Courtesy of Red 5 Studios

If you aren’t already sold by the mention of jetpacks, consider the talent behind the game’s developers, Red 5 Studios. The company was founded by Mark Kern, team leader for “World of Warcraft.” Its lead designer is Scott Youngblood, designer for “Tribes” and its sequel. I personally can’t think of another pair of developers more suited to make “Firefall.” But does its pedigree actually shine through and make the game worth playing? Read on for my impressions of the beta.

Most elements of the game will be familiar to anybody who has played a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. Experience, loot, crafting, random mobs and pretty much everything else is par for the course. There doesn’t seem to be a skill tree, but abilities can be gained through equipping modules. And as far as I can tell, “Firefall” goes the route of having multiple servers, though as of now, players can’t select which server they play on.

On the shooter side of things, there are five classes available: assault, engineer, medic, recon and dreadnaught. Players can switch between classes at certain locations, and each class is leveled individually. There don’t seem to be any invisible rolls of dice behind the combat, and aiming feels responsive from both first-person and third-person perspectives. Unfortunately, the jetpacks don’t offer much in the way of freedom of movement, as they’re closer to the ones in “Halo: Reach” than “Tribes.”

The content is segregated into two modes: Player versus environment (PvE), and player versus player (PvP). As “Firefall” is in the invite-only closed beta stage, there’s relatively little PvE content at the moment beyond the opening quests, all of which were of the “kill-ten-mutant-ostriches” variety. It’s not thrilling, but Red 5 Studios has already shown off more interesting content, so the best stuff is likely being saved for the final release.

The remaining content comes in the form of random local events, like clearing an enemy patrol, or thumper missions. The latter involves calling down resource harvesters called thumpers and defending them from angry alien mobs. Thumper missions seem to be the main form of gathering crafting ingredients, and they’re available in a few varieties for parties of different sizes. The PvE is essentially “Borderlands” in an MMO structure, and if you enjoyed shooting things and watching damage numbers pop up in Gearbox’s shooter, you’ll be right at home in “Firefall.”

On the flip side, PvP is probably closer to feature-complete. There are a few different gametypes available, ranging from 5-on-5 team death match to 15-on-15 objective-based matches. A good way to sum up my PvP experience, as lazy of a comparison it might be, is “Team Fortress 2” with jetpacks and level-based gear. The classes and their weapons are frankly a bit on the unimaginative side, right down to the minigun-wielding dreadnaughts being followed around by medics with healing beams. That’s not to say that it isn’t enjoyable, but, aside from the jetpacks adding a degree of verticality to the experience, it isn’t entirely dissimilar from my times in Dustbowl.

From what I’ve played, “Firefall” has great potential, but it might need more variety in both PvP and PvE to keep players hooked. The performance and lag could also use some work, as there was often a split-second delay to many actions that made me constantly aware that I was playing an MMO. If nothing else, “Firefall” is free-to-play, and players will be able to try it out for themselves when it eventually launches.