You want to jump right back to 20 years ago? Play Angels Fall First. I feel like I’m a little kid in the early 2000s while playing this.
Over 10 years of Early Access and I didn’t know something like this even exited. I’ve spent a couple of hours in the game and after a while, I knew people need a guide about this old/new game.
I’ll explain how to do the basics in the game, what the core gameplay system is. I’ll also provide the tips I’ve learned that I think will be helpful for all players.
AFF Guide:
You Should Know This
The moment you first join a game, you’ll be asked to pick a faction: ULA or AIA. It doesn’t lock you out of anything permanently, but it does decide who you’re fighting alongside for that session, so don’t stress over it too much on your first match.
Also worth clarifying that the tutorial isn’t one long block. It’s actually four separate tutorials (Infantry, Vehicle, Ship, and Command), plus the damage-free practice arenas. You can do them in any order, but going Infantry first and then Vehicle, Ship, Command in sequence makes the most sense.
Start Here: Do the Tutorial
Don’t skip the tutorial, it’s a nice original AFF guide. The 1.0 tutorial is funny, with a sarcastic officer yelling at you. It teaches the important stuff. Anyway if you’ve skipped it, here is what you’ve missed:
Basic controls
F is your universal interact key (open doors, pick up gear, all of it). Everything’s rebindable if the defaults feel weird. There’s also a tac map (the game’s version of a mission map/spawn selector) that you’ll be living in.
The tag & order system
This is the game’s whole identity, honestly. Aim at an enemy, a teammate or an objective and hit your tag key. Then hold the command key and you can order people to attack, support or just move to that spot.
The orders that pop up actually change depending on what you tagged. It feels less like Battlefield chaos and more like everyone’s actually cooperating, which I wasn’t expecting.
XP categories
Everything you do gets tracked in three buckets: Combat (damage dealt), Support (helping teammates), and Command (giving/following orders well). This matters because your loadout budget is tied to these categories.
Reviving people
This tripped me up at first. You don’t have a dedicated “revive” button. You literally swap to your multi-wrench (a repair tool) and shoot your downed teammate with it. Totally safe, heals their armor too. Same tool also repairs vehicle and ship subsystems, so keep it handy.
Loadouts
When you deploy (whether as infantry or in a vehicle) you build a loadout with a budget bar in three categories matching Combat/Support/Command. Every gun, mod, and piece of gear costs points in one or more categories and if you go over budget you literally can’t deploy.
You rank up in each category by earning XP there, which raises your budget ceiling. So if you want better gear, actually go support your team and follow orders, not just farm kills.
Vehicles in Angels Fall First
You don’t own a vehicle permanently, it gets bound to whoever’s driving until they die, then it’s up for grabs (or an AI hops in if nobody claims it). Vehicles also get their own loadout screen with the same budget system.
After all that, you get dropped into practice arenas where you literally cannot take damage — perfect for messing with guns and flight controls before a real match punishes you for it.
How Do Matches Work
Well, this Angels Fall First guide goes for the core system. How do matches actually work? Well, there are two modes in the game:
Incursion
This is all about attack vs. defense. Attackers push through three phases of objectives (hold a point, destroy a target, plant a hack on a console, that kind of thing).
Clear a phase, and you push deeper into the map for the next set. Attackers win by finishing everything before time runs out.
Defenders win one of two ways: either just run the clock out while holding objectives, or cut off the attackers’ spawn points long enough that they’re forced to retreat even with time left.
Territories
It’s simpler. Both teams fight over a set of control points and holding them fills your team’s progress bar. Here’s the part I didn’t expect: destroying enemy-owned vehicles also adds to your progress bar in this mode, so it’s not just about camping points.
Hunting down their tanks/fighters actually helps you win too. First team to fill the bar completely wins. No win-by-timeout here.
Ground and Space Fight
The game has two fighting areas, ground and space. Figting on the ground has simple mechanics. Cover, shoot and use shields to recharge your armor. If you don’t grab vehicles, bots or other players will take them.
Launch fighters or bombers are for space fights. Dogfight with guns and missiles. Use flares for countermeasures. Switch flight mode (middle mouse) for arcade or momentum flying. Momentum flying is good for drifts and side attacks.
Boarding enemy ships
This part is the coolest part honestly. You take a drop-ship, find a breach point (marked on your HUD), hit F to dock, then when prompted, head to the rear module of the drop-ship to actually join the boarding party.
You’ve got a short window before it detaches and flies off without you if you’re too slow. Once inside, it’s your call: sabotage subsystems and fight the crew or go straight for the objective, which is usually destroying three core lockout consoles (marked with yellow target icons) to blow the whole ship.
Fair warning: when the core goes, it’s a proper chain-reaction explosion, so have your exit planned.
What I Noticed Playing AFF
The biggest drawback for me is that servers can be quiet sometimes, but 1.0 brought more players. You can either play with real people or just with bots. Oh, and also note that EU servers are often busier than US ones.
Another aspect of the game, which I personally like but some people don’t, is the old UI of the game. Graphics are simple and basic. But trust me, the engaging gameplay will make the low graphics something minor.
Note: If the game crashes, verify the game files on Steam. If the FPS is low or drops, just tweak the graphics.
This is Not Everything
The game is new and I just started it and practical data and guides are limited for the latest version of the game. Anyway, after a while of playing, I’ll add every detail I learn. This text was mostly about the basics of the game, so beginning AFF won’t be that hard for you.
