A solid hybrid FPS/RTS that has made many attempts to be friendlier to new players. To its credit, despite its small community I still see 'rookie' servers among the active ones. These servers boot off players above a certain skill level to create a less brutal environment for newer players to join.

Even now, so long after its release, the community dev team makes changes that toss up the meta and keep things fresh. This includes changes meant to minimize the amount of 'noob traps,' things that experienced players know but wouldn't be intuitive to a new player.

That being said, an asymmetric hybrid game is always going to be an uphill battle on many fronts. I understand Natural Selection 2, and I enjoy the hell out of its gameplay, but a lack of coordination can lead to absolute steamrolls that demoralize half the server.

A game like this needs players who are willing to hop into the commander role and understand enough of the game to lead a team to success, and a team needs to be able to help out their commander and communicate. It happens surprisingly often considering the random nature of public lobbies and the people who join them, but then again I usually recognize most of the players in a match nowadays.

Small community, but a pretty solid game.