Overview

Naturally Selected

It’s been awhile since we covered a simple mod at Firingsquad, the last being the 1.0 update to Counter-Strike. There’s been a whole horde of them, but very few have been possessed that something special to warrant full-blown coverage. For the most part these mods appeal to small game communities, and then a smaller player base within those.

A few months back, we began hearing rumor of a mod in the works for Half-Life called Natural Selection, and at the time a buzz was going around of how startlingly revolutionary it would be, that it would be “the CS killer.” Well, mods are a dime a dozen, no? And for every mod that sees public release there’s twenty that never even get finished.

Engaging the marine emplacement

Waiting on a marine to walk by

Battle!

A few weeks ago Natural Selection was finished and released, and people were given quite an eyeful at some of the truly incredible ideas the amateur mod team has thrown around. Natural Selection is a hybrid RTS/FPS, one of the first of its kind, where the players fight, from a first person perspective, for resources to fuel their burgeoning economies with the ultimate goal of eradicating the opposing side. Players then use said economies to buy new weaponry, upgrade existing technology and expand to further reaches of the map, much like you’d see in a game of Starcraft or your RTS of choice.

Preparing the siege turrets

Being vigilant

Skulks making a commander their manservant

Breathing even more life into Half-Life

Natural Selection takes place in a far-flung future. Humanity has expanded past the skies and built empires. After years of affluence, ships begin disappearing in the dark between the stars, and it’s discovered that an alien bacteria is infesting ships and taking control from the inside. One particular reach of space, the Ariadne Arm, where the attacks by the Kharaa bacteria first surfaced, is shut down by the government and corporate organizations running our future celestial empire. After public outrage, the TSA is founded, a Trans Space Authority, to deal with the bacteria. The TSA’s frontiersman (volunteers), are dispatched to retrieve infested ships and learn more about the Kharaa bacteria and the mutations that result. What they learn is that it is not a simple bacteria, but an advanced lifeform capable of rapid mutation, evolving into near anything, from the cat-like Skulk form to the monstrous Onos.

Natural Selection draws a heavy inspiration from the Aliens series, Warhammer 40k’s Space Hulk, Starcraft, and more, the gameplay however is entirely unique to the first person shooter, and is really something to play.