Splash Damage has finally lifted the veil off of Dirty Bomb for the general public and launched an open beta for the game on Steam, so you can download it right this very second if you'd like.

Dirty Bomb is a free-to-play shooter with a heavy emphasis on teamwork and unique mercenary characters, so you'll need to figure out what your play style is going to be and choose a character that fits, then learn the other characters' abilities as well to stay on top of things. It's a game that highly encourages teamwork, but like most other games that "encourage" teamwork, they don't "demand" it and you can still do pretty well peeling off on your own from time to time.

Two of the game's mercs, combat medic Aura and fire-support specialist Skyhammer, will always be free for players to choose. Additional characters will roll into and out of free rotation, and for the launch of the beta, you'll get to use support medic Sawbonez, grenadier Fragger, and Kira, who can use an orbital laser. The rest of the characters can be bought for permanent usage. The beta also launches with five maps and two modes with the promise of more to come as the beta continues.

We played the game earlier in the year and thought it was good fun, if maybe not quite as hardcore as the developers had advertised. Now you can jump in on Steam and try out it for yourself.