Okay, I fear this might be a long one. Please scroll past if you cba to read!
I swear, this game is good. The best game I've played.
Why? Well, it has POLISHED infantry gameplay. As a soldier, you can spawn inside bases that your empire controls, or mobile spawn points called sunderers. From there you're free to run around, fight, jump off bridges, whatever you want. there's 6 infantry classes, each of which has a lot of room to specialise once you get good. The infiltrator class acts as a sniper class by default, but by swapping out your rifle for an SMG it becomes a deadly stealth class, sneaking up while invisible and killing at close range! This makes it both an effective sniper and anti-sniper class. Then there's the light assualt, which can use its jetpack to get to high up places and rain down fire from long range, or flank the enemy quickly and burst through a window with a shotgun. It also has light anti-vehicle capabilities with C4 and a mini rocket rifle. The heavy assualt is the main meat of the attack, with an extra body shield to absorb bullets. You can use fully auto weapons to suppress enemies, or get some SUPER heavy shotguns that can insta-kill at close range... if you're accurate. Heavies get access to a rocket launcher by default, which is great. The medic, surprisingly, is actually the best class in the game. You get access to mid-range rifles and shotguns too. The medic in planetside 2 is better, I think, than any other game because you can pack some real dangerous firepower while still being able to farm XP like mad by reviving and healing. A good medic reviving quickly can turn the tide of an entire base fight. The engineer is the other support class. Engies get battle rifles too, and can also place down ammo for other players. They can repair vehicles and turrets, place down their own turrets, and are a must-have if you're in a vehicle. The final class is the MAX, which is basically a small mech suit with aircraft-grade nose cannons on each arm. The max can't be healed by a medic, you need a engineer to repair the suit. MAXes can be equipped for anti-infantry, anti-air, or anti-ground. A "MAX crash" can rapidly turn the tide of a major fight by putting a whole squad of them onto the field.
These 6 classes all have their specific roles, but are flexible in what you do with them. You can also change class on the fly if you're near an equipment terminal. The infantry gameplay has all you'd expect: primary and secondary guns, explosives, frags, smoke grenades, personal med kits, knives, etc etc.
The thing about this game is that it's free to play, but it's not pay to win. The default weapons you get at the start are arguably the best weapons, since they're versatile and work in the majority of cases. Buying new weapons won't give you any advantage over other players unless you know the range and circumstances in which to use that weapon. You don't pay for upgrades, you pay to specialise your loadouts to your preference.
Of course, there's also this whole combined arms idea, with tanks, transport, fighter aircraft, bombers, troop carriers, and heavy battle tanks on the battlefield both above the bases, and in the open land between them. If you get bored of infantry gameplay, you can try out dogfighting, or tank play, or anti-air, or join a squad / platoon to coordinate your assualts. The entire game is on a massive open map, with no limits on where you can go.
Here's a video of me playing. We're defending the base, and I decide to use the light assualt's jetpack to get over the wall and run round behind my enemy, attacking them from behind while my teammates keep them occupied in front.
https://plays.tv/video/5b003b85ec2a7fa0d...-of-things