Squad is taking a new direction with it's newest update, and it's making a lot of people upset for an understandable reason: the developers didn't know what they wanted their game to be. Let me start out by giving some context.

Squad was originally conceived as an offshoot of a Battlefield 2 mod called Project Reality. Project Reality was a mod based around making BF2 a more realistic, teamwork-based experience. The game had a slower pace, with some punishing mechanics that incentivized teamwork. The modders who worked on PR eventually went on to found Offworld Industries and started a kickstarter for their new game: Squad.

Squad was meant as a kind of spiritual successor to BF2, with a few caveats. Realistic aspects were still present, but they were sidelined in order to focus on the main draw of squad: teamwork. This is shown in how they advertised the game on kickstarter, using lines like "A soldier is nothing without their squad, a squad means nothing without is soldiers" to promote the game. Most of the people who originally funded the game on kickstarter were PR players, and the game was funded on the promise that it would eventually become something similar to PR.

Over the years, the squad developers made deliberate choices in order to make the game appeal to a wider audience. Movement was sped up, gunplay made smooth and accessible, and respawns were tweaked so the player could always get back into the action as quick as possible. This lead to a faster paced game, which lead to wider appeal. The game advertised itself as a teamwork based experience, but in reality, teamwork was becoming rarer and rarer as the developers made few changes to actually incentivize teamwork on a squad based level. Moving away from your squad to make aggressive solo flanks was rewarded more often than punished.

The game had an identity crisis. Older Project Reality veterans insisted the game was meant to be a slow paced, teamwork oriented game, while fans of faster paced FPS games liked the direction the game was going. After several free weekends, the game's community became even further confused, as the initial playerbase became outnumbered by a surge of new players. Nobody, including OWI, knew what squad was supposed to be.

And that leads us to the current state of the game. A few months ago, OWI announced that they were unsatisfied with the direction the game had taken. There was very little teamwork, squads were becoming spread out and uncoordinated, and players using voice chat to coordinate was becoming increasingly rare. The devs decided to return to more traditional PR style gameplay, and they announced that the first step in that process was overhauling the gunplay and movement.

This made a lot of the community very upset, because squad is moving away from what they thought the game was supposed to be. I can't really argue against this, since not even OWI knew what they wanted squad to be. I think they do have a right to be upset, but I personally believe that this decision by OWI was the right one to make.

There are many options for fast paced solo shooters on the market, slower paced games that really encourage teamwork oriented gameplay are vanishingly rare these days. After playing several playtests for the new update, I find the game to be far more compelling than it was previously. A game that has a vision behind it will always be better than a game that has an identity crisis. The game is less accessible now, and it's not going to appeal to everyone, but it's finally starting to fit into the niche it was originally envisioned for. There's still a long way to go, and this change of direction won't be accomplished with just the infantry combat overhaul, but at least the game has direction now.

TLDR: Squad had an identity crisis for a long time, which has only now been resolved. This has lead to significant fallout as the game is changing direction. If you're looking to buy squad to coordinate closely with others using tactical maneuvers, there's never been a better time to pick up the game. If you're looking a game where you can show off your twitch shooter skills you've picked up in other fast paced FPS games, or run around on your own, you might want to look elsewhere. Those skills will still translate, but they're no longer the defining factor that decides who wins and who loses a firefight.

Squad is taking a new direction with it's newest update, and it's making a lot of people upset for an understandable reason: the developers didn't know what they wanted their game to be. Let me start out by giving some context. Squad was originally conceived as an offshoot of a Battlefield 2 mod called Project Reality. Project Reality was a mod based around making BF2 a more realistic, teamwork-based experience. The game had a slower pace, with some punishing mechanics that incentivized teamwork. The modders who worked on PR eventually went on to found Offworld Industries and started a kickstarter for their new game: Squad. Squad was meant as a kind of spiritual successor to BF2, with a few caveats. Realistic aspects were still present, but they were sidelined in order to focus on the main draw of squad: teamwork. This is shown in how they advertised the game on kickstarter, using lines like "A soldier is nothing without their squad, a squad means nothing without is soldiers" to promote the game. Most of the people who originally funded the game on kickstarter were PR players, and the game was funded on the promise that it would eventually become something similar to PR. Over the years, the squad developers made deliberate choices in order to make the game appeal to a wider audience. Movement was sped up, gunplay made smooth and accessible, and respawns were tweaked so the player could always get back into the action as quick as possible. This lead to a faster paced game, which lead to wider appeal. The game advertised itself as a teamwork based experience, but in reality, teamwork was becoming rarer and rarer as the developers made few changes to actually incentivize teamwork on a squad based level. Moving away from your squad to make aggressive solo flanks was rewarded more often than punished. The game had an identity crisis. Older Project Reality veterans insisted the game was meant to be a slow paced, teamwork oriented game, while fans of faster paced FPS games liked the direction the game was going. After several free weekends, the game's community became even further confused, as the initial playerbase became outnumbered by a surge of new players. Nobody, including OWI, knew what squad was supposed to be. And that leads us to the current state of the game. A few months ago, OWI announced that they were unsatisfied with the direction the game had taken. There was very little teamwork, squads were becoming spread out and uncoordinated, and players using voice chat to coordinate was becoming increasingly rare. The devs decided to return to more traditional PR style gameplay, and they announced that the first step in that process was overhauling the gunplay and movement. This made a lot of the community very upset, because squad is moving away from what they thought the game was supposed to be. I can't really argue against this, since not even OWI knew what they wanted squad to be. I think they do have a right to be upset, but I personally believe that this decision by OWI was the right one to make. There are many options for fast paced solo shooters on the market, slower paced games that really encourage teamwork oriented gameplay are vanishingly rare these days. After playing several playtests for the new update, I find the game to be far more compelling than it was previously. A game that has a vision behind it will always be better than a game that has an identity crisis. The game is less accessible now, and it's not going to appeal to everyone, but it's finally starting to fit into the niche it was originally envisioned for. There's still a long way to go, and this change of direction won't be accomplished with just the infantry combat overhaul, but at least the game has direction now. TLDR: Squad had an identity crisis for a long time, which has only now been resolved. This has lead to significant fallout as the game is changing direction. If you're looking to buy squad to coordinate closely with others using tactical maneuvers, there's never been a better time to pick up the game. If you're looking a game where you can show off your twitch shooter skills you've picked up in other fast paced FPS games, or run around on your own, you might want to look elsewhere. Those skills will still translate, but they're no longer the defining factor that decides who wins and who loses a firefight.