“Not using a microphone is a pretty big crime here”

SQUAD is a large-scale military shooter with added realism.

- Andy Kelly

Project Reality is a popular mod for Battlefield 2 that places a greater emphasis on teamwork and makes it more realistic. Squad, developed by former members of Project Reality’s core development team, is an attempt to make a standalone game in the same mould. The result is a shooter that isn’t as accessible and explosive as Battlefield, nor as intricate and sim-like as Arma. It’s somewhere in between, and it wears it well.

Like Battlefield, Squad has large maps, combined arms and a focus on objective play. But within this huge, writhing mass of war are smaller squads, communicating, working under a leader and dismantling the enemy’s grip on the map piece by piece. Well, that’s the idea anyway. If a team isn’t communicating or doing what the squad leader asks, they won’t make much of a dent in the battle. This is not a game for lone wolves.