Director of Content Cody Bye got his hands on Firefall at PAX Prime and was excited by what this free-to-play title offers both MMO and FPS fans.

As I weaved my way through the overcrowded hallways and intersections at PAX Prime, I couldn't help but pick-up on two points regarding Firefall:

1. No one had heard of the game prior to PAX and now it dominated the halls, bathrooms and escalators.
2. Those that had waited for their turn with the game were IMPRESSED.

By mid-afternoon on Saturday, I knew I couldn't miss my first hands-on time with this upcoming free-to-play MMOFPS. Firefall, for those that haven't been following the game closely, was originally announced at PAX Prime in September 2010 and was playable for the first time at PAX East in March. Red 5 Studios has been working on pushing out their first title since 2007, so this isn't a game that's coming to the world half-baked. With several years of development time and polish, this PAX Prime public demonstration was a long time coming; and even though expectations weren't high going into the show, attendees were definitely intrigued by the massive amounts of marketing dollars on display throughout the halls.

Taking my place at a demo station, I was flanked by the founder of Red 5 Studios, Mark Kern, who quickly began to lead me through what was going on in the mission. I had jumped into the PvE version of their demo midway into the session (which had been set on a time limit for showcase at the conference) and the players in the game were being waylaid by hordes of alien Aranhas and battleframe-laden humans. Think of battleframes as classes in Firefall.

Rather than run the mission being pushed upon me through the in-game tracker (similar to what you might find in any modern MMO), I raced toward one of three areas that needed defending from the oncoming onslaught. With my assault battleframe loaded with a plasma gun and machine gun (both with normal and alt-fire), I set off to hunt some bugs and bugkeepers.

The controls were simple enough for an FPS and MMO hybrid; everything was set up just like a standard FPS with a few exceptions. Hitting the spacebar caused you to jump, but if you hit the button again in mid-air your jetpack (which is on all battleframes) would blast off, allowing you to reach new locations or rain fire down upon your foes. Additionally, pressing the numeric keys on your keyboard would unleash one of the special abilities loaded into the battleframe you were wearing.

For example, when I began my first mission I had two special abilities. One allowed me to drop like a 20-ton load of bricks upon my enemies, causing damage in an area around me that would increase the higher I was when I used the ability. The other was a rushing assault tactic that would launch me toward my foe where I could bludgeon him to death with my meatier, more muscular arms.

However, the moment I finished my first mission I was given a new piece of loot, which happened to be a new module that I could add to my battleframe. This module gave me an “overcharge” ability that drove up the damage of my weapon for a short length of time, which was definitely useful against the larger enemies that needed a bit more “oomph” to take down.

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