The Tumultuous State of Squad in 2024 

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Summary: Shots 1-5: Clearly missed. Shots 6-9: Missed due to recoil (bad spray control). Shots 10-11: Very close, but recoil and inaccuracy make these reasonable misses. Shot 12: Likely didn't actually fire because Slorgs was already dead.

Squad is the game where i had both my best ever, and worst ever first person shooter experience. When it's great, it's the best and most immersive thing in the world, with group of people communicating and cooperating with each other.... and then the next round you end up with people that just run and gun... then it becomes the worst...

Consider how illogical it is for a game named *"Squad"* to lack a built-in party matchmaking system that enables you to consistently team up with your group of friends. It's utterly absurd.

My relationship with squad for the past 7 years has been .... complicated

What you describe is the PR experience doe. Wait in a queue, fiddle around till round ends, rush to join 1st mic inf squad etc. I’ve found once I get into a good squad at the beginning of round then Each game after is fine.

I'll grant you that the M249 should be more controllable even when standing. The recoil and sway is a little ridiculous for a gun that was specifically designed to be used both from the shoulder and the bipod.

If any of you had actually shot a M249 SAW you would know the recoil is not even close to being that bad. It’s like fucking butter. Even standing it’s nothinggggg like it is in game.

to everyone who doesn’t like ICO, seems like a skill issue to me

Bf3 reality mod is pretty good if you can handle 10 crashes per game

The only thing I don’t like about this game unfortunately is a large amount of the people who play it. It feels like I have to get extremely lucky to join a server that has competent squads. I feel like the majority of the time it’s squad leaders who don’t talk or start a squad and leave after 5 mins. I’ll be SL every now and then but I just get so tired of it and want to play other roles.

This is also happening to Battle Bit. The lead dev basically wanted it to be Roblox Project Reality, but once it went live it turned into the sweatiest team death match furball with no teamplay and a strict meta. He was bummed. Now they're redoing the game, I think for the better, and the already 95% reduced player base is bummed and going to leave. The genre in general is kind of weird. If its TOO strict and "realistic" it makes the appeal very narrow, so most milsim games chill it out a bit, but then sweaty metas happen and the milsim dorks leave. Then the sweats get bummed when a patch turns it back into milsim.

"You cant blame battlefield players for playing the game wrong" Oh yes I can, yes I absolutely can

The biggest problem with ICO is that it did not achieve anything to improve gameplay. Run and gun still exists, lone wolfing is still easy, and the loop of spawn shift+W die repeat is still alive and well. Vics dominate pubs now, MGs are garbage, and point firing is inconsistent at best, unusable at its worst. And for all those who wanna say “skill issue”, save your breath. I heard enough of that back when ICO was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I recently got back into squad after a couple months off and I’ve been sticking to the Global Escalation mod. After the recent update it received, I find that being able to hear the enemy voice chat is a much better way to encourage teamwork than the ICO. If you are spread out with random players not in your squad, the only way to communicate is using the local chat, which the enemies can hear. This encourages sticking to your squad so you can communicate in squad chat without the enemy hearing what you are doing.

Squad definitely is not perfect, but the biggest problem are the players. I have been playing the game for quite a few years and put almost a thousand hours into it, had plenty of great, even matches lasting for hours and in the end one team winning by just a few tickets. Getting games coordinated and played well and seriously as that is quite rare though, big reason are all the new blueberries running around, the people not following commands, wandering off doing their own thing. Servers with the "Experience preferred" tag should be able to filter out players with a total play time lower than X hours. Something like that would probably make more matches more bearable.

My biggest issue with squad is that no matter what server you are in and no matter what squad you join or even create yourself, at least 4 out of 9 players in your squad will be completely numb for the entire game, unwilling to talk or even just do call-outs. Even when you are a Squad Leader, most of the time the only thing you will hear on your command channel will be crickets sitting in the fields of Yehorivka

This is exactly how I’ve been feeling about squad. It’s so tough because squad has given me gaming experiences no other game has topped. To me, Squad is at its best when played as a social military roleplaying sim between two teams that build defensive positions and cooperate with other squads to achieve strategic goals. Squad is really not about kills, or who wins. The most fun comes from the organic and extremely dynamic ‘set piece’ battles over objectives. When both teams fight in realistic and coordinated ways it creates some unforgettable experiences. Sadly over time the player base changed and it’s became less and less common. These days it’s normal that one team will not build a single HAB and get steamrolled.

One of my favorite things of Squad is loading up to the Server browser, seeing 10 different servers with the same few map rotations with a queue of 20+ meanwhile there's plenty of servers with simialar ping that are at 30 people... that and running into someone who is trying to play COD (he had Squad and COd opened and played both)

There’s only two things I wish they would reel in a bit on the ICO. Reduce flinching from single shots from infantry using rifles. Because sometimes it feels like you exchange rounds (if firing at each other at range) for a full minute till someone luckily lands a hit. Like a flinch battle. And reduce or remove having no sight picture after running and aiming. It’s not fun dying after aiming and seeing a black scope. Just have a heap of sway or something, but no sight picture just doesn’t feel good.

I like what ICO tried to do. But I feel it's all just a bit too much, the noodle arms piss me off too much. Every weapon has too much sway and recoil and the jump from laser beam pre-ICO to grapeshot post ico makes me not like the game anymore. It's all just about bearable until you move 15m and can't hit past 25m without a tea break. The game is getting a little better but the massive inaccuracy you get in CQB and then the new damage nerfs again makes it more frustrating than satisfying. This is just my opinion but in a lot of ways, it's the most unrealistic realism update ever.

ARGENTINA MENCIONED QUE CARAJO ES UNA ECONOMIA ⁉⁉⁉‼🗣🗣🗣

Im hurting that you don't mention Insurgency: Sandstorm as a modern accessible tactical shooter. Game is super fun and it fills the void that battlefield, squad and Hell let Loose have left in me.

"There is only CoD, Battlefield, and Squad" Mate there was Insurgency Sandstorm and WW3. They're not as big but they fit the niche of displaced BF players. There's also BF3's Project Reality in the work and that's what I'm waiting for.

Us people who like squad and the ICO, it is our duty to play often as SL, which is the most important role of squad. It's better to have a great SL than great teammates. So we shall lead by example and offer to others the best teamwork based squad experience possible. Surely it'll need some courage, but we can't hide among the masse of soldiers hoping for better SLs.

My favorite thing about squad back in the day was how kind of.... boring it was? You would walk like 10 kilometers with your squad, talking and joking around, and then when you finally saw an enemy, it was basically like the most heart pounding exciting thing. Now its just so action packed and convoluted. It definitely feels like its becoming what it meant to counter- which is battlefield.

Wait, you used to actually be able to hit what you’re aiming at in Squad? I first played squad, I now realize, almost immediately after the ICO update. It wasn’t a bad game, I had fun, but it didn’t captivate me because it felt too hard to get into, and this is coming from an avid Arma player. The guns made me feel like I was a toddler trying to control a magazine of overpressured ammo constantly, trying to figure out where the hell the fighting was confused me, and so many players kept dropping in and out that I kept ending up as the squad leader of a full squad of seasoned players who are screaming at me to give orders and place stuff down. I want to love Squad. My brother loves squad, my friends love squad, but I just couldn’t.

Once upon a time there was an organized "tournament" of sorts for BF2 called 21st Century Warfare. Players could sign up for different factions and compete across a larger map. Each week the leaders of each faction would essentially play a game of Risk and every weekend their teams would go head to head to claim that piece on the board by playing custom BF2 maps. I want this for Squad.

Hey Slorgs, love the content. I don’t know if you do much squad leading, but if you do, I encourage you to try locking your squad at 5 players and seeing what the experience is like. I’ve been SLing for a long time and have become kinda tired of the game because of the player base, but all of the times I have had fun is when I’ve locked my squad at a ~5 player count and told my squad that we will be doing “special ops” work, building flanking habs, ambushing vehicles, hab hunting and various other mischief. It really is easier for people to get along when there aren’t so many bodies to manage

I complained about this update until I joined the CAF and saw that aiming a weapon is not like a run and gun game.

I think they really need to focus on having digestible and comprehensive tutorials for new players, various roles, and game modes. This will improve player retention and the quality of the playerbase if executed properly.

Wish this game wasnt as popular. It used to be way better when it was a smaller community with more serious players.

The Devs in squad have never shot a gun and it really shows. Run 20 feet and you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn according to squad devs.

yo this editing is FIRE 🔥

Now its been a few months the ICO has really saved this game completely. Firefights are so much better now, teamwork has increased and matches feel like a real battle a lot more.

I have split opinions on the ICO. I have over 3000 hours on Arma, so keep in mind I like tactical shooters. I understand the need to slow down gameplay, it is a tactical shooter. But on the other hand, it feels artificial. I do sympathize with the counterclaim of "if you were running full speed for half a kilometer, you would be tired as well" but the shooting is simply not at all realistic. I am by no means a "tacticool" shooter who goes out to shoot every weekend, but I can shoot guns more accurately than the trained soldiers in Squad. I think the issue of the ICO comes down to nerfing individual impact so severely, that it feels artificial. A trained soldier would have better gun control than those in Squad. This is where I think the majority of anger comes from. It isn't hard because it is "realistic" but is instead hard to punish players who would otherwise have an outsized impact on the game. For full transparency, pre ICO my squad of friends were always easily dropping 100+ kill games as a squad of 3-5 individuals. Now, having 100+ kills is an outlier. This isn't because we play full Battlefield and run and gun, it came down to superior tactics and positioning. But because the ICO punishes individual impact, if our squad gets suppressed or countered at all, everything falls apart. This encourages what some call "blueberry balls" where in order to do anything, you need the entire team. As controversial as this idea is, I think the solution is reverting mostly to pre-ICO gunplay, but keeping the suppression. In Squad's current state, the gunplay feels artificially punishing and incentivizes behavior that is antithetical to the real purpose of the ICO. I know this comment won't change anything, but I really care about this game and would like it to revert to a state that rewards individual skill more. We all started as green and unaware, but the ICO seems to have put a ceiling on one's potential growth as a soldier in the game.

A year ago this is exactly what you wanted and supported for from project reality adamantly. Now to see you speak against it, gives me a chuckle.

The main issues with the game: 1) the server browser is ass, and the lack of a group matching system is ridiculous 2) the players, people don’t play the game like a team, or really for the proper objective, you end up with people all over the place, small groups running around out in the middle of nowhere, because they don’t care if they die

"proning in a room, staring at a door" Yes, guarding the secret toilet entrance on Kashan. A youth well spent. But you've also brought back memories of that deviation mechanic PR had for like 4 or 5 years. It had its problems, but it was the first time I'd seen machineguns be truly useful in an FPS. Up to that point, you could seriously argue they were optional and people picked them up by superficial preference, but after PR got the deployment mechanic down, they were as important as LAT kits and medics.

I like the recent reworks to gunplay. It's getting me back in to the game after a long break. The ico was overkill but now that I can actually steady my aim it's much more enjoyable. I also just built my third computer in hopes of seeing decent fps in the game ever again and the 165 fps breathes some life in to the experience.

That recoil in the opening clip looks like recoil for the sake of recoil...damn.

i love squad i have some amazing teams and then sometimes theres the squad leader who says nothing until 15 minutes in and asks whats our favorite movies, someone answers star wars and squad leader says "thats not valid answer you should have said something less popular" and no one talks in squad chat until the squad leader leaves and everyone starts celebrating... this feels to be more common that a good squad leader unfortunately

“provides authentic combat experiences through teamwork, communication, and realistic combat.” My ass, if infantry held their weapons like with ICO, we’re either malnourished or all severely injured.

they should bring back 2 versions of the ICO where its hardcore and one where it is normal which would be the current state right now

Played arma my entire life, harcore for life ACE mods and all. Had my eye on squad in my library for the longest time(with 1hour played in 4years), and finally jumped the ship during the ICO test servers, been playing almost a whole year now and i dont see myself stopping anytime soon

What pushed me away from the game was it ended up being nothing like the game Karmakut played. Servers were awful and the roles were also awful. I hated joining a server as a new player, being forced into a lead position and having 10 people screaming orders like it was Afghanistan. That and it just felt too arcade like. We’d spawn, walk for 10 minuets, die and then have to respawn and walk again. A lot of the time I would just take my headset off and play mute because I couldn’t stand the toxicity. Shit was like a 2010 CoD lobby. I’ve had good games sure but mostly bad experiences so I haven’t played in quite a while.

I'm Squad free for two years now, but I'm glad that basicly nothing changed: -The Devs still fuck up the game in each patch. -Every squad player is always on the hunt for the next perfect match. -And new players are still the worst.

The main thing I took away from this was that I was mistaken that PR ended due to a cease and desist from EA lol.

Honestly, the longer time goes on, the graphical differences between squad and PR2 seem to flatten out in my eyes.

All ive gotta say is there are a million and a half arcade and semi-arcade competetive shooters on the market, it would be cool if we could just have ONE SINGLE realistic pvp shooter where I can crack open a beer and hop in a queue of an ongoing game

On point as usual. For what it's worth your production quality is absolutely through the roof, honestly the tightest gaming content I've ever watched. I spent 6 hours editing a 2 minute video, so I know what I'm talking about.

There have been many PVP shooter games that have tried to balance high skill players against low skill players WarZ (infestation survivor stories) at one point had so much weapon bloom that you couldn't fight anyone outside of sneeze range Battlefield 3 jacked the weapon bloom through the roof on every automatic unless you put a bipod on Insurgency Sandstorm jacked the muzzle flip on all semi-auto and automatic weapons where firing a 5.56 carbine has more muzzle jump than a .50bmg M82 would IRL Escape from Tarkov made automatic useless outside of sneeze range by cranking the recoil to 11 for a number of years (they've recently fixed it) Call of Duty will actively change enemy players hitboxes if you're doing too well while also making YOUR hitbox bigger for everyone else Red Orchestra has exaggerated weapon handling that artificially nerfs skilled shooters And now Squad is following suit by making dog shit recoil tweaks What I'll never understand in their pursuit of "making everyone happy" is why not just make a separate mode where the casuals who suck at PVP and just want to dick around a sandbox occasionally shooting at someone can play in peace in their own separate corner of the game? It'd be easy to make realistic playlists and casual playlists, make the realistic one actually have realistic weapons handling so the core audience of said tactical shooter isn't driven off because the devs caved to the casual timmy who doesn't think it's fair that someone should be able to kill them from 100m away. It's beyond frustrating to be super into a "tactical shooter" just for them to randomly be like "Oh, hey, sorry, uhhh, we're going to make this completely unrealistic now because too many players cry about not being good at the game but for some reason still insist on playing it" If the main focus of a "realistic" shooter is the gun play, and you fuck the gunplay to somehow be less realistic than Call of Duty, then you've failed at making a "realistic shooter", people like playing "realistic shooters" because they want to play with guns that handle/act in a realistic fashion, people don't want to play with guns that feel like hot garbage when the game is said to be focused on realism. Casuals will come out of the wood works to say stuff like "it's for balance" or "you just want star wars laser beams" or "I have no idea how guns work but I think my opinion on them from playing a couple video games is that it's almost impossible for someone to control a 5.56 in automatic". Ok, that last one was made up, but still, fucking beyond frustrating what casual gamers are doing to the mil-sim space.

The ICO was absolutely wonderful to me. This is one of the only games I have where guns feel like tools and not toys. I am absolutely furious about how this game barely runs on my computer anymore somewhere around the end of 2022 though. Consistent net lag caused by cpu bottlenecking that results in me teleporting out of cover and also getting 30 - 50fps at both minimum and maximum graphics settings.

When i play Squad i do play similar as you do, i even go fully into character so i feel more immersed (this is coming from a run and gun cod player), i haven't tried the new update since i've been playing other games recently, i might wanna try it out to see how it feels

i think the next step is simple, we dont need to pray that dice and ea pull it together for squad to be good, we just need new player onboarding that actually exists and doesn't hinge on experienced players passing down knowledge. in public servers, any role that isn't the rifleman and medic should be locked until a tutorial is completed. building on that, you shouldn't be allowed into the crewmen seats of heavy vehicles until you complete tutorials dedicated to those, and so on.

The big problem , is not the ico by itself (for sure i also hate this noodle arms ) , its the vets , who have left the game because the hate this update . Just tweak ico and the gameplay will be a way better when both sides , the ico lovers and the haters can play the game .

I wonder if Squad needs to do something like what War Thunder has, and have an arcade and realistic gamemode. Arcade would appeal to the players who prefer the Battlefield style of gameplay, while the realistic would give the players who want the OG Project Reality experience.

Dude you nailed it on the head when you brought up bf 2042. I had no interest in playing Arma but wanted something as close to bf3/bf4 in terms of weapons and scale. With dice digging its own grave and letting down the Battlefield community I then searched through the steam library and finally discovered the Military Sim genre through Rising Storm 2 Vietnam and Hell Let Loose but those games left me wanting more team play mechanics. I bought squad back in December and I’ve been having a blast (when you can find a match with good squad mates). I stick to the “focused” servers most of the time to increase my odds of better quality matches.

I really like ICO. It turned the "sniper" fest into something more team based. It is far from perfect, I agree, but thanks to this update it even managed to re-convince my friends to download the game again. They claimed they had fun because "They can finally move and not get shot the moment they leave cover". Gun mechanics could still probably use some tweaking but as of my latest Squad session, I had nothing to complain about besides people. I cannot express how much I agree with the statement that players are mostly responsible for the quality of a match you will have. It is a constant issue of people wanting to be on the offence, driving straight to the objective, die to a vehicle, do not build HABs to spawn on and then complain the game is shit. Listen here, this is not Battlefield or Call of Duty. Logistics are actually important here. Game by game I ran into the same issue, no FOBs. Quite literally a few weeks ago, the only reason why we managed to hold the flag is because I followed some advice on how to build such FOBs; radio far away from the HAB. And man did it work, we managed to turn the game around. So to sum up, unless people change their mindset about the game, and try not to rush face first brains later into the enemy, then they will always complain that Squad sucks. I love this game, it deserves love and work. ICO improved the experience for me overall and nothing anyone says will change my mind.

Squad is my favorite game because of the ico

From an arma player, i dont see the issue in the ICO, squad currently is more similar to the arma series than battlefield, yet people haven't adjusted expectations

Here's the thing though, man... I'll be 25 in a month, been playing on PC since I was 15. Why did I get a PC? Project Reality, Civilization V, and Arma 3. Squad's ICO has utterly failed in ALL categories as far as I am concerned, and if I ever play the game it's with the Global Mobilizaiton mod or whatever it's called. "It's bringing back the PR feel!" some say. I say "Where?". The sway is egregious, the gunplay atrocious, and everything just feels like an RNG simulator. Now the devs are adding a new PMC faction with new weapons like the MP5 and I just have to laugh. Why bother? Weapons are pathetic in this game. PR actually felt good to play, and STILL does to this day. Squad feels like a constant fight with the game itself rather than the enemy. "It encourages teamwork!" Lol. Just lol. "Go back to Call of Duty!" Lolno. I have no interest in pathetic skin shooters, but I do expect a shooter to have gunplay that feels good. Rising Storm 2, Battlefield BC2/3/4, old Squad, even FREAKING TARKOV OF ALL GAMES have or had better gunplay than this absolute disaster that is the ICO. Funny enough, Tarkov can be a Hella crazy team experience. Rising Storm 2 can become a mind-blowing struggle or absolute curbstomp if there is teamwork. Even Battlefield titles of old had insane matches I remember fondly, particularly Battlefield 3 when one could VOIP across the entire team of 32 people (which was nuts when everyone got excited). These games, they encourage teamplay through various OTHER ways besides turning everyone's weapons into some sort of weird player influenced-RNG-fest that is downright unpleasant to try to play. Tl;DR: Squad is shit now. I will die on that hill. It is pathetic, the fact it has microtransactions even moreso, and the game could have been so much better with only two features from the ICO being kept/added, those being the movement-based accuracy and the suppression effects. The sway and other BS was unnecessary and murdered the gameplay.

The thing about the ICO update is that it's not about the gunplay, the suppression is great, you get shot at you put your head down and try to work with your team it incentivizes teamwork it's great. People that don't like it just don't communicate with others well and are the same people that are silent in game and get mad when they get gunned down when they go off by themselves.

The main reason games nowadays don't have direction is that they try to pander to everyone, rather than focusing on a core playerbase. There's a reason why ARMA 3 is still the king of military shooters, cuz there is freedom to tailor the experience to a core group

ive played squad since before vehicles, (yes, we had to run everywhere) The ICO is a great update, but to increase teamwork, why not give bonuses for staying within your squad mates? like reduced suppression while with your squad? increased suppression for shooting towards same target etc, increased stamina etc, I feel like that would actually directly reward teamwork.

The problem is that squad already had the most weapon sway of any mainstream shooter before ICO was even released. Many of the players are former military so they are well aware that the games weapon accuracy went from a fair representation of an average shooter to afghani shitter (hold rifle over head while squating and go full auto) levels even if you had your stamina at max, bipod deployed, and were zeroed. It's simply immersion breaking and unrealistic. This is why most of the ICO hate comes from project reality/squad alpha players while people who like it are mostly those that came from battlefield. I am not sure why Slorgs disagrees, this is what the Devs themselves said in a softball interview with moidog. To be fair the devs have toned it down a LOT but I still often see players with low stamina not merely be incapable of hitting moving targets at 20 meters but legitimately recreating the rooftop shootout in Naked Gun 2 1/2 (seriously youtube it if you don't know). On the plus side I honestly haven't heard anyone complain about the suppression mechanics in game. Overall it is the best part about ICO along with the improvements to optics. Simply put the devs wanted to slow down gameplay and discourage solo combat engineers from destroying habs and infantry from running through open fields into machinegun nests. They did not succeed. This game is a unique experience because it encourages teamwork and lets people build defenses. The devs should be encouraging the strong points of the game, not punishing the players because some people aren't playing "The right way".

As someone who is familiar with firearms, shooting using scope and a small bit of combat (via airsoft), I think I can say that even tho everything was not trash with that update, the ads time, time before the scope goes from full black to actually visible (scope alignement), ads stability especially when prone, are stupid and not realistic, anyone with basic weapon handling experience and skill knows that they exagerated it a lot, and everytime I play that game now, I feel like I'm playing a toddler barely able to hold the gun. I can't talk about suppression or recoil, since I'm not used to firing semi auto 223 and obviously to getting shot at with real guns + I think the recoil and suppression are not that bad (maybe recoil is a bit exagerated, 556 feels more like 762/308), but the scoping in general is trash now, as a sniper main, I feel scammed... People saying that it is just a skill issue are denial/don't have experience with guns. When you fire a gun, you hold it tight to manage the recoil, in a game, this is should be simulated by moving the barrel out of it's original line of sight, not through moving the scope outof alignement because there is no way to controll that in a game, it should be assumed that the character is actually able to manage recoil so the scope don't goes full black at every fucking shot

I don't know who the hell is pushing this mechanic( besides suppression) that ruined combat in the game. Interestingly, the ArmA series itself doesn't have this mechanic and never will. And you know why, because it was done by actual ex-soldiers who understood weapons and other things. At one time, my friends who go to shooting ranges wanted to buy a squad before ICO, but when ICO came out, they completely lost interest in the game because they thought the aiming mechanics were completely stupid. I go to shooting ranges and I find the aiming mechanics unrealistic. If anyone thinks it's supposed to improve squad communication they're sorely mistaken, the thing that's changed the most about squad is the suppression of gunfire and aiming, nothing else, maybe more lone players.

in before people start to write essays about how ICO sucks

The Infantry overhaul completely fucked the gameplay imo. I re-DL'd just to play the update and found I couldn't hit shit past like 10 yards with quick shots. I'm not opposed to slowing gunfights, making movements more careful, increasing reliance on squad members, etc., but when I can't hit shit at 5-10 yards while reacting to contact, it gets a little shitty.

This is a very good video. I'm a Squad lover, I see someone sharing their vision and opinions towards Squad, no matter if as praise or critic, I like it. I'd also like to share some of my own insights of the game as well; About that first part of the video, it called my attention that I've saw countless of times here in Rio de Janeiro, heavily trained soldiers in the favelas missing a lot of medium range shots. There's even examples of that in TV News videos and even on the internet. Because there's stress, real-life war is not what you do in a shooting range. It's funny some people think it is when argueing about it. Sometimes you're killing 9 guys in a row, like a god, at other times, you are missing a whole magazine on a guy and might still miss the kill. If it happens in real life, it can happen in a game that aims to reproduce this stress. Hence why the ICO. The idea isn't necessarily to reproduce reality, but to simulate it as best as they can by forcing us to actually try to think on how to stay alive in the game, how would we feel on being shot at with high caliber guns, the adrenaline makes us not think straight, maybe not even see straight, and the survival instinct makes us go down instantly. But not to forget, this is still a game, it has it's limitations, so it must enforce this balance somehow. i.e.:The suppression mechanic is meant for this. But the game actually has a very simple infantry mechanic if people pay attention and try to understand it, instead of just W+Shift running tiredlessly out of stamina and not taking cover. There are plenty of details (you're definitely gonna have to deploy to have the multiple precise shots you want with a 7.62mm Machine Gun), I've actually made a whole 4 hour livestream about the basics of Squad on Twitch, and the video is still there at the VODs but unfortunately, it is in brazilian portuguese, since the community I play is the brazilian one. (might come eventually with an edited and subtitled in english video for RU-vid) But I also play in the international servers and I notice the same problem, the new players struggle, But when they are properly taught, they become amazing players. I've taught a lot of new players since launch, and I've been doing that ever since Project Reality back in 2007. It is possible, playing Squad with quality, coordination, communication and have fun while doing this, if you follow the game's "formula" to the heart. In my opinion, if a person is not interested in playing Squad like that, this person is never going to unlock the true potential of what the experience in the game is meant to deliver you. Of course, it's not a rule, hence why they set up tags such as "New Player Friendly", or "Casual", or "Experienced Preferred", which denotes the Server intention with the players. I'm sure older players don't give af to this, but new players usually come asking me what exactly does this mean and if this is relevant... Anyway, in the end, the problem with Squad nowadays is that a lot of people don't try to understand what the game is truly about in it's core. And some simply don't want to accept it, they just like it visually and want to do whatever he wants to, and ends up frustrating himself by the administration of the servers enforcing general rules that helps the game work. For this, we have to thank the whole community, for following and respecting the recipe that the developers and the older players have set up way before them. I think there's a lot of games that delivers the fun that some players want to have in Squad (and they end up not really having it because they can't handle the infantry system, or keep themselves from frustratingly dying or not playing together feeling lonely), Call of Duty, Tarkov, Arma 3, and some newer games that are being released at Steam. My endgame here is: A lot of people disliked Infantry Combat Overhaul while, in truth, it saved Squad's original purpose. New players must try to understand what this game is about and try to align they playstyle, otherwise they might never really be as useful in the game as they can be, and they might never discover how fun Squad actually is, even more than the fun he might be having just shooting a gun pew-pew. Most new players, those that didn't catch the ICO change, actually don't have this notion; of how the game was before, so they are pretty much enjoying, and that translates in the increasing number of players. (I never saw so many servers getting 30 to 100 on queue to connect). About the "failed" part in 9:05 I heavily do consider that we, veteran Squad Players, people who enjoy the game, or those who comes from Project Reality... We have the responsiblity to teach the new players all we can, in order to enhance the quality of our own game eventually, that's how we built the Project Reality community almost two decades ago. That's what we've been doing, and that's how you do it in any game with the complexity that Squad has. This is what I think.

Well put. Hope the sponsor is happy

I have zero interest or care for people who don't like the ICO update and want old Squad back. This was exactly what Squad needed. This is not CoD or Battlefield or Fortnite or whatever lame-ass shooter you play. This is a game developed by war veterans in order to give a more down-to-Earth feeling of a military shooter and simulator. This game is NOT meant to reward the quickest flick of the trigger or the fastest turn on a corner, it is supposed to encourage teamwork and communication. If that's not what you are looking for in a shooter, then go play another one.

I’ve been playing GEE far more than vanilla just because OWI dropped the ball with the ICO. Idk if you remember me, but I played the ICO with you during the playtests way back. I had my gripes but I overall enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because I had thought we’d have another 10 to 20 playtests to sort out the mechanics. But no, they dropped it after 7 or 8 tests. It needed tweaking badly. Coupled with the fact that most squads just don’t talk, the ICO has unfortunately left me with a sour taste for squad. It didn’t fix anything it set out to accomplish in any meaningful margin, the communication is just as awful, the gunfights instead of being short and fast firefights, are two guys randomly spraying in each others direction hoping to hit the target. Suppression is nice and so is the PiP scopes, but everything besides that is just un enjoyable.

Coming from somebody who kept playing PR and heard about squad only during it's early CoD-ish era... whatever you call this ICO thing - it looks amazing, ngl. I think they should adjust sway and recoil abit cause they're way too exaggerated, but overall it looks so good, especially those tiny neat details like at 10:42 - it took few seconds for you to get a hold of your weapon and adjust the aim sight. I can say for sure that they clearly didn't try to appeal to anybody with this, because... well nobody in his right mind would like it. It really gives off this feeling of a feature that a really passionate gamer would make if he had all money in this world. You know, without those seconds thoughts like "would people like this" or "will people keep playing the game if we would implement this" and honestly I can only respect that.

OWI held multiple play tests for the community on the test version of the game to get feedback for the ico. And the feedback OWI got from these play tests where overwhelmingly positive. The people who don't like the changes are most likely Battlefield players, and are a small vocal minority. So for them I hope the next Battlefield game is good.

Anyone defending the ICO should have gone and played a different game. ICO ruined the game and it got review bombed for a reason. Not only is it not realistic but it isn’t fun. Please someone try and defend it. Why do you like it over the original game?

great editing on vid my guy

I had 600h in this game , found bunch of friends , participated in clan vs clan tournaments. 6.0 killed it. Most of the huge clans stopped playing same as mine, from stable 20 friends playing the game , barely 2 or 3 launch it. 6.0 made armor more op , several maps became unplayable cause 1 single m2 suppeses tonnel and noone can hit it back. F for 5.0 we will never forget u

I’ve been playing squad since alpha 14.1 and I still love the game. Been one of the only shooters I’ve put ridiculous hours into along with Insurgency (The first one), Arma 2, DayZ, and Tarkov. I’ve loved the ICO update and hope the game continues this direction. I’ve recently gotten into Arma Reforger but it’s not the same, I love both for different reasons.

dang, what squad are you playing, here in Canada (or mabye just PST west coast servers) squad always has quick wait times and most of the time (sometimes) has good team work (Squads still barley work together though

i particularly loved this analysis, felt like i was watching someone from top gear explain whats going on with Squad in 2024

i think games should be fun, and for the normal person rn squad isnt really fun at all. we had this problem of coordination before, but not this bad and in seemingly every match. i get the dark souls mindset but it really is boring to play sometimes even when im in combat. sometimes i cant do anything no matter whats happenign because i had to sidestep, or it takes 5 seconds to even see anything through a rpg scope cause those things are "soooo heavy". I honestly think this chasing PR mindset isnt a good one, Project Reality really does bore me to tears. P.s. I dont think battlefield is to blame for all of this, i think the lack of using ur brain as a infantryman and playing off rng is. I mean as i said teamwork was more alive before.

In reality I have had some of the best experiences in Squad ever, but they can't be re-created every single match. I haven't played in several months but I think I may go back for funsies just because I am hankering for some simple voice chat related tactical fun. I had pretty good luck almost every match I was in, regardless of what squad I ended up in or what team I ended up on, it just took a little bit of communication to get the ball rolling on having a squad focus on a specific objective or goal, even if command wasnt relaying orders or if your SL wasnt doing it. Only one person really needs to take the reins and guide the squad to lead a charge or hold down a position and it can quickly turn into a PTSD simulator, especially if you are on defense.

You forgot to mention that Squad was alot more social back in the alpha days. There was no vehicles, so you were forced to spent litterally 15-30 minutes running before encountering enemies, depending on map size. Meanwhile, you could talk and even bond with your squad mates. Seems boring maybe, but communities were created because of it. You also valued your life alot more in the game. Who the hell wants to spawn at main and run that far again, if no rally point had been made. Overall everyone had a more defensive play style. As an SL you actually really thought about the survival of the squad when making a plan

The saddest thing in the world is that all this Squad players calling themselves veterans have never experienced all this emotions that Project Reality gives... And have no idea what this game should have been... All of them was playing wrong game for so many years because Squad devs decided that they are smarter and can go their own way.

Nice video format my dude

Nicely said, thank you for expressing some of our player's thoughts

So as mentioned I've just started playing this again and so far this hasn't been my experience at all. I've chosen servers that are close to full but no wait because I'm impatient, jumped in a squad only to find them all chatting away and explained I'm fairly new. I think you've massively overlooked your own role and other content creators in boosting the numbers in the game. For instance, you and Operator Drewski are just two RU-vidrs that jump to mind creating interesting content around military shooters - I saw your video, subscribed and reinstalled Squad. So in short, this is all your fault Slorgs 🤣

I saw company of heroes in your library and instantly knew you have fine taste

Hmm yeah I tend to agree. I am one of those people that can get on the mic and rally together a squad of random players, even if I have to text chat to do it too. Two problems: 1) I'm way out of practise, my map knowledge is non existent and my tactics unrefined to begin with are rusty. I only know some basic basics. 2) I don't have the energy anymore. Legit the only reason I'm not playing Squad is a lack of social, mental and physical energy. I'm not a good leader, but I have the skills to get started. I'm just so tired. So, so tired. Edit: reading the comments I remembered I also have no patience for the toxicity anymore. That's the truly exhausting part.

Slorgs, I've been watching you for a quite a while now! Been watching you for a quite a while now! I've got the game a few weeks ago and I must say that I made the purchase largely due to the ICO I've been watching your content for the first person experience And MoiDawg to see the general team vs team experience The combinations of these two gave me an idea of what the game was like prio ICO and I didn't really want to try it out But afterwards I've noticed how ludicrous team--work and strategy had become And how crestfallen individuality, runnin-n-gunning and ticket wasting had become It became the game I've always looked for, but never found The numbers speak for themselves and the ICO had given us more proof that the angriest people are the loudest While the most happy, grateful and contempt are the most silent I want to break the silence and say that I absolutely love the game now, got it for a few of my friends and we've had great fun playing and working together towards victory. Squad needs to advertise itself as a team based game in order to provide the encouraged team work experience I've been watching you for quite a while now Thanks

The people that run the servers have also become toxic, banning people for no reason among other things

I like the ICO, although I was disappointed at first. Its that thing you come to appreciate with time. I think the magnefied scopes could be adjusted a bit so sight picture could take half a second less time to acquire and see better around the scope, as anyways you can keep both eyes open when aiming, no need to have the whole scope body hiding half the screen like the ak74 scope do. Red dot sights are fine right now and so are iron sights.

I would like to like squad and would like to get into squad. But after shooting so many guns irl. Guns just feel floppy, and bounce way too much with recoil, and have almost triple the recoil of guns irl. The time I did play squad, I was left with people who didn't ever communicate. And it just felt like I was running around all the time, and never actually doing anything at all, nor knew what was going on. Or what I should be doing.

"wof wof wof... wof wof... yeah, he is a dog" you killed me there. 🤣

The amount of competent players started to reduce with A10 Aka "ICO lite" which OWI tried to fill in the gaps with constant free weekends and sales, until they back peddled with A12 to try bring some vets back. Then constant back and forth and no real direction of where they were going kept veterans slowly leaving and then kept bringing in new players with sales, which also added more frustration to the veterans already dealing with the constant bipolar game shifts. Then full release happened with the free weekend an sales with it and massively exploded the player count, making what little vets were left, being outnumbered 10 to 1 by the noob horde, causing more vets to stop playing. Then the ICO happened, again with sales, and more noobs and more vets leaving. Now the playerbase is made up of few veterans on copium hoping more tweaks come, a few 40 year old PR old heads trying to relive their larpers wetdream from their youth and a then a huge horde of noobs that just frustrate everyone. It's nothing to do with Battle Field and it's players, it the decision making of OWI and the constant bipolar changes causing their veterans to leave the game.

the infantry overhaul sucks. in fact it was so bad that the leader of the official discord server publicly bribed others to give good reviews in order to receive leaks and other rewards. which goes against steams rules. if youhave a game where you have to bribe people to give positive reviews youve got a bad game.

Every time I've tried to hop back into the squad, it's been a crapshoot as to if I can get teamates which actually want to work together and try to win. Very frustrating experience with how long matches can last.