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Fast-paced free-to-play shooter Dirty Bomb enters open beta next week

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As technology advances and games become more complex in how they’re made, it seems that many of them are also getting more complex in how they’re played. By contrast, Dirty Bomb, the upcoming free-to-play shooter from Brink developer Splash Damage, claims to take first-person shooters “back to their purest roots.” Even better? It’s finally getting an open beta.

The date is sooner than you may have guessed, too: the open beta arrives on June 2. Dirty Bomb has been around in beta form for some time now, but it has been closed, though buying the game’s Merc Pack on Steam would grant players early access.

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“No more access keys, no more buy-in, no more raffles, no more sign-ups; anyone in our service area that wants to play Dirty Bomb can download it through the Steam client and play for free,” reads the announcement on Steam.

The game will be published by MMO giant Nexon, which seems to be focusing more on action games as of late. The company is also publishing Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions’ upcoming free-to-player shooter.

Players familiar with Brink or Splash Damage’s earlier Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory should have a fairly good idea of how the basic structure of the game will work. Currently the game has five maps, and the emphasis is on objective-focused team-based combat.

Unlike the class system used in most shooters, Dirty Bomb instead provides twelve unique “mercs,” so the system is more similar to picking characters in a fighting game. While there seems to be a decent amount of content in the game so far, more will come as the open beta progresses. “We have more features, more maps, new ways to play and, of course, plenty of new Mercs coming,” the Dirty Bomb team writes.

If you want a closer look at the game in action, or just need help passing the time between now and June 2, take a look at the most recent trailer for Dirty Bomb below.

Dirty Bomb: What is Dirty Bomb?
Kris Wouk
Former Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
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