Alien Swarm is a free to play action game developed by Valve and distributed through their Steam platform. It is a shooter with a top-down viewing perspective and it is played with the mouse and keyboard. The game is a lot of fun in its cooperative online mode as well as in its offline single player mode.
You get to choose from one of eight different marines, and 4 classes, each with his own strong points and special abilities. The Officer grants every team member a passive increase in damage, and damage resistance. The Medic can heal the team. The Tech class can open doors, seal doors, set up sentry guns and even hack computers. The Special Weapons class is the highest damage dealer.
The gameplay is very fast-paced and the objectives aren't really that interesting since the game doesn't have a strong story-line. There is a great variety of weapons in the game and also every class can level up and choose new gear to wear.
The game uses the Source graphic engine, and the visuals are amazing. I liked the fact that it is very well optimized. If the graphics are set to low you can still enjoy the experience on an old computer, and if you set them to very high you can admire the artwork. The sound effects are also pretty good with very good voice actors and entertaining music.
Online playing is possible with up to 3 extra people to join your party, and you can also play alone in the offline mode. The game has a strong player base and you can always find a team and start playing online. Also you can get achievements when playing online.
Alien Swarm is definitely a good game with a lot of content that can keep you playing for quite some time.
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