History VideoGame / PlanetSide

-->''Honor, Justice, Duty''
--->'''Terran Republic'''

-->''Freedom Over Oppression''
--->'''New Conglomerate'''

-->''Technology Equals Might''
--->'''Vanu Sovereignty'''

''[=PlanetSide=] 2'' was launched for the PC on Nov 20, 2012. It was also ported onto the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4. It features much faster-paced combat than the original, typically compared to ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield3}} Battlefield 3]]''. There are fewer continents and they are overall smaller, but are much more "dense", with more areas to contest compared to the original game. The do-it-yourself loadouts of yore (which lead to [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome everyone carrying the exact same loadout]]) are replaced by a CharacterClassSystem - [[CombatMedic Medics]], [[SupportPartyMember Engineers]], [[AirborneMook Light Assault]], [[HeavilyArmoredMook Heavy Assault]], [[StealthExpert Infiltrators]] and the [[PoweredArmor MAX]].

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: New Conglomerate and Terran Republic weapons follow this. The Conglomerate uses a lot of [[MagneticWeapon railguns]] and shotguns, whereas the Terrans just rely on regular guns [[MoreDakka shooting a ton of bullets everywhere.]]

* WeaponBasedCharacterization: GatlingGood and MoreDakka for the Terran Republic, just classic gunpowder-based firearms. For the Vanu Sovereignty, it's all about [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] and {{Plasma Cannon}}s, and other energy weapons. For the New Conglomerate, it's {{Magnetic Weapon}}s and a focus on ShotgunsAreJustBetter that is more than strictly sane - shotgun pistols for the rank-and-file, triple-barrelled shotguns for their assault troops, ''nose-mounted shotgun cannons for their aircraft''...

* ObviousBeta: ''[=PS2=]'' launched with a plethora of bugs. The game launched very poorly optimized unless you were on a very specific type of computer (Intel [=I5=] processor with a Geforce graphics card) - players who had even more powerful systems but had AMD processors often suffered from terrible performance. Other major bugs appeared throughout beta and early release, such as players falling through the world, or the game not rendering enemies mere meters from you. While many gamebreaking bugs have since been fixed, the game remains questionably stable for many players, and optimization issues have been mostly ignored. At least until recently when the devs announced "Operation: Make Faster Game" which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. They have released a handful of videos on their {{Website/YouTube}} channel discussing some of the issues and hiccups they're hoping to address.
* Oh Crap!: Planetside 2 is full of moments that'll elicit this reaction, generally when you face a situation that will put you in a world of suck. These include:
** An enemy bastion approaching your location to bombard it.
** An enemy zerg heading to your location.
** Encountering a player and/or outfit that is extremely skilled, especially if they're more so than you.
** When an alert starts, the two opposing factions start ganging up on your faction.
** Encountering an enemy Colossus tank and its accompanying convoy.
** Encountering an enemy armor convoy.
** Being on the business end of an airstrike.
** An orbital strike being called in on your position.

* The '''Vanu Sovereignty (VS)'''is a [[MachineWorship cult]] of scientists and other intellectuals who embrace [[{{Precursors}} Vanu]] technology to a much greater extent than the other factions, hoping to eventually AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence as they believe the Vanu themselves did. [[EnergyWeapon Energy Weapons]] are their specialty, often with the unique ability to fire in standard or armor-piercing modes using the same ammo. Their vehicles are relatively fragile but have hover drives that allow them to strafe and scoot across bodies of water to attack from unexpected angles. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20060105170210/http://www.vanusovereignty.com/ Website]]

* GreyAndGrayMorality: As opposed to the first game, none of the factions in ''[=PlanetSide=] 2'' are particularly good or evil. the New Conglomerate is , and the Vanu Sovereignty .

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL1sKN0HkLQ This]] RousingSpeech by Radlock of the Recusion outfit has become somewhat famous, not just for the speech itself, but also for the [[BadassBaritone badass voice]].

* TemporaryOnlineContent: In ''Planetside 2'', the Anniversary bundles contain exclusive gear - such as holographic armor in the second anniversary - which cannot ever be acquired once they are removed from the market at the end of the anniversary. However as has been done with the first, second and third anniversary pack, the packs can and may make a return after their initial release.