Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop (2017) is a standalone expansion to Alien Swarm (Valve, 2010). It is a co-operative top-down shooter currently available for free on Steam, with over 15,000 reviews and an overall ‘Very Positive’ rating. The game can be played solo (with or without AI bots) or co-operatively with up to eight players in total.
Players choose a marine and a starting loadout, then leap headfirst into one of nine action-packed campaigns. Each campaign challenges players with swarms of vicious aliens, deadly set pieces, and pulse-quickening encounters. Players will need to rely on their wits, teammates, and a diverse set of weapons and skills to survive.
Every playthrough (successful or not) earns XP, unlocking new weapons and tools to use against the alien swarm.
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop was made by a team of remote developers. My contribution was the entirety of the Research 7 campaign (four levels).
Team & Development
When the Valve released the original* Alien Swarm back in 2010, it immediately leapt to the top of Steam’s player charts. While the numbers declined thereafter, a community of dedicated fans remained playing for years. It’s from this fanbase that Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop was born. The idea for a standalone expansion, however, was a while in forming, and the project actually began development as nine unrelated projects, each one created by a solo developer.
My project was Research 7, a four-level campaign set on Earth, telling the story of what happened when a shipment of alien samples was secretly sent home. I’d just completed development of the campaign and released it to the community when I was contacted by Dimitri, head of the budding Reactive Drop project. He’d been impressed with the quality of Research 7, and wanted to add it to his upcoming collection of campaigns. I said yes, expecting the collection to be released via ModDB.com. Imagine, then, my surprise (and delight!) when the news broke that the collection would be officially released on Steam as a standalone expansion to the beloved original. Over the coming pages, you’ll find details of Research 7’s levels, custom objectives, and combat encounters, and the next section will show how you can play AS:RD yourself. *The actual 'original Alien Swarm' was a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. Throughout this portfolio, though, I’ll be using ‘original’ to refer to Valve’s 2010 release.
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