Action · July 19, 2010

Alien Swarm (2010)

trophy66 achievementsgroup1M–10M ownersrecommend298 recommendations
Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community. Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes. Plan your attack using an unlockable arsenal of weapons with countless loadout configurations against a wide variety of aliens. Blaze your way through an overrun, off-world colony, eradicating the alien infestation in environments ranging from the icy planet's surface, to a subterranean lava-flooded mining facility. Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK. Alien Swarm adds 3rd person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and a wide variety of gameplay additions to the Source engine. Tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective Complete game code and mod tools Unlock persistent items by gaining levels Over 40 weapons and equipment with countless loadout configurations 4 unique classes and 8 unique characters Matchmaking, Steam Cloud, Steam Stats 64 achievements Tile-based map generation tool Powered by Source and Steam

Action releases from 2010

36 Action titles launched in 2010 — top 6 by review volume.

More from Valve

Valve has 29 titles indexed — top 6 by review volume below.

Position in Action

MetricThis titleGenre position
Review volume21.3k Steam reviewsTop 23% in Action
Positive rating95% positiveGenre average: 83% — this title sits in top 14%
Metacritic77/100Genre average 77 — top 56% of Action titles
Engagement hours3 h averageTop 89% for session depth among Action

Peer Action titles

Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.

Community Tag Signals

Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.

  • Free to Play · 3.7k
  • Co-op · 792
  • Action · 606
  • Multiplayer · 555
  • Online Co-Op · 488
  • Aliens · 474
  • Shooter · 461
  • Sci-fi · 406
  • Top-Down · 378
  • Top-Down Shooter · 357
  • Survival · 247
  • PvE · 213
  • Class-Based · 213
  • Third Person · 209
  • Team-Based · 206

Features & Capabilities

Multiplayer

  • Multi-player
  • Co-op

Community

  • Steam Achievements
  • Steam Cloud

Accessibility

  • Captions available
  • Color Alternatives
  • Adjustable Difficulty

Input & Comfort

  • Camera Comfort
  • Custom Volume Controls
  • Stereo Sound
  • Surround Sound

Other

  • Single-player

Reception Metrics

Steam community

95%Overwhelmingly Positive · 21.3k reviews

20.2k positive · 1.1k negative

Metacritic

77/100 critic aggregate

Open Metacritic page

Metacritic user score

8.2/10

Curator recommendations

298

Engagement Profile

All-time avg

3h

brief (under 5 hours)

Median

1h

Typical completion time

Achievements

66

Steam unlocks available

Release & Availability

Release dateJul 19, 2010
DeveloperValve
Base priceFree-to-play
PlatformsWindows
Estimated owners1M–10M
External linksOfficial site · Metacritic page

Content Notes

This game includes frequent acts of violence