I wrote a review for this already, originally written for Steam but I want to return to this as I have a lot to say.
There is no other experience like Squad. Teams are comprised of squads with set roles and headed up by a Squad Lead (SL), fireteams may be contained within. Matches are 50v50 on large maps focused on controlling key points. SL's need to coordinate their squads to complete objectives or support attacks, they also must communicate with other SLs to make this work. Voice chat is a necessity for this game.
On the scale of Arcade Shooter to Milsim, Squad leans much further on the Milsim side, not as far as something like ARMA but not as arcady as something like Insurgency or Hell Let Loose.
I don't know why Milsim developers seem to think that slow animations equate to realism. Everything you do can be measured with a calendar. Following a recent update known as Infantry Complete Overhaul (ICO) even aiming down sights requires 3 days notice. I play anti-tank 90% of the time which requires aiming for specific points on vehicles from hundreds of meters away, the openings for these shots can be only a few seconds and with this new update I don't even try anymore.
The entire intention of the update was to promote teamplay and slow the game down. However, the kind of players who went off on their own haven't been affected, because in all honesty they are turbo nerds who put more hours into this game than anything else in their lives, the kind of individuals who say "over" at the end of sentences through VC.
Most games you die to enemies you never even see. With ICO you and an enemy can walk right up to each other, spray like crazy and both walk away like it is a spaghetti western. The recoil and sway is utterly ridiculous. For a game that prides itself on realism all I can say is that it has completely shit the bed when it comes to representing the fighting ability of the average soldier. Sprinting for more than 2 seconds renders your soldier unable to cope with the physicality of being alive.
ICO isn't going away and the most hardcore elements of the community love it, again because they are turbonerds who believe their hardcore military man shooter should contain zero fun and should only be played by people willing to refer to them as 'Sir'.
I miss the highs this game used to offer. Holding a point with a squad of 8 guys against an onslaught, having a single medic be the backbone of the team. Landing a perfect RPG shot to take out a full helicopter. Sneaking behind enemy lines to locate a FOB so command can mortar it. Hell, games where I got zero kills and just did logistics runs back and forth from main were still fun.
Nowadays this game just makes me sad. You can still find some elements of fun but it takes a lot of sacrifice. Playing Squad requires a minimum of an hour of your time, between server queues, match set up, early game and the length of matches, if you decide you had a bad game which provided no fun it came at the cost of your entire evening.
The developers are also frustratingly focused on the wrong things with this game. Please god fix the broken server browser. Please add more official servers. Stop splitting your playerbase across two broken games and keep them on one broken game instead. Please fix the endless audio issues. Have you guys never heard of optimisation? Can you fix the bug that prevents spawning after waiting 90 seconds on the rallypoint? Can you fix the janky vehicle physics?
I don't encourage anyone new to try this game. I just miss what it used to be.
Also the community sucks. Yes please play Yugoslavian war music through your microphone at full volume for the entire game set up phase, hilarious and never been done before. Please do a fake Russian accent every opportunity, it kills me with laughter. I love when you scream racial slurs over and over every time you drive past, it's groundbreaking comedy. Oh yeah, you should definitely not unlock any Squads so that people joining the server cannot literally play the game and get kicked for being AFK due to something out of their control. I thoroughly enjoy getting TK'd because you insist on playing heavy armour but can't identify friendlies from enemies. Yeah bro, Squad was totally as quick and arcadey as Call of Duty before the ICO update and anyone complaining obviously doesn't know how to play, I am sure that earned you a purple heart with your military RP clan.
Yes I am mad, cope, seethe, etc. but I guess a game that forces you to communicate directly with people seriously highlights how obnoxious they can be. Given the small size of the community and server list you do run into the same clowns often.
There is no other experience like Squad. Teams are comprised of squads with set roles and headed up by a Squad Lead (SL), fireteams may be contained within. Matches are 50v50 on large maps focused on controlling key points. SL's need to coordinate their squads to complete objectives or support attacks, they also must communicate with other SLs to make this work. Voice chat is a necessity for this game.
On the scale of Arcade Shooter to Milsim, Squad leans much further on the Milsim side, not as far as something like ARMA but not as arcady as something like Insurgency or Hell Let Loose.
I don't know why Milsim developers seem to think that slow animations equate to realism. Everything you do can be measured with a calendar. Following a recent update known as Infantry Complete Overhaul (ICO) even aiming down sights requires 3 days notice. I play anti-tank 90% of the time which requires aiming for specific points on vehicles from hundreds of meters away, the openings for these shots can be only a few seconds and with this new update I don't even try anymore.
The entire intention of the update was to promote teamplay and slow the game down. However, the kind of players who went off on their own haven't been affected, because in all honesty they are turbo nerds who put more hours into this game than anything else in their lives, the kind of individuals who say "over" at the end of sentences through VC.
Most games you die to enemies you never even see. With ICO you and an enemy can walk right up to each other, spray like crazy and both walk away like it is a spaghetti western. The recoil and sway is utterly ridiculous. For a game that prides itself on realism all I can say is that it has completely shit the bed when it comes to representing the fighting ability of the average soldier. Sprinting for more than 2 seconds renders your soldier unable to cope with the physicality of being alive.
ICO isn't going away and the most hardcore elements of the community love it, again because they are turbonerds who believe their hardcore military man shooter should contain zero fun and should only be played by people willing to refer to them as 'Sir'.
I miss the highs this game used to offer. Holding a point with a squad of 8 guys against an onslaught, having a single medic be the backbone of the team. Landing a perfect RPG shot to take out a full helicopter. Sneaking behind enemy lines to locate a FOB so command can mortar it. Hell, games where I got zero kills and just did logistics runs back and forth from main were still fun.
Nowadays this game just makes me sad. You can still find some elements of fun but it takes a lot of sacrifice. Playing Squad requires a minimum of an hour of your time, between server queues, match set up, early game and the length of matches, if you decide you had a bad game which provided no fun it came at the cost of your entire evening.
The developers are also frustratingly focused on the wrong things with this game. Please god fix the broken server browser. Please add more official servers. Stop splitting your playerbase across two broken games and keep them on one broken game instead. Please fix the endless audio issues. Have you guys never heard of optimisation? Can you fix the bug that prevents spawning after waiting 90 seconds on the rallypoint? Can you fix the janky vehicle physics?
I don't encourage anyone new to try this game. I just miss what it used to be.
Also the community sucks. Yes please play Yugoslavian war music through your microphone at full volume for the entire game set up phase, hilarious and never been done before. Please do a fake Russian accent every opportunity, it kills me with laughter. I love when you scream racial slurs over and over every time you drive past, it's groundbreaking comedy. Oh yeah, you should definitely not unlock any Squads so that people joining the server cannot literally play the game and get kicked for being AFK due to something out of their control. I thoroughly enjoy getting TK'd because you insist on playing heavy armour but can't identify friendlies from enemies. Yeah bro, Squad was totally as quick and arcadey as Call of Duty before the ICO update and anyone complaining obviously doesn't know how to play, I am sure that earned you a purple heart with your military RP clan.
Yes I am mad, cope, seethe, etc. but I guess a game that forces you to communicate directly with people seriously highlights how obnoxious they can be. Given the small size of the community and server list you do run into the same clowns often.