Nation Red - $4.99!

[NiX]

Alien Swarm with ZOMBIES!

Haven't tried it yet, looks like it would be a good time waster. Has online co-op and all that fun stuff. 4 pack can be purchased for $15, which is a pretty good deal. If the roommate is in I'll probably get a 4 pack if 2 other people are interested.

[Kail]

4 pack can be purchased for $15, which is a pretty good deal.

Except that Alien Swarm is free...?  Saw the trailer for this and it looked like the kind of game I'd play for a few minutes and get bored of, which is bad enough even if it wasn't competing directly with a free game released a month ago.  What is this game supposed to do that Alien Swarm doesn't, aside from have Zombies in it instead of Aliens?

[Vaiti]

I have this. Fun for an hour. Crimsonland in "3D" with Zombies and alot less to pick from.

[Phire]

I'm down! Looks like more mindless fun to pass the time until Mafia 2.

Did you try the demo?

[NiX]

Didn't get around to it last night. I'll try to do that today while the girlfriend isn't looking.

[Threash]

Is this better than the free one? i mean i know that zombies are clearly better than aliens but besides the skins?

[Segoris]

There's a free demo available, can try it out and decide. I'm downloading it now to see if it's better than Alien Swarm since I'm also curious.

[Segoris]

Downloaded, played 3 missions, uninstalled. Alien Swarm, for me, is much better. The graphics for Nation Red are better, but that was about it. The gameplay feels smoother but slower during the 3 demo missions. The missions aren't traditional levels but rather a small area where zombies keep coming at you. Personally, I felt like I was playing Asteroids (hello 1979) with updated graphics and zombies instead of asteroids. Even at this price, I'm passing on it.

[Azazel]

So.. wait for the $2.50 Steam sale is what you're saying? 

[Vaiti]

I don't really get the Alien Swarm reference aside from the top down shooting myself.

This is more like the "Last Stand" gamemode in DoW2. Where you have a small area, then you get waves of enemies coming in.
Last Stand isn't a good example either, since it's more waves and the spawn points are static, where in this kind of game the map is open all around and enemies come in from all sides. Plus you pick up powerups from downed enemies.

I guess it would be best described as a top-down arcade shmup in an enclosed box area.
The missions aren't where the gameplay is at in this kind of game. It's all about the Survival Wave modes. Last as long as you can while more and more enemies swamp the board until eventually you are wading through a sea of enemies only surviving by picking up the temporary invincible powerups. And once you fail to collect one of those before your current one falls off, you pretty much are guaranteed to die.

It's a fun style for me. I love that kind of gameplay, as it's constant action and your pathing and timing in that lategame matters alot, a single mistake means death. So getting a super highscore in that mode always feels rewarding. Reason I snatched up this game when it first came out. Was on sale then, then it went up in price. Still, despite being a huge fan of this kind of gameplay, it just felt lacking. I never really got to that level of challenge, Survival Mode started to feel like a breeze.

The two games this reminded me of the most were Crimson Lands and Evil Invasion. Which I feel are the best games with this kind of gameplay, Nation Red is a 3D version of those to me, done fairly well.

I don't remember Nation Red having multiplayer, thought it had "Online" play where you submit highscores like most games like this tend to have, but a Co-Op mode would be interesting, if it really does have Co-Op play I'll have to reinstall it again and give it a go again.

[NiX]

They patched in Co-op play.