Space Marines

In Infested Planet, Alex Vostrov is taking the basic gameplay dynamic he explored in his freeware Attack of the Paper Zombies and running with it. As in the previous game, you control a handful of space marines who must clear out a succession of spawn points that churn out huge numbers of opponents -- Zerg-like bugs here rather than the zombies of the previous game -- but Infested Planet has many improvements.

In Infested Planet, most levels are algorithmically generated rather than predrawn. There are several different weapons with which you may equip your marines, each with its own advantages and drawbacks; in addition, they can construct a number of defensive turrets, and use grenades to wipe out enemy structures. In early levels, the bugs have only one basic attacker, plus a defensive turret and eggs that can spawn more bugs, beyond those that bug bases create; later on, they can have a wider variety of building and unit types.

Attack of the Paper Zombies is an indie RTS game that feels more like space marines versus bugs than the zombie apocalypse. You control a handful of heavily armed marines on a graph-paper arena with scattered zombie spawn-points, and must mow down ranks of advancing attackers, ultimately killing the cthulhoid creatures that spawn them, taking over all spawn points.

The game lacks the typical resource extraction component of conventional RTS games, but instead has a tower defense-like element in which you can build turrets at fixed locations, as well as calling down a chemical strike on a zombie-infested area, laying minefields, and creating a heavy weapons targetting area. Additionally, the weapons of your marines (initially all have rifles) can be upgraded to flamethrowers or sniper rifles (useful for taking out spawners at range). All of these consume "BPs," however, and the only way to earn more is to capture spawn points.

Although the game is continuously moving, and has a player-skill component, it feels much more cerebral than a typical action game, with careful planning and use of your constructions and special weapons critical to winning with your limited BP budget.

The tutorial is nice and fairly short; there are only a handful of designed levels, but there are also randomly generated ones (at a player-selectable difficulty level).

Graphics and sounds are obviously not startling, but the gameplay is solid and entertaining.

Chris Taylor is best known for his development of the original Fallout CRPG but between his hectic schedule of video game development, he has designed a few interesting board games like Forlorn: Hope.

Forlorn: Hope is a two-player, squad based shooter, war board game, inspired by boardgames Aliens and Space Hulk.

Alien Swarm is a third person, squad-based, 3D shooter. There are four classes; you control one marine, while the AI or other players in online play control the other three. The game bears a striking resemblance to the Space Hulk board game or its digital port, Alien Assault. Like Alien Assault, it is mission-based, with different goals for victory in each mission.

Someday, I will write a review without making reference to Laser Squad Nemesis. Someday, but not today. There is, I am sure, a connection between the games of the Gollup brothers (creators of LSN) and the original Space Hulk. More on that after the break.

I’ve been following the saga of teardown.se and their port of the classic 1989 Games Workshop board/miniature game Space Hulk for over a year now (the first version of the game was released in 2008). This isn’t the first Space Hulk-type game: Electonic Arts put out a shooter/strategy hybrid “Space Hulk” in 1993 (with a sequel in 1996), and there’s a multiplayer-only game called Nethulk still in intermittent development. As far as I can tell, the big mistake the folks at teardown.se made was asking for permission.

I quite miss turn-based strategy games like XCom and Jagged Alliance, a genre that's pretty much disappeared from the world. Back2Back isn't one, and it doesn't quite satisfy the same jones, but at least in tenseness and overall aesthetic, it's along the same lines.

It's a level-based game; in each level, you control a handful of space marines in a fortified area at screen center, with waves of bug-like attackers moving slowly toward you from the cardinal directions.