Alien Swarm

Moderate overall intensity
Highest flag: Violence — realistic
Sci-fiShooter

What's in it

Violence realistic
Moderate

Continuous top-down shooting of insect-like alien swarms with blood spray, exploding creatures, and destroyed eggs and growths; enemies are non-human and there is no human-on-human gore.

Dark themes mild
Low

The story reveals an entire colony's population was wiped out by the infestation, and the squad's task includes detonating a nuclear device to destroy the site.

Horror & psychological spooky
Low

A tense sci-fi infestation atmosphere of dark corridors and sudden swarming ambushes, reminiscent of the film Aliens, without graphic scares.

Who can reach your kid

Chat with strangers

What it is

Alien Swarm is a free top-down co-operative shooter from Valve in which up to four players form a squad of space marines dropped onto an infested colony planet to fight off relentless waves of alien parasites. Players pick a class (officer, special weapons, medic, or tech), load out weapons and gadgets, and push through science-fiction levels completing objectives like welding doors, hacking terminals, and eventually escorting a bomb to clear the infestation. The core content is steady combat against non-human alien creatures, shown from a bird's-eye view with blood and creatures being shot and blown apart. There is no sexual content, nudity, substances, or in-game purchases. Public online lobbies use text chat with strangers, which is not moderated by the developer, so occasional harsh or unwelcoming messages can appear.

How it's framed

The game frames the player as a rescue-and-containment military force clearing a hostile alien threat; violence is directed entirely at monstrous parasites rather than people, and the grim backdrop of a wiped-out colony is delivered as mission briefing and objective rather than dwelt on emotionally.

Details

Developer
Valve
Publisher
Valve
Released
Jul 19, 2010
Metacritic 77critic score (third-party) · out of 100

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