Bad design choices, bad performance, bad movement mechanics. A downgrade from Natural Selection 1 for sure. A disappointement after preordering back in May 2009.

This is to help balance out the falsely positive reviews. Probably won't help much, but truth is this suffers what all FPS/RTS hybrids suffer: Mediocre gameplay all round. Not good at anything, forgettable at the least and annoying quite often. Bad interface, gameplay balance, hitreg, basically everything that should have been done right for an RTS or FPS hasn't been done proper in this hybrid game.… Expand

I applaud the effort put into making this game, and the risk the developers took starting a new company and going with some new ideas. I didn't play NS1 Half Life mod, so I was turned on to this game by a friend. As soon as he said "FPS/RTS combo" I was sold. It really is a neat concept, but it is very poorly executed. On the surface, it seems like this should be a game of possibilities: the two sides being different, the team play, the RTS/FPS combo effect, the individual purchases and group upgrades. The end result, unfortunately, is a game of limitations. You will spend most of the game using either an ineffective assault rifle or spamming the space bar, trying not to lose proper perspective while biting. There is little variety in what you are allowed to do and the few things you can do you will not really spend much time using. Marines die quickly, so purchased weapons will be lost, aliens get greater variety but it isn't much to speak of. The levels are all the same, a function of the aliens being only melee, which gets stale quickly. The RTS as commander is a bit hard to get used to but solid once you figure it out. However, commanders don't get too many options for things to do. The game is very rigid in the build/research paths and there isn't a lot you can really do to customize the force available. With aliens you get a bit more than marines, but you can't really follow a research tree to anything unique or amazing. All in all, the limitations on what is available, and with the high prices of evolving/buying coupled with the short lifespan inherent in corridor combat games makes it a pretty unremarkable experience.… Expand

The game is pretty fun for a little while definitely well built, but I uninstalled after about 20 hours of game play due to the sole reason that balancing was apparently done for tournament play. As a casual gamer I expected to lose on the pub servers, but when over 3 days playing as a marine (which I enjoyed better than aliens) I managed to win only 1 game barely due to the fact that the teams were stacked is a pretty good indicator that this is nothing but an exercise in frustration.

For a multiplayer game such poor balancing for casual gaming is inexcusable and the community will probably die in the upcoming months. If you are looking for a game that will last you a while there really is nothing here.… Expand

I have no idea why people like this game. Rarely is there a good fight, they really needed a system to keep noobs playing with noobs. Its very painful to continually lose because your commander has no idea what he is doing. I can only imagine that this game is good in clan v clan situations, since there is no matchmaking. Very painful process, not very fun after you get past the gimmicks.

I previously gave this game a 9, but I've changed my mind and I think it deserves no more than 7.

The main problem is *performance*. I don't have particular issues, I have a pretty decent rig, but you simply can't expect people to have high end machines to play your game, which doesn't even look that good or complicated.

At first I was more forgiving, the game had just been released.
But now months have passed, and performance has even got worse for some in the previous patches (240 and 241).

Then there's balance; I understand that the asymmetry of the game makes it hard to do proper balancing, but when UWE fixed major hitreg bugs AND heavily nerfed Skulk's mobility *in the same patch*... well, that was stupid.
Skulks are the backbone of Alien teams; any significant change to both skulks and base marines might have a huge impact on balance.

You should never ever fix major bugs and nerf these units at the same damn time.
The result is that skulks are very easy to hit and they move like a brick, hence marines win most games nowadays: well done.

Also, I hate how they overhyped certain features which turned out to be stupid and useless (yes, i'm talking about Babblers). They made a trailer about it. I have no idea how Babblers made it out through internal playtesting, they are abysmally bad and a waste of resources.

They enjoy suiciding in places like Crevice, they can't keep up with the gorge (which is the slowest life form too), they have a 2 minutes life span which isn't reported anywhere in the game, they are extremely easy to dodge as a marine: in short, a fail-feature.

Well, that's it.
I guess my rant is over.… Expand

Unless all the fanboys, I see that game with different eyes. The most upsetting part of this game is the still existing unbalance between the Marines and the Aliens. Most of the time the Aliens win the Mid/Late game, because they have their Über-Unit (Onos) that stomps everything in the ground. So that game is fun for a shot time on the Aliens-Side, but after they get their Über-Unit it's s getting quite boring and lacks in long time motivation.… Expand

Natural Selection was a fantastic modification for Half-Life, albeit imbalanced in some aspects. I remember when first word of NS2 started to circulate. Then small teasers appeared. NS2 looks great, but it's a shame it has strayed from NS in almost every way. The balance is horrible. The new system with Marines having personal resources is, to be blunt, stupid. This takes away any sort of leverage the commander had to get people to follow orders instead of going CoD-style. The weapons for the Marines is a joke, the only viable weapon is the starting weapon. The shotgun and grenade launcher has been gimped. Skulk is laughable. Fade is ruined. Onos is simply too much. Long story short, NS2 has appearance, the rest is horrible. Word of advice from an NS beta vet, download NS and forget about NS2. NS2 is horrible.… Collapse