Natural Selection 2 exosuit stomps out

Unknown Worlds still won't say quite when Natural Selection 2's supposedly "imminent" release will be, but the FPS-RTS must be approaching as the final big content patch for the pre-order beta is about to stomp out. Oh yes, stomp out indeed, as it adds a mighty exosuit for the marines to go all Starship Troopers, along with a remake of the classic mod map NS_Veil.

The exosuit comes with two minigun-arms for six barrels of alien-cleansing firepower, though you can switch one out for a powerfist to biff aliens in the chops. Sitting at the top end of the tech tree, it replaces the original mod's Heavy Armour. While I am slightly sorry to see the end of the 'Heavy train' tactic, an eight-foot exoskeleton goes a long way to cheer me up.

The patch will also bring performance improvements, an overhauled physics system, a new commander UI, a hint system for newbies, bug fixes, and balance tweaks.

Though Unknown Worlds has sold pre-orders with Steam keys itself for yonks, the Steam store will start selling pre-orders on September 4. Instant access to the beta build for pre-orderers will stop when this happens, so you should grab it direct from UW soon if you want in.

Here's a new trailer showing off the exosuit and Veil, mixing gameplay footage with pre-rendered cinematic created in UW's own Spark engine using the Spark Cinematic Editor: