Game Title: Alien Swarm
Subhead: Online Co-op Shooter
Platforms: PC
Publisher: Steam
Developer: Black Cat Games / Valve
ESRB: Not Rated
Official Website: http://www.alienswarm.com/
Price in peso: 0.00 (Absolutely free, just download Steam)
Fresh on Steam is the free-to-play, action packed shooter, Alien Swarm. Reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, but with a bird’s eye view of the field, up to four players each control one of eight characters in bug-infested, objective-based missions. The characters, referred to as IAF marines, each belong to a class: Officers provide a passive damage boost to the team; Weapons Specialists can wield the awesome autogun, capable of single-handedly covering an entire flank from a bug horde; Medics keep the team healthy, with a group-healing medical beacon as well as a single-target medigun; Techs, often required by the mission objectives, are able to hack open doors and computers via a simple mini game.
Aside from the sheer thrill of having to survive through and endlessly-spawning swarm of alien adversaries, the game will keep you coming back with its class-based mechanics, level-up and promotion system, unlockable arsenal of no less than 40 weapons and equipment, and 64 Steam achievements. As if that wasn’t enough, the kind souls over at Valve have included the full source and SDK with the download, making it easy for modders and mappers to add maps or entire campaigns to supplement the official one, or even change the way the game works. Now that’s dedication for you.
Thousands of gamers have flocked to download this freebie already. Come on and join the Swarm!
Scorecard: (Rate using 1 to 5 scale, 5 being the highest.)
- Graphics: 3
- Sounds: 4
- Fun Factor: 5
- Replayability: 5
- Overall Score: 4.5