Squad - Midway Between Battlefield and ARMA

Wow, that is insanely cool.

He really does miss a golden opportunity to quote Dr Strangelove at about 9:20 in that video though.

Tow to tow with the ruskies! C’mon!

Does this game have bots you can play with/against? or a single player campaign or battles?

Other than a sandbox where you can try stuff out, I don’t think there is any solo play. I haven’t seen any bot mode or anything. It’s pretty much a pure online multiplayer thing.

Anytime I played the people were super helpful if you didn’t know how to do something. It’s just a game that you have to set hours aside to really enjoy which I generally avoid. (Says the guy who has been playing Last of Us 2 for hours on end this weekend. ;) )

Yeah, it is definitely not a jump in and play a few quick rounds sort of thing. You want to get into a squad and try to stay with at least some of the same folks for several games, which can last a half hour or more each.

I found running around as the medic was a solid choice for starting out. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing aside from running around and healing people and everyone was super happy about it.

Saw this thread pop up as I was browsing through shooters to play (not sure why -every once in a while I ‘need’ to have a game from some genre installed to mess around with). Went through the usual suspects of Valorant/Apex/Overwatch/etc. but I’m not really into the ranked-style competitiveness, and saw Squad mentioned a number of times as a worthy alternative. Then lamented that oh - no dropping the cash on this right now just for an itch. Lo and behold, I must have gotten it in a humble because there it is sitting in my library. Good to hear some success can be had as a newbie medic!

My biggest frustration, other than the aforementioned server queues, is not being able to tell who or what killed me. It’s probably very realistic, but pretty much all of the times I’ve been killed by the enemy as opposed to a friendly it’s been from someone I never saw. Most of the time I don’t have much of an idea which direction the shot came from either.

I mean, that is the realities of combat and the game. Pretty much every milsim is like that.

It will get better the more you play though, as you will start to understand the maps and the pings to get an idea of where the enemy is it, and where you are getting shot from.

It takes a bit of practice.

I can sort of follow the map, but you are right, the game is pretty realistic and seeing a well-positioned shooter is really hard. Luckily everyone gets killed it seems, so as long as you are trying to follow the SL and do your job no one gets upset.

They finally added a new REDFOR faction

Is this one free as well? I’m impressed that they have done no paid dlc so far.

Never had paid DLC. The $20 I spent on buying Squad on sale in 2016 is the best gaming value I’ve ever made.

A lot of my friends are turned off by the whole “invisible man shot me from 200 yards away”, but I always found it to be a pretty profound part of the experience in this and Red Orchestra 2.

You get to feel how expendable you are, and then you realize that for some people this was literally the war. Five minutes of chaos and a quick goodbye. No respawn!

Yeah I do love that bit. Have not played in a bit though; need to try it some more. I switched machines and haven’t installed it again, partly because I was bummed by the long wait times for games. All the servers were constantly full.

It definitely takes a change of mindset for the average player. People are so used to being careless in military-style games that once you make it so easy to die, they just can’t adjust or don’t want to adjust.

I’ve found that by playing these milsim games and Battlefield with an eye toward staying alive first, that I’m way better at the games where death means a lot less like CoD.

Exactly, that’s another thing I love about it. I like to see how far I can get using something that resembles tactics, and I find that it pays off pretty well in most games.

The mortality also makes it that much more satisfying when you go full Rambo and actually end up doing some damage. I’m like “My next of kin are definitely getting a Medal of Honor out of this”.

Is there much cheating in the game?

Not that I’ve noticed, but I play on the SquadOps public servers, so the admins are pretty good.

Another good Moidawg Eye in the Sky video. Hilarious at times.

Yep. I’ve had some really good runs in the Warzone because of tactics advantages I know I’ve gained from the likes of Battlefield and these milsims when I dove in. In Duos now I rarely sweat a 1v2 and in a Quads game with lots of people engaged, I’m often one of the last people standing.

It certainly helps that other players are more willing to take the bullet for me by playing out in the open or engaging at ranges that don’t suit their weapons, etc.