From Southpeak Games, Raven Squad gives players the opportunity to control one or two squads of three soldiers. While details on who these soldiers are and who they are fighting for and for what cause is still unclear, our brief playtest was more than enough to cement our joy at its style.
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How do you play? However you want. RTS fans can go through the entire campaign without controlling any of the characters in first person mode, and FPS fans can play it as a shoot-em-up as they see fit. Of course, the best way to play is to switch between the two, incorporating both skill sets and the advantages each style has to complete the given objectives and defeat the enemy.
The demo we played was simple and straightforward. An area was closed off and blue squad, controlled by us, needed to infiltrate that area and open a gate, and then progress. A secondary objective was to secure orange squad, though if the mission were played cooperatively, orange squad would have been controlled by that second player.
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Starting from the RTS view, from the top looking down, players can guide their squad(s) to areas or objectives. Click on a wall for your squad to move to cover, a building for them to enter, or an enemy to attack. Each squadmate also has specialty attacks, meaning one may lay suppressive fire, another may have grenades, and yet another may use rockets or a sniper rifle. There are six specialties in all, split among two squads.
So how is the gameplay? From the ten minutes we got to try it, both the FPS and RTS styles were well executed. FPS gameplay has fast paced action with relatively simple controls, and RTS gameplay allows for easy camera control and squad ordering. It became even more exciting when a second squad was brought into the mix, allowing one to flank while the other created a diversion.
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The best part of it all is jumping into any of the characters whenever you want and immediately taking down the enemies. It's a true tactical shooter, with instant information and full squad commands, without the hassle of cumbersome button pressing. At least, that's what Raven Squad feels like, and what we hope it will be.
As for multiplayer, the developers have told us that currently there is only cooperative play.
Raven Squad is set for release this summer for the Xbox 360 and PC.
