Everyone has played Cops & Robbers at some point in their lives when they were kids. Half of your friends were Cops, the other half Robbers. And your annoying little siblings and their friends were the hostages because your mom forced you to let them play or else you were grounded. The rules were simple, kill all the bad guys and “try” to save the hostages. This childhood game has over the years been adapted into video games, abet with a bit more realism. KillHouse Games themselves made a similar game for tablets and mobile devices called DoorKickers back in 2014. It was met with such great success that they decided to create a follow up to the game in 2018 called Door Kickers: Action Squad for the PC. A year and a few months later and the console doors (in this case the Nintendo Switch) were kicked down and Door Kickers: Action Squad was released on consoles.
Insert Cops theme song
Unique pairing of tactical entry and side scrolling shooter- I‘ve seen a ton of pretty weird parings in my time of reviewing video games: visual novel paired with RPGs, dungeon crawlers paired with first person shooters, and so on. So when I first heard about Door Kickers Action Squad, I thought it was going to be a tactical shooter along the lines of SWAT or the older Rainbow Six games. Technically I was sort of right as the game was a tactical shooter, but it was a tactical side scrolling shooter.
Three modes, tons of content- Door Kickers Action Squad is divided up into three made modes: Infinity Tower, Classic Mode and Zombie Invasion Mode. Infinity Tower is the mode where you climb up floor by floor defeating enemies and releasing hostages. Each floor is randomized, so if you happen to die and have to restart, the enemy layouts will change each time. Classic Mode is the base game mode and Zombie Invasion Mode is the base game but with zombies spawning in the level. Zombie mode is a bit more difficult than the rest since not only you have to contend with the human enemies, but the zombies as well. And not only do they attack you and the human enemies, they will also attack the hostages so you will have to speed through to rescue them as fast as you can. Not taking Infinity Tower into account, Classic and Zombie modes have six episodes, with each episode being twelve missions long and two challenge episodes which add on win conditions.
Different roles for different play styles- Even though the game may be called Door Kickers Action Squad, characters do more than just kick doors. There are six team members in the game: Assaulter, Breacher, Shield, Agent Fergie, Recon and Off-duty guy. Each of these characters have their own unique gameplay style. Assaulter uses a mix of sub-machine guns and assault rifles that have sustained fire power and precision shooting. However he has terrible recoil, so if he goes full auto, rounds will start to fly everywhere and might hit a bystander by accident. Breacher is great at close combat with his wide assortment of shotguns. He can also breach doors with explosives, though if he’s not careful he can blow others up as well. Shield has the most armor of the group thanks to her ballistic shield. She can tank most frontal gunfire and explosives though she is weak against melee attacks. Agent Fergie is the FBI contact within the group and is a bit of a glass cannon. But she can roll to reduce damage, has strong melee skills, can dual wield pistols . Recon is the scout of the group. He is able to highlight enemies in darken rooms, can lockpick doors so they won’t hear him coming and is able to boost the damage output for the team. Lastly there’s off-duty guy. He was called in on his day off, which explains why he is in his boxers. He also happens to have the least amount of weapons to pick from, again he was called in during his day off, so he brought with him the carbine, a trapper rifle and a tricked out AK. Each of the characters can be leveled up with XP and that experience can be used to spec out their skill trees. Completing missions will earn them stars, which can be used to buy more weapons and gear. While you can force your way through a mission with one character (that’s me and Shield) it does take some thought into who to use in each situation. This is especially true when playing co-op. This makes it tactical and pretty fun to see how you will approach the mission with each character.
Buddy cop the game- While you can solo most of Door Kickers, there will be some parts of the game that make it difficult to solo. For example, there will be sections of the game were one of the enemies will grab a hostage and threaten to shoot her if you bust down the door. So the next best option is to try to out flank him without him noticing, which can be kind of difficult since he already knows you are out there and will kill the hostage if he sees you. Sometimes it will go well, but most often than not a hostage or two will get killed in the crossfire and ruin your three star run.
Which is why playing with a friend is best way to play Door Kickers. The game offers three ways to play co-op: same screen, online and LAN. Same screen is self explanatory: you and a buddy travel together through the stage taking out the enemies. The screen will only move if both players move in the same direction. This means that both you and your friend must stick together as much as possible. Online is also self-explanatory: playing with a friend online. Here though you and your friend have more freedom to move around the stage individually thus giving you more options in handling varrious situations, such as the one I mentioned before. You can distract the enemy while your partner can either go around back or crash through the ceiling. Lastly LAN is for on the go multiplayer, ie playing in handheld mode with a friend right beside you. I think this is the best way to play, as with your friend right besides you the two of you can come up with a plan and change things on the fly.
80’s synth style music- Synth wave music in the 80’s made everything sound gritty and futuristic. When applied to cop movies, it made the characters feel more tough, the situation seemed more intense and the eventual shootout even more heart pounding. The synth music in Door Kickers Action Squad harkens back to those years and it is awesome.
Cop movie references- Whenever devs decide on a very specific theme for their game, they tend to pepper in a couple of references from movies or games it shares its themes from. Door Kickers Action Squad is no different. Now the references are a bit subtle but anyone who as watched plenty of 80’s action cop movies will pick up on these. One reference for example is the infinity tower in the infinity tower mode. At first glance you may think, “It’s just a building, how is that a reference to a cop movie”? Well the tower itself is covered in Christmas decorations, one of the enemy character models looks like Hans Gruber so its safe to say that this was inspired by Die Hard. There’s a stage in one of the levels that has a police station under siege, hostages and detectives trapped in there. It might be a stretch but it kind of reminds me of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. Its really cool to see that the developers cop action movies of the 80’s as inspiration for the game.
We have a code 187
AI can be frustrating- As fun as it is to kick down door in Door Kicker Action Squad, the AI can be a bit frustrating. There are different enemy types that have different AI settings. For example, there are suicide bombers, guys with shotguns, ARs, knives, etc. There are even some enemies that will use hostages as human shields. Each of the enemy AIs react differently from one another. Now this isn’t bad, actually this is really cool. The frustrating part is that sometimes various enemies will rush at you, even the ones that are not prone to rushing in a crowded room. This leads to you spraying the room with bullets and after killing all of them you’ll find out that you accidentally killed a hostage or target. Having a second player helping you out can alleviate the frustration, until they start to become a pain.
Door Kicker Action Squad is a fun mix of tactical shooter and side scrolling platform that I would have never considered playing. With the three modes and tons of missions, there’s plenty of content to go through. With buddy, the two of you can choose one of six characters tactically and run though the mission with ease or just plow through with brute force like in most 80’s cop movies. All of this happening to some awesome 80’s synth beats. You will encounter some frustrating AI enemies, but that can be overcome with a friend by your side. If you’re looking to kick some doors down with a buddy and save the day from the bad guys with 80’s synth in the background, Door Kickers Action Squad is ready to be called.
