After a week of jetpack-jumping around Copacabana avoiding futuristic dinosaurs and thumping up extraterrestrial minerals, our initial impression of the free-to-play MMO shooter Firefall is that it’s shaping up to be a rich sci-fi experience.

Set in 2233, the open-world is simultaneously familiar and foreign. Tourists wander through the neon lit holiday complex, stopping at the various shops to indulge in sea-kelp facials or taking in the golden views across the bay under a velvet sky sprinkled with stars. There is however, a slight blot on the idyllic horizon; the wreckage of a gigantic spaceship. Decades earlier, Earth was preparing itself for a ‘near-miss’ with a slow-moving asteroid. However, as it passed through the Moon’s gravitational field, the asteroid broke apart subjecting Earth to 3 months of explosive impacts, violently destroying civilisations and wiping entire countries off the face of the planet; an event that would become known as Firefall. In the aftermath, struggling survivors discovered huge chunks of the asteroid had strange properties that broke all known laws of physics. Scientists created a new technology by harnessing the energy from the rocks, known as Crystite to help the world get back on its feet. As Crystite resources began to dwindle, a plan was hatched to trace the path of the asteroid back to its origin – a planet called Alpha Prime. Three colony ships transported 3500 people to form the planet’s first colony. These people in return mined and ferried Crystite back to Earth.

“This was a massive operation!” Scott Youngblood, Lead Designer at Red 5 Studios explains to us “The new citizens of Alpha Prime – which is seven years away from Earth - needed keeping in line so they wouldn’t try and form their own nation in order to control the world’s supply of Crystite. Through a massive coordinated effort from every corner of Earth, the gigantic and super-fast Archlight warship was built and she was a beauty, able to fold space and turn a 7 year journey into a 15 minute leap. Well that was the plan until she crashed and burned into the ocean. This is where it gets good!”

Scott’s not wrong. The detailed backstory leads us to into the beta where an evil dark energy storm called “The Melding” oozes out of a rift in space that tore open when the Archlight collided back to Earth; threatening humanity, leaving them vulnerable and fragile once again. Our good old, clean energy friend Crystite seems to be keeping the mysterious storm under control but who knows if it will be any use against a new threat emerging from The Melding – a bloodthirsty race known as “The Chosen”?

And so we begin.

Once we’d named our character and picked out a neat hairstyle, the first big decision we faced was which Battleframe to try out first. Engineer Battleframes are for those with perhaps more brain than brawn (the lady version comes with a whole lot of fleshy thigh on show). Sniper-lovers should suit up a Recon Battleframe that offers the highest jumping possibilities with an extra three second boost on ascent. The Biotech frame can either heal fallen squadmates with a blast of smart-gel or be used to knock out enemies by pumping cloudy streams of deadly neurotoxins, paralysing their victim’s cardiovascular systems whilst the Assault Battleframe seems to be a good all-rounder option. We went with the heavy walking fortress that is the Dreadnaught. With the ability to hunker down our boots for greater stability, the Dreadnaught’s fat machine gun was effective in both close up combat and long range onslaughts. Each Battleframe has a customisable tech-tree with each branch on the tree following a theme (e.g. speed, strength). We could mix and match along branches which gave us an overwhelming number of load out possibilities and player aren't restricted to using just one Battlesuit. Youngblood hinted in the full game we might have to use different suits in order to get through different situations. That’s if we go it alone but with hundreds of players on-line and a constantly flowing public chat box; asking for players with particular, complimentary specialities to join us on missions was easy.There was plenty of challenge on offer when we encountered some of the unusual, Melding-mutated creatures awaiting us in the sand dunes as we headed out to explore. Aranah’s click-clacked over in a spidery fashion, chipping away life by hacking at our legs, giant flying mosquitos buzzed and spat at us whilst Thresher dinosaurs charged our way. Things tended to get even little trickier when mining which is a massive element to the game. To create any new item including upgrades for the Battleframes, health packs, new tools or work stations (all of which ultimately help Earth’s SIN Communication System to grow), we had to hunt down resources. Some of the most basic ingredients like Crystite could be harvested in small quantities from fallen enemies or were found when blowing up rocks but most of our haul came from using THE THUMPER!

After crafting a Scan Hammer, we headed out beyond the dunes to whomp the ground. The hammer detected a good dig spot so we called down a giant mining turret and things got noisy, VERY noisy. Clearly, the local weird wildlife doesn’t like noise and before long we were surrounded with a menagerie of monsters. The Thumpers take an age to drill up resources but at every attempt we found loads of other players jet-packing into the action, helping to get the task done. Many people sent out requests for other players to join them on an organised Thumping trips but more often than not, there was no invitation; we were helped or helped out others just because it’s possible. It means PvE events are random yet rewarding, frantic, optional, and most importantly huge fun. We could build up our stock of smaller resources by dipping in and out of battles we chanced across whilst exploring and over time Youngblood tells us we can build up resources to create armies in order to push back The Melding (despite the map already looking huge). The beta covers a restricted area at the moment with PvP battles taking place in designated areas whilst an impressively slick and smart Spectator Mode allows you to view the action as if it were a sport.

Firefall is ambitious in scale for a free-to-play MMO but if the final game plays out or look anything like the beta, it will be a very satisfying and stunning sci-fi shooter. There is no release date for the full game going live but we heartily recommend you choose to take on The Chosen by checking out the beta now. Sign up and get lots more information about the game via the Firefall website.