Alien Swarm - New non-FPS Valve game out Monday!

[Campaignjunkie]

I dunno... a game design is nothing without a great execution. It's about the particulars. The small ideas Valve has added (that aren't in similar games): the active reload from GoW, how you lock-on to enemies when they're in light, the semi free-roaming aspect with a draw-on map, the XP system to earn perks -- these things are what raises the game above everything else.

[Gloglebag]

I love the fact valve actively seeks out talent and nurtures it.

[Defrag]

Praise valve for ensuring that we can all download it for nothing when hardly any of us had heard of it before

[KungFuSquirrel]

Once the team is hired and integrated into the studio, it becomes a Valve product, even if the idea came from outside the company. TFC, TF2, Portal, and Alien Swarm would not and could not exist as they do now without the resources Valve provided. It's a team effort out there

I enjoyed the round I played last night. It's not as high production value as Valve's other games, but it's also a smaller free effort. They could have easily sold this for $20 if they wanted. Even with the "lower" production values, the targeting is crazy slick, and the minimap with the recorded replay at the end of a match (and the ability to draw your plans on it!) is just fantastic. I'm looking forward to building some stuff in this. I kind of wish there were some more variety in the layouts, more choices in one route vs another, but I haven't played the whole campaign yet and there should be plenty of opportunity to explore that in custom layouts.

[Skacky]

I just finished the campaign in Hard mode with some friends and wow, it WAS hard. Those Shield bugs are just insane and the little buzzers are a real pain in the ass.

Who's for a Hadley's Hope campaign, complete with the hive?

[dux]

I can't seem to draw on the map, but all my mates can? I'm confused.

[-HP-]

Who's for a Hadley's Hope campaign, complete with the hive?

[Jetsetlemming]

Hm, kinda annoying. You can't earn XP or achievements on custom campaigns. Seeing as the game only comes with the one and is seemingly all about the custom content, that's pretty odd and disappointing to me.

Edit: Also damn this game goes well with the Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack. Sets just the right retro action tone.

[Pampers]

its not really an issue since you get most unlocks after doing the campaign twice

[Jetsetlemming]

I've done it three times and have only reached level 20.

[dux]

Three times and level 20? I'm on the 2nd play through and level 16. Playing it on hard?

/doh totally fell asleep typing that

[Jenn0_Bing]

played it through twice and I'm level 21, was playing on hard. Did have to restart missions a few times which gains a few hundred xp each time.

[Zeta]

Fun little game to play at work. I really like how slick the interface is, especially the progression overlay on the map at the end.

I'll definitely have a crack at making some rooms for it

[Jetsetlemming]

My first time through was normal with friends and the next couple of times was with random (terrible) guys online so I had to play normal then as well.

Friend me on steam, I'm JSL, and we can play together

[st0lve]

I was matched up with 3 swedes and we did it on Hard, as my first complete run.

But insane requires a level a bit higher than 8