Alien Swarm offers more features and fun than similar titles which make you pay for the privilege of playing them. It’s astonishing that a game of this pedigree and polish is free. Steam may be the best DRM system around, but it’s still a DRM system. Last of all, this game requires Steam to both download and play. Also, the grainy, simplistic rendering used for the title screen could use some of the visual fireworks that are lavished elsewhere, as the low-budget impression it leaves is misleading.

This is a design decision issue and not easily fixable. Avoiding friendly fire is an important aspect of the game, but it remains frustratingly easy to gun down your own team whether you’re playing with a group cooperatively or practicing alone with bots. Whether it be computer hacking, heavy weapons skills, welding doors shut or cutting them open, healing wounded comrades, setting ammo resupply points or dropping flares, your team has it covered, assuming you’re skilled enough to keep each of them alive long enough to use those abilities.Īs good a game as it is, there are some minor problems with Alien Swarm. Each squad member has a special skill and progress is predicated on use of these abilities at key points in order to continue. In a setting lifted almost intact from the Aliens book of tropes, you are part of a team working your way through a futuristic base infested with the titular ETs. Choose weapons loadouts wisely.Started years ago as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 before being taken in-house by Valve, Alien Swarm is a Source-engine based isometric shooter that emphasizes teamwork and cooperative play over solo run-and-gun bravado. While big titles like Portal and Team Fortress soak up most of the fame, small projects like Alien Swarm are an even better showcase for the qualities that set this studio apart from the competition.Īlien Swarm team members have specialties.

The designers at Valve aren’t particularly prolific when it comes to games, but what they lack in volume they more than make up for in passion and polish.

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