Fallen Empire: Legions goes live

Browser game portal InstantAction has launched the public beta of GarageGames' multiplayer shooter, Fallen Empire: Legions.

GarageGames was set up by ex-members of Dynamix, the company that made the classic multiplayer FPS Starsiege: Tribes and its sequel, Tribes 2. Though it's released under a different name, Fallen Empire is a spiritual successor to those mould-breaking shooters.

You can sign up and give the game a go at the InstantAction site. We just did, and were impressed at how fast the game was to set up and load, and how smoothly it played in our browser.

The public beta of Fallen Empire: Legions is the first shot fired in this year's war of the free-to-play FPS games. Later entrants will be id's browser version of Quake, Quake Live, and EA's Battlefield Heroes - although the latter will involve downloading and installing a regular game client to play.

At present, Fallen Empire: Legions offers solo or squad play, six character classes (gunner, sniper, sniper specialist, rocket specialist, grenade specialist and chaingun specialist), two maps, and standard deathmatch and capture the flag modes. GarageGames promises to develop the game further based on player feedback.

"Launching Fallen Empire: Legions is a huge milestone for the company," said GarageGames chief Josh Williams. "Not only have we proven that technically the game can exist in a browser, but we are delivering on our promise to gamers of fun, 3D action games nearly any place they can get on the Internet."