Install Planetside: Core Combat

My character is packing a powerful maelstrom heavy assault rifle as I sprint through some alien subterranean complex. Coming topside for air, I feel confident because no one can touch me. No, I��m not that good and I��m not cheating. It��s just that no one else was willing to drop the $30 for the first Planetside expansion, Core Combat.

A host of new advanced weaponry allows you to fire a burst of static cling while the radiator lays down some toxic waste on the ground. Vehiclewise, there��s a teleporter station, a hoverbike, and a mobile artillery platform. Take this gear aboveground and you can blow away those who haven��t plunked down their 30 bucks for the expansion��you can use this stuff, but they can��t. Nyah, nyah, nyah!

What��s the alien name for tumbleweeds?

Since you can recharge these weapons only underground, you��re stuck carrying around the sci-fi equivalent of a disposable camera. Great. And there��s little incentive to stay belowground for too long; between the lame zip lines that ferry you around and the endless precarious perches, I wanted to run out as quickly as possible. It didn��t help that the many times I went spelunking, nobody was there. No doubt, if more people start drinking the Planetside Kool-Aid, it��ll be fun. But as it stands, it��s like running errands. Need to borrow my tools? Let me go into the basement to get them. Need that flail mobile artillery cannon (which is very cool, by the way) or some module? I��ve gotta get to one of the four active Geowarps scattered around the world first to get down below. See you in about 30 minutes.

Coercing people to buy Core Combat so they can get more-potent weaponry seems shady. This expansion should cost a lot less��or be free. The perpetually patched updates have fixed the horrible stability issues that plagued the launch. Hopefully, it won��t be long before we see similarly streamlined gameplay and more reasons to go down below.

Verdict

2.5 Stars

A decent idea at its core, but not worth the price.

Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment

Genre: Action

ESRB: T

Required: Pentium III 1GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 64MB 3D card, 600MB install

Recommended: Pentium 4 1.8GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 128MB 3D card, 800MB

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.