14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has announced that it would be releasing Alien Swarm for today as a Steam exclusive. The title is a remake of an Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion mod that allows four players to engage in cooperative tactical gameplay, taking out alien threats from a classical top-down perspective. This new version of Alien Swarm was developed using the Source engine by the same team behind the mod, now Valve employees who have been busy with the Left 4 Dead series and Portal 2.
There will be four different classes of Marines and eight characters that players can choose from. Furthermore, there will be 40 weapons to unlock as well as other items as the game features a progression system similar to what is to be seen in today's online shooters. Being a Steam only release, Alien Swarm will include Steamworks, that is cloud based game saving, matchmaking, 64 achievements and leaderboards.
The complete game code and mod tools will also be available, making possible a huge array of customization options. New maps will also be easy to create because of the tile-based map editor tool that comes alongside Alien Swarm. In addition to all of this, Valve will be making available alongside the game the complete Source Software Development Kit, the engine that powered titles like Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2.
Alien Swarm also bring a few updates to the venerable graphics engine, like third person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and other gameplay additions. What is even more impressive about this incredible package is that it will be released for no money at all, making the Source engine the third professional 3D game making engine that is free to use, beside the Unity tools and the Unreal Development Kit.