Developer: Insurgency Mod
IRC Channel: #insurgency
Release Date: TBA

Insurgency is a Source engine mod project that started in 2002, influenced by games such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Red Orchestra and America’s Army. The mod sets out to be a realistic, but fun representation of modern small scale infantry combat.

Insurgency (INS) will mainly take place during the ongoing war in Iraq, but a new theatre of war will be added later on. That will take place in the recent conflict in Croatia. This goes to show just how much variation can be put in, with regards to levels and game-play. However, the first version that will be released to the public will only contain the Iraqi campaign. Players will find themselves as either the US Marine Corps or a team of Iraqi Insurgents battling for control over strategic parts of Baghdad, Fallujah and other locations in Iraq.

What separates this mod apart from other games in its genre is the extreme care to render a most realistic experience as possible. War is next to impossible to render accurately in a video game, but according to developers, everything that can be done to make the game realistic but playable at the same time is being put in. With this, you get accurate amounts ammo, grenades, and the weapon names. The development team employs actual soldiers that have served or are currently serving abroad to make mod as real as possible. Part of this accuracy will come from the overall gameplay of the mod. INS will be a team oriented game, and for the most part, team play is a must. This has been thought of in the development process itself. The USMC side will be for the team play oriented, while the Insurgent side will not promote team play as heavily. This will allow room for every type of player, no matter what kind of playing style he or she prefers.

Speaking of armaments, the Insurgents will also be armed accurately. This means they will be armed with everything from AK 47's to Winchester shotguns and IED's (Improvised Explosive Device). This makes the insurgents a force to be reckoned with. The Marines will carry the US standard issue weapons that most FPS gamers already know. The M16A4 will be the standard rifleman weapon, with other positions in squads for different weapons. This is also a large ground for the realism in the game. When you join a side, you are prompted to join a squad. Squads will be structured accurately, which means that there will be two fireteams of four players in each squad, and each player will have a separate role and task. For example, in Squad 1, you have two standard rifle fire teams which consist of a Squad commander, a rifleman, a grenadier and a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) support gunner. However, the second squad is a more specialized one, including designated marksmen and medics. This gives plenty of variation in game-play experience, and helps the team-play concept.

The mod has just entered the second wave of beta testing, which means that around 40 individuals now play the mod on a regular basis, as new content gets added almost daily. The mod is developed at an extremely fast pace, considering the developers and testers are not getting paid for the work they are pouring into the project. Even though the mod has been in development for around four years, the developers are keeping the lid shut as far as release dates are concerned. They want to give out what they wanted to give out, and not a pixel less. Once the mod is released, the team has announced that they will have a league that will be set up by team members and helped along by community members. There will also be support for map makers that wish to create new customized content for the mod.

The developers have said that there will be many new updates and surprises coming up in the following months, so this is definitely something to watch out for, I know I will.

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