By Jim Rossignol on July 14th, 2010 at 1:58 pm.
Unknown Worlds appear to be creeping towards the final stages of the epic development of their RTS-FPS multiplayer hybrid sequel, Natural Selection 2. The $20 pre-order is going to give folks access to an alpha test from the 26th of this month. Apparently 12,000 people have already pre-ordered, so you should have no shortage of people to “test” things with. Pre-ordering also unlocks the SDK, tools, and fancy armour (pictured). This one has been so long in the making that, at times, I thought it was never going to happen. It is happening, and it’s looking like an extremely interesting example of a what a seven-man independent team can achieve when they really want to make the game in question. (Old) teaser, trailer plus more recent footage, below.
14/07/2010 at 14:22 Cuddles says:
finallllllllllllllllllllllly! bring it on! ThIRST FOR BLOOD!
14/07/2010 at 14:27 Heliocentric says:
So, if i drop cash i get the alpha? Fair enough.
14/07/2010 at 14:28 RiptoR says:
And what’s the date I leave on a 10 day vacation? Right, the 26th… Sigh…
14/07/2010 at 14:30 Joe Maley says:
Finally.
The original NS is on my list of top games with cs1.6, vanilla world of warcraft, and trine.
14/07/2010 at 14:43 Fringe says:
Not quite. It’s the $50 special pre-order that gives you the armour and access to the alpha.
14/07/2010 at 21:50 Froibo says:
Any payment gets you access to the alpha, I’m pretty sure the shiny armor is all you get with the extra 20 bucks. I only got the 20 dollar one and I can launch the game right now.. no servers up yet however.
14/07/2010 at 21:52 Froibo says:
They must of changed it recently now that the alpha is coming soon but I got the combo pack with overgrowth – NS2 and they sent me the alpha.
14/07/2010 at 14:45 perfectheat says:
Jim Rossignol : To get access to the ALPHA and Black Armor you have to get the $39.95 Special Edition that will be discontinued on July 26th!
With the $19.95 standard edition you get access to the Beta. Both packs include the SDK and of course the full game when released :)
14/07/2010 at 14:46 HexagonalBolts says:
I’m not sure why they only put up that extremely shaky made-in-a-rush pre-alpha footage as a reward for the communities support and never replaced it with anything more polished… You can tell from the editor alone (and the first trailer) that this game will be so much more slick than that.
14/07/2010 at 15:03 Fringe says:
Ah yes, $39.95 that’s what I meant
14/07/2010 at 15:07 Heliocentric says:
Ah, well. I’ve seen nothing substantial, but i feel i owe them for ns (the mod).
Conflicted.
14/07/2010 at 18:52 HexagonalBolts says:
Having seen they engine they’ve made… well, it’s more than substantial
14/07/2010 at 23:38 Stabby says:
And having followed their developer blog, I didn’t hesitate one second to preorder this. This game is going to be awesome..
14/07/2010 at 15:10 airtekh says:
‘Now, we dance’
This is, without a shadow of a doubt, my most anticipated game of 2010. I hope it’s as good as my imagination.
14/07/2010 at 15:16 Kurgol says:
If you want something more recent to drool at take a look at .
14/07/2010 at 15:17 Kurgol says:
hate this comment editor :(
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/
14/07/2010 at 15:38 Zaphid says:
They launch alpha the day before SC2 comes out ?
14/07/2010 at 15:46 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
Pretty sure I’m one of the only people who feels this way, but NS2 is a lot more of a draw for me then SC2 ever will be.
14/07/2010 at 21:51 MartinNr5 says:
I don’t think that they consider SC2 to be their competition, for several reasons.
15/07/2010 at 11:48 Kommissar Nicko says:
I think it’s because THIS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO STARCRAFT 2! NOTHING!!!
14/07/2010 at 15:40 Psychopomp says:
>an alpha test from the 26th of this month.
Why must they do this to me?
14/07/2010 at 15:51 Revi says:
And?
I for one am not even going to touch Starcraft 2, not with the price they’re asking for it. Not to mention they’re entirely different games.
Lastly, NS2 is an alpha so it’s not as if they’re expecting massive sales.
14/07/2010 at 16:29 Wolfox says:
What about single-player? Does it have nice bots so I can play offline? (for the record, I mostly played Unreal Tournament 2004 offline with bots, and I had a blast)
14/07/2010 at 17:29 geldonyetich says:
My favorite Half-Life mod ever. That said, they’ve taken way too long getting it out on source.
14/07/2010 at 17:49 Mas says:
Source? Uhm, they have constructed a engine of their own… its its quite marvelous actually.
14/07/2010 at 18:31 Revi says:
There will be no single player in NS2.
14/07/2010 at 18:37 kutkh says:
The original provided me with some of the best anecdotes of my formative years in multiplayer gaming, but I’m not so sure that the rose-tinted specs will survive this one. No matter how good the game is, the online FPS community isn’t what it was, and I can’t imagine a scenario where playing as humans won’t descend into orderless douchebaggery a la public Battlefield 2. Sticking to a certain group of known players is an option, but the joy of the original for me was finding complete strangers working together.
Also, get off my lawn.
14/07/2010 at 19:51 Vandelay says:
I imagine this game will draw a slightly different crowd to the usual FPS, what with the heritage and the smaller scale. The inevitable space marine with big gun advertising may draw some of that crowd, but it is probably marginally better than the U.S Marine with big gun adverts.
Share everyone else’s enthusiasm for this. Didn’t play anywhere near enough of the original mod, but hopefully will be able to get into this a bit more. The concept is such a brilliant and obvious one, I am surprised no big commercial game hasn’t tried to ape it.
Will probably wait and get the pre-order that includes access to Beta, rather than the Alpha access. Alpha makes it sound as if it won’t be too playable yet, which you can’t really tell until others have a go and then it will be too late. I’ll also have SC2 by then, so probably won’t need another game to occupy my free time with (as for which is the bigger draw, I want both, although SC2 is probably the safer bet, as I know I can play that with unknowns or single player and it will be an enjoyable experience.)
14/07/2010 at 20:54 int says:
Hell.
It’s about time.
14/07/2010 at 23:43 measurements says:
Natural selection was my heroin, crack, meth and… lucozade. I love that shit. Which is why I’m so absolutely terrified about this release. Someone mentioned a kind of sub par video. I’m scared that this game will be short of the mark compared to the original. If you remember the original release (hard to believe I was actually playing it that very night) they really took their time to nail the product, being very professional about what they released as teaser content. Now I read in an email that they are rushing to get stuff done for this alpha launch date. I guess things don’t get done without deadlines, I’m just worried. I want it to be as good as it’s predecessor. Actually, I want it to evolve from what it was. I’m concerned it’ll just be graphically updated not progressed.
Then I go and think: I love this game already, before I’ve even played it. Why the hell haven’t I got it yet? Also, steam should be advertising this. The link between half-life one mods and steam is way too strong to miss out on.
14/07/2010 at 23:50 Web Cole says:
Pre-ordered. Fingers crossed this is something special.
15/07/2010 at 00:37 Tim says:
FYI, you need to buy the special edition to get access to the alpha on the 26th, which is $39.95, not $20. If you just preorder the standard edition, you won’t get access to the alpha.
15/07/2010 at 00:41 Stabby says:
DOUBLE RAINBOOOOW
15/07/2010 at 04:05 Wolfox says:
Another Nathan Fillion fan, huh? Double rainbow all the way!
15/07/2010 at 04:29 starclaws says:
Funny part about the pre-alpha footage is that it was 5 months ago. And they haven’t talked about much since then. They have other things done but won’t be releasing it in the early alpha stages. They are still hard at work with the tough things like Pathfinding, Dynamic Infestation triggers and such. The animators and effects art also takes a while :)
15/07/2010 at 06:58 bakaohki says:
Never played the original one, but doesn’t it look a bit like Tremulous?
15/07/2010 at 07:29 Tei says:
here is the whole family of 3 mods.
tremulous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czfDEb9XfMs
gloom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhp_-OQgoeY
natural selection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-IHoPeyqjs&feature=related
16/07/2010 at 15:09 Malibu Stacey says:
Natural Selection (the first one, HL1 mod) predates Tremulous by about 4 or 5 years mate.
15/07/2010 at 09:30 diebroken says:
Can’t wait – finally time to play it again and experience hour long rounds! =]
15/07/2010 at 10:30 pimorte says:
I’m curious to see whether Tremulous actually beats them to release.
15/07/2010 at 13:58 Scythe says:
Sonova… I’m working away from home at the moment and I’d booked a holiday to come home and play SC2. And now this. God damn it.
Still, it’s gonna be sweet like cherry wine.
15/07/2010 at 17:38 Jayt says:
CANNOT WAIT
16/07/2010 at 17:37 tictok says:
For those asking about single player, they will not be releasing a single player version. BUT, NS2 will have LUA where i’m sure people can code their own mod, which will be Single Player, with AI and everything else.