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Alien Swarm Can Be Played As a Terrifying FPS

AndrewGOO9 writes "With a few simple commands from the developer console, Alien Swarm can go from being played as an isometric top-down shooter to a first-person perspective. Surprisingly easy, it does make the game, which was released for free via Steam earlier this week, a lot more terrifying. But, anyone who is at home playing games like Modern Warfare or Halo should have no problem slaughtering their way through wave after wave of creatures. In fact, it poses the potential to make the game easier for people who would've otherwise struggled with the overhead view."

18 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Or.. by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not everyone likes 3rd person view for all games. I think it sucks for when you control a walking/running character and need to aim. That's the job of 1st person view.

  2. the kids seem to like top down by superid · · Score: 5, Funny

    My son is playing AS right now with a few of his friends. I yelled over "hey did you know that AS can be...." "yeah yeah, played as a FPS.. it sucks"

    1. Re:the kids seem to like top down by morari · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And it does suck. The aliens spawn too far out to react to your increased visibility, the hacking screens don't seem to respond, and the graphics are low-poly and blurry when viewed up close. The game is very atmospheric with the overhead view. The controls do take a few minutes to become comfortable with, but they work well enough. There's no need to turn the game into something it's not. There are already enough FPS on the market, leave Alien Swarm alone. :P

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  3. Terrifying?? Try System Shock 2, Doom 3, Undying by Xaximus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All of which were 100 times more terrifying than what I saw in the video.

  4. Front page news? by MintOreo · · Score: 5, Informative

    An inordinate amount of attention for simple game.

    In other headline news, Starcraft 2 can be played as anything, thanks to a gnarly editor.

  5. Easier? by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I doubt it, Aliens are constantly coming from all directions including from behind and catch up in seconds or even fractions of seconds, particularly in the harder difficulties.
    also constantly maintaining the optimum strategic positions relative to your teammates is a necessarily in Insane mode, and it only takes running in front of your team mate while they file a few times to kill you.

    That being said it would be easier to shoot in the z dimension, in the rare instances that it is necessary.
    and their is nothing really nothing i have not mentioned about the game that makes FP view harder then top down.
    So it would be more then possible, at least at easier difficulties, but I think that insane mode would be near impossible if not totally impossible.
    But then some people could just be very stilled at FP squad based tactics and make it work perfectly fine, but then their are a lot more pope playing FPSes then top down shooters.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  6. Next up... by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Space Invaders as a first person shooter. The original alien swarm.

    1. Re:Next up... by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not abstract enough...

      http://firstpersontetris.com/

    2. Re:Next up... by Degro · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thanks, now I'm sea sick.

    3. Re:Next up... by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...Space Invaders as a first person shooter. The original alien swarm.

      Space Invaders FPS FAQ:

      Why is the screen blank?
      The Space invaders are 2 Dimensional, and you're viewing them from the side. Good Luck.

      I keep dying. What's going on?
      We already covered that. The Space Invaders are essentially invisible now. Only elite space defenders can win this game from muscle memory learned in the early 80's. You're not one of them.

  7. Re:Uh, big deal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    (uncommonly referred to as isometric view)

    Never try to sound smarter than you are, because someone who actually knows what they're talking about will show you up. Isometric view points in a game specifically refer to when the plane is tilted to a certain perspective, usually 45 degrees. It is possible to have 2D perspective that is not at all isometric, since to be isometric, it needs to be fixed that all along each axis, the scale is the same, meaning that there's no foreshortening or vanishing points.

    Further, when it's actually applicable, isometric is commonly used. The only reason it would be uncommon is if it's not applicable.

  8. Re:That is terrifying by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, man, those pinky demons can turn freaking invisible! It's scary! And don't get me started on what they did to those poor bunnies in the end...

    --
    When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  9. Re:Terrifying?? Try System Shock 2, Doom 3, Undyin by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Informative

    This story has shown me a terrifying game.

    But not the one it indicated.

    http://thumb-culture.com/2010/07/22/xbla-review-limbo/

    What the hell?

  10. Why not script it? by atomic-penguin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why not script it? I guess you just have to do everything yourself.

    // povtoggle.cfg
    alias "povtoggle" "normalcam"
    alias "normalcam" "asw_hide_marine 0; asw_controls 1; thirdperson; alias povtoggle fpscam"
    alias "fpscam" "asw_hide_marine 1; firstperson; asw_controls 0; alias povtoggle normalcam"
    bind "p" "povtoggle"
    normalcam
     
    // autoexec.cfg
    exec fovtoggle.cfg

    Just bind p for a handy point-of-view toggle.

    --
    /^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
  11. Re:Or.. by pclminion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ahh, yes. That's why they released the source code. To make sure that nobody could ever modify it. And that's why they added a developer's console along with a command to switch to first-person view. To make sure that nobody could ever possibly activate that. And that's why the first person perspective was implemented in the first place. Because developers have nothing better to do than waste their time on features they hate and never want anyone to use.

  12. Re:not for the mac (yet?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Left 4 Dead still isn't available as a Mac title...and now this. Which is completely bizarre, because Alien Swarm was originally available for the Mac; it's based on UT2004...available for, oh, you know, 6 years?

    Buy a real computer and you can play games. Buy the $400 more expensive hipster "computer" and you can do what Jobs thinks you should be doing.

  13. Re:opensource by Ailure · · Score: 3, Informative

    Valve never said that the game was "open source", just that the source code for the "game logic" is available, similar to how it is with HL2. At some point, people (and press?) got confused and keep calling it open source, despite that it's not really different from the other moddable Source engine games that you can use as base. The intent being opening up avenues of modding, but the game still depends on large binary blobs to compile and is releases under a restricted license.

    Valve probably didn't intend to mislead people, unlike the whole "Shared source" crap by Microsoft.

  14. Re:How is this news? by dangitman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seriously? Could we get something remotely interesting for a change? I've not even downloaded the game and I could tell you exactly how to do this, its really, really not even remotely difficult or complicated in any way. I will very shortly be removing slashdot from my RSS feeds.

    Your post is hilarious when read out in a posh and pretentious English schoolgirl's voice.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.