When I first heard about Natural Selection, I thought the
concept was a little crazy. Mixing FPS with RTS, Natural Selection 2 is the
spawn of Starcraft mating with Unreal Tournament. Players fight across large
scale maps as either a Frontiersman or Kharaa. Simply it’s humans against aliens,
do you prefer guns or teeth?
The RTS side of the game is the most interesting. There’s
one commander per side who locks themselves away in a command structure. They
swap their FPS viewpoint for a top down RTS role and gain a new set of
abilities. These allow the commander to place structures to expand and upgrade.
Whilst also allowing them to give commands to other teammates and dropping them
supplies. Taking out the enemy base will stop players from re-spawning after
death, leading to success.
Being on the front lines is wildly different for each side.
Humans have to rely heavily on their equipment. Starting out with an assault
rifle and torch, they are just about a match for the basic alien known as the Skulk.
Sticking together is vital; a lone ranger is an easy ambush target. Crucially
there is no friendly fire. So as soon as the lead alien leaps out the shadows, you
can open fire without fear of hitting a friend. It creates some fantastically
frantic gameplay for both sides. Also, backwards movement is quite slow, so you
have to commit to entering a room. Scanning the ceiling and vents for any nasty
lurking enemies is vital, or you’ll quickly find yourself chewed to pieces.
The mouth-cam of the Kharaa is a curios perspective to play
an FPS from. Trying to line up fangs with flesh takes some practice. A glancing
nibble deals reduced damage, whereas a solid bite cuts humans to chunks. You’ll
spend a lot of time as the Skulk, a fragile, fast moving alien. Its party piece
is climbing up walls and ceilings, giving you access to alternative routes and
ambushing possibilities. Again it’s an important skill to learn to be an
effective Kharaa player. I found it difficult to stick to the ceiling whilst
going through bulkheads. I’d often end up falling to the floor in front of
Frontiersmen and end up playing the part of living target practice.
Unlike the humans who power up with new weapons and
equipment; the alien players evolve into other life forms. Available at the
start of the game is the Gorge, a support and construction role. Its main job
is to assist the commander by speeding construction with healing breath. It can
also place a few defensive structures to slow human players. It would look like
an adorable little Hippo if it weren’t for the horrible tentacles growing out
of it. The other alien life forms let you take to the skies, play as a phase
shifting assassin and spawn as a living battering ram. All upgrades cost you
personal resource which is gained from map control and general play.
A good commander is the key to victory. Their priority is to
use teammates to secure the resource nodes dotted around the map. These
resources drive the teams’ economy, granting quicker access to upgrades, thus gaining
the upper hand. Each side has different
base structures which defines the strategy for each team.
The Frontiersman can place structures wherever they please. This
allows them to build outposts and hold quiet corners of the map easily. All
humans are equipped with a construction tool. Running up to the outline of a
building and holding ‘E’ will slowly build the structure. More players will
increase the build speed, but you’ll need someone watching your back. A group
of distracted humans is dinner on a plate for the aliens. Power is the
Frontiersman weakness. If the Kharaa knock out the power source in an area, all
buildings stop working and the lights go out! This denies the resource, and
creates the perfect environment to use their night vision.
Kharaa are much more limited in their expansion plans. The
base has to be linked by a connected line of Cysts. These small glowing orange
blobs spread infestation around themselves like a plague. Any structures placed
on the infestation will function and grow. But if the Frontiersman break the
chain, the infestation will retreat leaving buildings to wither and die.
Controlling the map’s resources and constructing secondary
bases is the main plan for both sides. As the game progresses, the resources
earned are converted into research and upgrades. This escalates into an arms
race as each side aims to get access to its best equipment first. Humans
utilise a variety of weapons such as flamethrowers and grenade launchers, as
well as jetpacks and devastating mech-suits.
The aliens can evolve into greater life forms, and add to
them with unlocked perks. These can allow them to move faster and in silence.
On top of that they can gain quick health regeneration enabling some deadly hit
and run attacks. Playing as the assassinating Fade, you can move at warp speed
when fully evolved. I’ve run straight past targets accidentally due to
ridiculous movement and then had to keep going past them to avoid the bullets
aimed at my hide.
Overall, the feel of the game is that of a more old-school
arena shooter. The reference to Unreal Tournament is very apt due to the fast pace
of the game and no iron sights. With a little practice, picking up the FPS role
of either side is straight forward. The command role however is very tricky,
but equally very rewarding. There’s links to video tutorials within the game
which is handy, but it’s a bit annoying to sit through several videos instead
of learning through play.
The biggest flaw with the game is that the mechanics lead to
a rich-get-richer scenario. When a team is dominating, it becomes impossible to
turn a game around through good paly alone. To add to the loosing team’s
misery; they have the choice of suicidal attacks, or to sit around and wait for
the inevitable. But that is the nature of Nautral Selection 2. To get the most
from it, you’ll need to find a server that suits your skill level for more balanced
games. The complexity of the game’s mechanics come together to create an
interesting, and most importantly fun game.
