So let's look at this thing. It came from Valve. This is usually a good sign. It has 4 player co-op. Whether or not this signals good or bad, this has been done well by Valve is the past, so I say it bodes well. It consists of fighting off hordes of enemy creatures with a large variety of weapons. Three pluses on that mark. It's free. If that doesn't excite you I don't know what will. This game looks great on paper.
It also looks great on an LCD Panel. The graphics were built for the source engine, so I already expected great things, but it still looked good. It beats Half-life 2 by a good margin, and I think it outpaces Team Fortress 2 as well. I can't wait to see what Portal 2 does in Source.
So, this game looks pretty, but does it play well. I would say yes. I would say yes many times in a row and still be underplaying it. This game takes the teamwork aspect of Left 4 Dead, and seems to make it more interesting. You never rely on a specific class, unless you need a Tech. They can hack doors and arm bombs, so if there is a mission objective requiring hacking, then a Tech is required for that one mission. If you get infested, you better hope you have a competent medic. I like playing the medic because truthfully I don't really trust anyone with my character's life. I just played a game in which the medic rarely dropped health packs and everyone ran into the infesting aliens like they were warehouses of ammo. The last mission, I was the only person to make it out alive and our medic died half way through the mission. The worst part is when the people who needed health the most ran away from me while I was the medic. It was not an enjoyable experience. So, I'm glad that this game isn't as teammate dependent as Left 4 Dead, when teammates don't know how to work together.
The leveling system is also nice. There's more incentive to keep playing it. I don't know why I'd want to start a zombie apocalypse, but enticing aliens to eat my brain doesn't sound like a bad idea if I'm going to get a flamethrower out of it. Also, I'm sad to say it, but the weapon variety here is larger than it is in Borderlands. Alien Swarm has the shotguns, SMGs, pistols, sentries, assault rifles, and flamethrowers that Borderlands does. Wait... Borderlands doesn't have a flamethrower? Well, I was going to say that Alien Swarm also has the medic guns, freeze grenades, and Mini-guns that Borderlands seems to be lacking.
Also, unlike in Borderlands, the classes actually seem to matter. They aren't significantly different. Only the weapons that define the classes get locked to other classes. Only Medics can use healing items and Weapon Specialists are the only ones with the big guns (Miniguns). Being a Tech is fun too. The hacking is much quicker and fun than in Bioshock (and there aren't any luck based puzzles like in Bioshock) and it actually feels like hacking, unlike Bioshock 2. Hacking also adds another team play mechanic. You need people to defend you while you're taking down a computer's security or the aliens will overrun you.
So I beat the first campaign. Unfortunately it's the only campaign, but I expect community content to follow soon. Still, it's a lot deeper than it looks at face value. Playing it over again will allow you to unlock more weapons until you have the set-up of your dreams and if you pay enough attention, you can find PDAs scattered all over the game that give you an idea of what life would be like on a remote colony of Earth. Spoilers: half the data on the PDAs are spam e-mails. The alien extermination really need no plot, and it's easy enough to ignore if you don't care about plot, but it's there and is actually half decent if you listen. It is as little cliched as possible for an alien invasion game and really adds more reason to game than does the plot of L4D.
The game is beautiful and plays great for the price it costs (nothing, if you forgot). I don't see why everyone shouldn't give it a shot. It will also allow you to play any Source games you please as the game runs on that engine. A wonderful free Valve giveaway and all the Source mods you can play at an additional no price. There is no excuse for any of you to let this deal slide. That would be like not grabbing the free Half-life Death-match deal or ignoring that Portal was free for a week. Read: It would be a stupid thing to do.
Go out and show this game the love it deserves as the first good and free combination of Left 4 Dead, Bioshock, and Borderlands (In third person).
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