I was reading a thread in the forums of unknownworlds.com when i found something really astounding. This thread was discussing about the results of a recent survey on how we Natural Selection(NS) players want NS2 to be like. Things were fine when suddenly this CS fan announces that CS is more complex than NS. Worse, when a hardcore player argued that point with masses of logical points, all the CS fan did was insult him. There was nothing in his reply that could deny anything but the fact that he has played NS.
The point is, no FPS can beat NS in terms of complexity. I believe the main thing that caused its relatively small fanbase is its complexity. But it is precisely because there are so many elements in the game that makes it so fun.
Let's start off with what NS is all about. NS is a FPS that involves 2 teams, the Marines and the Kharaa. The point is to utilise the 10 resource nodes on the maps, gather resources, secure the pre-arranged hive areas and wipe out the opposite team. Most NS players love the game for its teamwork. If you have played any cooperative/team FPS like Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and such, you should know the feeling of fighting as team. Multiply that by 10 and that's the amount of teamwork NS players have and need.
The Marines is where noobs should start as. Marines start off with 3 weapons: the Light Machine Gun, the Pistol and the trusty little knife. The most unique thing about them is the lack of recoil and the obscene accuracy of the Pistol. In fact you can snipe with the Pistol. But don't get it wrong. Marines don't have it easy at all. But let's leave it for later. Marines play as a team with a commander. A player becomes a commander when he gets into the Command Chair. He then sees the map from above. He is in charge of basically how the whole team will work. He can use beacons to tell each marine where to go, what to attack, drop medpacks, ammo, structures, advanced weaponry and many other things. Non-commanding marines, other than building stuff, play in a similar style as CS. Strategic items of the marines include the mines and the catalyst, which increases the player's movement and shooting speed( as in the case of the grenade launcher).
The Kharaa(aliens) is the tough part. Where marines specialise in ranged weapons, aliens have to counter them with guile and speed. All alien players start off as skulks, and "evolve" as they get more resources. They start with 2 weapons with the 1st hive that have and most lifeforms can move much faster than the marines. Each additional hive, up to the 3rd hive allows each player 1 additonal weapon. In the case of the skulk, it has the Bite and Parasite. 2 bites can kill a marine unless the commander researches additional armour for the marines. To build structures, players have to evolve into the gorge, which is considered the backbone of the team. Advanced alien lifeforms have strategic "weapons" like the umbra, a gas-like substance that reduces the number of bullets hitting aliens standing in it, and the stomp, which stuns all marines in front of the player for 1 second.
Both teams start by fighting for and securing resource nodes which gives resources to the team that has a "resource tower" on it. Resources is need by marines to afford the structures, advanced weapons and researches, and by aliens who need it to evolve into advanced lifeforms and also building structures.
Marines require structures to research improvements in armour, weapon damage, advanced weapons( the Heavy Machine Gun and grenade launcher), jet-packs and the heavy armour suit. They also have structures like the turret is the static defense structure of the team.
Kharaa require structures to gain additional "traits". Each hive allows the construction of 1 type of "chamber", chosen by the team among the 3 types: the sensory chamber, defense chamber and the movement chambers. These chambers play a critical role in the strategy of the team. The sensory chambers allows Cloaking( invisibility), the wall-hack-like Scent of Fear(SoF) and Focus which slows the attack speed of the primary weapon but doubles the damage. It also offers invisibility to all aliens near it and has SoF.
The defense chamber allows Carapace(increased armour), Regeneration and Redemption( gives a small chance to teleport a dying player automatically to a hive) , and heals nearby aliens. The movement chamber allows Silence( really complete silence in movement and almost complete in attacks), Adrenaline(1/3 increase regeneration speed of energy, which aliens use to attack) and Celerity( increased movement speed), and replenishes energy of nearby aliens and teleport aliens to a hive. Each alien can choose 1 trait from each chamber that the team has. As you can see, all these can result in great strategic and tactical advantages for the aliens( Silence and Cloaking, for example, is very useful).
That's where Marines' strategies come in. In response to Silence and Cloaking, the commander can research motion-tracking which allows marines to see any alien movement through any walls. Jet-packs allow marines to fly and heavy armour makes players last for a long time. To repair armour, commanders can drop Welders which allow marines to "heal" other marines' armour. Marines also have the phase gates that allows instantaneous teleportation to each other phase gates. Many good rounds are caused by jet-packers flying solo to areas near a hive undetected and/or killing pursuers, and building a phase gate quickly. Upon which the marines rush into the hive and create havoc and thus turning the table. Of course usually the jet-packers are killed before they can finish building the phase gate, but that's the risk of the whole idea.
And that is what many NS players play for: the sense of exhilaration when a sudden tactical gamble by the team causes them to gain a strategic area of the map and destroy the enemies' morale. This can easily be felt by both teams in a single round. A round in which the marines have lost everything suddenly succeeds in the above mentioned tactic, which results in a great morale boost and strategic advantage for team. Suddenly players who were thinking about where to hide before they die, turn their attention to struggling for another hive. And the aliens who thought they were winning suddenly find themselves fighting hard just to keep the marines from advancing.
But what is gained can easily be lost. A skulk that slips into the marine-secured hive can evolve into a gorge. If undetected so far, he can then build a hive when he has enough resources. If any marine sees the unfinished hive and attacks it, all aliens can then use a movement chamber to teleport to the attacked hive and do whatever is necessary. Just as the marine's tactic is risky, so is this. The marines can wipe out the invading aliens as the alien players need a moment or two to adapt to the sudden change of view. Or the commander is smart enough to fortify the area with turrets quickly and assemble the team to the area before allowing any attack to the hive. Aliens cannot teleport to the unfinished hive if it is not attacked.
This is but one example of what is done in NS. There are many strategies involved but one thing is constant throughout NS: teamwork is vital for any sort of victory.
Sadly, the NS community in Singapore is very small. I blame this on the fact that Singaporean players generally do not like to try new games, unless billions of others have tried and mastered them. In addition to this is that many people around the world do not understand tactics and guile unless it's shoved up their asses.
Therefore I prefer to play in aussie and european servers, where there are more players and more maps and more alcohol-induced humour. The ping is not as good but being "Top Frag" is hardly as important in NS as in CS. Strategy and teamwork here is more valuable than individual kills.
Buy a copy of Half Life and join me!
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