Extreme Makeover: MMOBomb Previews FireFall's Launch Update

Forget everything you know about FireFall. Red 5 Studios has given FireFall so many identities over the years, that if you peeped in on the game's progress any given year, you wouldn't have recognize the game. Ever since the departure of Mark Kern in December, the direction of Red 5 Studios has done an 180 to turn around their identity confused MMO. From changing the PVP system, the progression system, gear equipment, even the logo itself has changed to reflect the FireFalls new beginning.

“Honestly, the game is in so many ways brand new, across the board,” said James Macauley, Red 5 Studios CEO.

An open world shooter MMO with an intense focus on mobility, FireFall is set on Earth after it had been bombarded by a meteor shower aptly named “FireFall”. Humans discover a clean energy source called Crystite that had fallen with the meteors. Using the Crystite, mankind builds an interstellar ship named Archlight, to travel through the universe.

Unfortunately, the ships crashes in present day Brazil and opens a tear in space (So is life). From the tear comes a deadly electrical-like gas storm called the melding, that engulfs the entire planet. To make matters worse, from the melding comes intelligent lifeforms called “The Chosen” who are hellbent to wipe out mankind. A game of biblical proportions, players fight back the melding and The Chosen to reclaim territory for humankind, and most importantly for corporations that are backing humanity.

Players who participated in open beta previously can expect to experience an entirely different game come the July 29^th launch. With the much anticipated addition of several brand new zones, there has been much changed about FireFall.

Macauley explains,”...We didn't have levels. We didn't have battle frame levels, and so we had a very different progression system, very different equipment system, our gear was different, we had things like durability that had permanent breakage items. You would actually lose your item after a while. So we changed all of that, we added levels, you can go 1-40 in each of your battleframes.”

In addition, FireFall has added a zone devoted entirely to open world PvP, in which players fight hundreds of other players over territory control and resource collection. Players can also join together in Armies (FireFall's guild system), participate in raids together or control their position on the competition board.

Beaming with excitement Macauley said, “We have titan boss fights now, something that we talked about years ago! When we announced FireFall we talked about titan bosses, and for the first time ever players will be able to go experience that content. They'll be able to fight those bosses. We have our first 20-man raid!”

Will FireFall still be a contender for the E-Sport arena?

According to Macauley, “No, absolutely not. No no, we learned, it was a hard lesson for us to learn, because we put a lot of effort into E-Sports... ultimately we realized that was the wrong direction for FireFall... It was trying to, kind of force something in where it didn't quite fit, you know, and we made the very hard call last fall to pull that out. So we disabled PVP completely, and now at launch were introducing a form of PVP that feels right for FireFall. Its a large massive scale combat experience with territories and base capturing.”

In case you were ever wondering what happened to that FireFall bus, that was designed by West Coast Customs.

Macauley explains, “ Awww! The bus! That is a slightly sad story. The bus, it's a beautiful bus, it was in the style of FireFall, I loved it. It had 20 computers in it, it's own server, so we could actually take the bus to college campuses and parking lots at various places and do LAN parties. Unfortunately, there was some problems with the bus that made it hard to get permits, to get it on the road, there was some structural problems. There was some behind the scenes technical issues with the bus, and so, it's actually parked in a warehouse somewhere and waiting till someday maybe, I don't know what will happen. Little bit of sad story.”

Players can experience FireFall like they've never experienced before, quite literally starting July 29^th.

Ellie Howser