It’s a slow Friday and I’m waiting for my brothers and friends to get online so we can play some NeoTokyo. To help pass the time, I was going through my old HL2 mod bookmarked webpages and found myself on the official site of Dystopia. While there I started watching a developer interview and heard something about Dystopia being moderately influenced/inspired by Natural Selection, one of the most acclaimed and ground-breaking HL1 mods ever.
So I thought, “Hey! Aren’t they supposed to be making a sequel to it built on the Source engine?” Yep.
It’s being developed by Unknownworlds Entertainment, which is a development company that has stayed… well, uknown. (I know, I know). Nevertheless, they do appear to have some credentials outside of the modding community, including doing work on titles such as Titan Quest and Empire Earth. Sure, not exactly critically acclaimed titles, but what does it matter–these guys made the original Natural Selection.
Here’s the teaser trailer:
Here’s what they claim about the trailer:
The hallway and alien footage shown in this movie was filmed entirely in-engine and showcases one of the playable classes – the “Onos”.
Excited? You should be. Not only was this just a good mod, it was one of the first games I ever played that succesfully merged all three major genres of PC gaming (RPG, FPS, RTS). There is a catch…
This time it will cost you. Apparently, someone thinks that the sequel is going to be worth a bit of your money. About $20’s worth for your “Standard Edition,” which gets you the game and access to the beta, and $40’s worth for your “Special Edition,” which also includes everything the standard does, plus access to the alpha testing and special all-black marine armor.
Paying to test a game usually isn’t much fun, so the only benefit remaining for the “Special Edition,” is that black armor, but is it really worth the extra $20? I mean… it is… all black… and black is cool… and I want to be cool.
Whichever edition you purchase, you’re sure to participate in plenty of marine vs. alien action.
Natural Selection 2 is scheduled for FALL 09.
UPDATE: Development clips for the nerdy.
Filed under: HL2 Mods, Natural Selection 2, Natural Selection Mod
