Alien Swarm is FREE on Steam. And it's awesome.

[Great Rumbler]

So go get it!

[EdenMaster]

I played some with a few people from my other community, and I'm a little torn on an opinion for it. It's a little jarring.

[lazyfatbum]

Its top-down and you use the mouse to aim and wasd to move. The enemies are different and varied and the weapons sorta limited but you unlock better stuff as you gain XP. It has very light RPH elements such as what you equip before the level and specific character stats.

It's also fun to play with people, I cant believe its free.

[Dark Jaguar]

I got this a couple of days ago. Amazing isn't it? It's by the Left 4 Dead team. They made it as an Unreal Tournament mod before Valve hired them, and this port to Source seems to be some "thank you" to the community. It's a good'n!

[Great Rumbler]

I'm a little torn on an opinion for it. It's a little jarring.

Jarring?

[EdenMaster]

Jarring?

I'm just having a little trouble getting used to the movement and facing being completely independent from one another. I'm used to walking up and defaulting facing up.

[Great Rumbler]

I've played a few games that had similar controls, so it hasn't really been an issue for me.

[Dark Jaguar]

I know what you mean but it's for the best this way. It allows you to fire at a swarm while running away.

[A Black Falcon]

... You've never played twin-stick/tank-style games with mouse and keyboard, EM? Really? There have been plenty of them over the years though... it allows for much more freedom in aiming. This is true both for third-person games such as the classic late '90s PC action game Recoil, where you control your tanks' movement with the keyboard and your view and firing with the mouse and the two are completely separate, to Smash TV, Geometry Wars, etc.

Really, these controls are much more natural than "you must be facing in the direction you want to fire in" controls, and so much more versatile and easy to hit enemies in any direction with, too...

Of course, I did get pretty good at Llamatron, the great Robotron-style game, and have played other games like this before too, so yeah. I think it's a fantastic control scheme, so much better than ones where you just have a fire button and movement.

Another example, probably an even closer comparison -- Alien Syndrome for the Wii. It's topdown, you move with the Nunchuck's stick, and aim with the Wiimote. Very much like this. But really, it's all just versions of Robotron's control scheme at heart. You haven't even played Geometry Wars much or something?


As for this game, it seems fun, good graphics and great controls. However, that it's multiplayer-only makes me much less interested than if it was a full game...

[Great Rumbler]

I'm interested in it BECAUSE it's multiplayer-focused. I've played plenty of similar games with single-player and they're usually pretty shallow, by their very nature.

[A Black Falcon]

The problem is it's not multiplayer-focused, it's multiplayer-only. Even in MMOs you can solo things if you really want, in many cases...

[Great Rumbler]

Well, you CAN play Alien Swarm offline, just with AI teammates.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I played a game with a similar control scheme (though it was a side-scroller, not top-down), called Soldat. It was pretty fun, but I admit, the controls were a challenge.

[Dark Jaguar]

The problem is it's not multiplayer-focused, it's multiplayer-only. Even in MMOs you can solo things if you really want, in many cases...

Like GR said, it's got an offline mode. Heck, you can even "host" a LAN game and play completely by yourself if you want, though it'll be even harder than it already is. It's also got an ongoing narrative and character developing (not as in story, as in stats), so it's well done.

[lazyfatbum]

Needs a first person mode for lols

[Great Rumbler]

Needs a first person mode for lols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsvBrW_I3gM

[Dark Jaguar]

You can give it whatever you want, it's got an open SDK.

[A Black Falcon]

I don't exactly use it that much, but I should probably add you people in Steam, shouldn't I...

[EdenMaster]

I don't exactly use it that much, but I should probably add you people in Steam, shouldn't I...

I sent you a friend request probably 6 months ago. I eventually had to delete the request since you were still taking up a slot in my list so I couldn't add anyone new :D

I'll toss you another one. Look for TheCarpe.

[A Black Falcon]

Alright, added you... now I need the others here I guess. :)

(I, of course, am A_Black_Falcon)

[etoven]

[ACTION]Sends an imaginary friend request..

Because steam is the devil.[/ACTION]

[Great Rumbler]

Steam's pretty awesome, man. No discs, Steam Clouds keep track of all your stats and saves, awesome sales, and so on.

[A Black Falcon]

Steam is evil, but their sales are impressively cheap. :(

[EdenMaster]

Steams not evil, it's just not perfect either. But it's far and away the best digital distributor for games on the web. You're just mad you can't divvy your games up across ten hard drives :p

[A Black Falcon]

No way, GOG is way better. Maybe Direct2Drive too, you actually get an installable file... but definitely GOG.

[EdenMaster]

No way, GOG is way better. Maybe Direct2Drive too, you actually get an installable file... but definitely GOG.

Some people like games newer than 8-10 years old :D

[A Black Falcon]

GOG has some games as recent as just a few years old, you know. :)

[Great Rumbler]

Not very many and most of them are smaller, more obscure titles.

[Dark Jaguar]

Steam is evil, but their sales are impressively cheap. :(

I'm not sure I get this. You are the only person I've ever met that thinks Steam is "evil". Could you explain? Just about everyone else I talk to say Valve's just about the only company that does digital distribution right. I mean, I'm not sure what else you could ask for from them. Online activation is really not that big a deal if that's it, and that's the LEAST of the great digital distribution offenses of this generation. You can, after activation, play any steam game offline whenever you want FOREVER, and they all have LAN support too on top of that, unlike Starcraft 2.

[Great Rumbler]

Steam could be better, and it does a few things that are kind of lame, but I don't think there's any other service out there that even comes close to it.