Glarglarsnafflepop

This is my first post.

Sooo…

Errr… errrr. Ok… quickquick, topic. Topictopictopic. Errrrr….

OK! How about this:

INSURGENCY: Modern infantry combat.

For those who don’t know, Insurgency is a mod for Half-Life 2. It’s still in beta, but is being publicly tested and can be downloaded here.

In a nutshell it’s a realistic modern-day tactical multiplayer FPS. It is rare among FPS to be set in real places, among current events. Insurgency is set during the Iraq War, and the two teams are the USMC and the Iraqi insurgency. Potentially controversial, no? Yes. They might have well called it Iraq: The Game.

But despite how much I horrified at the developers’ blasé approach to the setting, I am equally impressed by… the developers’ blasé approach to the setting. Let’s put this in perspective. Insurgency is not exactly America’s Army when it comes to political correctness, and there’s no single player campaign filled with flag-waving, terrorist-killing, oorah-spouting marines.

Enough about the politics, though. I’m too tired for it right now. There’s a time for political debate & dicussion, and ten to midnight on wednesday isn’t it. So on to the gameplay:

Insurgency is good. Very good for a mod. Very very good for a mod that’s still in beta. Whenever I find something about it that’s less that good, such as missing animations, I remind myself that it’s still in beta, then remind myself again that it’s also a mod. It’s something that has been developed using an SDK, pretty much from scratch, by a small team in their spare time without being paid. I’m truly impressed that it is so comaprable to similar games out there like Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Call of Duty 4 and Counter-Strike: Source.

And comparable to them it is. It brings the elements that are now a staple of realistic FPSs, iron sights, sprinting, limited HUD, etc. Yet it also manages to add it’s own twist to the basic gameplay that makes teamwork and tactics necessary rather than optional. Each team is made up of two squads, each of which has a designated leader that is marked on the HUD of each squad member. Squads are comprised of classes such as Marksman (Sniper), Rifleman (Assault Rifle), Engineer (Shotgun) and Grenadier (Burst-fire rifle with grenade laucher), and choosing the right mix of classes is essential for success.

The squad mechanic is unique in itself, but Insurgency also brings other aspects to the table. Each team has a limited number of respawns, called reinforcements. Reinforcements are awarded by capturing points, and similar. Once all reinforcements are depleted, no players can respawn, so having an adequate supply of reinforments available is everyone’s business. In addition to reinforcements, each team has a designated Commander. I’m not sure how the Commander is chosen, but it’s probably to do with points (more on that later) or play, time, or something. The Commander has the ability to give specific orders to team members, such as what point to attack, and can also order emergency reinforcements. So far I haven’t found the usefullness of the commands, as they’re nothing that can’t be done via VOIP, but I’m sure they’ll be made useful or removed in future versions.

The maps are pretty solid too. I haven’t had a huge amout of time to properly test all of them, but I will. They’re named after specific Iraq locations such as Haditha and Baghdad, ramming home the realism point every time you load the game.

I’ll post a proper review of it when the mod get a proper release, but until then I highly recommend downloading it if it’s your kind of thing.

I’ll continue to review/discuss HL2 mods in future (SMOD soon!), because some of them are very high quality and worth a look.

Oh by the way, to download Insurgency all you need is a source engine game, so HL2 or CS:S. I don’t know if DoD:S will work.

So that’s the first post over, how did it go?