Alien Swarm

Alien Swarm is a freeware top-down shoot-em-up video game by Valve Corporation. It is a remake of the Alien Swarm mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, and it was developed by the original team, who were hired by Valve during the course of the development process.

Game-play revolves around a team of four space marines (ah, how original). Players are able to choose from 8 different characters, divided into four classes - Officer, Special Weapons, Medic and Tech. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as a unique role on the battlefield. The Officer’s default weapon is a powerful shotgun; later on in the game, they gain access to, in addition to the regular armory, weapons that boost the stats of nearby allies. Special Weapons has access to the powerful minigun-type weapons. Medics, as can easily be guessed, heal wounded team mates. Finally, the Tech class - they are the IT support of the battle, hacking door panels and computers, in addition to welding the occasional door shut.

An original implementation of the Source Engine, it uses a top-down perspective at a 60 degree angle. This makes game-play very interesting, however, it can cause problems while performing certain tasks, such as shooting at enemies that are above or below the player. Players play cooperatively against swarms of bug-like aliens of various types. Similarly to the Left 4 Dead series, Alien Swarm features an AI Director, who monitors the players stress-level and adjusts game-play accordingly.

As the player goes through the game, they gain experience for each kill, as well as Steam Achievements, such as achieving 5 “quick-loads” in a row. A very nice feature is that you will continue gaining experience for attaining a previous achievement - if I accomplish 5 quick-loads in a row on one level, I will get the same amount of experience points if I do the same on the next level. While progressing in the game and acquiring greater and greater amounts of experience they level up. Every so many levels another weapon or inventory item is unlocked. The level cap is 23, however it is possible to reset the level to 1 for “prestige” (like in Call of Duty 4). Greater prestige levels have no impact on game-play, except for having a nice medal next to your handle in-game.

There is but one campaign, and it is grievously short - a few hours of play is usually enough to pass the 7-level campaign included in game. However, the developers community is quite large and there are plenty of third party maps/campaigns to download and play, of lesser or greater quality. In the end, it is a free download on Steam, so one cannot hold up this game to the same standards as big-budget productions.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this game. It is fun, fast-paced, adrenaline pumping gaming. Best played with other human players, especially friends. Not many things can beat the thrill of being with a few friends in the same room(or online), running and gunning through the levels while you’re being attacked by aliens, screaming all the while. It’s a free download on Steam, so why not get a few buddies together and give it a whirl?

exon@economics-clan.com