Firefall

Firefall is a massive multiplayer online shooter that takes place in a far future South America after several disastrous events have struck Earth. First a collision with an asteroid in 2178 leads to a new dark age that causes the collapse of the large governments. However from the asteroid a powerful substance called crystite is extracted and is used to reconstruct the world into a new golden age. Humans then begin colonising a star system in Alpha Centauri known as Alpha Prime in an attempt to get even more crystite. A second disaster happens when the battleship Arclight causes a hole in space that allows the Melding to appear. What the Melding actually is is not specified but it quickly takes over most of Earth and transforms the environment and mutates its wildlife.

The player is a mercenary working for Accord, the world's governing organization, and starts out in Copacabana in Brazil. When starting out the player gets to choose a battleframe (a type of power armour) which decides what class the player should be. There are five main types of frames: assault, biotech, dreadnaught, engineer and recon. For each type of frame there are several variants adding up to a total of sixteen different ones, each with different weapons and abilities. The five basic frames are available from the start while all the others have to be unlocked. During the game it is possible to switch to another frame without creating a new character. By playing the game the player gains experience and reaches new levels that are tied to the frame. Higher levels means increased health and power ratings and the possibility of accessing more equipment.

The game features an open world that can be explored in numerous ways from both first and third person perspective. Similar to the Tribes series the player has a jetpack allowing him to fly as long as jet energy is available. In addition to moving by foot there are some vehicles that can be used and there are also glider pads that when stepped on sends the player up in the air and allows him to fly over larger distances. These can be found at most larger settlements but can also be deployed by the player for a one time use. Missions can be accessed through job boards that can be found in the various hubs in the world. When starting a mission the player will hear a voice-over briefing through Aero (the player's operator who comments on everything that happens in the game) and then gets to follow a number of waypoints until a certain task has been performed (usually involving killing a number of enemies or defending a civilian). The game also features various dynamic events that can appear at any time in any location of the game world and that any player can participate in.

Resource gathering and crafting are also features of the game. Resources can be collected as loot from fallen enemies or given as reward for completed missions but it is also possible to mine. The act of mining is called thumbing and requires that the player has access to a thumper and a scan hammer. The scan hammer is used to find locations with plenty of ore in the ground and the thumper is a device that is sent down from the sky that does the actual mining. Thumpers attract creatures when working and the player has to defend it for five minutes. Once it is finished the player is rewarded with ore. Crafting is done at molecular printers that can be found in hubs and involve transforming resources and components into equipment and items. Printers allow the player to do three operations: manufacturing, refining and research. Manufacturing involve creating new equipment but to do so the right materials and recipes have to be available. Therefore it's necessary to refine raw resources into materials that can be used and recipes have to be researched. To get resources it is also possible to salvage any equipment in the player's inventory. This also gives research points which are needed to research new recipes.