Valve made an announcement which as far as I can tell, is little more than a footnote at the bottom of a blog post on the Left 4 Dead website, that they are releasing a free game on Monday the 19th. Not only that, but it will come with everything needed to create your own mods for the game.
The game itself is called Alien Swarm, adapted from what was originally a mod of Unreal Tournament 2004. The creators were apparently hired by Valve a couple of years ago1, and have made an official version of the game on the Source engine.
Alien Swarm is a four player co-op game based in the future. You play as one of four classes (Medic, Officer, Tech or Special Weapons) and fight through different maps full of alien creatures. Unlike other Valve games, it’s played with a top down view so you can see your team and the area around you, and judging from the screenshots seems quite stunning graphically.
Valve boasts a levelling system that gives the player “persistent items” in the game, meaning anything you unlock will carry to any game you play, regardless of map or server. As is traditional, we can assume experience is given for killing various enemies, and probably for performing acts like healing teammates.
It looks really well made, and like it would be addictive as hell with friends. The game being released with the game code and complete mod tools indicates that the developers wanted to create a game with lots of user made content, to give the game more replay value. I have to say that if it catches on, which given Valve’s vast fan base it should to some degree, the results should be amazing. I myself will probably even give the mod tools a look.
As a final note…
The game makes me think of the history of Team Fortress; it started as a game mod that got the mod makers hired by Valve. Then the game got ported into the companies engine of the time, and was followed up years later with the game that I and many others obsess over; Team Fortress 2. That is pretty much what has happened with Alien Swarm. Except that instead of then spending years making a sequel, the game itself appears to be the end product they worked to2.
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im trying to add zombie mod to alien swarm D:
i need some map for the zombies
and i need help!:http://www.roblox.com/
In this case have you tried asking for help in the Steam Powered User Forums?
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