Across the continents of Auraxis, thousands of players will come together in enormous battles to win control of territory and resources for their empire. With an extensive skill tree and a free-form class-based system, players will be able to customize their soldier, weapons and vehicles to match their play-style, or the needs of their squad, outfit or empire. Battles can last for days or weeks, so players will need to build real alliances and combat outfits to take on long-term strategic and tactical initiatives. With air, ground and seaborne combat, the battles are more intense than ever. 

Various character, vehicle and artillery customization features will be available to players constructing the perfect fighter for their favorite of the three empires: The Terran Republic (the conservative, authoritative nation aiming to reunite the clashing factions), The New Conglomerate (a liberated faction fighting to remaining free) or The Vanu Sovereignty (technophiles seeking to develop and exploit alien technology). Also, an in-depth and adaptive class system – with ranks, unlockable traits and skill sets – will give players complete control over their online warrior.

The Shattered Warpgate permanently evolves the war-torn battlescapes of PlanetSide 2 through new open-world storytelling experiences called Campaigns. Each campaign will deliver multi-staged environmental and gameplay changes as players participate in new missions and experience the story as it unfolds each chapter. The Shattered Warpgate update is free-to-play in Open Beta on the Public Test Server starting soon.

“Whereas the Escalation update targeted our most veteran and organized groups of players, our goal for The Shattered Warpgate was to improve the experience for a much broader audience,” said Andy Sites, Executive Producer of PlanetSide 2 and Head of Rogue Planet Games. “It was important to introduce features that anyone can participate in and benefit from, be it the casual player with only 30 minutes to play once a week, or the hardcore player that spends hours in-game every day.”

In The Shattered Warpgate Campaign, players will return to the frigid tundras of Esamir to explore and battle across the newly devastation-wrought land. Each chapter progresses the story of a catastrophic technological event, sparked by the detonation of one of the continent’s Warpgates. Players will be forced to adapt to this harsh new landscape as they explore new facets of the war on Auraxis, and the enigmatic forces behind it.

“The features in this update allow us to breathe life into the PlanetSide universe by connecting players to the world and story,” said Michael “Wrel” Henderson, Lead Designer of PlanetSide 2. “At the same time, we’re providing more tangible session goals for players who desire more structure within our sandbox environments, and making some much needed improvements to one of our oldest continents.”

This massive update also introduces additional features and gameplay improvements for PlanetSide 2, including a new mission system, new weapons & equipment, social hub improvements, outfit resource rebalancing, and the restructuring of several major bases on the continent of Indar. Future campaigns will also be accompanied by major content additions, and the world of PlanetSide 2 will continue to evolve with every update.