My Usual Spiel: Starcraft II, Legacy of the Void: Finally some closure

Release date: November 10, 2015
Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC/Mac
Players: 1 to 8 
Online Classification: M (ESRB)

When I started this review I immediately decided to bring up the posts from the previous two games in the Starcraft II trilogy and then realised that I had done a review for Heart of the Swarm but not for Wings of Liberty, which I now regret as it’s a bit too late to write a review for it before I do this one but anyway I guess there’s not much I can do. As I’ve said previously the purchase of this trilogy was largely based on the fact that the previous games had excellent storytelling and I wanted to see more of it. Of course yes there was the fact that I was playing Starcraft again and the graphics looked awesome but in reality I’m not too fond of RTS anymore but playing Starcraft on the easiest setting is absolutely fine, like a power-fantasy if you will. Yes there’s still the micro-managing and the dread before every level working out what it’s going to be like and wondering whether you have enough army or need those few extra soldiers or whether you have enough soldiers at the main base or whether you left the iron on and all those things that make RTS stressful.

Oh man that's a lot of shit to micromanage

 In any case, this was the big one, the last one, the one that wraps things up (at least I hoped) yes Legacy of the Void, the final part of Starcraft II where the enigmatic Protoss are the main race. I was looking forward to this as the Protoss are my favourite race and I would usually play as them in Multiplayer though to be honest now I would most likely choose the Zerg since I now have a Zerg symbol necklace, especially if I was wearing it at the time. I often just go with whatever race is under-represented in a match though with only three races this is rarely an issue. Starcraft II kept the same process as the first game starting with the Terrans then Zerg with Protoss last. Before I started the actually Legacy of the Void expansion though there was first the Whispers of Oblivion prologue featuring Zeratul as he attempts to make sense of the scattered prophecy that spoke of the return of Amon. This is where you first encounter the Moebius Corps and the Tal'darim in this expansion and was only three missions long but was a steep learning curve as instead of easing back into the game with the normal campaigns this prologue threw you into it allowing you to build and use the whole library of units from the multiplayer whereas you would usually be very limited, but I got through it anyway.

Zeratul attacks Amon's Temple

 In Legacy of the Void you play as Artanis who you may remember from the Protoss campaign in StarCraft: Brood War, he has now become the Protoss Hierarch (aka leader) The story begins with a pretty impressive trailer showing the Protoss fighting the Zerg on Aiur and the first mission features you taking control of a very large force of Protoss from Artanis’ Golden Armada which was quite fun. You meet with quite a few others during the course of the campaign many of which have their own faction, most notably Karax the Phase-Smith of the Khalai, Rohana the Grand Preserver from the Spear of Adun, Vorazun daughter of Raszagal and new Matriach of the Nerazim (aka Dark Templar), Alarak of the Tal'darim, Fenix aka Talandar of the Purifiers and of course Jim Raynor. The bulk of the story is about Artanis uniting the various Protoss factions under the one banner which I now know is called the Daelaam and heed Zeratul’s advice to defeat Amon and force him back into the Void. The story is quite good with tenuous alliances and pacts being made and of course I love how the Protoss talk and their politics, especially with the Terrans as Artanis and Jim’s way of speaking are different but they can still communicate fine, there was scene where Artanis was talking to Rory Swann and the exchange was pretty funny. Once you had obtained the ship Spear of Adun the story became very much like the other two as the ship becomes your mobile forward operational center where you could explore the various rooms/levels much like Kerrigan’s Leviathan and Jim Raynor’s Hyperion battlecruiser. 

The gathered Protoss Leaders from left to right: Talandar, Artanis, Rohana, Vorazun, Alarak and Karax

The humourous exchange between Artanis and Rory Swann

The Spear of Adun has the usual staging areas of the previous games such as a bridge and a places where you can modify and upgrade your army. Modifying your army this time around involves going to the War Council part of the ship where your units are divided into classes i.e. melee warrior, ranged warrior, robotic assault etc and as you progress you get access to more unit classes and more units in that class. For example once you are allied with the Purifiers you can start creating Sentinels, Energizers and Colossi which are damn awesome, they were so powerful and could shoot so far that I often just sent a group of them forward and then attacked with the bulk of my forces as they usually set themselves too far away from the group and the faster ground troops run in and get themselves killed. The Solar Core is where you upgrade the ship with support options and man I tell you what the ‘Deploy Pylon’ and ‘Mass Recall’ abilities were awesome allowing you to both pull your forces back to base to set a Pylon down to warp more forces out to the field, this coupled with the “Warp Harmonization” ability allowing Robotics facilities and Stargates to have warp in abilities was almost too powerful, but then again all the upgrades over the course of the singleplayer story were anyway.

Distributing the Solarite for upgrades on the Spear of Adun

The Colossi go nuts and my forces also go nuts at the end of the the Templars Return mission.

The missions were as varied as the last game in the series with the usual attacking/capturing points on the map, defending points on the map and hero-only quests. You also had missions where you had to do this while avoiding rampaging Zerg which weren’t aggressive but still weren’t on your side, rush to stabilize a huge space platform and get to your targets before they are destroyed by a slow moving laser. One of the more interesting missions was the Rak’shir where you had to help Al’arak in a ritual battle so that he can be the leader of the Tal’darim, I enjoyed this one as it was very different as it was a kind of reverse tug-of-war you had to crowd your units around him to support him and eventually throw his opponent off the cliff into the pit. This actually reminded me a lot of The Search for Illidan except that one was very much like a traditional tug of war.

The Rak'shir

With general gameplay I had the issue again of having just too many units and not knowing what the fack each one did, I tried to have similar units for certain missions for example using mostly Dark Templar unit equivalents on Shakuras or when Nerazim  were prominent and the Tal’darim units whenever it was that storyline but still there was 4 different Protoss factions and not all of them had their own version on a unit so it was a bit hard to manage, but it really didn’t matter too much. There’s not much I can talk about without spoiling the story but I did enjoy all the levels where you were just playing as the heroes, I loved this as you only needed to worry about them and not build a base and organise a whole army at the same time. I didn’t have too much trouble getting through the story as it wasn’t too hard I had done it all before. Starcraft has a pretty gentle learning curve and if you’re playing it on the easiest mode it’s not bad at all, the Protoss were fun to play as I always liked their race and story and their speech oh man some of the exchanges were great though a bit formal but then again I like formal dramatic speaking.



Alarak in Vorazun in the ruins of Antioch on Aiur, this particular series of missions had you controlling only two "hero" units.

The Epilogue missions were quite challenging even on the easiest game modes though they could be beaten with careful planning. You had to play each of the three missions as a different race and going back to the Terran and Zerg races was challenging as I was not used to them at all, especially the final one where you played as the Zerg. The three final missions finished off the trilogy of Starcraft 2 into an ending that was a bit too happy for the likes of myself and my brother but it finished it off nonetheless. The graphics were awesome as usual they looked great with my new 980ti graphics card and the sound and music was as good as before, there’s not much else to say about it apart from the cutscenes being as brilliant as ever, I swear between Blizzard Starcraft 2 and Bioware’s The Old Republic I’m not sure who makes the better 3d animation hah.

The faction prepare to enter the Void in the epilogue

I had had a few brief forays into the Multiplayer, only for LAN parties of course I don’t think I have ever once played online, I also haven’t played the Co-op missions and I’m not sure if I have done the Tutorial as well. I could probably skip that as I don’t need it but I could play the Co-op with my brother. Playing others is always fun, I actually had a victory against someone else which won me an SSD at Lanslide, and I’ve always enjoyed playing RTS when it doesn’t matter if you lose, same goes with all multiplayer really, in fact I really must try it more but then again it’ll be back to the building then getting killed again and again and I’d actually have to try to get better.

My 1v1 victory at the Lanslide Lan

So that finishes off the Starcraft 2 Saga, I’d like to say we’ve come a long way but it’s just been sporadic bursts of play, the question is, what now? Will there even be a Starcraft 3? Will there be another Warcraft RTS at all or will we just be inundated with MOBAS? Only time will tell.

JD

The only think that really changed here was the story so I’m not gonna bother with a detailed description what I liked and didn’t. It was fun I liked it, it was pretty much the same as before but the story was better so I’ll give it 8/10


Legacy of the Void Cinematic Trailer

….Skippy?

The Past and times of Yore: Doom, TNT Evilution and the Skulltag Mod, a fresh way to experience a timeless classic

It might seem a bit strange that I’m reviewing old-school Doom in wake of the new Doom (formerly Doom 4) released this year which I have yet to play, though I thought it could be a little celebration of sorts as I never bothered playing Doom 3, so it would be my first ever delve into another Doom game since the beloved Doom II. But enough about the new Doom, this is the old Doom but it’s not Doom or Doom II, confused yet? Let me explain….

A lovely doom landscape, you don't see that too often.

Originally back in 1993 ID software created Doom, Doom 1, the original Doom, whatever you want to call it, and the world rejoiced etc etc. The game itself was split into three chapters Knee-Deep in the Dead, The Shores of Hell and Inferno where the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) who remind me a lot of the Aliens series’ Weyland-Yutani corporation, are conducting experiments on interdimensional travel accidentally open a portal to Hell and the protagonist (I will call him Doomguy) Fights across the zombie and demon infested UAC bases on the moons of Phobos and Deimos orbiting the planet Mars, then eventually travelling to Hell itself. Then in 1994 Doom II: Hell on Earth was released, this was the first Doom that I played though this was the Doom 95 version released a year later and as the game says, The Legions of Hell have invaded earth, so this time you are fighting on your home planet.

After that came The Ultimate Doom in 1995 which contained the original 3 chapters and a new one Thy Flesh Consumed which acted as both a sequel to Doom and a prequel to Doom II. And then we go onto the last or final official instalments of the original Doom series, Final Doom was released in 1996 and included the standalone Doom II IWADs (Doom Game files): TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment which were created semi-independently and were each regarded as a separate sequels to Doom II so had no chronological order from one over the other. 

TNT Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment were part of Final Doom

I have now played through every single one with TNT Evilution being the last. You may be wondering why I chose this one as the first one to review on my blog, well it’s for several reasons: The first being that this was the latest one I have played so it will be fresh in my mind, the second reason is that it’s almost a standalone story so it doesn’t really matter if you haven’t experienced the original two, thirdly, It’s the only one I had recorded screenshots and videos of :D and fourthly, I’m going to use this to introduce the Skulltag Mod which is what I used to play them all through, though I may not use again when I re-play all of the games through once more. This won’t be the longest review as we all know about Doom and how it works, I just wanted to explain the mod I have been using and show off the changes to the game when using it, and the only screenshots and videos I have are from TNT Evilution so I will use it as the game that is in review.

Wow this looks different

So before I begin I will first introduce the Skulltag Mod. The Skulltag mod was created by Matthew 'Agent Spork' McGee and is one of many “conversion” or perhaps “light conversion” source ports for the original Doom series games and was based on the ZDoom source port which included the new graphics and control/gameplay abilities. As the site says it “Brings Doom into the 21^st century” and it does this by adding many new options and game features including graphics overhaul, with the ability to pick any modern resolution with much more refined textures and dynamic lighting. 

Detailed display options and openGL in DOOM? what trickery is this?

It introduced new weapons such as the Minigun which is a faster version of the Chaingun and the Railgun which we all know from Quake 2, I really enjoyed these new weapons and used them often, they reminded me of that forgotten “Q2 Xtreme” mod I used to use to play Quake 2, I really need to work out where that went. But anyway probably the most important changes are to the gameplay, the mod allows for free mouselook and includes several custom crosshairs and also include the ability to jump and duck. These kinds of things change the original game around completely as you know in the original Doom games you could not jump, crouch or look up or down relying on auto-aiming to hit enemies above or below you. Now with modern FPS controls it’s pretty nuts and playing the game this way borders on cheating, using the sprint ability then jumping allows you to leap great distances and because all of the original WAD’s were not built for these features you have no idea whether you are supposed to be able to get to certain places or not.

Well I could, make it up to that ledge to get to the yellow door but I know I'm not supposed to be able to.

Nevertheless I could not imagine going back to play the original way, the first time I experienced Doom using the mod I couldn’t believe how good it was, it looked amazing, the mod actually has many features for online play including Team DM, Duel, CTF and the namesake game mode ’Skulltag’ where players aim to capture each others skulls and take them to an altar. The first I played I tried out a Deathmatch mode with bots and wow it was fun, I haven’t tried since I’ve just been having fun with the usual singleplayer but man playing that with 5 bots and watching rockets fly past with new lighting effects was crazy. Currently my Doom folder contains all kinds of mods and it’s hard to discern what each of them do, so to explain I have included a description.

A short video of the Skulltag game mode with bots on the Ring of Fire map

With the exception of Doomseeker, all of these are Source Ports of the original Doom most often made by fans, they often contain slight-to-heavy tweaking of the game engine including new features inc graphics, gameplay, game modes, weapons and levels.

ZDoom – A source port which modernizes Doom with a range of features including new graphics and control/gameplay abilities

GZDoom – A port of ZDoom itself which uses the same features except adds OpenGL support for higher resolution graphics and particles

Skulltag – The mod I currently use, also uses features from ZDoom and GZDoom and adds online/multiplayer features.

ZDaemon – A mod purposely-built for playing multiplayer Doom over the Internet, based on ZDoom

Doomseeker - a server browser for client/server source ports, available for Windows, Linux and MacOS X. It supports Skulltag, Odamex, ZDaemon, Vavoom and Chocolate Doom through individual plugins.

The menu for the skulltag mod allows you to choose which game (or WAD file rather) that you would like to play.

There are many, many, other Source Ports available for Doom as this is just a few that I use, you may have also heard of Brutal Doom, I hadn’t paid much heed to it but after doing some research for my current review I came across some videos which featured Brutal Doom being played with OpenGL graphics and it looked goddamn amazing, of course there does seem to be a bit too much bloom with fire and explosions (Battlefield 1 seems to have this issue as well) and also man that bloom on the toxic barrels is too much, I realised just recently that the Skulltag mod has the option to run the game in the software graphics (Doom Engine) or hardware graphics (OpenGL) I didn’t really pay too much attention to this as I didn’t have much idea what it was for and playing Doom with 1920x1080 resolution was good enough for me. Brutal Doom has many new features including a few new weapons and revamped old weapons with new graphics and sound, new enemy abilities and death animations inc ‘fatalities’, revamped HUD and as the name adheres to, lots and lots of gore. The mod is supposed to be much harder than the original Doom but I’m still thinking of using it to play through the Doom series again as I could possibly lower the difficulty and gore to acceptable levels.

Brutal Doom - A Mod I plan to use in the future.

Speaking of level of difficulty I remember in my younger days I cheated a lot, in singleplayer of course, there will never be a time where I cheat in multiplayer. Yes I found cheats for almost every game I played and in my defense I said it made the game more enjoyable because it wasn’t as hard or frustrating, well obviously. Though little did I know that all you had to do was lower the difficulty (to say ‘easy’) then all will be fine, well mostly, I’m playing Star Wars: Tie Fighter at the moment and it’s getting damn hard even on easy, but that’s what I have been doing recently with my gaming and I have found it’s been ultimately more enjoyable than just being an unstoppable demigod. With older games such as Doom and Quake I went from playing with invincibility and unlimited ammo to just invincibility then finally only recently to no cheating albeit on easy mode and I’m quite satisfied with that, I used the second lowest skill level setting “Hey not too rough” which is the least amount of enemies but you take the normal amount of damage as opposed to “I’m too young to die” in which you take half damage. I only switched to this possibly 1/3^rd of the way through TNT Eviliution so the majority of the series I played like a goddamn Saint Diviner of Justice coming to wreak explosive death upon the denizens of Hell with blah blah blah let’s get on with the review…..  


I warp to one of my favorite levels, Mount Pain and start in god mode then realize I'm in god mode then switch it off hah.

So now you know the story behind the original Doom series and the mods I used to play the game and the settings we can talk about the actual game itself.

TNT Evilution released on June 17, 1996, forms one half of Final Doom, a commercial product which consists of two 32-level IWADs (the other being The Plutonia Experiment), similar to Doom II. The "TNT" in the title stands for "The New Technology" and is also the name of the mapping team who created TNT: Evilution. The game was originally going to be free of charge but was packaged with The Plutonia Experiment in Final Doom as a publishing deal brokered by the infamous John Romero and thus being released by id Software. The story behind TNT Evilution is nothing too special, just an excuse to shoot the crap out of the denizens of hell (though who needs an excuse really) The ill fated UAC has again been experimenting with portal technology to try and annihilate the forces of hell, they seem to succeed but then a vast demonic spaceship from Hell appears and destroys the base zombifying everyone. Now this is the part I love, the Doomguy apparently escaped death or zombification by being “away on a walk at the time”, yes, a walk, and then vows to destroy all of the legions of hell defeating another Demon-Spitter yadda yadda yadda.

Yes it's another Demon-Spitter, not again!

TNT Evilution has a very techbase feel to it, similar to the first episode of the original Doom, whereas The Plutonia experiment has a more natural earth feel to it. TNT’s levels go from experimental labs, to military bases, to interesting looking levels at night and back to hell again. I must admit it did take me awhile to complete with 32 levels (including secrets levels) this and the Plutonia experiment took me quite a lot of breaks, mainly because I had not played the levels before and it took me awhile to work out what to do and where to go. The levels in this series I noticed differed in quite a few ways from the norm of Doom and Doom 2, there were many tricks and unconventional ways of completing the levels, for example the end room and switch wasn’t always through the same style of door and what you thought was the end of the level wasn’t always the case.

The shipping/respawning level which has quite a few new textures and objects and I don't do much here except get lost, I eventually worked out the key was inside a box under a desk, very unusal for Doom I can tell you that.

It was obvious that the designers were creating these levels as a challenge expansion not holding your hand like in the previous games. I saw quite a few objects and textures that were definitely not from the original Doom series especially modern technology and furniture, fences, gatehouses and other things that weren’t in the original, the levels also had more of a sporadic design and used unconventional architecture which sometimes include wide open spaces like in Level 27: Mount Pain. Playing the mod also made things very different being able to look all around obviously had some interesting effects on gameplay, I’ve already mentioned the ability to jump created “I can just jump there but I don’t think I’m supposed to” moments and there was also the fact that Doom was never actually 3D. So you can basically look straight up and down with the mouse and watch the monsters turn into a single vertical line, this made me laugh a few times but it’s expected and a reminder of what the Doom Engine actually was.

The Storage Facility level where I do a heap of looking and jumping with the new controls.

The new weapons made things much more interesting, the Minigun made wasting zombies and imps much quicker and even some demons didn’t take too long to kill, the new Grenade Launcher put a more tactical spin on rockets allowing them to bounce so you could hit targets around corners, the Railgun was probably my favourite addition as it was very powerful with one shot killing those pesky Lost Souls and with the crosshair you could shoot them from miles away. There was also this pretty cool looking rapid-fire version of the BFG but I preferred to use the old one, I guess this one with its faster firing would be more useful for clearing tons of monsters. Playing with these new weapons and gameplay changes put a great spin on the game and it was very refreshing and felt good to go through, like a breath of fresh air, hopefully more games can do this *cough* Mercenaries *cough* TNT Evilution wasn’t the best Doom experience I’ve had it was the most rewarding being the first time I have played Doom for an extended period without invincibility, and I actually enjoyed it ;).

I let loose a bouncy grenade.

 I will still go through all the previous games again though it’s questionable whether I do it with Skulltag or Brutal Doom, though Brutal Doom actually has its own Story mode which looks freakin insane in its own right and since it was made to be played with the Brutal doom mod then I think that would be the best way to experience Brutal doom first hand and if after that I can’t go back to the normal way then I’ll brutally blast though the originals too. Though there’s something to be said about the comfort of the original style, so you may not have seen the last of Skulltag yet.

JD

The Skulltag 97d trailer

Just can’t get enough of Hell

The End of Mondo Exploito

Hi all,

My friend Dave did a shoutout to my blog way back in 2011 and I gave a shoutout to his. But now his (new) blog Mondo Exploito is closing due to him moving to Japan, so check it out for what little time it has left. Mondo Exploito is all about "Celebrating Cinema's shame" as in what you call "Good" bad movies think classic, underground, horror, all, those kinds of things.

JD

My Usual Spiel: Natural Selection 2, a superb example of the Hybrid-Genre

Release Date: October 31st 2012
Genre: First Person Shooter/Real Time Strategy
Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Publisher: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Linux
Players:Online Multiplayer
Classification: T (Teen)

I’ve decided it’s time to actually try to review some of the  various games I play at LAN parties, most of which are fairly simple and have no singleplayer mode and so only get played at LANs themselves these games include the likes of Insurgency, Rocket League, Flatout 2, Screencheat, Armagetronad, Gang Beasts and many others. I’ve realised that I haven’t considered reviewing these games as I play them so sparingly and will also have to slot them in between my other reviews of games that I have been playing in an orderly fashion at home. I was at the Bluewire Lan in Diamond Creek a while ago and we went back to an old favourite Natural Selection 2 which we played quite a few sessions of during the course of the LAN so I thought it was sufficient enough to warrant writing a review, so here it is.

The introductory video that appears at the start of the game.

Natural Selection 2 (NS2) is a multiplayer team-based shooter that combines the shooter/fps style with a strategy (RTS) game. The first time I played was a while ago (as the game did come out in 2012) At first I was a bit confused about what was going on but then got the hang of it as the game is a bit different from your usual FPS (first-person-shooter). Before we get into it though I will go through a bit of backstory which I’ve only found out recently. The first Natural Selection (NS) was a mod for Half-Life along with the likes of Team Fortress and Counter-strike and although it didn’t quite reach the levels of fame that those two have it was still very popular in its own right and popular enough to spawn (heh) a sequel. I’ve never played the original but it looked amazing especially for a mod though the sequel is obviously much better as it was built from the ground up as a full game.

The original natural selection mod for Half-Life

I was able to piece together a brief storyline for the game from the Frontiersman and Kharaa race overview pages on the Natural Selection 2 Wiki. Basically the Frontiersman are a cross between Starcraft’s Terrans and the Alien series Marines created by the current Government of Earth to destroy the Kharaa which are quite similar to Starcraft’s Zerg race as they have the similar traits including the use of the green creep-like infestation that spreads as the Kharaa infest more areas and the practice of assimilating other races. Though the storyline pretty much ends there as there is no singleplayer aspect to the game it is basically wholly multiplayer which was it all the mod was and all it needed to be really. At first glance the game is basically Marines vs Aliens in fairly futuristic space installations including abandoned mines, troop outposts, laboratories, biodomes and space stations, featuring fairly condensed spaces of tunnels and corridors with limited large open areas though there is much more to it than this.

Loading screen with map of the "Veil" zone, the bits in organge are shortcuts only the smaller Kharaa races can use.

 It’s interesting how the game forces you to do the tutorial before actually going online and playing, whether this is a good or bad option I’ll let you decide. I had no qualm with it as whenever I went back to playing I always needed a refresher course, and also it at least stops people coming on to play who have absolutely no idea what they are doing though it is a bit annoying when you’re at a LAN party and everyone has already played it before but has to go through the damn thing again. Once I started playing I was actually glad I did the tutorial as the game itself is much more complicated than most FPS games, at the start you have the classic “ready room” where you choose whether to go on the Marine or Kharaa sides or choose one at random often by running through doors or jumping down holes.

The Marine tutorial, very annoying to some, fine by me

The Veil level ready room

Each team starts on (relatively) opposite sides of the map with just the basic structures and resources, the early game usually focuses on securing resources, while the late game focuses on advancement of technology for the marines and higher lifeforms for the aliens. This Marine and Alien Commanders are probably the most pivotal point of a side and having a good or bad commander can make or break the game contest The commanders are the lifeblood of the side and team cannot function properly without one as they are responsible for the building of structures, collecting of resources and researching of upgrades. To explain the way it works I’ll use the marines as an example as they are a bit easier to relate to, to start off with one player has to jump into the Commander station to become the commander, this often involves people either fighting for the position or no-one wanting to do it so someone gets in and does it poorly, I’ll admit I played on an “newbie” NS2 server so that may be why, though I can’t talk really.

"Let's go team! hut hut hut...."

Once the commander is inside it becomes similar to the Battlefield series Commander feature, they can see the whole map in a top-down perspective and are able to place ‘blueprints’ onto the map for stuctures like extractors for gaining resources, Sentry guns for defence and power nodes for powering structures which marines can use their Build Tool to create, thus expanding their territory and gaining more resources to use for upgrades. The upgrades are provided by structures like the Armory and Prototype Lab, all marines start with a basic Assault Rifle, Pistol and Switch-Axe but can upgrade to things like Shotguns and Flamethrowers and the prototype lab gives access to fun and powerful tech like the Jetpack and Exosuit. Marines can request healing and ammo from the commander who can place it on the map, they can also repair structures and exosuits with the Welder. As a marine you generally follow your commanders order of what to do and where to go, you help secure resource nodes throughout the map (for extractors) build and expand and defend against the attacking Kharaa eventually working your way to destroying the hive, if the command station is destroyed then the Marines lose. 

A shortish match I played on the Frontiersman side on the newbie server, we didn't do very well unfortunately.

With the alien Kharaa race things are slightly different, the Kharaa main structure is the Hive and they differ in the fact that while the marines are basically the same apart from the gear that they have the Kharaa units are drastically different from each other. For example the Skulk is a basic lifeform and can run along walls and ceilings and through certain parts of the map where only the smaller Kharaa can crawl through such as air vents and large pipes which gives the weaker Kharaa units a chance to ambush. The Gorge on the other hand is a support unit and can heal other Kharaa and create barricades and summon smaller Babbler aliens to assist it in battle, the most powerful Kharaa unit the tank-like Onos which can demolish structures and take on marines in Exosuits with ease. Instead of upgrading their hardware like the marines the Kharaa units can Evolve with things like improved armor (carapace) and regeneration, they also have stealth abilities for ambush and surprise attacks and can use parasites and the Aura ability to detect nearby marines and exosuits on the map. The Kharaa main base and expanded areas are covered in Infestation which is a green/brown ooze in which the Kharaa commander spreads to different areas using Cysts in order to reach resource nodes and create Harvesters. The Skulk and Gorge units also have a unique trait, as they both attack by biting or spitting with their jaws so the first person camera is actually inside their mouth making biting and spitting much easier and also being so close to the ground gave you a more stealthy feel.

Playing as the Kharaa, didn't do to well that time either XD

Playing as the two races requires different thinking, the Marines have the firepower advantage especially early in the game and are best at frontal assault while the Kharaa excel at stealth and ambushes as they have abilities that make them less visible and silent and can use shortcuts in the level where the marines cannot. The Kharaa have more units and structures but ultimately each side does not have an advantage over the other, after playing the game for a while you realise both sides have their own version of an ability or feature for example some are the same thing for each side such as the Phase Gate and the Gorge Tunnel though some are slightly different as the Observatory detects enemies for the Marines and the Sentry gun is for defence. But with the Kharaa the Hydra is a detector and also acts as a turrent shooting spines at enemies and additionally they have the Whip for more close-range defence. 

A gang of Skulks near a resource harvester

This mirrors most modern RTS games with each army being the same but slightly different somehow balancing out so no side has an unfair advantage. I’ll say it now teamwork and communication with a bit of leadership is the key to victory, though this is true with almost any type of team competition it is especially true with Natural Selection as one player cannot carry the team (such as in DOTA 2) and the team cannot rely on points and kills for the win (Battlefield series). Venturing out alone is a sure fire way to be quickly killed, I found myself following at least one other person in order to have strength in numbers and enjoyed following the orders of the commander and responding to teammate alerts as when the match was over, win or lose I could tell myself that I had done the right thing.

Always travel with a friend

The controls in the game are basically the same as your standard FPS, usual controls to move, interact shoot and use abilities and a button for the map. The only difference for the Marines is when you are in an exosuit but for the Kharaa, choosing a different lifeform makes drastic changes in movement, for example Skulks are very agile and run and jump much faster than the Marines, the Lerk is a flying unit that can zoom at great speeds and excels at hit-and run and damage over time and the Fade is a stealthy ground unit that can kill very quickly then stealthily escape, though both of these lifeforms are low on health and must avoid attacking directly. It’s difficult at first to work out which button is for upgrading and evolving etc but gets easier over time.

A great piece of artwork with a marine in an exosuit taking on an Onos

Having come out in 2012, Natural selection 2 does not have the best graphics to offer but looks good enough for what it is, the locations looks pretty damn good and I like the fact that they are non-mirrored and all of the spawn points are not so obvious. The detail on the locations is pretty good, I love the way the infestation (I had to resist saying ‘creep’ there) spreads through the level, the design has a very Aliens mixed with Dead Space feel although not quite as tense obviously as the action is quite fast paced, on looking at the map list for the first time I had no idea there were so many of them but I like the theme to each level. The detail on the aliens and marines is pretty good the marines are all starship troopers style and the aliens are both ugly and fearsome looking and are multitude of colours. The sound and music in the game is on par with the scene with tense music playing over gun blasts, explosions, screeches, munches and roars, one of the most memorable sounds was the screeching of the Hive when it is being attacked, made my damn skin crawl.

The alien hive with the signature Skulk mouth-cam

Although it works perfectly well online, my favourite place to play Natural Selection 2 is at a LAN party if you have enough people to can be heaps of fun, yes everyone hears your communication but that’s the way it goes, I’m proud to say it’s one of my favourite games to play at LANs, the first-person shooter mixed with real-time strategy works really well, the only drawback is the learning curve with the Commander mode which I admit the forced tutorial gave you a general idea of what to do I was still a bit overwhelmed when in the seat myself, it just cements the fact that to be effective you need a commander who at least has an idea of what he/she is doing.

Me as the Kharaa Commander, this was shortly before we were overrun XD

Whether it’s good or bad I enjoy playing Natural Selection 2 and hope I play it far into the future as it is a unique game and I salute Unknown Worlds Entertainment for their effort and willingness to create something different, I enjoy the fact that I can finally be a pawn in a bigger army and still make a difference as if I was in an RTS though the army in NS2 not quite the scope of Starcraft II for example but the principle is the same. I just hope that FPS in the future follow this sort of innovation and this isn’t the last we have seen FPS and RTS hybrid.

JD

8/10

Things I liked:

Great mix of FPS and RTS elements.

Heaps of fun to play at LAN parties.

Greatly rewards teamwork.

Good balance of similarities and differences between races/sides.

Things I didn’t like:

Steep Learning curve for Commander mode.

Need at least 8 a side to make things interesting.

Requires good teamwork.

If you don’t have a good commander you’re gonna have a bad time.

 

Natural Selection 2 Launch Trailer

Hey kid we heard you like RTS, so we put some RTS in your FPS