Developer: New World Interactive
Publisher: New World Interactive
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Tested on: PC
Insurgency – Review
Two years after the launch of the tactical first person shooter Insurgency, the developers at New World Interactive are still celebrating the existence of their game and rightfully so. Insurgency is not your average hyped-up shooter with plenty of technical items to boost your gameplay experience. Instead the game offers tactical gameplay in which teamwork is key if you want your team to survive and succeed.
Story
It’s a given fact that first person shooter often have great storylines. However when they do have utterly brilliant singleplayer campaigns, the multiplayer mode is slacking. While Insurgency does have a tutorial that could kickstart a fantastic singleplayer campaign, the narrative is completely missing. As the game is being updated at a regular base, perhaps one day we might see a singleplayer campaign that tells tales of heavily armed soldiers going into combat but for now we must do without.
Graphics
The visuals in Insurgency are great. They’re not perfect but it’s not a triple-A title either so we can forgive the developers for not having stunning realistic visuals although it does come close. The maps are clever designed with plenty of hideouts and covers for both teams. Some maps may be maze-like at first but you’ll learn the layout of each map fairly fast by following your teammates. After all, the game is build on balanced teamwork so you may as well cover them while you learn the layouts.
Insurgency is a very simplistic game and that truly shows in the user interface during combat. The UI will slightly vary depending on the type of game mode you’re playing. During regular games you’ll see your equipment on the right bottom in simple text and numbers and the amount of ammo clips you have left. Unlike other shooters, this game does not show you how many bullets you have left in a clip, or in total. In another mode you’ll see the objectives on the bottom and the waves of each team, including a timer. It’s all quite simplistic but it’s easy to understand and this will give the player even more reasons to focus on the gameplay itself.
Sound
Much like the visuals of the game, the sound design is great. It’s not overly complicated and it doesn’t have too much fuss going on that can ruin a player’s focus. Each weapon sounds different, the bangs are incredibly loud and if someone is standing next to you with an small machine gun (SMG) you’ll hope he won’t start spray gunning. It may be a small detail but a realistic sound design can truly boost your experience in these types of games.
Gameplay
A first person shooter is best played with the WASD-keys but you can set up your controls as you wish. Since the keys are modifiable it seems silly to explain each default key.
Insurgency is a crossover of Counter-Strike Source and Call of Duty 2. That’s the general feeling we’ve received from playing this game. It’s concept is old school but this formula is what sets the game apart from the overly hyped shooters from the past years such as Halo, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and even Counter-Strike. The game doesn’t provide the player with much. There are no hit markers that show you’ve hit a player. Instead the game offers realistic deaths. You won’t need to spray three clips into an enemy as they’ll die from one or two bullets, depending on where you’ve hit them and what type of vest they’re wearing.
As already mentioned in the graphics section, the game is simplistic when it comes down to the user interface. There is no mini-map to guide you through the streets, nor will they be able to tell you the general whereabouts of a teammate or enemy forces. This fact makes Insurgency feel like a very naked first person shooter compared to Call of Duty Black Ops 2 or Battlefield Hardline. However it also makes the game feel far more realistic and in a way better than all the previous mentioned titles.
We already mentioned that the game does not have singleplayer campaign. Instead the game offers a co-op mode and a multiplayer mode. The cooperative mode teams you together with random players and you’ll need to find the correct teamwork balance if you are to win against the A.I. bots from the enemy team. You’ve read this right. In this mode, you’re playing against bots who are vicious and clever. They’ll swarm you when you least expect it and if we may be so bold, they are the best bots we have ever seen in our lives. Horrible but hardcore.
The multiplayer mode allows you to fight against real humans but they may be as vicious as the bots if you don’t learn to work as a team. Insurgency is not a game where you can run and spray and hope for the best. It’s a highly tactical game that requires a very mature community. Both modes have several “playlists” and each playlist offers one or more game modes. Cooperative offers five different game modes: checkpoint, conquer, hunt, survival and outpost. Multiplayer mode on the other hand offers eight game modes and none of them overlap with the co-op modes meaning there is a good variation in the game modes.
When starting a game, you can choose which class you want to be. However the amount of classes available, per game and per game mode, is fixed and thus at times you may need to play a class you’re not enjoying. Each class does offer three to five different kinds of weapons so you may still find something suitable. Upon starting, you are given a certain amount of points which you can spend on upgrading your weapons or equipment as each weapon comes completely bare from the beginning. Your primary weapon can be equipped with a heavy barrel to increase range, optics to increase visibility of enemies, a foregrip and much more. Your secondary weapon can be a pistol but also a knife or even a rocket launcher. Explosives can range from flash bang grenades to frag grenades while your armor can range from light to heavy. Each class is very customizable although you won’t be able to save your preferred loudout.
Since a few days the game also has a new mod that can be played in the official game, namely Day of Infamy which can be downloaded via the Steam Workshop. This mod will appear in your playlist in both cooperative and multiplayer modes. The game mode let’s you play various WWII maps with iconic weapons from that era such as the Kar 98, the Thompson, the Lee Enfield and even the M1 Garand. Playing this mode was exhilarating. It was almost as if you were playing a revamped version of Medal of Honor Breakthrough. It’s clear from this addition that the developers continue to poor love into the game even after two years.
Conclusion
Even two years after its initial release, Insurgency continues to be a brilliant simplistic shooter that offers nothing but realism. As a crossover of Call of Duty meets Counter-Strike Source, albeit in a more tactical and balanced form, it’s highly rewarding to be part of a mature community for once. If you were looking for a revamped version of Medal of Honor Breakthrough or Call of Duty 2, you can stop searching now because the newest update Day of Infamy is just that. Even without the latest update, the game is absolutely brilliant.
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