Firefall review

[Administrator]

To grind or not to grind? For Red5's long-gestating Firefall, that is very much the question. As a game that is both massively multiplayer and free to play, Firefall is squeezed on both sides by the need to stretch, pad and otherwise elongate the player's journey in order to keep them playing - and hopefully get them paying.
It's also a game that has made huge advances since I last checked in on it this time last year. Back then, it was a sort of formless mush of potentially interesting ideas, let down by baggy pacing and distractingly complex systems. In the intervening 12 months, and with the game now officially launched, those ideas have come into better focus, and while there are still issues with pace, balance and fiddly bits, it's finally a game that is enjoyable to play.
You still play as an ARES operative, a mercenary plying your trade on a future Earth forever changed by a terrible meteor impact, a tragic accident in which the first "arc-folding" deep space vessel crashes into Brazil, and the subsequent opening of a dimensional rift called The Melding through which pours a zealous alien army called The Chosen. Keeping the peace is The Accord (everything starts with "The" in Firefall) and it's this UN-style organisation you'll be doing most of your work for.
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