Insurgency

It is difficult to strike a true balance in games. If you are building a shooter you are either expected to go for realism or for stupid fun. Reviewers usually want to know what the hook of a game is. The accepted idea is that if the game tries to be good at everything, it will not be really good at anything and it will have no distinguishing focus. Well, somehow the creators of Insurgency found a way to make a balanced FPS that is quite good overall and does not fall into any one specific camp, other than that it is a multiplayer-only first person shooter.

The concept is simple: there are insurgents and there are security forces. Pick a team, pick your gear and go shoot some fools. It sounds like we played this all before, and in a way we did, but no other game before has been as efficient at what it does as Insurgency. The game is quick, the graphics are acceptable, there are different game types available and they can be accessed quickly, the community is alive and the fighting action is fun and balanced. Everything about this former Half Life 2 mod feels good.

If you have a busy life, you can start this game up at 7:30 in the morning, play a match and be done by 7:40. It may feel like an hour went by but you were only in for 10 minutes. The game loads up quickly and you can quickly find the type of game (whether co-op or pvp) that suits you best.

On top of all that, the developers take good care of this game by adding new maps and features. This dedication is surprising considering the low price of the game. Of course the unfortunate truth is that this game will last only as long as its community will, simply because there is no single player mode (at least not a functional one). But while it lasts, it is a good simple FPS. For what it presents itself to be, it is difficult to find something more to ask for.