Yesterday’s invite-only PlanetSide Arena demo event was a quickie – it was over in two hours. But already the hype is building for the game.
Readers will recall that PlanetSide Arena re-emerged with a teaser trailer and roadmap in August. Daybreak originally announced the massive-scale battle royale game last year as a buy-to-play title, but it was delayed twice and refunds were granted to preorder players, and then Daybreak went radio-silent for half a year. The August announcement revealed it wasn’t dead – that it’s launching into the first phase of its early access on September 19th, with 300-player matches that’ll eventually be 1000-player brawlfests by the time it gets around to a proper launch in Q2 of next year.
Specifically, the event highlighted Squads, “an intense, large-scale Arena mode featuring teams of 12 in matches of up to 300 players that will be available right at the start of Early Access.” PC Gamer’s piece on the event in particular praises the large map and player count – 240 in his match, calling it “absolute bedlam” and “a lot of fun.” The publication also points out the welcome lack of inventory, the skill imbalance, the confusion over what’s happening, and the fact that “no one is going to be camping in a bush for most of the match” as they do in other battle royale titles.
Daybreak has also dropped previews of the Medic and Assault classes, and at least one gamer has pondered the (unconfirmed) possibility of P2W in the game. Check out a few videos from various YouTubers from the event!
