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 35
The best team-based shooter I have ever played. And, the worst. Incredible soaring highs and devastatingly brutal lows. A fucking toxic community that is NOT newbie friendly, and that's because a bad player can ruin a match. But because this dead game is dead, they will begrudgingly help you if you're earnest to learn; for the have no one else.
Morale in this game is absolutely essential. I have seen defeat snatched from the jaws of victory because of the underdogs' perseverance and teammates' toxicity. You can tell when things collapse for the other team on the battlefield, and it's verified when players return to the lobby and you hear a litany of bitching and finger-pointing. The dopamine hits HARD then.
When you start you will not be good. You will be terrible, and lost. My tip to you is to destroy resource towers. Do not stop for any reason. You will lose 1v1 battles constantly. But go back, and destroy res. Keep doing that and you will win the game for your team, yet no one will thank you. But it will be crucial for victory.
You know you're doing well when you, a low-ranking player who is hitting res, draws the attention of the top-tier players. They will be sent after you, the grunt. That's when things turn, because the opportunity cost for them to guard resources is much more than your loss of life when they kill you and keep coming back. Keep it up.
And never stop.
And then you will know why this dead game will never die.
Steam User 13
Really great game, I wish I played more when it was still active. There is bots so you can still get a taste of what it was like. Most the fun was had when your team was throwing though. Add me if you wanna play sometime.
Steam User 22
if u have past trauma and feel at home in a community of narcissists then this is the community for u.
Steam User 11
An excellent game, really nothing scratches that itch of team coordination of the old early 2000s era commander-infantry style games nowadays. Every team based multiplayer game nowadays nobody speaks a whisper and everybody mutes all chat or the devs do it for you.
Natural selection 2 was one of those games where on each team you had at least 1 person on mic every game, usually the commander when building structures or helping out his little troops dropping some ammo/meds while leading his team.
Now as for the caveats. This game will filter you if you are new, especially today since it stopped being updated 2 years ago. And the only people who play the game nowadays are hardcore veterans that while mostly friendly to newcomers, will just chainkill you over and over again no mercy. There are support roles for aliens and marines that mitigate this somewhat but when servers are generally empty and the games you do get result in you getting stomped its tough.
Even through all that you can really tell this game was made with passion and It will always be one of my favourite games despite its current state.
Steam User 9
the game is awsome but the only thing i despise are the toxic players and that my screen goes black everytime i load the game (i have to reinstal the game every time)
Steam User 7
If you want fast phased and challenging adrenaline running through your veins, this is your game. Perfect the tactics by map, follow the leader and fight like crazy!
This is The Devil May Cry kind of game to perfect as a team on FPS/RTS/DeathMatch!
I loved when once beated as commander professional player and got invited to the training, but due timerelated ping, wasnt able to play in USA from Finland. Still I tell the story about almost 90 minutes match of tons of excitement, adrenaline, action and trick move that lead us into victory after bounching back and forth for a long time.
If you need to get rid of Poker Adrenaline Addiction, please, install free Adrenaline from here. This game is thriving!
Steam User 5
Before everybody were making CoD and Fortnite slop clones, there was an era in the early 2010's where developers DARED to make good multiplayer games with wildly different concepts and this game right here is the epitome of said era.
Sequel to the HL1 mod of the same name, this game expands on all the concepts that made the original so great, like the hybrid FPS and RTS elements that made it so popular, back in the day people compared it to "StarCraft meets Counter-Strike" and they wouldn't be wrong.
The StarCraft description is spot-on as there's two teams squaring out in big arenas with tight corners and corridors, one team being human Marines that rely on technology and raw firepower (similar to the Terrans) and a brutal alien race with a single Hive mind that can spawn all sorts of different alien "mutations", it even has a creeping green goo to expand your base! (similar to the Zerg).
Just like an RTS, one person has to take the mantle of "Commander" and has to issue orders to their units, which are not AI, but actual REAL people following orders. And this right here might be one of the biggest weaknesses of the game, it's heavy reliance on people LISTENING and following orders, which at times is a tall order when they just go wandering around like headless chickens wanting to score some kills, but this is NOT that kind of game.
If you want to play this game, you absolutely need to have a team of people willing to be decent teammates.
As most long-running games do, although it has a smaller player base, they're very loyal and dedicated to this game, but you might encounter one of two types of players, those welcoming and willing to help and the absolute no-nonsense tryhards playing this game since 2012.
The game itself is amazing, but the small community is a make or break experience for some people. If you manage to find a good team, it's a 10/10, but if you mostly play with randos, you might as well skip this game entirely.