Over the last few months, Tribes: Ascend has been taking the internet by storm with over 300,000 players in the closed beta. At first glance, it’s easy to write the game off as another poor attempt to cash in on the first-person shooter genre – but I’m here to tell you that it’s good, really good.

Tribes: Ascend is a free-to-play game, so it being made available to the public as an open beta should essentially be considered an official release date with the understanding that it will most likely continue to change and improve. In only a few days, on February 24, Tribes: Ascend will open its doors to everyone.

If you weren’t able to gain access to the closed beta, you may not understand what all the fuss is about concerning Tribes: Ascend. At its roots, the game has one major distinguishing feature – skiing – which ultimately results in two aspects of gameplay being prioritized: speed and skill. Through the utilization of your jetpack and skiing mechanics, you are able to move at incredible speeds across the map, as detailed in the diagram and video below.