Alien Swarm

thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Stupid question...

Is it any good?

For someone who has never played Alien Swarm, give me a summary of what its all about?
 
G

Gombol

Guest
thatbloke said:
Stupid question...

Is it any good?

For someone who has never played Alien Swarm, give me a summary of what its all about?
Click to expand...

"Aliens. Go kill." You have a basic storyline, but That's the Gyst. Rather short though. :( WTB More maps.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
thatbloke said:
Is it any good?

For someone who has never played Alien Swarm, give me a summary of what its all about?
Click to expand...

Alien Swarm is a 4 player cooperative game. Less than 4 players can play but I don't much enjoy playing with the bots (though you can switch your control to take control of a specific bot, if you wish).

It is at its best online with voice comms on a higher difficulty (Normal difficulty is fine for an introduction if you know vaguely how to play).

It is a mostly top-down game, though this release has added in just a touch of isometric perspective. Personally, I like this view more though it does slightly hamper the view of aliens coming from the bottom of the screen.

The players pick characters that conform to one of four classes, and there are two characters available in each class. The classes are (loosely) leader, auto-gunner, medic and hacker. If they were in the film Aliens they'd be Apone (Sarge), Vasquez (Wildcat), Dietrich (Faith) and Hudson (Crash).

The missions tend to be fairly simple: go here, turn this on, go there, burn that, escape. They're complicated by aliens, of course. Aliens tend to arrive in batches, depending on the map, but Alien Swarm is notable for its set pieces, usually based around hacking. One marine hacks some console trying to open a door or something while the others try to keep the aliens off his back. Or the marines are all on a lift that is descending while aliens jump down from above. For me, this is where Alien Swarm is at its best and works brilliantly coop.

There's different equipment that is chosen before a mission, some of which can only be equipped by certain classes. In contrast the original release on the UT2004 platform, this version also includes a simple levelling system that allows access to greater quantities of equipment; the basic equipment is actually pretty good and the more advanced stuff tends to present more ways to fuck up and kill your team mates.

Personally, I bought UT2004 solely to play Alien Swarm. That this release is free is totally awesome.

If I had one criticsm, it's that the campaign is a bit too short. This will doubtless be remedied by the extensive availability to mod and map for Alien Swarm.

Is it good? Absolutely yes. Still not sure? It's free, so what are you worrying about!
 
G

Gombol

Guest
Agree with what Ronin said. ^_^

Just get it blokie, I'll play it with you. :3
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
Meh that would require me to repeatedly click "More replies below the blah blah blah..." in the forum thread :)

Nested threads ftw folks!
 
SwampFae

SwampFae

Super Moderator
Staff member
BiG D said:
Since it looks like a few folks are giving this a look right now, I figured I'd post up some info and general tips for anyone else who wants to get involved.

First of all, ASw is a UT2004 mod. A (real time) top-down shooter with a definite Alien theme. The game focuses more on small squads and tactical movement, rather than full-on carnage. The files you'll need for the base game are here. Most servers are running all the maps from here as well, so if you're looking to play online they're a good download.

Once you're playing, here's some basics:
  • The game is hard. Don't be ashamed to play on easy, especially if you're trying it out single player.
  • There's friendly fire, and it hurts a lot. Careful what you're shooting at :D
  • On that note, you'll probably want to avoid the flamer and shotguns until you're quite competent with the other weapons.
  • The autogun isn't affected by the accuracy stat, so don't waste your stars.
  • Everyone should almost always should be putting stars into their special stat at the end of the round, especially the medics and techs.
  • Stims are a lifesaver. You'll want at least one marine to bring them.
Click to expand...

Ran some offline practice on normal mode to see what I had to work with. T'was -awesome- :D
Loving Alien Swarm :)
Also:
Am I the only one getting a 404 on:
BiG D said:
[Snip]Most servers are running all the maps from here as well[Snip]
Click to expand...
Edit: Would appear that the site no longer exists
 
G

Gombol

Guest
SwampFae said:
Ran some offline practice on normal mode to see what I had to work with. T'was -awesome- :D
Loving Alien Swarm :)
Also:
Am I the only one getting a 404 on:

Edit: Would appear that the site no longer exists
Click to expand...

That's because D was talking about the Old Alien Swarm.

Note:
BiG D said:
Once you're playing, here's some basics:
  • The game is hard. Don't be ashamed to play on easy, especially if you're trying it out single player.
  • There's friendly fire, and it hurts a lot. Careful what you're shooting at :D
  • On that note, you'll probably want to avoid the flamer and shotguns until you're quite competent with the other weapons.
  • The autogun isn't affected by the accuracy stat, so don't waste your stars.
  • Everyone should almost always should be putting stars into their special stat at the end of the round, especially the medics and techs.
  • Stims are a lifesaver. You'll want at least one marine to bring them.
Click to expand...

Game is easy, up to hard / Insane.

Freindly fire Is still around.

Flamer and Shotguns are stupidly easy to use (And the Flame is rather good, especially at stealing kills.)

No such thing as "Stats" anymore, It's all built into each "Character" (Like one of the Special Weapons, have a +5 to Autogun (and mini gun) Damage.

Stim's are still around.
 
Xarlaxas

Xarlaxas

Active Member
So, new patch for Alien Swarm, Onslaught mode that gives us a L4D style director, Hard-core Friendly Fire so it will be more like original AS, and a new difficulty that the team apparently can't even beat, anyone up for that? :D
 
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