It has frame rate issues right now. If you turn down certain things it becomes perfectly playable. I haven't noticed any lag myself. Are you playing on a server in the right part of the world?

Killing people and completing objectives doesn't have the same weight to it as in Dust, but that's to be expected, as it's not ever going to be something with an actual economy and so on. It's meant to be a game you just hop into, kill some people, and have a good time without needing to give it much thought. In that respect it is much better than Dust is. But, there are a LOT of weapons/etc to be unlocked, and most unlocked stuff can be upgraded, and killing/capturing gets you points with which to upgrade stuff. So there definitely is some reward for winning.

Teamwork in Planetside is more pronounced. You have specific classes, with weapons/abilities totally locked out depending the class you have equipped at the moment. Only two classes get anti-armor weaponry, only one can heal, only one can repair or restore ammo, etc. You need to rely on people about the same as in Dust.

I have no idea how you could say it doesn't need skill. In fact, it requires even more skill, as the weapons in it are not hitscan and therefore you need to lead targets and compensate for drop (apart from Vanu energy weapons).

This carries over to sniper rifles as well. In Planetside 2, sniper rifles: Have bullet drop, have bullet travel time, and leave a tracer in the air as they're fired. Most of them also only kill in one hit if you get a headshot. So sniper rifles, in particular, require much more skill in that game than in Dust, where you just point and click like an imbecile.

Flying is fine. It's not as finnicky as in Dust, but there's actual dogfighting and maneuvering around and so on. It's hard to compare a game like Dust, where battlefields are tiny and the only aircraft is the dropship, to flying around a huge map in something that's a weird mix between a jet and a helicopter.


Areas Planetside does well are many.
- It does sniper rifles fairly well, but even then I take exception to the one-hit-kill sniper rifles. I imagine they might get nerfed, as they did state they didn't want OHK weaponry, but we'll see. Anyway, sniping actually takes some skill in that game for long-range shooting. Dust could learn from it.

- You can customize your armor configuration, your helmet, your armor colour scheme, your weapon colour scheme, your insignia, and you earn titles as you rank up/etc. Vehicles can also be customized in a similar way. Planetside 2 has a lot of customization options, and will only add more as things move forward. Dust, by contrast, has armour colouration that exists only for one armor type, and gets away when you die wearing that armor. In Planetside, you buy a colour scheme, apply it to an armor/weapon/vehicle, and it's yours forever.

- You can spend money in Planetside to unlock weapons/etc sooner, but all weapons/etc can be unlocked via points earned in-game as well. Nothing is exclusively paid-for. Overall it handles the stuff players pay for and what they don't need to pay for much, much better than Dust. Maybe CCP has plans for stuff later, but of course they've not even hinted at it, so at this point I'll assume all their plans are is for guns and armor that cost 6 cents and go away when you die with them.

- From the get-go you can use any class type, any vehicle. You don't have all the options available to you, but you can still do some damage in a stock tank, and can still be an effective support or sniper character without investing any points into upgrades. It's cool, because you can play a lot of different ways whenever you want. In Dust, you're much more limited by your finances and your skills.

- Large battles are very impressive. Swarms of tanks and aircraft, attacking some massive base at night on a wintery continent, with the aurora borealis streaming overhead and tracers lighting up the skill, is impressive to behold. It is an epic game.

- The continents are nice and interesting. Arid badlands sort of continent, a grasslands one, and an arctic one. It's nice having terrain variety. "Dusty industrial hellscape" has its charms, but it does get old.


Anywya, bottom line is you're on drugs if you think this game is a failure. Years from now, when Dust is out of beta and all the stuff we keep saying "well JUST YOU WAIT until it's added!" about is actually added, it will be the superior game. For now, however, Planetside 2 is a lot of fun and will keep you entertained a good long while.