Natural Selection 2
Natural Selection 2 pits alien against human in an action-packed struggle for survival. Wield devastating weaponry as a Frontiersman marine, or become the xenomorph as a deadly Kharaa lifeform.
Strategy Meets Shooter
Natural Selection 2 is a First Person Shooter and Real Time Stategy game rolled into one! Each team, alien and human, has a Commander. The Commander looks down on the battlefield and issues orders, places structures, collects resources, researches technology, and deploys abilities.
Here are some gameplay examples: A human Commander could drop health packs and ammunition to a trapped marine squad, and deploy sentry guns to help them defend their position. Or an alien Commander could grow a new Hive to spread infestation throughout newly captured territory, allowing more alien eggs to spawn…
Two Unique Sides
Aliens players choose to evolve into one of five lifeforms: The fast, fearsome Skulk can run on walls and deliver massive damage with its jaws. Lerks fly and deploy gasses to support their teammates in battle. Gorges heal other lifeforms and build tunnels, hydra turrets, walls, and other tactical structures. Fades blink in and out of battle, picking off marines with giant scythes. Finally, the giant Onos is so massive and so tough, that even entire marine squads can’t take it down.
Marines wield rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, pistols, and other weapons. Cluster grenades can clear ventilation shafts of sneaky Skulks, flamethrowers make short work of alien structures and infestation, and boosts dropped by the Commander increase combat effectiveness.
When attacking on foot doesn’t cut it, marines can construct hulking Exosuits wielding miniguns and railguns, and equip jetpacks for high speed assaults on alien Hives.
Long Term Development
Natural Selection 2 receives constant updates. This year, 2019, Unknown Worlds continues to develop new features, content, and improvements.
Mod Tools Come Standard
Natural Selection 2 comes with all the tools we used to make the game. All game code is open source. That means you can create, and play, an endless variety of mods. Publish, share, and download mods from the Steam Workshop, and automatically download mods when you join modded games.
Digital Deluxe Edition
Digital Deluxe Edition includes:
- Official Soundtrack – 1 hour of tribal, industrial music composed by David John and Simon Chylinski
- Digital Art Book – 40+ pages of art by Cory Strader, including environments, creatures, weapons and more
- Exclusive in-game marine model – Exclusive in-game marine model – A new marine model with custom visor and armor plating
- Exclusive Wallpapers and Avatars – Unique views of the NS2 universe by Amanda Diaz
Game Discussion
Steam User 18
The last couple of weeks have been hard, and today I didn't feel like playing anything, but I eventually settled on NS2 and had a wonderful time. Thanks guys.
It's a shame that there are so few players nowadays because the game is still very fun. It is a masterfully crafted combo of asymetric RTS-FPS that based on the team and role practically constitutes four completely different experiences. The community tends to be friendly and helpful, and the game is polished well. Any slight imperfections that may have slipped the devs are solved by seamlessly integrated mods, and even on the lowest activity there will be enough people to run at least five servers or so running. Despite the game's age I still fully recommend.
Steam User 15
This game is a sad lost gem, avoiding by many because it's old or hard to learn. I had amazing 60-70 minutes matches on this game and even had some decent shit talking moments where it's actually allowed in this game. It's just a damn shame not many people play it.
Steam User 16
I really love the concept of this game.
It's a pity nowadays there is nothing simillar.
Steam User 11
For $5 this game is an absolute steal, still has an active community, addicting competitive fps gameplay on the marines mixed with movement mechanics that would make "bhoppers" blush granting extreme mastery as aliens. Even if you never play Commander the game is enjoyable. If you do play commander, you will find a nice level of depth that RTS players will enjoy. Newbie friendly servers are pretty popular and always at least one is full.
My main complaint is the netcode. Even at 90ms you get killed around corners as aliens a lot. No killcam means sometimes you experience deaths that really make you scratch your head. The developers have ceased active development on this game so don't get your hopes up. There's also a matchmaking mode that is totally broken, and apparently only populated by idlers who want to receive the rewards, so you have to use the server browser and you will never experience those rewards since they never enabled the progression for non-matched play. What's there is fun, despite these flaws.
Steam User 11
It is the only game of the "real time strategy asymmetrical fps" genre and absolutely deserves more attention but live service ended about a year ago and has lost most of it's players. I recommend getting a group of friends together to play it rather than trying to find a server.
Steam User 9
Commander plays RTS, infantry plays shooter
Small online, many nerds
Very long and difficult achievements
4/10 not a bad game, but not for me
Steam User 9
NS2 made a huge mistake compared to NS1. It tried to be an esport, or at least be a more competitive shooter and less of a lobby shooter. The community has become very... elite over time, I won't go as far as calling it toxic. They're just good at a game that requires close communication and lots of game knowledge to be successful at, particularly at lower player counts... which is an issue, because NS2 doesn't allow for larger lobbies or they never took off like NS1's did. It's much easier to be new at a game when there's a lot of people on your team, as a few bad players can't tank the whole team. In a 12v12, 2 bad players on a team will throw the entire match.
This game would be great if the devs increased the scale and scope of it rather than tightening it. It's very competitive, very fun and very skill based which is great for a 5v5 arena shooter and awful for a FPS/RTS hybrid. This game needs easy gameplay with a meta thats hard to master, not both hard gameplay *and* a hard meta. Sadly, it's largely abandoned and too late for anything to be done about it. Still, it's only $5 which is cheaper than a meal at McDon's these days so.. yeah. Recommended because of inflation!