Natural Selecton 2 is AWESOME

[Wingflier]

Has anybody besides me tried this?

Holy crap what an amazing game.

In the mid-90s there was a unique class of game that has more or less disappeared since then:  The amazing RTS-FPS Hybrid. 

Games like Battlezone, Urban Assault, and to some extent Battlefield 2142 were the kinds of game that would keep me up until late into the night with their uniquely appealing hybrid nature, that no other game of the time was replicating.

Some time around the late '90s people stopped producing these kinds of games - I have no idea why.  Then Natural Selection came out in early 2000 for Half-Life 1, and it was a really good game.  However, it suffered (in my opinion) some fundamental problems that prevented it from being truly great:

The Half-Life 1 engine was already becoming dated, and it wasn't really designed for RTS games (much less hybrids).  The graphics were becoming more and more unappealing, and the game wasn't really accessible to everybody, being a HL1 mod, which required an entire process to install - it was quite likely that most people had never even heard about it.  With a small community and no matchmaking, the games tended to be extremely one-sided, and not very noobie friendly either.

It was still enjoyable in spite of all those things, but definitely with a lot of potential and room for improvement.

So as soon as Natural Selection 2 was announced, I was already hooked.  The new game was going to be ported to the new Source Engine, with lots of visual and gameplay improvements promised, and I had high hopes with such a wonderful and dedicated team.  About a year into development however...disaster struck.

You see, the developers wanted to add a new element into the game that wasn't there before:  Giving the aliens the ability to spread "creep", much like the Zerg in Starcraft.  This creep would become vital for all of their structures, and also be of benefit to the units on it.  The Khaara, being completely player-driven in the first game (as opposed to the Marines, which got a Commander), would also have a Commander now, who would be responsible for spreading this creep around the map with the Starcraft equivalent to "creep tumors".

Apparently, the Source Engine didn't handle the "creep spread" in a very realistic or immersive way, so the developers decided to completely SWITCH ENGINES to create a better environment for this dynamic.  It was one of their own custom-build engines from scratch, and though already had a bit of progress, I'm quite sure they underestimated just how long porting the entire game to a previously undeveloped and unsupported engine would really take.

Two years later (which I think was about last Christmas), they were still working on the game; chances are it would have been finished on Source LONG before that.

Still, when a Christmas deal happened in late December of last year, I took my chances and spent most of my Christmas money (around $50) to purchase 2 copies of the game.  Buying a copy of the game instantly granted you access to the alpha, and I was so excited to try it.

Well, much to my disappointment, it was not what I expected.  This was about a year ago still, but the engine was extremely unstable, choppy, everything felt weird, the physics were all messed up, there were netcoding delays and problems, and the whole thing just played awfully.  I was really disappointed, and I regretted their decision to switch from the Source Engine.  I told myself I wouldn't play the game again until it was released, in the hopes that it would be even somewhat better.

Well it was released yesterday, and so with low expectations, I installed the game and booted it up.  As I entered the main menu, everything instantly seemed much better than before.  The interface was clean and fast.  The settings were simple and intuitive.  As I entered into my first practice game, I was so impressed by the way everything looked and felt that I was visibly laughing as I shot blank walls and empty rooms with my newly purchased Shotgun.  It was amazing how far they had come in less than a year.

But the real test would come in my first actual game.  How would it play with 20+ players, server stress, and lots of enemies jumping around me (I generally play Marines)?

Much to my surprise, the experience was even more enjoyable than I had anticipated! 

This engine has turned out to be one of my favorite FPS engines of all time.  Everything feels clean and smooth.  The interface is super-simple, and all of the information you need is right at your fingertips.  With the touch of the button you can bring up an interactive map, or make a request to your commander.  With a touch of a button for him, he can send you to waypoints, give you various tasks, or tell you to attack an area or target.  Gleefully, I ran around the map like a good soldier, constantly accomplishing my missions and asking for new orders.  Killing any aliens along the way and laughing when someone snuck up on me and killed me in an instant.

The WHOLE ENVIRONMENT of the game is the best Alien Sci-Fi Setting I've ever seen.  Every game feels like I'm actually in some sort of routine outer-planet investigation gone horribly, horribly wrong, like you would see in a movie.  Every experience is similar to what a full-fledged single-player FPS such as Doom 3 or Dead Space would try to accomplish with its creepy sounds, overtones, and environment - but the difference is that unlike those games, I can keep playing this over and over for a new experience every time.

Honestly gentlemen, I thought I HAD SEEN IT ALL, until late into one mission, when the battle had become insanely chaotic and down to the wire, our the commander unlocked our "Exo-Tech" Upgrade.  And there appeared, before my very eyes, a personally piloted Mech Warrior straight out of The Avatar or the 3rd Matrix Movie.  There, towering above me, was a HUGE MONSTER of a weapon, flinging massive metal slugs into my alien opponents, while I sat there breathless, and laughing through my cries of glee.

Natural Selection 2 is awesome.


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[zebramatt]

I preordered this the moment it first popped up but haven't had a chance to play yet.

Seriously excited!

[Echo35]

I've been thoroughly enjoying this game, despite it's massive performance issues (I can play the likes of Shogun 2, Blacklight, and GW2 maxed out, but this game chugs even on low settings) but man it's a boat load of fun. The asymmetrical game play is great, and gives me a lot of Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer vibes, only a lot more terrifying.

[Wingflier]

Odd, I play on highest settings with no performance issues.

I have a pretty good PC, but maybe you're experiencing some kind of GFX Card conflict or something.

I've started playing as the commander and it's a complete and utter blast.

[Lancefighter]

So, what actually IS natural selection 2? From what I've seen, its a primarily imbalanced multiplayer game based around some sort of zone control? or objectives, with the end goal of, i assume, killing the enemy's nexus?

Is it something I can pick up and play for a shortish amount of time (how long will a match last?)

Is there some sort of overarching tech tree, or is it purely per-game?

[Mánagarmr]

So, what actually IS natural selection 2? From what I've seen, its a primarily imbalanced multiplayer game based around some sort of zone control? or objectives, with the end goal of, i assume, killing the enemy's nexus?

Is it something I can pick up and play for a shortish amount of time (how long will a match last?)

Is there some sort of overarching tech tree, or is it purely per-game?

I haven't played it myself, so this is purely from a memory standpoint.

It's an assymetric competitive RTS/FPS Hybrid. Tech trees and progression are strictly per game based, so there's no overarching techs to unlock. Everything is done in game.

Games last anywhere from 15 minutes up to I think 40 minutes tops.

[Lancefighter]

hm. Is it something I could, from an incredibly newplayer point of view, just buy and immediately start playing it? (ie, are the controls intuitive and the concept easy to understand)

[Wingflier]

Natural Selection is a team-based FPS/RTS Hybrid.  It's nothing like a DotA-game whatsoever.

There are two different factions, humans and aliens.

The humans rely primarily on ranged weapons such as automatic rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers etc., while the aliens rely primarily on speed and powerful melee attacks.  Think of what it would be like to be a Zergling in first person, that's basically the Khaara (aliens) in a nutshell.

What gives the game its RTS element is that both sides have a Commander player, who controls things from above.  He can't control any player directly, but he's responsible for building the structures, giving orders, and ultimately being the guiding force in winning the map.

The humans and the aliens play fundamentally different in several ways.  The human faction is much more about effective teamwork and overall coordination.  In packs, the humans typically fare better than the aliens, which is why its the Commander's responsibility to create situations where you can stick together and overcome your individually stronger, and faster alien opponents.

Conversely, the aliens are stronger individually than the humans, but they pay for this in a number of ways.  Because of their great inherent speed, and the fact that they are primarily melee-based, they require much more individual skill from the player to use.  It's easy to point and click an assault rifle, it's not so easy to acrobatically leap from wall to wall in order to avoid fire, then strike your helpless human opponent when the time is right.

It goes without saying then that the alien race is better for people who like making a large difference on their own, while the marines are better for people who like heavily coordinated teamwork.

The human and alien upgrades are also vastly different as well.  The human commander basically chooses what upgrades the marines get, with a few exceptions.  The alien commander has some control over which upgrades to unlock, but ultimately the alien players choose which forms they want to take, and which upgrades they want to use.

The human commander has a vast amount of control over giving his team specific commands and orders in order to make things very precise.  The alien commander can't give any direct commands to his soldiers (through the interface at least), and relies more on using voice chat (a must as a commander), and expecting each individual soldier to pull his weight, and know where he is supposed to be.  For this reason, aliens have a lot of "tricks" up their sleeve to give them advantages over humans.  They can see much better in the dark with infrared vision, and they have much greater mobility as well.  Their individual lethality is much higher, and they typically never have to worry about "reloading", a constant problem for marines in a heated battle.

For the humans, and especially the human commander, victory boils down to how well you can coordinate your team to work together, push at the appropriate time, and keep the aliens on their feet.  For the aliens, and the alien commander, victory boils down to how well you can disrupt the human plans, keep their team separate and disorganized, and ultimately win a war of attrition.

The aliens have the better lategame (in my opinion), and from what I understand, they make more total resources per node.  Speaking of nodes, the entire map is covered in resource points, which either side can claim until the resource harvester is killed for that side.  It's a bit like mass extractor points in Supreme Commander or metal spots in Total Annihilation - same concept.  On the map, there are 5 "base" locations.  Each side (human or alien) starts with 1 point for their main base.  From there, they have the option to expand, creating a secondary base, which unlocks important abilities and upgrades.  If either side can plant their third base, they will have a huge advantage over their opponent in terms of technology and lethality.  Obviously, it is impossible for both sides to have 3 bases, so winning the game often comes down to how well each side can expand and/or hold the bases they have.

[Echo35]

Odd, I play on highest settings with no performance issues.

I have a pretty good PC, but maybe you're experiencing some kind of GFX Card conflict or something.

I've started playing as the commander and it's a complete and utter blast.

3.3 GHz Core i7 Sandy Bridge, 8 GB DDR3-1600 RAM, 2GB nVidia GTX 580m, with the graphics all turned down as low as they'll go I get 50-60 FPS in menu, average about 40 FPS in game, usually lower than that. There is zero reason it should perform that poorly on my machine. Especially considering higher spec/better looking games run considerably better. Granted it is still (Mostly) playable, except for a bug I can fairly easily replicate that prevents me from joining any games.

[keith.lamothe]

Specific combinations of drivers/cards/etc sometimes cause that kind of problem.

But I'm not sure what the normal performance would be in that game.  To me and my low-end hardware 40 FPS is really high

[chemical_art]

I've been thoroughly enjoying this game, despite it's massive performance issues (I can play the likes of Shogun 2, Blacklight, and GW2 maxed out, but this game chugs even on low settings) but man it's a boat load of fun.

NS 2 has greater minimal requirements then the recommended requirements of the game you listed.

[Lancefighter]

So its entirely plausible I can download the game, join a server (do players need to be present from start to end of a game?), and start playing?

How much will a non-commander marine need to worry about tech? From what it sounds, a marine will basically never need to worry about their equipment outside of their 'class' (mainweapon? Can I outfit myself with 'stuff', or is it all predefined? can the commander issue me equipment?)

[keith.lamothe]

I think Lance wants to know if he can press the "start" button and then the "shoot stuff" button and not get yelled at.

[Wingflier]

So its entirely plausible I can download the game, join a server (do players need to be present from start to end of a game?), and start playing?

How much will a non-commander marine need to worry about tech? From what it sounds, a marine will basically never need to worry about their equipment outside of their 'class' (mainweapon? Can I outfit myself with 'stuff', or is it all predefined? can the commander issue me equipment?)

Yes to all of the above.

-There are easily recognized "rookie" servers for new people to play on.

-The human commander worries almost exclusively about tech, so you just play the game. (It's very different for aliens)

-Using the human marine is extremely straightforward.  There are only a handful of weapons, but you could be just fine using the basic assault rifle the entire game if you wanted to.  There is no recoil, no complicated physics or anything like that, and you respawn almost instantly after you die; if even have a modicum of experience with FPS games (i.e. point and click), you should be just fine.  The most important aspect of the marine (in my opinion) is listening to orders and knowing where to be, and when to be there.  The lion's share of the responsibility for the human side falls on the commander.

-You can purchase your own weapons or the commander can issue new ones to you.  You always start with an assault rifle, a pistol, and a combat knife each time you respawn.

[keith.lamothe]

I will have to give this a try when finances and price coincide