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      Gamereactor
      reviews
      Squad Busters

      Squad Busters

      Olof has been showered with rewards like confetti in Supercell's latest mobile game, but is hardly convinced...

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      I don't generally play mobile games, although I do occasionally give it an honest go. A number of factors such as the greed that characterises 99% of games, the clunky control scheme and the inevitable downgrading of large format experiences make me shun iOS and Android titles like, if not the plague, then at least the flu. You get them from time to time - and now it was time again.

      I have once again dived into the world of mobile games, more precisely Finnish Supercell's (previously behind Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars, among others) latest creation Squad Busters, and immediately I am reminded of why analogies like the flu are so close at hand when I think of mobile games. Right from the start, the feverishly dreamy atmosphere of false benevolence is palpable. Presents, money, confetti, visits, fanfares and cheers rain down on me as if I were turning ten and being celebrated royally. But I'm a 32-year-old, tired and grumpy, and a jaded gamer. I think I know what's going on here. At the same time, who doesn't want to celebrate for a while, no matter how genuine the celebration?

      Squad Busters

      With my newly acquired gifts in hand, I buy my first class, a bunch of barbarians, and with them I embark on my first games. In short, I have to move across a small map from a bird's eye view and find the most gems by the end of the four-minute timer. Then I win. Between my Squad and the win, however, are nine other teams fighting for exactly the same thing. The trick is to quickly build and balance your team during the match. Every second and every choice matters. I slaughter deployed enemies by standing next to them - that's how my characters automatically attack - and with the earned money they drop, I find my way to chests where new team members are selected.

      When opening the chests, it's important to pay attention to the team's weaknesses. Is my team taking too little damage? Plug the gap with an extra barbarian. Do I need more fast money? Choose a goblin. Defence? El Primo the wrestler. Speed? The chicken. And so on. Gradually, more and more complex classes are added to the broad character set, and there's soon a lot of choice to tailor your Squad to your likes, needs and tastes. Once I've built up enough capacity and confidence, I then move into the centre of the arena and fight for the big chest and take on other teams. Between matches, I unlock new classes and upgrade existing ones, or invest in bombs and spells that can be thrown out at the snap of a finger in tight match situations.

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      Squad Busters

      The learning curve is reasonably steep and manages to capture me in an (almost market-analytical) smooth way, where continuous rewards and "learning by doing" trump slow text boxes and information messages. Despite not knowing what I'm doing at first, the simple layout and countless chests and checklists entice me to continue. In a nutshell, though, the gameplay isn't too much to hang on the tree, per se. Squad Busters is a relatively repetitive auto-battler with a design and icons that are too clunky to read properly in the heat of battle, but at the same time it's titillating in its straightforward and high-intensity speed.

      Above all, it tickles with dopamine when I win, of course, and the chests accumulate in a pile. And win I do. All the time. At least my first five or six battles. But as a 32-year-old, tired and grumpy and well-travelled gamer, I understand exactly what I've been subjected to when I come last in the seventh game after six straight wins. It wasn't real, what happened before. I most likely hit rock bottom, and the losses and the now sudden lack of presents, confetti, coffins, cheers and visits are creating a market-analysis hole in my soul.

      Squad Busters
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      This emptiness is the realisation that not only had your parents bought your friends to come to the party, they had also bought the presents your friends gave you. Even if none of it was real, there are still fragments of that feeling of happiness left in you, and if I want to get back that feeling of success and honour and enjoy more of the good things like bigger and better Squads, more classes, spells and match wins - then I just have to cough up the cash. Which of course I don't do.

      Squad Busters

      No, as the wins become fewer and fewer, the battle pass meter starts ticking slower and it takes longer and longer between the real rewards, it becomes - even more - clear how Squad Busters is built from the ground up with microtransactions in mind. Whether it's draped in an anonymous but cute and colourful environment and character design and catchy music. It's greedy as hell, and I feel like I just want to give back all the packages, presents and gifts to get a really genuine experience instead. Because behind all the false benevolence, there's a simple, clever and charming gameplay that has entertained me for a couple of nights in a row, and could very well have continued to do so in short duels for some time to come. But not on these terms. This is absolutely insane.

      05 Gamereactor UK
      5 / 10
      +
      Well-calibrated learning curve, reasonably simple and intensive approach, possibilities to tailor to teams, format-adapted control and match length.
      -
      Anonymous and plodding design, repetitive, ridiculously greedy.
      overall score
      is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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      Squad BustersScore

      Squad Busters

      REVIEW. Written by Olof Westerberg

      Olof has been showered with rewards like confetti in Supercell's latest mobile game, but is hardly convinced...



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