Alien Swarm is one of the first Free-To-Play Source games in Steam. Play as several solider classes in a co-op campaign and obliterate the alien swarms by completing objectives and using brutal weapons. Reactive Drop adds new campaigns, aliens, weapons, game modes and improved single player. Now you can slay aliens with 8 players in online or offline co-op. Oh, and did I mention that its still FREE?



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop.

Tips & Specs:

Try SteamPlay before using this guide as Valve now uses a fork of Wine called Proton and should run most Windows games.

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 18.1 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 2.0-staging

Wine Installation

Note: Wine versions older than 2.0.2 and 2.12-staging no longer work with Steam.

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 2.0-staging
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 2.0-staging is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam

Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
Click Install Steam


Do not click "Install Steam Now"
It will automatically install Linux Steam
Select Windows Steam instead
click "Windows" under the green button


Navigate to your desktop
Click Save


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: alienswarm
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine 2.0-staging
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Configure Wine

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
Check: Emulate a virtual desktop
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click Ok


PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse


Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open


Click Next

Click Next

Check: I accept the license...
Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating Steam

Steam might not have any fonts due to dwrite functionality
Click the "X" to close Steam login

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font problem and Store problem


Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of wine

Display Tab
Video Memory Size: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Steam

Select Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"


Login


Search the Steam Store for "Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop"
Click "Play Game"


Uncheck "Create desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next


Click Finish


When Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop is done downloading
Click Play


Optimization

Click Options


Click Video


Adjust:

• Aspect Ratio
• Resolution
• Display Mode
• Anti-aliasing Mode
• Filtering Mode
• Wait For Vertical Sync
• Multicore Rendering
• Shader Detail
• Effect Detail
• Model / Texture Detail
• Bloom
• Depth Blur
• Paged Pool memory Available

Click Done


Rule of thumb
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop ran flawlessly in PlayOnLinux and I was really impressed with the new upgrades and changes. 8-player should be a LOT of fun in a LAN (I sucessfully tested 4-player offline) and the new campaigns, weapons and improved single player makes it a no-brainer. I didn't have any issues running on Mint 18 with GeForce 660, 750 Ti, GTX 1060 or GTX 950.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: