Ex-WoW, Tribes Developers Announce Free-To-Play Shooter Firefall

Red 5, a new development company that numbers World of Warcraft and Tribes: Vengeance creators among its staff, announced a free-to-play team-based shooter called Firefall earlier today. This PC sci-fi action game puts players in "battleframes," which are customizable exoskeletons that grant superhuman powers.

Firefall is a third-person shooter that rocks a cartoony art style with mildly cel-shaded character models. The lighting engine is impressive at first glance, with a sunset realistically lighting the terrain and beautiful god rays poking through the trees. The overall aesthetic reminds me more of the Starship Troopers film starring the immortal Casper Van Diem than anything else.

The company is showing off its open-world co-op experience and the Assault and Medic battleframes at PAX in Seattle at the moment, and we gleaned some details from the 10-minute gameplay video on the official site. The video shows off a cooperative defend mission, with waves of bugs coming after an orbitally dropped mining module. A few player characters hold them off with a medic's healing powers, a double-jump-smash from the assault guy, and a whole lot of shootin'.

After a long trip aboard an evacuation aircraft during which multiple hotspots of live action on the surface are visible, the players come to a town named Dredge. Huddled in the shadow of what looks like an enormous mining rig, Dredge brings the dusty frontier towns of Firefly to mind with its high tech amid dirty common folk. Shortly after landing, the antagonistic Chosen attack. Fighting alongside NPCs and other players, the Chosen are held back – until a giant spider bot shows up and starts wrecking the place. The main character jumps on a turret to bring more firepower to bear on the huge war machine, but the video ends as a 15-foot wide energy blast from the bot engulfs the turret and its operator.

I'm curious how the structure of this open-world experience turns out. Red 5's official line reads, "Firefall is first and foremost an action shooter. We incorporated a lot of elements that you might find in various genres, including MMOs, but it is not an MMO in the traditional sense." What that means, I have no idea.

The game also includes a competitive multiplayer mode, though no details on that are being released at the moment.

Firefall is a free-to-play game with a cash shop that will "offer players items to enhance their gaming experience." Red 5 states that it is "adamantly against selling anything that might compromise the skill-based aspect of the game," so don't expect to get rolled by some kid with Daddy's credit card.

I have to admit, I'm impressed by the gameplay video. This early look hits all the right buttons – there's looting, cooperative team-based gameplay, solid shooting mechanics, and a gorgeous world to explore. Please let this not be a mirage, because the idea of Firefall that I have in my head right now is a game that I want to play so bad.

Red 5 expects to release Firefall in late 2011.