Brenan Small

Hands down best milsim shooter out today. The sound design alone is enough to demoralize or motivate you, depending on the specific situation you happen to find yourself in at any given time. Impressive real time proximity based VOIP system that is rarely if ever neglected in most servers - in this game, if you aren't communicating, you're going to have a bad time. Everyone has a role, and it takes everyone doing their jobs to get anywhere in a match so when your team isn't playing the game, it can be frustrating. Fortunately though, this dynamic usually leads to an unspoken agreement that everyone will be on the same page and thankfully the Command Chat channel makes it smooth enough to achieve significant coordination in a pinch. There is a sort of "Darwinian" rhythm to the firefights and operations, and in some cases your fate comes down to sheer luck and circumstance. If you want to get any closer to warfare, you'd probably have to visit your local recruiter. My only complaint with this title is the slow pace at which it receives updates. Patches and feature additions seem to be steady, but spread a bit thin. I'll give them a pass on this though, because Offworld is such a small company that, let's face it; has seen better days since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The soundtrack is excellent, not too much so that it distracts or interferes with gameplay in anyway. Music only plays in the title menu, and during map loads. Most people just play "Fortunate Son" over comms on the way to capture their first Objective.That brings me to the community, which I can only say varies by server and time of day. Most casual players are playing on the weekend between 7pm-12am, and the regular players tend to take a more strategic approach than the latter. At the end of the day it's really up to what team you end up on or what server you decided to join whether or not the next 30-60 minutes will be fun or torture. Squad has a way of making everything boil down to teamwork and experience so, do yourself a favor and head to the basic training tutorial (20 minutes) before you get started in your first server. Other than that, there is a learning curve that is not only challenging, but also addictive. This is fortified by the lack of a leveling or weapon customization system which would undoubtedly kill the feeling of the entire game. Tastefully crafted and impressively realistic, go ahead and give Squad a try. If you're looking for gritty and down to earth - you will not be disappointed.