I've been playing this game for 8 years so I've seen a lot of change over the years. I previously downloaded the launcher from the website before moving my copy to steam which is why my listed hours are lower than they actually are.

Pros:

- No other game like this exists, could be a con too depending on how you view it.

- Massive battles.

- Freedom to do whatever the heck you want at any time. Want to join a roving band of players in tanks and sunderers? No one will care if there is an extra! Want to follow a massive infantry foot zerg? by all means go ahead! Tired of capturing bases, grab a buddy and build a base anywhere on the map or honestly it's fun to just explore as there is a lot of variety and cool spots in the landscape no one ever looks at.

- Vehicle physics are a little wacky sometimes but fun as heck if you just go with it and use it creatively. Harassers have some of the best physics.

- Variety of vehicles and classes to choose from at any moment.

- There is no bad starting gear. Starting LMGs are actually some of the most powerful and while a side arm here and there feels a little non intuitive, they can be underestimated easily.

- The game is FREE. No pay to win. Certs come a little slow in the beginning before you get good, but you can unlock every single available weapon pretty much without paying a penny and access all content. If you want cosmetics you have to pay, but it isn't a downside as they don't do anything but look pretty. Not a bad monetisation platform at all!

- Fun with friends.

- Depending on the server and faction you can get a very supportive and fun community especially for new players. Definitely the least toxic I've encountered compared to some PVP games out there.

- If you like cooperation and team play this game is very geared towards that. It does require the player base to be more communal and positive overall. Squad leadership can make or break your team and even alert experience keep in mind. A lot of people see large groups swarming the map sometimes and think oh, mindless zerg. It is actually far from that. It's a powerful example of what a really good set of strong leadership can bring out of players who otherwise would not do so well without coordinating.

Cons:

- The game play is not forgiving to new players partly due to the presence of very good long term players and misunderstanding of game mechanics. It can be a little overwhelming when you enter your first large battle without any support or guidance from another experienced player.

- Because there is no hitscan and bullets have physics that differ for each faction and their weapons, it can take some getting used to if you only play games with easy mechanics like COD or Halo online.

- The game does do a poor job of bringing new players into these systems causing a lot of frustration or misunderstanding.

- Cheaters of course. They do exist in literally every online game though. The worst would be the cheat detection is not that great and community support was always lacking, likely due to Daybreak's decision to pull resources away from this development studio. I've experienced much worse systems though for reporting players in other games.

- Long standing reoccurring bugs that could still be fixed and it is way too easy to cheat still. One being flying players and tanks. I would love to see the studio patch that up as it's easy to do and been around years.

- While not the end of the world for me, some major updates like the vehicle nerfs that came with combined arms, the Esamir rework or removal of certain functions like back seat vehicle repairs were a massive disappointment. There have been some very good updates as well such as help towards making spawn points less destructible and Maxes can no longer be endlessly revived. I feel the balancing issues were made worse by changing studio hands too many times and lack of resources. Looking at you Daybreak. The studio has had a lot of trouble finding a happy medium for balancing. I'll give it time for the new studio to learn the game and see what happens though.

- All in all, people will never be 100 percent happy with the changes but certain parts of the loud negative community has become more toxic and complains over really odd things that no one ever cared about years ago so it reflects in the way people act within the game as well changing the landscape.

- Battles have become smaller than they used to be because of lack of player participation.

- I think this is obvious, but Daybreak really freaking sucks.

Personally, I've generally been otherwise very happy with things so I'd absolutely still recommend the game and have a blast when I play with friends, however for new players out there I really advise you look up guides to make your game play experience easier. I didn't actually get very good at the game until I found other players class and vehicle tutorials.

It's time for Planetside 3. Quit jackin the beanstalk devs and publishers. It's been 12 years!

Awesome game, i used to love it. Played it for years..
Can't recommend it anymore, too many cheaters. And they are not even hiding it.
Dont invest any time or money into this.