Early Access Game: Killsquad
Article by Thonos
1/8/2021
1/8/2021
What caught my interest in this game:
This looked like a fun game to play with my brother. Between the loot based progression and different characters it I felt we would have fun with this one.
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Killsquad is one of those games that works as a solo game, but is better with friends. In this game you are a member of a Killsquad that is sent to planets to perform a task, whether it is to kill a certain monster, retrieve an item or collect resources. Along the way you have to fight off a bunch of enemies that will spawn and come at you. You take what resources you find on the map along with any credits you earn and buy new gear to make yourself stronger. Stronger gear allows you to take on harder missions, which lets you earn more credits to get better gear, ect. While the primary focus of the game does get repetitive quickly, it still works for this game.
Before you start a mission, you have to pick a character. You currently have a choice between a melee tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS and a ranged healer. I tried out the ranged DPS and melee tank and enjoyed both characters. They both felt different in their playstyles and I can see myself playing both of them depending on what my team needs. I ended up mostly sticking to the range DPS since I usually play tanks in other games like this and I wanted a change. My brother ended up taking the melee DPS but also said the same thing when he was trying out the ranged healer how different they felt. While it is stating the obvious that a ranged character and melee are going to play differently, the point we are making is that they feel different and competitive. That is important for a game where you may have to take a character you don’t like depending on your group makeup
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Once in the mission, you start moving towards your goal. As you are fighting waves of enemies you will earn DNA points which can be used to purchase mission only buffs from vendors and experience points which lets you unlock and upgrade skills. While you will lose your mission level and learned skills when you launch a new mission, this opens up a lot of flexibility on how you spec your character during missions. My experience is that there was no real wrong way to spec and you can really cater a character to your play style or the needs of the mission. You combine this with responsive controls and I would have to agree when the developer says this is skill oriented game play.
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I was surprised how well the game looks for an indie game. The game has some polish to it from its lobby screen to the planets you play on. I particularly liked the lighting effects used for the player abilities. The sound and music were also good, but nothing that stuck with me. While there is some room for improvement, I like the direction the game is going in the art and sound department.
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While I keep heaping praise onto this game, I do have some concerns. The game boasts about procedurally generated worlds which I can’t say I have seen yet. Every mission I have reran has looked the same and I haven’t noticed anything different enemy placement. There is an upgrade system for your gear, which feels out of place early on since you can just buy gear that is superior to anything you can upgrade. My biggest concern is how this game is going to manage solo players versus co-op play. While there is an option for players to join other player groups while they are in-mission, there are also going to be a lot of players that want to play solo. If the game isn’t balanced for those players in mind, they are going to end up alienating part of their player base.
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My brother and I had a lot of fun with Killsquad. Overall, I felt the game looked and handled well. I also liked the different playable characters and the way you progress your character's level. While I do worry about this game becoming repetitive, it’s par for the course with games like this. Also, with constant updates from the developer and a road map of content for the first half of 2021, this is one game I plan on coming back to often.