As the title of this blog may suggest - I'm a gamer at heart from Strategy games to board games... but I have a particular fondness of First Person Shooters (FPSs).
Going back a few years now I used to play them a lot - specifically a great free game made by the US Government called Americas Army which introduced tactical team-based gameplay to the FPS scene. In that game those who really worked as a team would often beat those who were "running and gunning".
Interstellar Marines has brought that old feeling of tactical gameplay back to the FPS scene... but with a few added extras.
The game is set in the future modelling the reason for the fighting on an unknown (or, in actual fact, sort of known, but I won't spoil the COOP game) alien threat. The multiplayer environment is based around training scenarios to try to build up the soldiers experience of fighting in different environments (under different pressures).
A great feature of the multiplayer game is that the training scenario maps change... not change as in load new levels every x rounds, but literally change mid game. Sometimes the buildings will raise and lower creating new routes through the maps, sometimes it'll start raining or snowing... and sometimes all of the lights will just go out and it'll be (almost) pitch black.
The lighting, weather effects and sound effects in game are great - they really add to the overall feel of the marine being in a "training" environment.
They have a unique respawn system in that you're "down and out" unless another member of your team achieves an objective (i.e. taking an objective location) or, in the case of being the last member of the team, just killing someone will respawn a team mate.
The game isn't yet finished, but is available on steam in an Alpha mode (to be honest, as a multiplayer experience goes, it's worth the £14 it costs) and I'm looking forward to the future full release of the game in June!
