Firefall

[Claincy]

Yup, it's another "Does anyone else play this?" thread.

 

Does anyone else here play Firefall?

 

For anyone who hasn't heard of it but might be interested:

 

Firefall is a very ambitious free to play open world mmo which uses real shooter mechanics. None of the click and watch your character attack stuff =) It has a number of unique concepts which they have implemented to varying degrees (it's in open beta currently).

 

The crafting system is one of the best I have ever seen and the loot drop is also very different to most mmo's. In a normal mmo/rpg you get random items as loot, most of which are completely useless to you. In Firefall the largest part of loot and quest rewards are resources and other crafting components so as a general statement what you get will actually useful regardless of your "class".

 

Speaking of "classes", firefall doesn't use a normal class system. Instead you have different battleframes that you can equip and upgrade separately and that you can switch between at battleframe stations. No need to create a new character to play as a different "class".

 

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world where most of Earth is covered by a strange substance known as the melding, going into the melding will kill you very rapidly. The last humans on Earth are desperately trying to hold onto a small portion of Brazil where the engines from the Arclight (a giant ship that crashed there) hold back the melding. Despite it's post-apocalyptic setting firefall doesn't use the dull browns and greys you expect from such a setting, instead they have used the changes to earth through the story to create a very unique, vibrant and colourful world.

 

One of the most ambitious things about firefall is the chosen warfront. The chosen are a race of, well, common belief is that the ones we see are changed humans. Regardless of what they actually *are* they are trying to wipe out humanity. The humans have watchtowers set up across the map and the chosen can attack these, and will take them over if no players move in to stop them. If the chosen take control of a watchtower they will spawn more chosen there, and the players lose the information from that section of the map, they can still see the terrain but all the extra information is gone. Players can, naturally, take back these watchtowers.

 

The chosen also occasionally launch large scale invasions of major cities. When this happens a warning about the upcoming invasion is broadcast across the shard and the invasion begins 10 minutes after that. Basically the players have to try to hold off the chosen forces until the military can train the Arclight's guns on the attacking forces. If the players fail they lose the city and the melding moves in and covers the whole area, blocking it off from players. After a period of time the melding gets pushed back again and players can attempt to retake the city.

 

There are plans for the players to be able to push back the melding to temporarily or permanently reveal new areas though this is one aspect that is very much a work in progress. There are some places where players can temporarily push back the melding to gain access to an area, but the larger promise of unlocking whole new areas through these mechanics is yet to be fulfilled.

 

Hrm, that went on longer than I expected. Anyway, if that sounds interesting at all I recommend checking it out.

 

To anyone who does play and wants to add me my username is ClaincyFfnord.

 

Edit: If you want a better explanation of the game and what it is trying to do than I gave, I suggest watching extra credits series on it, first video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpBiNHPfjKw

Edited December 7, 2013 by lord Claincy Ffnord