Do you ever get the itch for the days of classic Battlefront 2, or wish that you could throw Battlefield 2142’s multiplayer and Star Citizen’s space dogfights into a blender and come out with a ready-to-eat combination of FPS and spaceship battler? If you answered yes, you need to try Angels Fall First. Quietly plugging along for more than a decade in early access under the watch of developer Strangely Interactive, this ambitious project has earned itself a small but dedicated audience. Now, it’s finally blasted into 1.0, and I need you to check it out.
“Angels Fall First exists because it must exist,” Strangely Interactive explains. While its arrival in early access came in 2015, the team behind it had already been building it for more than seven years prior to that during evenings and weekends. They were fans of Star Wars: Tie Fighter, and of Battlefield, and “waited patiently for the game which would inevitably unite the vast scale and spacefights with the close and personal firefights and thunderous vehicle battles… But it never really appeared.”
So the team made it themselves. “Only in AFF can you spawn in your crew quarters, run to the bay watching the space fight out of the windows, launch a dropship, fight through the defenders to the enemy flagship, breach the hull, run and gun your way to the bridge, and shoot the enemy captain in the back of the neck.” I couldn’t have put it better myself, and the developer admits, “it’s this slightly twitchy passion which has driven us to create such a monster.”
What a monster it is. 64-player battles that encompass infantry combat, ground vehicles, and spacecraft. Broad battlefields and capital ships with complete interiors that you can enter and fight through. A blend of the fast-paced action of classic multiplayer games and more modern systems like loadouts, customization, and persistent unlocks. Oh, and it even allows for completely offline play, with robust bot support ensuring that you’ll have a full match whether you want to run completely solo, bring just a few friends into your lobby, or open it up to the world.
Perhaps Angels Fall First is a little out of step with modern trends. In fact, scratch that – it absolutely is, but that’s what makes it so appealing. It certainly doesn’t have the level of shine and polish that Battlefield 6 or Arc Raiders boasts, nor the tight, refined gunplay of Call of Duty, and I couldn’t care less; it might even be all the better for it. Strangely Interactive isn’t asking a lot for it, either, especially given the impressive length of that development cycle.
Angels Fall First 1.0 is out now, with a 10% introductory discount through Tuesday July 21. Expect to pay $16.19 / £12.03 if you buy it before then, or $17.99 / £13.37 afterwards. You’ll find it right here.
“We grew old making this, and we got grumpy watching everyone else release their cool games,” Strangely Interactive concludes. “We’re from a time when games were about blowing stuff up for points and glory and now, finally, we want to go out there and share this crazy passion with all of you.” If that strikes a chord in your heart, then please don’t let Angels Fall First pass you by.
