Quick Look: Firefall

To be fair, it doesn't look very good.

I remember being so excited for this back in 2011 when I first heard about it. Managed to get into the closed beta back then, and thought it had the potential to be real cool. Watching this game evolve though, I get the feeling they just didn't have the funding to make this game what they wanted it to be. Stopped playing when they removed PvP entirely. Probably not a good sign when instead of re-balancing it, they just remove it completely. Still I had some fun with it, can be fun to get a group together and mess around for a while. First time going through Blackwater was a cool experience, and invasions were great, until people started invited everyone they know to them in order to get experience and resources and they became stupid easy.

If the vans a thumpin'..

WoW didn't start to have currency bloat problems until several expansions packs down the line. It's very forward-thinking of these new MMOs to have serious issues like that right off the bat.

Looks actually much better than I thought it would. Seemed like Jeff and Brad were kinda looking for things to complain about but still managed to have a decent time with it.

For anyone just checking this game out now, there's a mod section in the Firefall forums that's worth checking out. Also Astrekassociation.com has several helpful guides for new players. You'll have a lot more fun if you get into a group as well, just keep an eye on the chat and someone will invite you.

Pretty much,it looks like a good game and the reaction from Brad and Jeff just feels the same as they usually have for these types of games,however Destiny seems to be the one they like...I wonder why...

Ironically, having to deal with deadlier spiders helped me get over my arachnophobia. Or maybe it just focused it to a small but intense point like a magnifying glass on an antbed.

The two most common spiders I see are the two deadliest in my area: Black Widows and Brown Recluses (aka Fiddlebacks). In an attempt to get less deadly spiders to set up shop around my home, I had to train myself to stop killing any arachnid that's not either of those species. The theory is that the smaller and deadlier spiders will be forced out of their hunting grounds by the bigger "friendlier" spiders.

The hard part is stopping my mom from indiscriminately killing every spider she sees. That just means the ones that are better at hiding (ie Brown Recluses) get to keep hunting and reproducing. Never just kill spiders on sight.

This looks pretty awesome, especially if its really free-to-play. Nice look, functional shooting, and free. I don't think there are many games like it on the market (Planetside 2). I have no interest in MMOs and rather just play Borderlands, but I'm going to install on my eight-year-old cousin's computer. It's basically PG, free MMO Borderlands. He's going to have a heck of a time, I bet.

@donos: Yea i really liked the whole scavenging for materials. You got a batch of random stuff from each mission, but what you really needed had to be prospected from the area, then finding the right place to drop your drill.

if nothing else, its been fun to watch this game grow over the last few years. While I'm not in love with it, when I got an invite 3 years ago the map was only about 10% of this one and the thumping was literally the only activity. Firefall was OG early access.

It'll be free tomorrow, so I might check it out. Something about MMO shooters catches my attention; just wish one would actually be good.

Firefall looks extremely uninteresting.

@mr_creeper: Did you try Planetside 2?

Holy shit, this game didn't release until now?! I could have swore they were all over Twitch several months ago for what I assumed was a launch event.

Wow this looks...Super un-refined. That bit where Jeff is just having to mindlessly blast at a collection of tiny enemies on a hill...that just looks bad. Whole thing seems like a massive, unwanted throwback to something I'm not sure ever really existed, and wasn't popular if it did. Especially suffers by proximity to the incredibly refined Destiny.

@nardak: Uhmm.. yes there is titans lol

Thumpers like to thump. Thumpers need to thump.

@kananon: The problem was never the money, it was direction. It's probably not a coincidence that the company goes through some serious leaderships changes and then half a year later the game finally launches.

@ares42: Wasn't aware of that, but that makes sense.

I don't think the reaction of Jeff & Brad were fair, it looks much more interesting than Destiny to me, I don't really care about either of these games but I find the look and feel of this to be kinda cool

I loves me some augmented (virtual) reality

Oh my god. Brad is finally saying "Oh yeah, we talked about that on the podcast."

I was legitimately staring to worry that all the Bombers had anterograde amnesia or something after years of repeating things from the Bombcast in QLs and UPF, and everyone seeming to hear it for the first time.

e: Welp, nevermind, Jeff doesn't think there's a melee even though he talked about how he had to rebind it to clicking the right stick.

This looks better than Destiny in some ways, too bad the moment to moment combat doesn't seem as good.

It would be neat if more games gave you the 1st or 3rd person option.

Man, I am so sleepy after watching this QL. To me, this game looks so boring.

Preeeetty sure you're mixing up Destiny and Firefall there.

You know what, I haven't. Thanks for reminding me -- I'll try and check that out after this.

Probably has something to do with the shooting and general gameplay in the Destiny beta feeling competent-to-great in most spots while most of the combat and movement in Firefall feels sluggish and sloppy.

I remember this game being the gigantic booth at E3 several years ago. I know nothing about it though going into this video.

Best thumping in a MMORPG-Shooter for 2014 award goes to..........

THAT GUY!

I played the beta for this over two years ago. What the fuck happened.

This should be called Thumperfall. I saw that thumper fall like crazy!

I don't know, I think this one here looks like complete garbage. Not that I'm into Destiny, personally, but f' me if I wouldn't take that over Firefall any day. Opinions.

Regarding higher level zones being close to starting zones:

WoW had the Eastern Plaguelands (one of the highest level content zones) right next to Tirisfal Glades (undead starting zone). I always thought that was really cool, both in showing that the world was not just a linear collection of zone/levels but a diverse ecosystem, and also the fact that you knew something very dangerous could be around the corner. I remember way back when I played WoW and didn't read guides etc I went to the Eastern Plaguelands once every 5 levels or so too see if the enemies would still one-shot me. Finally being able to survive there at least gave you some sense of progression.

Do they mention the management and financial issues the developer went through?

Bitch, get off my thumper!

this seems pretty great. ya know... for free

Well, yeah. To be fair, it has a lot in common with Destiny? If you're into that sorta game...

@fitzgerald: The difference is that the core shooting in Destiny is rock solid and fun.

@frytup: Why do people play anything? This seems like some good time wasting fun. listen to a podcast or something. I mean.. its free.

I mean, if anyone wants to sit here and get cynical about a free game that appears quite competent and fun, at least for a time. I think you should leave. Being negative doesn't help anyone.

I'm sick of people leaving comments like another shooter MMO? another quest? more XP? What the hell do you want? Why not leave comments like "oh jeeez looks like another human was born today. Like he'll do anything good or promising" "Oh looks like the sun rose again." or something really unnecessary like " oh great another videogame, I guess people still make those." hashtag rant

I played firefall ..I believe more than a year ago, got a code for the closed beta. I thought it was pretty good. I do remember enemies animating funny though.

All in all, the time I spent with it was pretty entertaining.

I don't know.. seems to me like there is a lot of animosity against it.. Jeff huffs and puffs.. etc... I guess the true problem is that its being compared to destiny now, and I guess just budgetwise, it cant really compete. I'll still probably give it a chance when it actually does launch.

but still Jeff plays that atrocity that is marvel heroes!

I was really hoping that "thumping" was a Howard Kremer reference

Captain Planet: (T)humpin' all day (into the thump dumb). Coming to porn theaters near you August 8th.

Game seems perfectly competent, especially for a F2P thing. It's not something I wanna play though.

so much thumpin'

@sydlanel: Correction, he plays Marvel Heroes 2015.

Games like this always look really fun to me… but I usually find myself getting tired of them pretty quickly, then getting excited for the next one, then getting tired of that one, and so on.

I played this on and off since back when there was that big push on Twitch during the beta. It's actually pretty decent. I kinda feel like this QL really didn't give it a fair shake.

First of all, it's mostly the starting area and quests. It's simple because it's all designed as a tutorial so you don't spend the first several hours wondering if stuff is broken or frustrated trying to jump up the sides of cliffs and whatnot.

I'll grant you some things still aren't fully explained (unless they added an explanation since I last played). Like the glider. It's a lot more functional than it looked here. Much like a real glider, if you lose too much speed too quickly you'll drop. So you have to keep it at an angle that lets you build speed or lose it more slowly and evenly. Once you find that sweet spot you can glide for a really long time from the higher pads/areas.

As you continue throwing the various class abilities and different builds, weapons, invasions, tougher ARES missions, etc. and the other classes in a party all into the mix, the combat ramps up significantly.

Compared to nearly every other modern MMO with currencies this game's aren't that egregious. Look at all the factions and/or currencies in Marvel Heroes, Wildstar, or Destiny. Also, the Red Beans (named after the developer, Red 5 Studios) are really just for cosmetic stuff and a few boosts which you also accumulate just by playing the game and doing daily quests. You can completely ignore that store and the currency exchange and still have a really enjoyable free game.

I agree with some points about the visuals. It has a case of Rageitis. The models and locations look great but up close textures don't really hold up. Also, the character models and faces seemed a little weird back in the beta. Like they weren't sure what style to go with. Proportions were way off and some faces were downright ugly. It looks like that has at least improved but it's still an odd style.

All told, it's obviously not for everyone. But if this sort of thing is at all something you're into you should give it a shot. You may be surprised.

This game looks pretty nice. MMO shooter gunplay is properly graded on a curve.