I’m always in the market for a good combat game I can share with friends. The big craze used to be MOBAs, and while I can’t vouch for their elimination entirely just yet, I can say that even some of my MOBA enthusiast friends took a liking to this new action RPG Killsquad by developer Novarama. As the name suggests, you squad up in a group of up to four teammates to take on a variety of mercenary missions. These can be anywhere from escort missions to control point missions or just a flat out boss rush. You get to choose which difficulty and which gamemode you want to play while selecting a job from the contract selection board, and if you don’t see one you like, you can just wait a few minutes for them to refresh, though the odds of you getting one you won’t enjoy are very slim. Every mission here follows roughly the same pattern, but with random submissions in the middle. It could just be extra waves of creeps thrown at you, or two bosses at the same time. One game, I was trapped in a small area with two powerful ranged enemies; when I tried to attack one, the other would take aim. In situations like this, cooperation is key. While my teammate (the melee tank) took care of one enemy, I (the ranged healer) was body-blocking the other and spawning med kits as fast as I could. It was as chaotic as it was fun and we made it out with just enough health to spare. Getting so close to death was a rush, and I’m honestly surprised we made it, but it’s that kind of experience that this game has in store for you.
For a game with such satisfying and powerful attacks, I was really expecting to spam my kit more than I did, but where we succeeded ultimately came down to precise calculations and strategy. Escorting the payload was much harder than we expected, and we almost died a few times, but we clutched it out in the end with a handful of well-timed ultimates.
Killsquad does a really great job of taking that classic head-to-head kit-based team fighting and turning it into a more cooperative game. Rather than two teams fighting against each other, you fight against the AI, and no one gets upset when you win. Playing against another team is necessarily a zero sum game, but I really appreciate this because it’s not as discouraging to lose. You can always battle an easier or more difficult opponent to your liking rather than being matched against people way out of your skill level (higher or lower) and not enjoying yourself. Trying out new characters, of which there are currently four (tank, healer, and two attack) with a few more coming down the line, is completely risk-free since you can always just start a new contract, win or lose.
The whole thing is a unique concept applied to an established genre and I love the seamless transition. It almost makes me wonder why I haven’t played something like this before. I have to give major credit where credit is due. Even in early access, this game shows great promise, and I have confidence the devs will stay committed to the roadmap they’ve outlined in their recent news. My only issue with the game right now is that sometimes when playing with friends, I would get randomly disconnected. This happened about 2 in 10 games, which feels like a lot, so I hope moving forward, that gets fixed soon. Otherwise, this is a great game that I would recommend to anyone who loves this kind of action, strategy, or both.
Killsquad is great if you just want to jump in and get a contract or two done alone or with some friends.
Here’s some Killsquad gameplay from one of my many sessions:
Killsquad is a new action RPG set in a sci-fi world now available for PC via Steam Early Access. The game has plans to launch on console for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2020.
I am an aspiring game designer looking to explore the philosophy behind game creation. Some of my favorite games include Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, Portal, and Beat Saber.
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