Review: Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat

     Let's start things off easily. A simple review of a mod should help me get my video game reviewer feet wet. This week I've tangled around a bit with a free mod called Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat. The game is available on Steam and runs on the Source engine, so make sure you own a Source game like Half-Life 2 before you try to play. The game was released as a mod in 2007 and was extremely popular upon its release. The game is set in Iraq during the Second Gulf War aka the War on Terror. You play as either Iraqi insurgents or US Marines in an intense series of firefights where a single shot to the chest can be your undoing.
     The first thing you'll notice when you start the game is the graphics. This game runs on an older version of the Source engine so I'll be brutally honest; the game is hideous by today's standards. Even for 2007 it looks pretty ugly. But hey, it is a mod so I can't knock the graphics too hard, right? Well, yes and no. It's true that a game can be ugly and still be fun, but the game needs to have graphics that function properly in order to be playable. Now don't get me wrong, Insurgency is playable, but there are some nagging issues that stem from the graphics. One is the framerate. I do not have the luxury of a fast connection but I have no trouble running games like Planetside 2 so the performance is not just because of my internet. The animations are choppy with players appearing to teleport, making aiming difficult at times. Also whenever I get close to a team mate, the camera goes haywire and suddenly I'm the one teleporting. It can get very disorienting.
     But the graphics are just a minor gripe. How does the game play? Surprisingly well, actually. The weapons all handle realistically, enemies die with one or two well placed shots, and teamwork becomes almost mandatory to survive. However, it is far from perfect. While it's fun to run up to someone and shoot them in the face, more often than not you'll be shooting at someone from a distance the length of a football field. It still works, but it's harder with the weapons you'll most likely end up with. As a result, snipers dominate most maps. Quite frequently I found myself going through an area tactically and by the books, when a single sniper shot me and my team mates down. This is made even more frustrating since the game doesn't show you where the guy who killed you was. This has two consequences. First, it allows for camping, and second, it makes learning from your mistakes next to impossible. You'll just be walking along and then BAM! you're dead and have no idea why. It gets old pretty quickly and it happens a lot, since most of the maps are large open areas with lots of hiding places for snipers. The game seems to encourage sniping, which would be fine except that only two people per team are allowed to carry sniper rifles.
     The game works on a class system. You have a leader, riflemen, a machine gunner, and a sniper. The class types and weapons vary depending on which side you are on. Each special slot can only be filled once. There always seems to be room for another rifleman, but there can only be one leader and support character per squad. This leads to a couple people having a huge advantage and leaves the majority of players with little defense. On a good day, this leads to tense action and firefights. On a bad day, this leads to spawn camping and frustration. The game suffers from balancing issues. A game with such an obvious sniper advantage should not keep some players from being snipers while giving that ability to others. It is a seemingly small issue that gets a lot bigger once you've been sniped coming out of your spawn point for the 500th time and you've depleted your respawns.
     That leads me to another issue. Some game modes limit the number of times you can respawn. If you die a certain number of times, you're out until your team captures an objective. It works for the most part, but when your team is too afraid of getting shot instantly to go out the door, let alone capture a point, the mechanic ends up being a liability. The timer runs down, and the sniper's team wins. The game's scoring system is also an issue. It works on the frag system, which gives your total score based on your kill/death ratio. Kills are positive, deaths are negative. But in a game where you can die this easily, the frag system ends up feeling archaic. Getting a positive kill/death score is hard enough in regular shooters with regenerating health. In this game, a new player will find it impossible.
     Speaking of new players, I come to the final issue; the community. Not only is it sparse, (I literally can only find one server.) but it is also filled with experienced players. New people will have a rough time getting to know the maps when they are killed the second their heads become visible. The experienced players are the ones spawn camping and otherwise abusing the sniper class.
     In conclusion, Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat is a very good game that has been ruined by its player base. The scores of people who once played this game have left it for its sequel, leaving behind the people who love it the best. The players who are left scare away newcomers by mercilessly slaughtering them not by being better players, but by abusing the system. No game is perfect. The issues listed above would be minor inconveniences, if not for the fact that they are constantly exploited by the players. The little issues become big issues when they are constantly brought to light. It's almost tragic, because in the first hour of gameplay I was having a blast. The game has so much potential to be the best tactical FPS game available, but it falls short not because of design flaws, but because of the players. I give massive credit to the developers. The game could still be saved, because it is a fantastic game. However, that could only happen if a ton of new players downloaded the mod and started playing it the way it was meant to be played.
     If you're looking for a good tactical multiplayer FPS, but don't have $15 for the sequel, then I suggest you and all your friends get this game and play private matches. There is fun to be had here, but you won't find it on the one open server available. If you play the game that way, then I would score it at an 8/10. Otherwise, the game sits at a respectable but slightly disappointing 6/10. Thank you for reading.
     Stay tuned for more game reviews. I plan to post my first case soon. Should this page earn enough support, I plan to start a series on Youtube once I can obtain the equipment needed for high quality videos.