Infested Planet Beta

By: Derek Yu

On: June 23rd, 2011

Infested Planet, by Rocket Bear Games

The feeling of relief I had as I destroyed a particularly well-defended hive quickly evaporated when the aliens counterattacked me to the north. They had evolved a unit that could lay “mimic eggs” – the eggs exploded when your marines got close and released dangerous clones. With the help of this monster, the two flamethrowers I had on defense were getting overrun and I gave up two bases to pull back. I honestly thought it was a lost cause at that point, but carefully leap-frogging turrets turned out to be the perfect antidote to this new type of enemy, since they could fire on the eggs without triggering them. End result? A perilous victory that took the lives of 60-odd marines but also brought an end to nearly a hundred thousand horrifying xenos.

That battle was the hardest I’ve fought so far in Alex Vostrov’s Infested Planet, a spiritual sequel to his real-time strategy game Attack of the Paper Zombies. The highlight of IP, of course, is the alien enemy, which moves slowly but in large numbers, and adapts to you with a new upgrade each time you take over one of its hives. Build points that are gained after each capture can be spent on training marines and building turrets. Everything can be sold back at cost, so the key to success is to adapt with the aliens and maintain a nice containment on them as they grow more and more powerful. It ends up feeling a bit like a Tower Defense game, albeit one where you can actually counterattack and win.

Infested Planet was released yesterday as a public beta at $15, a 25% discount (35% if you enter the code “STARBEAR”). It’s a great game, and well-worth checking out. If you’re still unsure, read one of Alex Vostrov’s own battle reports, which lays out a Master-level engagement. It includes lots of nice screenshots to show off the vibrant visual design (courtesy of Mike & Greg‘s Greg Wohlwend).

  • Alex Vostrov

    Thanks for the mention Derek!  That's a lot of destroyed buildings, by they way. 0_0

    We also have a trailer up on http://www.infestedplanet.com (or http://www.vimeo.com/25421181)…  If you want to see the game in motion, head there.

  • AMan

    $15 is a lot to throw at a game without a demo but $20 is even more to throw at a game but it looks really sweet hruuuuuughhhh

  • AMan

    ok i bought it.

  • contra

    Fuck yeah! Been looking forward to this, had so much fun with AotPZ.
    Buying it now.

  • August

    Bought it! Having a lot of fun so far, there is a lot of diversity in the game. I constantly have to adapt my strategy. It's pretty difficult as well, I like it!

  • Phubans

    This looks like something Paul Eres made.

  • http://www.facebook.com/goldbuick David Whitlark

    I bought it!

  • blackoutDerivative

    ..Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of this before the preorder discount goes away, finances are looking grim, though. Been keeping my eye on it since it was first publicly announced.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Klrtcnwqkle-Wehwjswl/1052050690 Klrtcnwqkle Wehwjswl

    Ouch.

  • Anonymous

    the abstract visuals maybe, but the color composition is all wrong for my style

  • Anonymous

    namely i like much less saturated and more colors like pastels, with high contrast, this uses more saturated reds and dark magentas, with less contrast. compare with an immortal defense screenshot: 

    http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/8.png