Minghawk

An easy game to misunderstand, Nation Red seems on the surface to be a cheap arena shooter version of Left 4 Dead. Spend some time with it however, and it it is revealed to be pretty much exactly that, but with a great deal more sophistication that you'd imagined. It offers several game modes, but the heart of the game is multiplayer barricade. Anyone who dismisses the game without trying this format hasn't really played it at all. Things begin calmly and escalate wave on wave, but the game only *really* begins once the perks begin to run out and everyone's decided to stick to their current weapons. Then it gets crazy, as you are forced to rely on the decency and usefulness of your cohorts. The beauty of it is that this is never as frustrating as it sounds: a new player or even a complete idiot is easy to support, and after one game most people are up to speed. I've put over 150 hours into Nation Red while I have some AAA titles waiting for my attention in my Steam account. I'll play it again this week, almost certainly.