Topic: Alien Swarm coming free to Steam

[idolminds]

Story
Site

Way back when there was a cool top-down co-op mod for UT2004 called Alien Swarm. The team eventually announced a sequel/retail version using the Source engine, but the updates eventually stopped coming and the site was pretty much dead for the last couple years. And now...Valve is going to release it for free, with the complete codebase? Weird.

But hey, free co-op alien blasting game! Should be fun.

[MysterD]

Yay.

[Ghandi]

It looks pretty damn cool and you can't argue with the price. Awesome.

[Xessive]

Sweet! I remember checking out some shots and videos when it was UT2004 mod.. Then I just kinda forgot about it. Awesome new though!

[MysterD]

Ummm...is it Monday yet?

[idolminds]

TileGen

It has a map generator based on tiles. Pretty interesting.

[idolminds]

PS, its out now. Good luck downloading, Steam is getting swamped.

Check out the bandwidth spike on the Steam servers from everyone trying to grab it. Despite that, there are already 20,000 players online.

[Xessive]

My first few tries it kept telling me the Steam servers were too busy to process my request. Earlier today I was able to connect and download it. It is an alien-swarm-load of fun!

I had been playing Alien Breed: Impact up to this point and though it might look better than Alien Swarm, the lack of 4-player coop really bogs it down. AS is short but certainly more varied.

[MysterD]

Downloading...

EDIT:

AS is short but certainly more varied.

How short?

EDIT 2:
Download is complete.

[gpw11]

What's the word on this so far? Looks awesome but I think I will be away from my pc for the rest of the week.

[angrykeebler]

the game is 100% worth the purchase price

[MysterD]

Destructoid's Review.

[PyroMenace]

Belmont, Idol, Dragonlor, and I have been playing this. We've been working our way through the campaign every so often, finally finished it up today. Tons of fun, when you have 4 dudes playing its so much more enjoyable than just 2 or 3. The weapons become more useful, someone can use the tesla cannon to slow the aliens down while the others mop them up, theres some really good coop strategy here. I'm surprised this was released for free, they could have easily sold this for $10 or $15 and it still would be worth it.

[MysterD]

I downloaded this when it first came out...and I still ain't played it, for some reason.

[idolminds]

Updated

Since release, we've received a ton of feedback and feature requests from the Alien Swarm community. The most requested additions are more variety and greater difficulty.

With that in mind, we've added "Onslaught" mode, which introduces an AI Director that dynamically generates swarms of aliens based on several factors, such as the squad's stress level. Onslaught works with any difficulty setting and ensures no mission plays the same way twice.

Speaking of difficulty, we've also added a "Brutal" difficulty level for those of you who told us "Insane" wasn't insane enough. How brutal is Brutal? Nobody on the Alien Swarm team has managed to complete a mission on it.

If for some crazy reason Brutal is still too easy for you, there's now a "Hardcore Friendly Fire" toggle. When enabled, friendly fire deals full damage immediately, flamethrowers set teammates on fire much faster, and turrets will hurt you if get caught in their crossfire. HCFF truly tests your team’s ability to work as a elite squad. Coordinating movement and firing lines become an even more integral part of the game.

Finally, to reward the most dedicated players, we've added 3 new IAF Promotion Ranks: Platinum Star, Osmium Star, and the coveted Iridium Medallion.

[Xessive]

Cool, always good to see some response from the devs.

I spotted you guys playing yesterday, I wanted to join but I was too tired. I might hop on the next time