Eight years have passed since Daybreak Game Company (then Sony Online Entertainment) first released PlanetSide 2, and since then the sci-fi MMOFPS has become so big that it set the Guinness World Record for the most players in a single FPS battle. The game could hardly get any bigger at this point, but that’s just what it has become with the release of its next major update, Shattered Warpgate.
Daybreak and developer Rogue Planet Games dropped the new update this week on PC (the PS4 version should launch in a few weeks), and it brings with it some of the most substantial changes the game has seen in years. Along with major alterations to PlanetSide 2's virtual battlefields, the update introduces a new mission system that lets players take on daily quests and challenges for rewards. Tying this together are new story campaign missions where players can get to the bottom of the devastation caused by the destruction of the titular Warpgate.
Daybreak and Rogue Planet say the update has been in development for several months, with some parts of it even pre-dating PlanetSide 2’s last major update, Escalation. This shows in the scale of the features they hyped for Shattered Warpgate, which include:
- Esamir Revamped: The continent of Esamir has gone through a major transformation, including reworked bases and facilities, new alien flora and skybox improvements, and a deadly electrical storm roaming the battlefield.
- All-New Mission System: Players now have access to a wide range of daily mission types that can be completed for rewards. Members will receive additional daily mission unlocks.
- New Weapons & Equipment: New items like the Icepick melee weapon, Havoc Rockets, and Condensate Grenades are now available as Campaign rewards or purchasable from the in-game Depot.
- Sanctuary Changes: Social hub improvements include graphical upgrades and the addition of cross-faction text chat.
- Outfit Resource Rebalancing: War Asset costs have been overhauled to better reward and incentivize Outfits who participate in base captures.
- Indar Terrain Changes: Key locations on the continent of Indar have been reworked to improve the overall balance and combat flow on the map.
All of this new content should go quite a way to attracting new players to the game, as well as players who may have moved on from the game over the years. A lack of players has been a problem that’s affected the PlanetSide franchise in recent times, as that was the main reason Daybreak shut down PlanetSide Arena, its deathmatch-focused spinoff, after only three months in early access.
PlanetSide 2 is free-to-play for PC and PS4.
Source: PlanetSide 2