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[General Article] Firefall: Review in Progress #1
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Now that we've had some time to get down and dirty in Red 5's Firefall, it's time to start our Review in Progress series. We kick it off today with our first thoughts about the MMOFPS. See what we've discovered in our time in-game and then tell us about your own experiences in the comments.
Now then... where to begin? Let me put it this way: Firefall’s the kind of game that doesn’t hold your hand, and it requires a good bit of self-experimentation. Red 5’s crafted some tutorial videos, and there’s a decent very basic introduction to the game and how it works after you create your character, but by and large you’ll only get as much out of Firefall as you put into the game. For some, this will be a glorious callback to the days of MMOs' youth. For others this little facet will likely drive them away. But if you put forth the effort to research crafting, how the Battleframe progression works, how events and Chosen invasions affect the world, you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by what you find in this futuristic version of Brazil.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Firefall Review In Progress #1.
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That Chosen sign? Yeah, not a good thing.
Comments
Honestly I was shocked at the overall quality of the game. I agree gameplay is as deep as you want to take it and follows old school principles.
In certain ways this title reminds me of Tabula Rasa and yes I still have my dogtags.
Don't listen to the negative nancys on this one and go try it out.
If you suffer from the insideous quest hub disease you will struggle and this will tell you that you are no where near an old school gamer. Old school gamers will slide right in and be lost for hours with the dynamic gameplay.
Red5 has a gem in the rough and expanding on the open world and dynamic events will keep it fresh. Also I am awaiting open world pvp and believe it will enhance the Eve feeling you get.
Time will tell and I hope they ratchet up world expansion and pvp/events to keep interest up.
Life IS Feudal
If you look at the world map it does seem small even without the melding, but there's more. The game has 4 zones, 3 of them you have to unlock through questing and crafting. It takes a lot of work, but it can be done fairly quickly if you know what your doing.
1. You need to do ARES or other missions to get POI tokens. You'll need 50 for each area you want to unlock. You take these tokens and contribute to that area like Copa, Trans Dump, or Sunken. Then you buy a relay from the quartermaster. Then you craft. Here is the mats for just Copa
Mid-Pacific SIN Relay
Chosen Di-Qubit Localizer (from Echoes from Sertao quest)
4,000 Radine
4,000 Copper
4,000 Silicate
4,000 Xenografts
Yup, it takes awhile, but when you get there it's worth it. This game is bigger than just the beginner map. If you have any questions you can contact me in game as Scarybooster. I'll be happy to answer anybody's questions. I've been playing for over a year in alpha and beta.
This is flat out one of the best games i've ever played. I haven't been this addicted to a game in years.
I'm glad it doesn't hold your hand, it makes it much more involving than the auto-pilot MMO's of the modern era where you don't actually have to think about what you're doing.
This is not a game that simply plays itself. Enjoy =D
I tried the game in one of the beta weekends. I could not stay in game for more than half an hour, I could not understand what to do. After the release of Open Beta I decided to try this again, minute after minute in game, hour after hour, I have learnt the game, the need for thumping, the battleframe progression, the ARES missions... And I am still only a novice in game, still playing the basic battleframes with stock / tier1 gear only to get pilot points to unlock an advanced battleframe. But the game is very nice, interesting, there are a lot of things to do always different (even if ARES mission are usually often the same, can be in a cave, or a in a building, or in a research facility, and the chosen invasion are nice and challenging).
I think I'll stick with Firefall as my main game paired with Defiance, I love shooters MMO with third person view
i would blame your fellow game peers on that -there was a main hub hub complain that there wasnt enough explanation and they wanted to be hand held....
Red5 listens to the community. 110% of the time!
Terrible game...just terrible, I can't get myself into playing this game...
It feels like it's still in Alpha state, and the graphics arent my cup of tea..
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
yah its addictive!
I went back to the game after reading a post about how no one should play it..... I've logged a lot of hours in since and am having a blast doing it. Iv'e been playing with friends who have never played an open world non-linear game before and it took a long time for them to get used to not being told what to do.
The ones that stayed are very hooked. They always seem very excited about all the things they need to get done and it's funny listening to them go on and on about what they're doing....considering they came from " this game has nothing to do "
The game does lack long term content but it's not like red 5 has stopped working on more. If I have to I'll take another break but it's a game I'm sure I'll be coming back to for years.
Well Bill was waiting for this review ... well written.
I like the fact you emphasize your not gonna get hand held in the game.Its what you make of it.
For me, Ive been enjoying the game for a while. I think the limited content
makes the game feel like beta, but they are going 'full on' with their benchmark timeline
meeting their goals phasing out the word beta eventually out of the game.
for me it feels alot more finished than nameless mmos out there- and you can play the game
completely FREE,you just need to spend time and skill to sink deeper into the game.
this is alot better than having a season pass sold to you-awaiting nfor new content.
Red5 reminds me alot like CCP 4 -5 years ago- and the game feels intelligently developed. by pationate people about their game. richly developed.
Im looking forward to experience what Red5 has in store for new eden!
Smile
QFT.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Bill, if you're looking for things to spend money on you could buy multiple $20 packs and unlock frames with the pilot tokens that come with them, or get the $100 pack and get 100 pilot tokens (enough to unlock all the advanced frames).
You can also use your Commander Red Beans to open each suit individually, obviously.
Hopefully more things to buy with Red Beans are coming.. they just added the Copa Arcportal to the Red Beans store and an LGV is coming with the next patch (because people didn't want to buy the $100 pack to get them).
It is lacking so much player content. They talked all this crap about wasted space when the entire map is wasted. You think using the hammer and getting resources from a thumper over and over is fun and engaging Red5? I have never wanted more things to do besides calling down thumpers and chasing crashed ones in my entire life. Not to mention they are boring as sin. 3 giant roaches that all die instantly in several waves "threaten" your thumper and then you send it back once full. The quests seemed abnormally few and difficult. Monsters in the quest area are on constant respawn and if there isnt others around it can be difficult even in the beginner zones.
There are no goals in the game besides leveling up your warframes and it feels like you never get new gear.
Maybe if you love fpsmmo pvp this game could be for you if nothing else has done it. Other than that it lacks direction and it made me feel like I was a chump not some warframe using badass. No cool fun events or moments when I was on and I never even got to fight a big boss of any kind.
I'm really enjoying this again. I'm hoping with the mechanics and systems locked in now the content will come much quicker.
i used to really dislike the grind component of the game but with the rewards/loot/marketplace (AH) it's actually not too bad now.
As for black water anomaly as far as I'm aware only one person in the group needs the key to access it?
Poor guy must have never used anything besides a Stock Personal Thumper. Try switching even to just a rank 1 Personal Thumper and get owned by Terrorclaw and the 30 or so other mobs that come at the same time as him then rage about losing your thumper in a matter of seconds if youre not careful.
I find it kind of funny thought hat youre complaining about ho boring thumping is because of just a few weak enemies, then 2 sentences later are complaining that missions are too hard. Stock thumpers are ridiculously easy and boring, yes. Missions are only hard if youre playing a bad warframe for that type of mission (can make a big difference depending on objectives & type of terrain) and suck at playing that type of warframe or fighting certain types of enemies.
As far as no big bosses, sure the game isnt loaded full of dungeons with massive bosses or something, but have you ever even tried taking on a chosen incursion with just 3 or 4 people in low tier gear? Its more about large waves of a lot of enemies rather than a focus on super powerful bosses. Neither is inherently better than the other. Although, boss fights in the majority of games tend to be nothing more than a tank & spank snooze fest. BTW, I take it youve never faced Baneclaw either.
The problem is the game is still in development and Red 5 has even said this Open Beta is not a PR stunt, it is a BETA. They are working hard to streamline stuff, but right now their main goal Is to stabilize servers and work on bugs. The initial game seems small, but there is a huge world out there that player that only play it for a day, week, or month miss. Have any of the people that claim the game is boring actually been to the other 3 zones you cannot see on you New Eden map? Have they been to Blackwater Anomaly? Have they crafted a motorcycle? If yes then that's the guy to actually listen to.
All there is, is crafting and barely any PvE gameplay. The other option is PvP but you need to spam the thumpers to get good gear for PvP... It gets boring fast to do the same thing over and over.
Smile
First, PvP uses stock set gear. Your "grinding and crafting" of gear in PvE has no bearing on the current PvP in the game (OWPvP will use crafted gear). PvP games give XP, resources and components for crafting and some people don't PvE at ALL and are able to advance and open frames for PvP.Thumpers are the content? I haven't thumped for months. ARES/Chosen keep me busy. I get all the resources/rewards I need and no need to thump, ever.
I'm sure Bill will run into this eventually after several Review in Progress updates and it will end up at best 6.0 like the rest of these flops. Bring on The Repopulation already.