Firefall paints a beautifully devastating vision of Earth, 200 years in the future. The promise of a new clean energy source, Crystite, leads to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet. Earth’s surviving humans must band together in the eye of the Melding storm to save our species. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges as a bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen threatens humanity’s survival.

Players will protect the Earth through the use of high-tech battleframes, which can be customized extensively to unlock the power of Firefall’s class-based combat. Battleframes allow players to specialize in their favorite style of play, while giving them the flexibility to swap and trade their way to new configurations on-the-fly. Whether you enjoy supporting your team, aggressively assaulting an enemy position, or sneaking behind enemy lines, there is a battleframe for you.

Firefall will feature a free-to-play model that allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny. Updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, while a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.

Firefall has entered the first stage of Open Beta testing.

The Red 5 tribe welcomes new players who’ve been awaiting their chance to experience Firefall’s skill-based vertical combat and sci-fi universe, and encourages everyone to join its friendly community of testers to help provide ongoing feedback and truly make Firefall their game.

To celebrate Firefall’s Open Beta launch, the studio’s in-house video team, Stage 5 TV, created a new Live-Action trailer. In it, the studio explores the rich story that frames Firefall’s world and offers a first-time look at the leader of the Chosen invasion.

“We’d like to thank our great community for all of their support through Closed Beta. Having just surpassed 1 million registered users, we’re extremely excited to move into the first stage of Open Beta testing and finally unlock Firefall for everyone,” said James Macauley, Vice President of Development, Red 5 Studios. “Our studio motto is Change Everything, Create Fun, and with our iterative development process based heavily on community feedback we believe that we’ve brought an innovative new gaming experience to the MMO space. We’ll be growing that experience over the months ahead with new features and content delivered frequently into testers’ hands.”

Through its Open Beta launch, Red 5 Studios will be hosting a two day live-streaming event, Firefall Fest 2013, on Twitch TV. Running July 9th and 10th, the event will feature special guests such as SeaNanners and Day exploring Firefall with the Red 5 dev team, chatting with fans in-game and giving away plenty of prizes.

Players can join Firefall’s Open Beta test for free by signing up.