Insurgency's train of goodwill continues at a slow but steady pace. It's been a few months since the game's first major content update so it's time to go at it again.
The aptly titled 'Hunt' DLC which released to all owners of the game just a couple of days ago, most prominently features the return of the cooperative Hunt mode, where players team up to eliminate all enemies in a modified version of the various maps supported for the mode. This single-life mode where, if you die you're done for the rest of the round, has also seen some minor changes. Along with killing off all the enemies you find scattered throughout the maps, you're also tasked with finding and destroying an enemy weapons cache which spawns in one among several potential locations.
In addition to this happy return for fans of the old Rainbow Six series and other lovers of great Co-Op, there's the inclusion of underbarrel grenade launchers for both teams. Certain classes will be able to equip a grenade launcher to their M16 or AKM, and choose whether to load it with heavy explosive or smoke grenades.
Naturally, there's another map added to the roster as well. 'Panj' is a more open map than most of what Insurgency offers from before, and will likely remind players of some of the maps seen in Red Orchestra 2. Needless to say, those who aren't good at dolphin diving into cover at regular intervals will see a spectacular slaughter. The map is apparently inspired by the provinces in southern Afghanistan, and comes complete with a frustratingly hard-to-capture grape hut placed smack in the middle.
In addition to these bigger additions, minor changes and improvements follow suit. The recently added M14 EBR battle rifle now has an equippable bipod, there's a 1x aimpoint scope, and the particle effects for smoke grenades and the laser...iness(?) of the laser sight have seen significant improvements. The full changelog can be found in the game's forums. Interestingly, indie dev New World Interactive have more in store.
"Today’s release is phase one of the update, and another update will be released in two days with even more content and features."
Phase two of this update is already in the late testing stages, and will implement a ranking system into the game, where players will persistently rack up points and rank up depending on their performance during the matches. For now, the ranking will mostly serve as bragging privileges, but the devs have planned to do more with it in the future. Perhaps some unlockable content? Or something like Red Orchestra 2, where high-level players would get a "Veteran" playerskin to show everyone just how cool they were? Time will tell.
If you haven't checked out Insurgency yet, this is as perfect a moment as any. Not only is the game currently discounted at 50% on Steam, but it's also free to play for the weekend - no strings attached. What do you have to lose? Strap those boots on and prepare for war!
