Squad – PAX East Hands On

After spending about five minutes with tactical first-person shooter Squad, one thing is very apparent – they took the blueprint of Battlefield 2 Project Reality and made a game that has the potential to build upon that in exciting ways. In early access since late 2015, Squad started as an infantry only shooter and has since gone on to include vehicles with a full fleet of aircraft on the horizon. Not willing to settle for anything less than crafting the most realistic combat game on the market, the team at Offworld Industries seems to be living up to that expectation. Currently matches can reach player counts of 40v40 and they feel like they are close to hitting their ultimate goal of 100 players per match.

Communication is everything in Squad. Where most games are satisfied giving you short bursts of action, Squad lets the battle form organically as actual combat would in real life. With former members of the military on staff, Offworld has all the pieces in place to give the player the most realistic fire fight experience to date. Every soldier has a job to do. In time, they plan on even adding a commander into the game that can give you hand and verbal signals letting you know exactly what to do. Helicopter pilots are just that, pilots. They spend the entire time transporting troops to where they need to go.

It may sound ambitious, but the team has been working on it for years, three of which have been in early access. The developers love early access because they can continue to improve on the game with a live audience. Early access almost doesn’t mean early access anymore the way technology allows games to evolve in real time.

The team is so dedicated to make the most realistic shooter on the market to the extent even the weapons have far more details in them than they need, which just shows how much this team cares about this game. They’ve come a long way from their early days on Kickstarter and have become successful enough with their first game that they are now starting to publish other games and have even started working in VR. Hopefully we’ll see VR implemented in Squad sooner than later.

Squad is currently available on PC through the Steam store for $39.99.