Google’s in-house studio NianticLabs has finally taken the jump, changing their location-based MMO Ingress from closed beta status to an open beta one. So what exactly does this mean? It means you don’t have to wait for an invitation in order to grab this rather in-depth game. Instead you can head over to Google Play and snag yourself a copy of Ingress right now for free without the need for an invite from a friend.
For those of you not familiar with this game, Ingress is a location-based MMO that is themed around a mysterious energy that has been unearthed. The problem with this is that it is influencing the way people think, or at least that is the current belief. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen but it has caused a split in the human population, creating two factions that everyone falls under – The Enlightened and The Resistance.
Since this is a location-based game it will be using your GPS signal to plot your location in the game. From there, as you travel around, you’ll be able to pick up bits of this energy. Occasionally you will also find things like a portal which you can hack into and claim for your faction. You can also hack into your opposing faction’s portals as well. You’ll be capturing territory for your faction and deploying tech to help secure it.
There is a pretty big change with this game moving into open beta and that is the fact that once you choose a faction, there is no changing it. If you were in the closed beta, you know that this is a new change since during the closed beta you could switch faction. This isn’t the case anymore now.
If you’ve been waiting to jump into this game but haven’t been able to secure an invite for the closed beta, you can grab the game now and start playing thanks to it going into open beta.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Google Play Link: Ingress
