O slimy serendipity! The saga of the troubled sequel to one of the finest-ever Half-Life mods may finally be coming to an end. According to the official website, modders-gone-pro Uknown Worlds’ man v beast FPS-RTS is on track for release via Steam this Autumn/Fall. And to help back up this dubious claim, Kotaku have rounded up some exclusive footage of this hitherto super-mysterious standalone sequel, the jammy b’stards. Reportedly the below is entirely in-engine – in which case crikey.
That’s all their own engine, too. While I wouldn’t put money on the game itself looking quite as shiny as this presumably ultra-textured and hand-lit scripted snippet, it gives us a general sense of the look and tone they’re going for with NS2.
That there’s still so very little in the way of screenshots and the like after all these years is a bit of a worry, but Unknown Worlds are so confident the release is finally on-track (thanks to some outside investment) that you can pre-order NS2, in normal or special edition flavours, right now. While it’s obviously a bit of a gamble to do so, it will get you early access to the upcoming beta.
We’ll be seeing a lot more of this one over the next few months, I don’t doubt.
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If anyone is interested in playing Natural Selection there are still a handful of regularly populated servers still playing the mod. I’ll post a few of the Euro ones here.
VH2.nl :: 217.163.25.167:27015 (Dutch/Euro server)
NS TALENT :: 212.187.246.188:27015 (Euro server)
Able :: 217.163.31.208:27015 (Irish/Euro server)
Needless to say, all of those servers are primarily Classic only, although I think Able does have Combat maps (prefixed with “co_”) on the mapvote.
There are also quite a few less populated servers that supplement a lack of players with (usually only Alien) bots. The bots are very hard to kill once they get within striking range (competitive players have been known to train their aiming skills on the bots), but it does provide a less pressurised environment if you wanted to try out the Commander mode, for example. Often you’ll get random people joining on the Marine team who came there for the same reason.
If you’re Commanding, just remember the following golden rules:
1. Build an Infantry Portal. Without it, nobody in your team can respawn.
2. Build an Armory followed by an Observatory. The Observatory is a fairly crucial structure (as described below) and the Armory is required to dish out advanced weapons, and can supply ammo and health autonomously.
3. Never leave the Command chair to kill an Alien. Instead wait for a Marine to spawn to deal with the problem, or if the Alien threat is more immediate, click on the Observatory and use the Beacon feature to bring your entire team back to base.
4. Turrets are generally a waste of time. Unless you’re playing against bots, don’t invest any amount of resources in them.
Oh and if you get criticised, just explain that you’re new. The NS Community can respond badly to ‘newbs ruining their game’ but most are happy to help out newcomers who are upfront about this and don’t try to assert themselves in crucial positions, such as Commanding. Newbs can easily learn the ropes without any hassle just playing as a grunt Marine, sticking with teammates and following the Commander’s orders. That might sound a bit dry but a lot of the interest in NS to begin with is soaking up the atmosphere of walking through deserted ore refineries and empty spaceships and getting jumped (or eaten) by aliens. :)
For anyone that didn’t like NS or found it hard to get into, all signs seem to point towards the devs trying to make NS2 a more accessible game.
@ Redford
Ah that explains alot and makes alot of sense… apart from the bacterial reaction to a threat is to create a creature to fight the threat but give him the wrong tools (teeth) to do it with!
The Devour = Bacterial infection sounds likely and a good explanation, but still, why give it herbivore teeth!?
@phoenixbbs: Yeah, I have to admit that probably 60% of the time I’d misjudge it and drop from the ceiling right in front of the marine and get horribly shot to death in about 1.3 seconds.
I played NS religiously for 3 or 4 years almost daily, often for hours. It’s the best FPS I’ve ever played and I’d still be playing it if the servers weren’t so dead… I’ve played a few times recently, and had some good games.
Bought the special edition to thank them for NS and hopefully help them along with NS2!
! ns!!!!!!!! omg i want it.
Wow, nice attacking door! I have said long times, you do not believe me! WTF I have rights! Thank you, NS2 Developer! I give 1 Mio $ for NS2 Developers because attacking or rushing to closed door was my idea. Any users from another website do not believe me. I am sour for you any non-believed users.
Why do you (any users) not beleive me? Please unban all forums from any websites. Good Job, NS2-Developers – That is my idea old time ca. 1 or more than years. You Loser!! HAHAHA! Nice new game for HL².
Best regards, SnakeMedia
I have won about my idea at NS2 Developer.