The open beta for Black Sea Studios’ ‘MMO meets RTS’ WorldShift has begun. The beta is hosted by FilePlanet.com though, meaning it’s exclusive to Fileplanet’s members. But if you have an account there then you can go here and play your heart out.

With tactical battles, epic story, and an overall fast-paced gameplay, WorldShift is looking promising. As Black Sea Studios’ programmer and story co-writer Mikhail Balabanov told us in a recent interview: “WorldShift is an innovative RTS game offering some features typically associated with MMORPG games, like collecting and equipping items to improve and specialize the playable factions, fighting bosses, etc. WorldShift features three playable factions in a futuristic cyber-fantasy setting and has player-versus-environment-oriented single player and cooperative multiplayer as well as player versus player modes.”

The full game is set for a April 20 release on PC only, and there will be a demo some time after the game hits retail. For the minimum and recommended system specs, plus some other nice pieces of information about the game, check our full interview with Balabanov.

[See also: WorldShift gallery]