Unknown Worlds announces the release of the Reinforced expansion for Natural Selection 2, offering new free content for their action/strategy sequel. The release is free, but you know what they say about free lunches, and they have launched a Reinforcement Program which seeks funding to continue to produce such content. To see if you think it's worth it, a free weekend for the game us currently underway on Steam, and the game is on sale for 75% off. This launch trailer shows off the new add-on, and here's word:

Female Marines. Cluster Grenades. Biodome. Bone shield. Webs. Dual Railguns. Linux Support. Single Player Interactive Tutorial, Commander Tutorial, Special/Deluxe/Standard first person view models – Those are just some of the pieces of content released today. Look further back, and the updates have flowed . Released incrementally to everyone that owned NS2 before the release of Reinforced, twenty-four individual updates have dramatically increased performance, improved map layouts, completely revamped NS2 balance mechanics, and more. Together, these twenty four updates make Reinforced a monstor that everyone at Unknown Worlds is immensely proud of.

We are also immensely proud that Reinforced is free. Six months of game development is not cheap, and we have often discussed how we might continue to pay for keeping the studio focused on Natural Selection 2 full time. Various options were discussed – Including making Reinforced a separate Steam DLC, or introducing in-game micro-tran$actions. But these monetisation methods do not fit with our culture. Knowing we must pay the bills to keep the lights on, we decided to introduce the Reinforcement Program: