Is the Firefall open beta worth your time? (VIDEO)

Quite some time ago, I took a look at Firefall, the Red 5 Studios game that is a big part of Chinese publisher The9’s plans for the future. I came away unimpressed with the open world MMO shooter.

But that was a full year ago, when the game was still in closed beta. Firefall is now in open beta and has been around long enough that the devs have made a lot of changes. So is it worth checking out now? I’d say so, but feel free to judge for yourself:

(Note: in the video I say I played the Firefall closed beta a few months ago, but it was actually a full year ago! Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess!)

If you read my previous article on the game, you may recall that I was bored and confused by the way the game just dumped players into its very complex world, and then asked them to do some things in the early missions that were both difficult to figure out and not even a little bit interesting. I’m happy to say that the game’s “new player experience” appears to have been totally revamped, and it’s much more exciting now. It kicks off the way a shooter should — by letting you shoot at things! — and then guides you through the first few missions doing relatively simple stuff so you can get a hang of the basics.

I think there’s still some work to be done on Firefall. As you can see from the video above, I ran into a few minor technical issues, and more broadly I’d say that personally, I’d like to have spent more time shooting and less time wandering, and also would like to have faced some more challenging enemies early on. But based on the degree to which Firefall has improved over the past year, I’d say there’s a chance that by the time the game officially launches, it’ll be even better than it is now.

And even now, if the idea of a free-to-play MMO FPS appeals to you, you probably ought to check out Firefall. I’m planning to spend more time with it and will write a more in-depth piece at a later date, but right now I’d say that it’s definitely worth at least checking out.