Alien Swarm Video Game Review: Game Over Man!

There I was, chased down those dark and cramped corridors by those inhuman creatures. Separated and alone, I quickly ducked into the nearest room, and blocked the door. The door began to shutter as they banged against it, demanding entrance. But hey, Im supposed to be doing an Alien Swarm game review, not talking about last years family reunion. So lets get to it!

Alien Swarm is pretty much what the title suggests, which is to say, you fight off an seemingly never ending swarm of aliens while attempting to complete your objective. But while admittedly this may sound a little repetitive (and it can be), Alien Swarm does have a few tricks up its sleeve to keep things interesting.

Graphics

Graphically speaking Alien Swarm isn't really all that much to look at, but thats not to say its graphics are bad. The graphics do an adequate job of creating the hostile atmosphere in which the game is set, providing many dark corners where the enemy can jump out at you. Weapon effects and explosions are also pretty well done, but once again, just don't expect anything earth shattering.

Gameplay

Alien Swarm does have some nifty gameplay up it's sleeve, featuring full 4 person co-op, played from a top down perspective (sort of like the old GTA days). In this co-op (there is single player, but it is restricted to only one level), each member of your 4 man team has a different job to preform (medic, technician, sergeant, heavy weapons). While each of these team members has a different role they can also share roles, for example, you can have two medics if you so choose. This is a nice feature because once one of your teammates bites it, they don't come back till the next game.

The core of Alien Swarm basically revolves around you and your team getting from point A to point B, and slaughtering everything in between. Its really all about working together, covering your teammates while they complete a task or giving aid when its needed. Another important aspect of the gameplay (especially on higher difficulties) is keeping clean lines of fire, thus reducing friendly fire (which is always a good thing)!

Replay Value

At the moment Alien Swarm's replay value is some what limited, the levels never really change and are generally pretty linear. While there are unlocks for all the classes (thus allowing you to customize your load out), and higher difficulty levels for you and your friends to try and beat, for the moment thats about it. But don't give up on Alien Swarm just yet, Alien Swarm's developer kit was also released at the same time, so in a few months Im sure we will see many different maps and gameplay mods. These mods should add greatly to the life of the game, but we're not there yet.

Conclusion

So is Alien Swarm worth your money? The answer is yes, all 0 dollars of it, thats right, Alien Swarm is completely free on the PC (Alien Swarm can be downloaded through Steam, here). So theres really no reason you shouldn't go out and get it, while it wont offer you the deepest gameplay out there, it will offer hours of fun with friends (and the chance to live your Aliens fantasy of screaming "Lets Rock!" while firing into a horde of monsters).

Sources

Valve "Alien Swarm on Steam" Steampowered.com