Unfinished: Squad 01/15/2016

Purchased this game on Thursday and here on Saturday I've logged 17 hours. Games really damn good. Arma likes to flaunt around like its the ultimate military sim but it has always been a mess in terms of animations and control. In my opinion Squad strikes the right balance between military sim and easy to get into, the alpha is great, I can't wait to see what the game evolves into. I was a fan of the project reality mod on the bf2 engine but I came to it late when plans were basically in line with releasing this.

How is the training on this? I mean they were calling out points and I had no idea where he should have been looking. Do they give some basics on how to do that? If I wanted to get into these which one would be the best one to get into for learning and coordination if I wanted to move up to this one eventually? ARMA seems way to advanced for me.

This seems quite appealing. Reminds me of the Red Orchestra games which are similar in the way they bridge that gap between BF and ARMA. That tense and exciting tactical play without being fiddly and tediously simulationy.

Clearly still very barebones though. Should be good when it is finished! There was a moment when Drew was crossing the poppy field with gunshots going off all around that really felt quite intense.

flocka

@luck702: PR mod has been free forever, and still has quite a mature community. It's self policing, people that immature get bored easily and move on.

Gerson?

If this wasn't about Afghanistan, I'd say there was a Cannon Fodder reference in that intro.

Also loving these Drew/Jeff QLs. Hang in there, Jeff! lol

Drew opening it up with his military voice. Always a great start.

Yeah, this looks like it could be a good bridge between deep sims like ARMA and more twitchy sorts of military shooters. I'm curious to see what the community shapes up to be like - as mentioned before, groups like ShackTac have really sold me on this sort of stuff.

unfortunately they're also 100x more impenetrable, and don't lend themselves to having the friendliest or most forgiving of communities...

If you actually sat down with PR or squad, you'd find plenty of servers with people more than happy to show you the ropes. Its not like ArmA where some servers ask you to attend 'training courses'

screen tearing is the real enemy.

The beginning of this Quick Look is very Woyzeck.

Good video. I found the medic choice fun to watch. More drew as the medic class in game videos.

Jeffff gerrrsssonnnnn

Everyone who is posting saying Drew should play Insurgency, I totally agree, it's great fun in co-op just running missions. But also, has anyone seen the new SOCOM mod for Insurgency? I really need to check it out.

Think i'd rather play Arma than this. Steeper learning curve but appears way better.

@wrathofgod: I half expected this to open with raining peas after I read this comment

Thats the thing. Squad isn't an either or kind of game. Its a bridge between milsim and arcade. Sure Arma is feature rich; its not a steep learning curve its enormous, some people arent prepared to dedicate dozens of hours installing multiple mods (which often conflict and cause server issues), learning military style radio equipment (frequency switching and day settings, zeroizing, squelch, callsigns and general radio procedure etc etc); which is why Squad is a fun alternative if you want tactical team orientated game play without the hassle.

this game got dat arma lean goood

Oh neat this is totally Project Reality. Definitely keen to see how it's development arcs out. My only concern is with 100 player games and it being a bit of a niche is it might be hard to get a long lasting community with multiple games going on in smaller countries.

Is it weird that I predicted it would be Jeff and Drew in this before I even started the video?

No V-Sync - WHYYYYYYYYYY? It's a video, please.

Seems interesting, a nice balance between the detail of Arma and the more approachability of say Battlefield. Didn't realise it was from the folks who created Project Reality though. Had a friend who adored Project Reality.

That is the draw of this game for me and why I thought this video was very encouraging for this game. Drew joined a game at random and found people that were generally trying to communicate and coordinate together. I think the 40$ price tag is keeping people out who would be more inclined to hop on a troll their teammates. If my computer could run Squad I would probably buy it now and try to find a team like you described.

I just bought this game and played a few matches. The community is very forgiving, friendly and polite. The game is not impenetrable and you can perform well on a team if you just follow the orders of the squad leader and call out enemy positions when you see enemies moving around and stick together. The community seems to be composed of adults, not 14 year old boys in the case of Call of Duty.

A microphone is a must, though. Matches take a long time. But if you find a good squad that works well with one another, it's a fucking great experience.

Squad, starring Tom Haverford.

This seems great, but I just don't have the time and patience for games like this. Wish I did.

jeff gerson seems like a cool guy

Man this is super neat. Excited to see where it goes as EA goes on.

@beachthunder: yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1hu4BjJHR8

@drewbert

I've played with a few clans and had tons of fun! It's the most immersive video game experience I've ever had. This is one of the first missions I ever did with them, so my radio comms and playing is not up to snuff...

I highly recommend it, and it's totally not as complicated as people make it out to be. When you get the grasp of the controls, everything else you learn on the way with your clan.

We had missions and trainings 2-3 times every week, and on every training you go over formations and working as a group until it's second nature.

Is super fascinating. There are a lot of people with real military experience in any ARMA clan I would say, and they usually take their code, tactics and operations from real world military branches.

If any of you have any more questions, I'll be glad to answer ^_^

P.S. I was never a hardcore sim guy (I've never even played Battlefield) of any genre but I got totally into ARMA, so anyone can do it.

Fantastic game. Some of the most intense firefights I've had in a video game, like ever. You might go more than a few minutes without firing (or hearing) a single shot, then you hear the whiz of a bullet go by your head and things immediately ramp up. The sounds are great and are a big part of the intensity.

I like ARMA on paper, but find it very hard to get into. You run through the campaign and tutorials then realize none of the servers are vanilla, and many have weird rules. Squad gives me that slower paced team-oriented shooter without having to deal with ARMA. I often only have time for one match a day and I want a good team experience and to use my mic without the investment that ARMA requires.

I think it's fantastic. Community has been generally great (The people paying $40 for an incomplete game of a very specific type tend to be dedicated and helpful). As long as you're not blatantly wasting a medic slot, people are generally pretty nice.

@beachthunder: For Arma, look up pretty much anyone from ShackTac. Dslyecxi in particular (as he's the head of the group) on Youtube. I've been watching videos from him for a while and they're always pretty great.

They can be silly at times, but also pretty serious ("Serious Fun" is the motto, I believe) and it makes Arma look crazy good.

Edit: This video is pretty great, if anything you should watch at least the first 5-10 minutes. The initial assault is awesome.