Firefall ditches traditional MMO levelling as it was too slow

Firefall developer Red 5 Studios has scrapped its traditional levelling format of hitting numbered ranks in favour of a tier-based progression system. The reasoning is that while beta players sped through early levels, but the later ones turned the game into a grind.

Speaking with IGN, lead designer Scott Youngblood explained the decision to move away from the level format, "What that did, is it really disincentivized people from playing the game because the rewards were so far out that they just gave up."

"So one of the things I was looking at doing was increasing the rate of reward, giving players more tangible goals to achieve in-between levels. But then it dawned on me, well if we did that, what’s the point of having levels at all?" Youngblood asked.

Now, players can enhance their Battleframe armour - which act like classes essentially - and from there you can enhance the suit's abilities in a skill tree manner incrementally, rather than waiting to progress a whole other level before choosing new upgrades.

Also, set paths don't lock out others so you can eventually unlock everything the game has to offer. It's a free system that Red 5 hopes will be more enjoyable than the traditional levelling method.

Want in on the Firefall beta? Head over to the official site to register.