Squad - Early Access Impressions

The Battlefield series has, over the years, unequivocally proven that there's a thirst out there for large scale first-person shooters. It's not the only game/series to go large, with Planetside 2 offering a war waged over giant maps and persistent servers, and Rising Storm delivering a visceral WW2 experience that lived long in the memory thanks to its harrowing depiction of war.

At the same time, there is plenty of interest in modern military shooters, and with Call of Duty looking forward (for now, at least) and Battlefield gazing back, there's never been a better time for an emerging studio to focus on this temporarily malnourished sub-genre. Squad is a case in point. It mixes the large scale combat of Battlefield or Rising Storm, but coats it in a contemporary wrapper that reminds us a little of Arma. Similarly, if you played Insurgency then you'll have a closer idea as to what Offworld Industries are aiming for, tonally at least.

In Squad players will be able to engage in 50vs50 battles that take place over huge maps with multiple objectives (at the moment it's closer to 40vs40). It's not crazily chaotic, though, instead it's a measured game that facilitates player cooperation. Soldiers must work together if they're to have any chance of surviving the gunfire that whistles all around. You can, if you want, lone wolf it, but that would be to totally miss the point. It's also not a smart way of playing, as spawn points for solo players are sometimes a loooooooong way from the action, and if you're not working with others you can spend a lot of your time trekking from the back of the map to the periphery of a battle that you're not really affecting. So don't do it, k?

As with any game, if you buddy up with like-minded souls, chances are you're going to have a good time. Cooperative play has rescued many an average game from obscurity, and while we're not saying that Squad is average, the team-focused approach certainly helps smooth over some of the rough edges present in the game at the time of writing.

The biggest criticism you could aim at Squad at this stage is the fact that the maps are a little on the bland side, and even when played with the graphics turned up to "epic" the textures are a little dull, and the various assets that punctuate the environments aren't hugely convincing. It's not a looker, but then, it doesn't need to be. The guns, soldiers and vehicles are all realised with enough detail that you can forgive the rest, especially when considered against the scale of the maps. These are big arenas, and you'll be moving between objectives either slowly on foot, carefully making your way from spawn point to front line, or riding in the back of vehicles, guns at the ready.

When you get to wherever it is you're headed, the gunplay is seriously and - to whatever extent a video game like this can be authentic - realistically done. There's no bullet sponges here, and once you've taken a couple shots you'll either die where you stand, or bleed out. If there's a medic on hand he can of course patch you up and send you back out to play, otherwise you've got to hit the ominously titled "Give Up" button, and re-enter the fray back at the nearest spawn point.

Squad pulls no punches on this front, and the fragility of life is yet another incentive for players to come together, keeping each other covered and at full health for as long as possible. Therein lies the appeal of the game. Find a band of brothers, play as a team, talk, think, and move as one. If you don't you're just meat for the grinder. If you do, you'll find a well-populated and promising large-scale shooter. It's not perfect by any means, and there's work to be done before it can be called finished, but there's potential in these here hills, as well as the odd eagle-eyed sniper.