Alien Swarm Review

Alien Swarm started as a Source mod that was originally based off an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod. Hundreds of these Source mods already exist on Steam, an example being the famed Counter-Strike Source mod. The developers of this particular mod worked on Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2, but were only signed on as official Valve staff for creating this mod. Because of its high degree of success within the modding community, Alien Swarm was publicized and released officially. Because more casual gamers are often turned off by the exclusivity associated with being a modder, releasing Alien Swarm at the almighty price of $0 was a great way to encourage Steam users to be more proactive towards Source mods.

Like most Valve games, the real fun comes from playing with your friends. Alien Swarm features a lobby system that is remarkably similar to the one in Left 4 Dead 2, allowing Steam users to quickly join and leave games with random players. You can also create your own lobby and play with up to three friends, which is really the better option if you are easily frustrated by online cooperative play. Personally, every time I got infected by an enemy when I was playing with strangers, the medic nearly always failed to cure me, despite that I was continually hitting 2 on the numpad to call a Medic. But when I played with my friends, I was healed of infection most times I asked for healing.

Unlike Left 4 Dead, the levels are structured as objective-based missions that force the players to complete the objectives before moving on. There are currently six official missions, Cargo Eleavator, Deima Surface Bridge, Landing Bay, Ryberg Reactor, Sewer Junction B5 and SynTek Residential, with each map featuring unique objectives. A minimap is given at the bottom right corner of the screen to allow everyone to easily find objectives

The game is also presented in a top down format instead of a first person shooter one for a more simplified experience. The controls utilize WASD for movement, and the mouse is used for aiming and firing all of the weapons. Sometimes the movement can feel a bit clunky, especially around corners, but it overall follows a tried and true formula.

Alien Swarm features four separate classes, the officer, the heavy weapons guy, the medic, and the technician. Each class acts as their names suggest, and the game requires every team to be balanced in order to survive. Although there are only four classes, there are eight character models to choose from, with two being available for each class. These two character models offer separate beneficial abilities for each class. Along with using different weapon combinations, there is a large amount of customization present in Alien Swarm.

New weapons are unlocked either by finding them in the levels or through leveling up, just like in Call of Duty. The RPG elements allow players to access new gear by gaining experience points. These experience points are earned by completing objectives, but do not rank players by level or game progression. Although the leveling system is by no means complex, it’s certainly superior to the normal game priced at $0.

The gameplay itself is pretty good. Even on the normal difficulty setting, the aliens do plenty of damage. Alien Swarm players unfamiliar with top-down shooters, will have an easy to getting started, as the mechanics are extremely simple. Slaughtering aliens while attempting to complete the objectives is extremely satisfying, and there are a good variety of enemy types. The game is very action packed with little downtime, especially on the hard and insane difficulties.

The only thing the game lacks is good sound effects. The audio tracks are pretty unmemorable, and the voice acting subpar, but then again it’s a free mod, so the voice acting was probably done by the modders.

As a free game, Alien Swarm gives you one of the best bangs for your lack of buck. Steam probably could have charged $10 for it and gotten plenty of people to purchase it. But Valve, the nice guys that they are, have created a greatly fun multiplayer game and released it for free. Usually, reviews end by either enticing or dissuading the reader from the product. In this case, Alien Swarm is free, so the worst that happens is that you don’t enjoy the game you can delete all 2060 Megabytes of it. Even so, I highly recommend you at least give Alien Swarm a shot. It’s not the best game ever made, but as far as free ones go, it certainly ranks up there.

Alien Swarm can be downloaded here as long as you already have the Steam client. If not, you should go download it as soon as possible, if only to play Alien Swarm.