caves and the buildings in them are too blocky for a game with such good graphics. I�m sure it was designed to look that way, but I just don�t feel it fits the game very well.

However, I do like the graphics on the new weapons, and the shield module effect is quite breathtaking. The radiator could have used a little more love in the graphics department though.

Sound and Music

If you read my review of Planetside, you know that I love the music in the game. Core Combat is no different. I believe music to be one of the most important aspects of a game and the new musical scores are a great addition to the game.

Additionally, the weapons and vehicles sound good as well. My favorite of the new sound effects is the Maelstrom�s primary fire, but I also like the Switchblade�s firing sound. The rest are also good, but far from perfect.

Funfactor

This is a hard category to judge for an expansion. The only thing I can really think of is if you think Planetside is fun, Core Combat will be fun as well. Also, if you were turned away from the game because all the fighting was out in the open, or another similar reason, the caverns of Core Combat will fulfill your needs. Otherwise, once the novelty of the new features wears off, it�s still the same game.

Plasmafactor

SOE faced a tough decision early on in the development of Core Combat. Should we have a separate server for expansion players, or should we just put the enhancements on the live servers and only let expansion owners play around in the new parts? Either way would be controversial. If they had chosen to make an expansion only server, the populations would drop significantly and force others to get the expansion if they wanted action. That isn�t a very good business practice, but allowing the latter also makes it pretty pointless to buy the expansion in the first place. The new weapons don�t give you much of, if any, advantage over the people who don�t, and neither do the vehicles (Flail excluded). Everyone benefits from the module enhancements, but you paid $30 to have the privilege to do all the work to get them for your empire. It just doesn�t seem fair in my opinion.

In closing...

I don�t think Core Combat is worth your money. At least not yet. If I were you, I�d wait until the next expansion to get Core Combat, if at all, because unless you have an undying urge to be able to use the vehicles and weapons, the rest of the expansion is mediocre. Save your money.