"Smokes on the river to the east!" comes the terse announcement from the radio. And indeed: a dense wall of fog robs us of the view from the small mud hut village across the river. Then the enemy attack begins. Fireteam Bravo's machine gun opens fire into the fog from a nearby rooftop. Terse orders and sighting announcements are barked as our soldiers try to spot the enemy on the riverbed. Shots and comrades keep falling. Then a shrill whistle sounds and suddenly the adjustment grenades of the enemy artillery explode. The command "Take cover" comes too late as volley after volley shatters our positions and the squad leader speaks up: "OK, guys. Whoever is dead surrenders and spawns at the FOB to the west. The village is lost. Maybe we'll get a helo."
The teams in the multiplayer-only tactical shooter each include 50 soldiers who move in a coordinated fashion across gigantic battlefields thanks to complex command structures ranging from commanders to squad leaders to fireteam leaders. Supported by trucks, armored vehicles, troop carriers, infantry, and battle tanks, the infantry encounters each other in seven-game modes both at long combat distances and in urban combat. The developers' goal: to stage a simulated military experience in the style of Arma 3 and co. without completely losing sight of the playability of the multiplayer shooter.
In addition to various versions of the classic Domination, where mostly flag points have to be captured and held in a certain or random order, there are also Rush variants like Invasion or Insurgency, where a heavily armed Western force has to drive local insurgents out of cities or insurgents attack the bases of the occupying forces.
Annoyingly, however, there is no way to at least find video explanations of the game modes outside of the official wiki. In addition, there is no matchmaking: Like 20 years ago, you have to pick the desired location from a moderately functioning server browser. This makes sense, but as a newcomer, it is initially quite daunting to have to pick a server for the first match instead of finding a battle via the game mode.
Conclusion
Squad is a great game for multiplayer fans with an appetite for large-scale military operations! Those who would rather reach for Operation Flashpoint, Arma, and co. at any time instead of the next Battlefield or Call of Duty will also be happy with the essential communication, the realistic combat with infantry and vehicles, the great weapon models, and especially the equally realistic yet grueling idle time between battles. Similar to Tripwire with the Red Orchestra series, Offworld Industries combines Battlefield with Arma in an extremely clever way in Squad and thus creates a reasonably accessible, well playable military simulation, which still requires a high degree of training, teamwork, stress and frustration resistance, but also brings along a gigantic strategic depth. In addition, there is an atmospheric, but in direct comparison with Call of Duty and Battlefield, rather brittle and trimmed for performance backdrop, which allows for intensive battles on gigantic maps. So, if you are looking for continuous action and XP rain, or even a cinematic campaign, you should urgently stay away. All team players with a desire for an intensive military simulation should contact their squad leader!
