“Well, it’s free”. That’s what keeps running through my head. See, Alien Swarm is a hard game to review or criticize, not because it’s anymore subjective than your average video game, but just because it’s free. Anything negative you have to say about the game is immediately countered by those two magical words. It’s too short? It’s free. Too hard? It’s free. Too focused on the multiplayer aspect? It’s free. You can see where I am going with this. So for the sake of the review, I will pretend that this is one of the many, many games that show up on XBLA/PSN for the usual price of 1200 MS Points or whatever.
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So it’s a remake of an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod. At its core, Alien Swarm a top-down shooter, much like Alien Breed, but much more tactical in nature. There are different classes to pick from and each class has its own pros and cons. Medics can heal other people, but do little damage compared to other classes; Tech guys can hack into systems and open doors, but are vulnerable while they do it; and the Special Weapons class can bring out the heavy guns, but need someone to heal them and hand out ammo. So in gameplay, each class is absolutely critical at different times during the game, which kind of segues me nicely into my first point. The game can be brutally difficult if you are playing with anything less than the full complement of four players. Unlike Left 4 Dead 2, Alien Swarm provides no bots to fill up the vacant slots. So if there are only two of you, then you can pick two classes and that’s it. You are invariably going to end up being short of a medic or an assault specialist (since a tech specialist is a necessity to hack open doors and terminals), which in turn means you can’t either dish out enough damage to clear the level or cant heal yourself if you take too much damage.
As if that isn’t tough enough, friendly fire is always on. And when you consider that most of the levels of the game are corridor-based, friendly fire can and usually does occur. So unless you have four players communicating and co-operating with each other, it can often feel unfairly tough. But if you do, the co-op experience is the closest you will get to Left 4 Dead. It’s still tough, but also very enjoyable. And rank progression with item unlocks (think Call of Duty/Battlefield) means the game will keep you coming back for more. Being class-based it means it’s more tactical than your average co-op game. You have to protect your weaker team mates, draw fire away from them and all the while watch for friendly fire. Good players will absolutely love the higher difficulties and the challenges they bring. You have to not only watch your ammo, but you have to also make every item count.
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The lack of bots is puzzling; even more so when you realise that the tutorial of the game has fully functional and useful bots. An offline mode is all but absent. You can play the first couple of levels of the game in the tutorial mode, but that’s about it. There is no way select or play any specific levels offline with bots, which is a shame because some practice to get used to the layout of the levels would have been handy. But considering its Valve and the Source development kit has been released for free alongside the game, I would bet money on an offline mode being available sooner rather than later. Also worth noting is that the modding tools provided alongside the game are quite easy and intuitive to use. So hopefully we will see lots of user-created content, because by itself, the game only has seven different levels to proceed through.
You can blow through these levels on normal difficulty in about 2-3 hours, but again, like Left 4 dead (I keep making this comparison because it does feel like Left 4 dead in space), the replayability factor is high. There are a ton of enemies to kill and there are different alien types that require different tactics to take out. Some of them even need good team work to kill. And while the level design can often descend into one corridor after another, it does have some moments of brilliance, including one very cool Gears of War-inspired bit. That’s not the only bit that will remind you of Gears though; there is an active reload, which is a straight copy from Gears and even the roll/dodge move seems familiar.
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Conclusion
So there you have it. It’s short, it’s brutally tough unless you have four players, and occasionally, it can feel repetitive. But it’s also great fun in co-op and has terrific replay value. And if the mod community takes a shine to it, there could be a ton of user created levels to blast through. Oh, and did I mention that its free?
(+) Great fun in co-op
(+) Classes add good replay variety
(+) Rank, progression and unlocks to keep you hooked
(-) Only 7 maps so far
(-) Single player lacking
(-) Quite tough if you have less than four players
Title: Alien Swarm
Developer/Publisher: Valve/Valve
Genre: Shooter
Rating: N/A
Platforms: PC/Steam (Free)
Reviewed on: PC
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