"Board an enemy carrier mid-match, past the menu clutter"
About
Angels Fall First is a combined-arms sci-fi shooter that lets you fight on foot, in a hover tank or mech, and in space, all within the same match. You can pilot capital ships, launch a dropship from your carrier, fly it across the map, and board an enemy vessel to fight through its corridors. A commander mode hands one player the strategic layer while everyone else fills the roles beneath. Weapons, grenades, ships and characters run through a deep loadout and modding system, and full bot support means every mode plays offline against AI across 30 maps and up to 64 combatants. Built in Unreal Engine 3, it left Early Access for its 1.0 release.
Verdict
Angels Fall First delivers the fantasy few shooters attempt: pilot a dropship off your carrier, cross the map, and fight through the corridors of an enemy ship crewed by real players. The modding runs deep enough that a hundred hours in you're still unlocking parts, and the bot support means none of it depends on a full lobby. What keeps it from greatness is the rough edges: movement that fights you, menus that bury their own depth, and stutter that shouldn't happen at these visuals. It's a big, generous, unpolished thing, and the ambition mostly earns forgiveness for the jank.
You'll like it if …
- +you miss combined-arms shooters where one match spans boots, tanks and capital ships
- +you want a shooter that plays fully offline against bots, not one that dies with its server population
- +you enjoy tinkering with loadouts until you've bolted a shotgun onto something absurd
You'll dislike it if …
- −tight, responsive movement and clean menus are non-negotiable for you
- −frame stutters pull you out of a firefight
- −you only want a populated PvP lobby and won't touch bots
Breakdown
- +The seamless jump from infantry firefight to dropship to boarding an enemy capital ship is the standout, and it works without loading screens
- +Switching between ground, vehicle and space roles inside one match keeps the pace shifting
- +Vehicle roster covers mechs, hover tanks and dogfighters, each with a distinct feel
- −Character movement reads as stiff and awkward to a chunk of players
- −Damage direction is hard to read, so you often die without knowing where the shot came from
- −TTK is inconsistent: point-blank shotgun blasts sometimes fail to drop an enemy
- −Bot AI plays objectives unpredictably, and melee lands harder than it should
- +Modding reaches almost everything: guns, grenades, ships, vehicles and your own kit
- +Absurd combinations like an underbarrel shotgun on a minigun are on the table
- +Bot support turns the whole game into an offline sandbox, so a thin multiplayer population doesn't lock you out
- +One player near 100 hours reports still unlocking gear, so the progression stretches a long way
- −The sheer breadth of systems arrives with little guidance on what's worth building
- +Faction identity comes through in the AIA and ULA aesthetics and lore
- +The tutorial carries some deadpan humor, the death scene included
- −There's no real story to speak of, and worldbuilding stays in the background
- +The industrial sci-fi art direction lands, with environments players single out as genuinely striking
- +A gritty near-cyberpunk look holds together across factions and maps
- +Audio is reported as satisfying where it's mentioned
- −Stuttering hits regularly, one player citing a hitch every 30 seconds solo against max bots
- −Frame drops and graphical glitches surface more than the visual fidelity should justify
- +The UI is thorough and covers the game's many systems
- +A recent tutorial has improved the way new players find their footing
- −Menus are cluttered and bloated, and the command screens are cumbersome to navigate
- −Much of the presentation feels raw and unrefined
- −Performance stability is the recurring complaint even on capable hardware
score
