FireFall Preview
PAX Prime 2010: Firefall Live Demonstration
At PAX Prime last weekend, Red 5 Studios unveiled their newest game, a title which, according to them, hadn’t been seen by anyone outside of their office until then. Firefall is a massively multiplayer first-person and third-person shooter not expected to see release for about a year. At their booth, Red 5 had beta signups available for PAX attendees as well as live gameplay demonstrations, both of which, I was lucky enough to be in the area for.
Graphically, the game looks great and has an art style that borrows from several sources but maintains a unique feeling in the end. Character models have aspects of Bethesda’s upcoming class-based shooter Brink as well as Gearbox’s Borderlands. The overall style carries over some of the cell-shading seen in games like Borderlands and XIII but infuses it with glowing and organic science fiction elements similar to Starcraft. Even the game’s logo will have you thinking Starcraft from your very first glance. As much as it may seem to be borrowing elements from other games, in its current combination, it is a unique and interesting visual style that stands out as an individual design and one that seems to complement the gameplay well.
Red 5’s representative doing the presentation was quick to drop huge details before continuing on with the gameplay demonstration. One of these details is the fact that the game will feature a fully-realized and traditional MMO-style open world but also a fully cooperative story campaign and competitive multiplayer functionality with several game modes, leaderboards, and tournaments. It’s a lot for Red 5 to put on their plate, but if the campaign and competitive multiplayer portions end up anything like what was shown of the open world, this game could be a huge hit.
In the presentation, one person was playing as an Assault class while the accompanying player was playing a Medic. As of today, these are the only two classes that Red 5 has officially unveiled, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see all the other standards making their way into the game as well. Interestingly for an MMO, classes are not tied directly to the character but rather the gear that you equip on that character. Picking a battleframe gives you your current overall class (medic, assault, etc.) and then from there you can equip different armor and weaponry specific to that class. It seems as if, depending on your progression through the game and the current situation of your faction, switching battleframes and therefore classes is something that will be able to be done quite easily and quite often.
When selecting a mission, you are able to broadcast an invite to all other players in your faction in the current area, giving them the ability join in on the fly. The two main players in the demonstration trekked out to a location riddled with an expensive and powerful new mineral called Crystite. At the location, they were able to call in a piece of mining equipment called a Thumper which falls from space. While the Thumper drills down into the earth and collects Crystite, it attracts all of the enemies in the area. Appropriately, the two players were tasked with defending it. Most of the enemies showcased where Starship-Trooper-style insects of varying sizes, although later on, more humanoid opponents were encountered.
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Sep 9, 2010 13:48:34 (Sep 9, 2010 13:48)
