Insurgency

http://youtu.be/4PeITyRG4_w

^^ not my review but one I used in deciding to pick the game up^^

my impressions after a few hours of play ==>

I play my guitar straight into the amp.  No effects, not even overdrive or distortion – I let the tubes handle that.  That’s what I like – basic and authentic.  That’s how I like my games to.  I recently stumbled upon Insurgency (on sale on Steam right now for ~$13).  It reminds me of playing Red Orchestra a lot but in a modern terrorist vs. anti-terrorist setup ala Counter Strike.  It’s stripped down.  No perks, no leveling up, no experience points, no cluttered hud telling where shots are coming from, no indication that you killed someone (other than seeing the body dead on the ground), no UAVs.  Just a nice clean HUD – keeps the immersion real, some dirty streets and buildings and bunch of dudes moving from cover to cover knowing that 1 bullet could end their life.

I love the intensity of a slower paced FPS – where you don’t run around at 60 mph twitch shooting all over the place (truth be told I do like that from time to time as well).  It gets your heart racing and then when the shit does hit the fan it HITS THE FAN.  To go back to the music analogy – if you come out playing 200 bpm guitar solo and play that for 2 minutes straight at 200 bpm nothing could be more stale or boring.  You got build up the anticipation – you gotta make that shit count and when it does it – when swells up into this massive cacophony  - it hits hard – you feel it!

Insurgency is an early access game based on the old Insurgency mod (HL2) so it is using the somewhat dated (10 years!) source engine.  Having said that – it runs great on my machine – very smooth and it looks decent (again it doesn’t have buildings falling down, an abusive amount of HDR Bloom, an overuse of particle effects etc.)  but it looks good and with the nice clean HUD it doesn’t take long to be sucked in to the world.

The game has up to 16v16 players and the maps seem well suited to the size (you don’t run for days without to get into the action and you aren’t tripping over other players either).  The game modes are similar to what exists elsewhere.  Firefight, search and destroy, VIP escort mission, Push, Strike, Skirmish,  - basically the modes are a variation based on attacking a number of objects and hold them S&D or VIP.  In a lot of the attack the objectives (Domination if you will) modes once you die you can spawn back in – in waves and that will occur when your team takes an objective.  I was in a game yesterday where I was the last man standing (the game notifies you if you are the last man standing) which meant if we had any hope of winning I would have to take an objective on my own.  I can’t describe to you the tension of that situation – being the 1 guy left, everyone else watching with anticipation through your eyes as you belling crawl around an objective hoping to capture it and save them all….I died lol but still it was great.

Another interesting thing I mentioned is that there is no upgrade path, xp, unlocks etc.  That’s not to say you can’t customize your player for the way you want to play.  You have limited number of roles (i.e. everyone can’t be a fucking sniper – thank the lord) but in most classes you can choose to take an rifle of some sort and you have load out points so you can add attachments, scopes, under barrel grips, flashlights, choose a secondary weapon, choose explosives (different nades/c4 etc.), armor, and ammo pouches etc.  Everyone has the same restrictions as you – you get to put the points into what is important to you.  The only thing you need to be aware of is your weight – i.e. if you carry too much heavy type equipment and heavy armor you will be noticeably slower in an already somewhat slow game.  Everyone is on an even playing field – the only advantage you have is your skill, team work and knowledge of the situations – that’s how it should be.  Perfect.

The game has in game VOIP.  You can mute people – including everyone.  The voice is also proximity – so if you’re yapping to your team and you’re near an enemy – they can probably hear you.

I have to say the weapons feel amazing.  They sound amazing.  I love the weapons to death.  The game manages to pull the authenticity and fear of being shot and shooting without some of the more cumbersome realism based games/sims (ARMA America’s Army).  You have that real smooth good feeling gun play and movement with the very real fear of instant death.  You don’t have regenerating health or a health indicator or anything like that.  You take 2 bullets and you’re dead – take one in the head from any weapon and you’re probably dead.

The game also includes some co-op missions which I haven’t yet played.  If you like your games a little more gritty, a little more realistic but still fun and tactical you might enjoy this little number.

http://www.playinsurgency.com/