Red Crucible: Firestorm
Red Crucible: Firestorm is a free-to-play first-person shooter built around modern military gear, with infantry skirmishes that can escalate into vehicle and air support brawls. Matches support up to 24 players across several PvP playlists, ranging from classic deathmatch formats to objective modes like Search and Destroy, with maps tailored for boots-on-the-ground firefights as well as tanks and gunships.
 | Publisher: Rocketeer Games Playerbase: Low Type: Shooter PvP: Deathmatch / Survivor / Search and Destroy Release Date: April 15, 2015 Pros: +Good spread of modes and match types. +Plenty of modern guns and vehicles to use. +Clan support for groups. Cons: -Cash shop feels overly aggressive. -Frequent bugs and rough technical issues. -Physics and damage modeling feel off. -Weak visuals and thin audio design. |
Red Crucible: Firestorm Overview
Red Crucible: Firestorm is a free-to-play MMOFPS that puts its emphasis on PvP battles where infantry, armored vehicles, and aircraft all have a role. The core loop is straightforward: join a lobby, pick a mode, and jump into 24-player matches where coordination and positioning matter more than long-form progression. Across six modes (Survivor, Team Deathmatch Resources, Team Deathmatch Armored, Search and Destroy, Territories, and Conquer), the game alternates between pure gunplay and combined-arms chaos depending on the playlist and map.
Combat is intentionally fast and accessible. You can contribute as a foot soldier capturing points and clearing lanes, switch to a tank to pressure objectives and soak damage, or provide support from above in a gunship when the map and mode allow it. Between matches, you work on improving your loadouts by unlocking weapons and attachments, plus cosmetic and utility upgrades such as optics and camouflage. Vehicles add a second layer of strategy, since choosing the right ground or air option can swing a fight when teams contest open areas.
Red Crucible: Firestorm Key Features:
- Four Distinct Weapon Classes – choose from four specialized roles: Assault, Sniper, Support, or Demolitions, each aimed at a different combat style.
- Multiple Game Modes – queue into random matches or select from active rooms, with options like Survivor, Team Deathmatch Resources (TDR), Team Deathmatch Armored (TDA), Territories, and other objective variants.
- Clans – team up through clans to coordinate play, plan tactics, and more easily form squads.
- Variety of Vehicles – use a broad mix of land and air vehicles, including tanks, transport vehicles, helicopters, anti-air platforms, and artillery-focused armor.
- Modern War Setting – load out with modern military-themed equipment inspired by gear used by contemporary armed forces from multiple countries.
Red Crucible: Firestorm Screenshots
Red Crucible: Firestorm Featured Video
Red Crucible: Firestorm Review
Red Crucible: Firestorm is a free-to-play 3D MMOFPS that drops players into arenas inspired by real-world places, including locations like Germany’s Autobahn, an airport setting, a Middle Eastern town, and even an aircraft carrier. It runs on the Unity engine, and the presentation reflects both the benefits and limitations of that choice. While the game is readable in motion and the environments communicate lanes and sightlines, the overall visual fidelity is modest, and character animation can look stiff or inconsistent during hectic exchanges. In my time with it, visual glitches popped up occasionally, including odd camera and aiming behavior that can momentarily break immersion.
Sound design is another weak point. Weapons fire and explosions do the job of signaling danger, but many guns lack the punch and detail that modern FPS players expect, so firefights can feel flatter than they should, especially in modes that are meant to feel high intensity.
Getting Started
The game funnels you into a central lobby that acts as your hub for matchmaking and loadout management. There is also a short tutorial with a very familiar “boot camp” tone that tries to cover the fundamentals, movement, firing, aiming down sights, and basic combat expectations. It is functional, but it is not particularly polished or memorable, and anyone comfortable with standard FPS controls can safely skip it and learn the rest in live matches.
Modes, Maps, and the Combined-Arms Pitch
At its best, Firestorm succeeds at offering variety. The six modes cover a nice range of PvP staples: Team Deathmatch variants (including versions with and without heavier vehicle emphasis), Search and Destroy with attackers and defenders, Territories as a domination-style objective mode, Conquer as a hill-focused mode, and Survivor as a free-for-all. With up to 24 players, matches can feel busy enough to support flanks and counterplays, provided teams are somewhat coordinated.
Vehicles are the headline feature, but they also highlight the game’s rough edges. The physics and damage rules can feel inconsistent, which impacts balance in modes where armor is meant to matter. Small-arms fire can sometimes appear too effective against vehicles, and tank combat does not always communicate impact well. In practice, this means vehicle play can swing between “unstoppable” and “surprisingly fragile” depending on the situation, which undermines the combined-arms fantasy the game is aiming for.
Loadouts, Unlocks, and Monetization
Progression is built around expanding your arsenal and customizing your soldier. There is a decent amount of gear to chase, including weapons, uniforms, vehicles, and assorted military-themed accessories. The customization is one of the strongest motivators to keep queuing, because switching roles or experimenting with a new weapon class can make the game feel fresher even when you are revisiting the same modes.
The drawback is how strongly the cash shop presence is felt. Many of the more appealing items are tied to real-money purchases, and while the premium options are not necessarily outright stronger on paper, they are often significantly more desirable in appearance and presentation. That can create an uneven feeling, not strictly “pay to win,” but still a model that pushes players toward spending if they want the coolest-looking loadouts and a faster sense of progression.
The Final Verdict – Fair
Red Crucible: Firestorm is a playable free-to-play shooter with a clear goal: quick PvP matches that mix infantry gunfights with vehicles and occasional air support. The problem is that the execution is uneven. Technical issues, limited audiovisual impact, and questionable physics and damage behavior all get in the way of the game’s best moments. It is easy to see why it is sometimes compared unfavorably to larger combined-arms shooters, because it aims for a Battlefield-like feel without the same level of polish.
If you are curious and want a low-commitment FPS with multiple modes, it can be worth sampling, especially if you are playing with friends or a clan. For players who want tighter balance, more convincing vehicle combat, or stronger production values, other free-to-play and premium shooters are likely to be more satisfying in the long run.
Red Crucible: Firestorm Online Links
Red Crucible: Firestorm Official Site
Red Crucible: Firestorm Steam
Red Crucible: Firestorm Facebook
Red Crucible: Firestorm System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7 / OSX Lion
CPU: Intel Core i3
Video Card: Intel Integrated Graphics
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 8.1 / OSX Yosemite
CPU: Intel Core i7
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or equivalent
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB
Red Crucible: Firestorm Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon…
Red Crucible: Firestorm Additional Information
Developer: Rocketeer Games
Distributor: Steam
Game Engine: Unity3D
Open Beta Release Date: April 15, 2015
Steam Early Access Release Date: May 29, 2015
Red Crucible: Firestorm is developed and published by Rocketeer Games, the studio behind the earlier Red Crucible titles. The team is a relatively small outfit (sixteen developers), established in 2007 by John Kuraica. Firestorm serves as the third entry in the series, following Red Crucible 1 and 2, and it arrived around the same timeframe as Red Crucible: Reloaded, an updated re-release of the second game.
The game’s open beta launched on April 15, 2015, and it later moved into Steam Early Access on May 29, 2015. Early Access was positioned as a way to bring in a broader and more active audience while additional features were developed and the overall experience was refined toward a full release.