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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
Summary:
Natural Selection is a third-party mod using the well known Half-Life engine. It is an online multiplayer hybrid FPS/RTS computer game, produced by Unknown Worlds, which pits human marines against aliens in a battle to the death, set in futuristic backdrops. The RTS aspect comes from the ability for one of the marines (per game) to be a "commander," where this player views the battlefield from a top-down perspective, instead of being an actual character in the game. The commander may issue orders and build mechanical equipment to help aid the marines. The aliens have no such commander though they are compensated with special abilities such as flight, being able to crawl on walls, and speed boosts.
Gameplay:
Upon starting my first game, I was immediately immersed in a barrage of controls in menus in a space world map with eerie music. Players rushed left and right with mechanical equipment spawning all around me. Needless to say, for the first few minutes I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, shooting at the first thing I saw that moved.
Although I am no noobie when it comes to first-person-shooters (I was in a competetive CAL-m Counter-Strike team), this game appeared much more complex and in depth. The game had no rests--the pace was fast and constant as there were no "rounds." Each game went continuously on until all of the players on one team had been killed. Because of this the game was very entertaining, requiring my full attention as I struggled to understand this new type of gameplay. Although there was the familiarity with the "running around and shooting things," the added RTS depth and upgrade menus, coupled with the non-stop action made this game immensely enjoyable, at first.
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