Developer: Insurgency Team Title: Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat Genre: First Person Shooter Minimum Requirements: Click Here Gallery: Click Here Price: Free

Introduction

Enter Insurgency. A Half-Life 2 total conversion modification with broad appeal, from bumbling noob to the hardcore Rambo. This battleground pits you against either U.S Marines or Insurgents in locales from Iraq to Afghanistan, all in an effort to simulate modern infantry combat. Strong emphasis on tactics, teamwork, and leadership are needed in order achieve victory. Insurgency is in its infancy, and more likely than not to change significantly in the future, but today both Jason Krueger and Oscar Meade reflect their thoughts on one of the most unique games in recent memory.

Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat

Oscar: Maybe you have teamwork on your team, sometimes you don’t. Insurgency more than most games rewards players even if it’s just two people working together. They can do more than just capture an objective; they can literally dominate a server for rounds on end without even dying once. The lack of a HUD with health bars, cross hairs, mini-maps and basically any idea of what to do and where to go is something everyone goes through. That experience, to me, is what makes Insurgency different, the certain compromises that have to made to balance fun and reality is a never ending task, but with a few changes here and there I can easily see Insurgency becoming a competitive FPS with time. As we start off, Jason, I’d like to know what you think makes and breaks this game. I’m sure we’ll disagree on some points, but I think that’s the beauty of playing a mod that’s just getting its groove - the community impact this game will have on developers to culture its own future.


Jason: Thanks Oscar. What do I love about this upstart mod for the Source Engine? Quite a few things - but it's not without its flaws. The first point I want to touch on is team play. This is one thing that has always made or broke Counter-Strike games for me; you generally only get good team play in league games and in the higher levels of CS. But within Insurgency even at the pub level, team play is almost a must. Much like Day of Defeat, it requires some communication to achieve your objectives against all but the most horrible of opposing teams. One of my biggest complaints at this point in the beta of Insurgency is the character class selection. Often times in public servers you can get stuck with the less than desirable classes like sapper/engineer or the RPG gunner. In my vision I see fewer restrictions on the numbers of a specific class, or making the weapons in these classes more appealing or giving them an optional basic rifle. Oscar what are your thoughts on the realism? Do you think Insurgency hits a home run in this department or is it more of a ground out to first?



Oscar: Neither, it’s more like brick shot in basketball getting stuck between the rim and the board. Beta is the key word here. I’m sure both of us aren’t going to waste our time detailing the insane number of bugs but I will say this, even with numerous hard crashes which have literally caused me to reboot I’m still hooked. My reason why? Two things: first is that the realism and lack thereof is at a crossroads where it’s just good enough so that when you first start off playing Insurgency you get that incredibly delightful feeling of being completely lost and out of your element. Having no idea where to go or what rock you can scurry to and huddle behind, or if you’re going to get flanked from any angle is what kept me playing it for hours on end after its release. I’d compare it to the frenzy of Black Hawk Down where endless waves of enemies are all around you itching to rip you apart and you can only hope that the cavalry will arrive in time.

The second is this that players often seem to worry more about their objectives rather than their kill/death ratio. Like the saying goes, if I had a nickel for every time I watched someone camp just so he wouldn’t die, even though he would've had a good chance to plant the bomb and win the round...oh boy. Insurgency gets rid of the kill/death ratio screen till one team is victorious over the other. Sure the point system is still there for e-posturing but this is probably one of the best things about Insurgency. You still get the kill-hungry players the satisfaction of showing off their elite skill at the end of a map while taking that bravado and turning into real leadership on the field during active battle. I very seldom find myself playing on an Insurgency pub that doesn’t have teammates actively communicating over voice communication to push harder and alert teammates of enemy locations. The one thing as a competitive player I can’t stand about Insurgency is the way the aiming system works. I’m sure you can attest to that, huh Jason?