Global Agenda

Besides the ticket maps there are also maps where one side attacks objectives and the other defends. Some ask you simply to overrun a particular position and then move onto the next, while others involve playing escort. There's also a Capture the Robot mode where each team tries to transport a mech to safety to score.

The hex-based metagame sees your Agency competing for territory by going into battles in these modes, attempting to win and then defend any grabbed land in combat. Harmon points out that it can be dangerous to spread your teams too thin because competing Agencies may be more sensible about consolidating territory rather than constantly striking out for the next futuristic beachhead.

The PvE element will be ongoing, too, allowing you to raid NPC faction The Commonwealth for further resources that goes towards crafting weaponry and so forth, and there's talk of 60-person raids later on. Although I don't get to sample the PvE scenarios at PAX, reports from the closed beta suggest that they're more than simply PvP designs with bots - the enemy can also deploy even more specialised opposition and single-purpose cannon fodder designed to disrupt your attacks. All in all, it sounds a bit more elaborate than collecting five wolf pelts or mashing up Bambi in the woods to pay for a potion and a new pointy hat.

In other words, it's an MMO-shaped game but it's up to its neck in shooters, and to that end Harmon tells me you're not bound to play with your Agency alone. If you fancy playing with friends in another Agency, you can always team up and play matches for experience and credits. Although I don't get to see any of it, Harmon also speaks of a big old friends list and built-in voice communications for hooking up.

Level design looks very different to your Halos and Calls of Duty, clearly influenced by the jetpack's presence. Harmon says the team sought to "emphasise mobility and the Z-axis fighting, but we didn't want it to get too crazy". The map I play seems to take place on a base elevated into the clouds with huge drop-offs to worry about in its well-routed outdoor locations, and warrens of passageways around each objective, allowing less robust classes to do their work protecting and infiltrating through tighter confines.

Visually there's a lot of clean lines carved through gunmetal bases and harsh mountainous terrain, but the characters are the draw: bright and colourful, swathed in swanky exoskeletons that wear green piping like ribs with dashes of insect about their armour and extrusions, depending on the class anyway and, presumably, the players' flamboyance.

Global Agenda is currently in closed beta, with a couple of thousand people feeding war and bug stories back to the developer, but an open beta isn't far away according to Harmon. Anyone heading to the Eurogamer Expo in late October can play it there too. My advice would be to do so; not unlike APB, it's a game that sounds like an MMO but stretches the definition considerably, and in considered fashion.