[PAX Prime 2012] Natural Selection 2

[Ghostbear]

Take a trip through time with me, gentle readers, to a time when Half Life held sway. There were several Half Life mods that would become very popular, mods such as Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat and my personal favorite, Natural Selection. Natural selection was a mod that blended the genres, with a healthy mix of both strategy and shooting, it was a hit. Now that blend of game play is back in Natural Selection 2. It's being brought to you by the small development team, Unknown Worlds, founded by the creator of the original mod, Charlie Cleveland.

Natural Selection 2 is no mod this time though, it is a standalone title with its own graphics engine, Spark. NS2 pits the human Frontiersman against the alien Kharaa in an all-out battle for survival. However, these two factions are not mirrors of the other, indeed they play very different. Whereas the Marines must purchase and upgrade their weapons to survive, the Kharaa must evolve their bodies to match the strength of their enemies. In my limited time with the game, I noticed that Kharaa tend to lean towards mobility and melee attacks, while the marines are fairly ranged focused.

One member of each side plays from an RTS perspective, taking on the role of Commander. The Commander is the person who dictates overall strategy, builds structures and decides how the team is going to access upgrades. There are different upgrade paths to choose, so think carefully. While the commander can issue orders, all of the units in game are controlled by actual players, who could easily choose to ignore those orders. This may not always be wise however, as the commander has a much better tactical picture of the engagement.

I mentioned Spark earlier and I think it’s worth noting that Spark is very moddable. In fact, many of the tools that are now part of the game were created by the community. The spectator functionality, for example was created by folks who wanted to watch the matches when they were not playing. All of the internal development tools will ship with the game at launch and since the game code will be open source, there should be plenty of additional mods and features added by the community as time goes on. The NS2 fan community was key in the development of the game. In fact, some of the staff at Unknown Worlds started in the mod community and were brought in due to their contributions and talent.

It’s easy to see why people are excited about Natural Selection 2, with its seamless blend of gaming genres, fan support and passionate developers. If I had not had more appointments, I may never have stopped playing the game at their booth. You can preorder the game on Steam now, with a slated release of October.

[RandoM51]

Any extra copies floating around? I suspect I'm going to have to buy this at some point in the near future.

[Mashidar]

You know I really loved the first one when it first came out. It was great to see that they are coming out with a second one. Depending how many people pick it up I might look at it down the line. Might wait for a steam sale as well.

[Lekon]

This game looked awesome on the show floor. I didn't get a chance to play, only oogle wistfully from afar. Luckily the devs were running around like crazy talking to people, explaining stuff. Great folk.

That and the game was awesome just to watch for a bit. Total carnage.

[Jackel]

I loved NS when it was just a mod, so I'm excited for this one!

[Karmakin]

NS1 was far and way the best HL1 mod. Yes, better than CS and DoD.

I'd have the beta already but I don't think it'll run on my current computer (at least smoothly enough to where I'd want it to be)

[Libuke]

I plunked money down on this years ago, glad they are finally close to release. I never did play the beta much.

[crazyD]

Wait, so aliens have a commander now? That's a big change from before, when only humans had one. It's been a while since I've tried the beta, I'll have to give it another shot.

[Lekon]

Originally Posted by crazyD

Wait, so aliens have a commander now? That's a big change from before, when only humans had one. It's been a while since I've tried the beta, I'll have to give it another shot.

The Alien commander is in this creepy egg sack looking thing. Really fits the sticky/slimy theme of the side.

[Lint of Death]

An alien commander now, huh? Weird.

I will second the opinion that Natural Selection was the best mod available for Half-Life 1.

[crazyD]

I kind of liked how the commander role was pretty much replaced by being able to see through the walls in the original. Made the gameplay more asymmetrical, but kept it balanced. Guess I'll have to see how this works.