I don’t think that ever, in my 20-year video game history, have I buckled into a suit of armor and fired madly into a swarm of rampaging golden-tailed marmasets. Why is this? Because marmasets are cute, and no developer would condone such a heartless act. Yet.
When it comes time to hold your own against rampaging creatures, it always seems to be bugs. The biggest titles to come to mind just now are, of course, Starcraft and Starship Troopers. Endless masses of flowing chitin meet a barrage of projectile lead for one massively good time. Now, we’ve got a brand new chance to relive this golden experience in the upcoming title, Battleswarm.
Battleswarm offers the same basic formula as the aforementioned titles, but with one interesting twist. Not only can you play as both sides, but the game is completely different depending on the side you play. As a human, Battleswarm functions as a 3rd person shooter. You take control of a marine, and set out into a multiplayer map to complete an objective. These objectives range from killing a certain number of bugs, to defending your own base, to planting bombs in a bug hive. Naturally, you’ll be required to rely on your heavy artillery and teamwork to get the job done against the inevitable swarms of bugs.
Now, what’s interesting is that if you play as a bug, the game is no longer a shooter. On the bug side, we are dealing with real-time strategy. That’s right. The camera shifts into a top-down view and, like in Starcraft, you manage a couple of different facilities that are pumping out bugs until you reach the map’s limit. Then, you direct your swarms en masse against the few pathetic human strewn about. As a bug, you also have the added advantage of seeing an entire level map, complete with player positions, so the game becomes much more about strategy than survival. There is no resource collection or construction, but you do get one “hero” unit that is capable of casting spells, and the ability to buy armor and upgrades is there on both sides.
Having gotten a little time in the beta, I can say that the game is certainly fun. I always wondered what getting overwhelmed by Zerglings looked like to those Marines, and now I know. Turns out, it’s horrendously painful. On the flip side, it is immensely gratifying to execute a pincer maneuver on the bug side, and run a swarm over an opponent’s back when he’s busy with something else. The downside is that the game suffers a little in two major areas. First, the menus are a bit confusing to follow. Purchasing a weapon or item does not put it immediately into your inventory. You need to navigate a cornucopia of lists and functions to do that, and it takes some getting used to. Secondly, the games themselves tend to be very one-sided. Playing for several hours, I have yet to see a close match. Whichever side clinches a map at the start, it would seem, clinches the match.
Keeping in mind that the game is still in Beta, these problems may still be addressed. Battleswarm is still a good deal of fun, and at the very least worth checking out. At the moment, beta keys are still available on their website at http://www.battleswarm.net. Sign up, log in, and join me in exploring this very innovative new title.
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