Natural Selection 2 Review - Rerez

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Half-Life is one of my most favorite games ever made and it had one of the best
modding communities around. The modding community was responsible for games like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat and some of the best games ever, like Team Fortress 2, came out of mods. Nowadays the modding community isn't as strong as it once was but the team that was behind the original Natural Selection mod in 2002 came back ten years later to release a sequel and they did it on their own engine. Today we're going to find out if it's worth your time.

The designs and visuals in Natural Selection 2 are professional grade. It looks like it was designed with a huge budget by a professional game studio in charge. However this game was completely indie funded by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. It's ridiculous how good this game looks. Every model, weapon and level is crafted with such a high degree of detail. The animations of the aliens and marines are also well done. Marine weapon animations and designs give you that extra feel of futuristic, sci-fi technology while alien designs give you that raw, creepy, organic feel. Probably the coolest visual touch of this game is the infestation which is a greenish yellow, mossy like fungus that grows all over the alien controlled areas. It dynamically grows out, changing the scenery so much that you might not recognize the room you were just in if it grows all over.

The sound of this game totally fits its environment. The clunky sound of metal weapons and electronics filling your home base of the marines differs totally from the insecty and organic sound effects you will hear from the alien hive. The ambiance you'll hear when you're alone makes you feel like you're in an old factory or space station totally befitting of your surroundings. Although there is music it's usually background filling in the void and adding to the atmosphere of the levels. It does the job well but don't expect to be paying close attention.

On its cover the game looks like a first-person shooter but it also has a pretty awesome real-time strategy element. One person on each team can become a commander and build structures, manage resources, distribute power-ups, create automated units and research and develop new technologies and alien evolutions. What's so cool about being commander is that in most real-time strategy games the units are mindless drones who live to obey your every command. But in this game they're your fellow players. Each player is free to do whatever they want and a good commander can assist them by setting wave points to help guide the players to objectives. Commanding isn't for everyone and although there is plenty of great gameplay to be had in that role there's plenty of stuff to do as an average marine or alien. All marines come standard with machine guns and have the ability to repair and build structures set up by their commander.

Marines can purchase weapons and devices from an armoury aiding them in construction and combat. Eventually through upgrades marines can build and use jetpacks and exosuits and if you get yourself into an exosuit it's pretty awesome. All aliens start off as skulks. Skulks are small, fast and can bite and with the added ability to run on walls and ceilings they're extra deadly. All aliens also have the ability to use alien vision which is basically an enhanced vision mode that lets you see in the dark when your team has destroyed the power to a sector. You can choose to evolve your skulk into a gorge, a larger, slower alien that has the ability to build smaller structures to defend certain areas. Eventually through evolutions and upgrades you'll have the ability to evolve into lerks and fades. Each has their own unique abilities and perks. The most prized evolution is the onos, a giant tank like creature with high health and powerful attacks. Like the marine’s exosuit this class is loads of fun.

You'd be nuts to miss out on this game. The original Natural Selection was one of the greatest gameplay experiences you could ever have on a mod and now in the sequel the gameplay is even better and you have so much more stuff to do. Seriously if you like first-person shooters and you like RTS games there's no question. Get this game today. It's damn well worth the price.

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