It's been a while since I dove headfirst into a milsim, but Offworld Industries' bid to revitalize its WW2 spinoff of Squad makes me want to clear my calendar. Post Scriptum (2018) has been fully acquired by publisher and Squad developer Offworld Industries, who's slapped on a new label that better reflects what you're getting: Squad, but set in 1944.
But it's also been substantially updated. A huge patch yesterday added two new factions (the Greeks and Aussies), a map, seven weapons, and a bunch of balancing changes.
- New map: The Battle of Rethymno
- New factions: Greeks and Aussies
- New weapons: Brixia Mortar, FN1922 pistol, M1895 pistol, Männlicher 1903 rifle, Männlicher 1903 carbine rifle, Männlicher 1903-14 rifle, MLE 1874 rifle
There's already some positive buzz around the update—Squad 44 is enjoying its highest player count in years. It's also worth noting that Squad 44 is a rare FPS that isn't set up like a live service game—there's no battle pass, no premium store, and no plans to charge players for new maps or factions. At least, not yet.
Squad 44 is, quite literally, the Squad experience with a WW2 spin. Despite being originally developed by an outside studio called Periscope Games, Post Scriptum was a Squad game all along: players will recognize its near-identical UI, logistic systems, and similar weapon handling to its modern-day counterpart. The game never quite took off in the same way Squad did when it released in 2018, and later got outshined by another WW2 FPS: Hell Let Loose. Under Periscope, Post Scriptum hadn't seen a single update since early 2023.
Now Periscope Games is out, and seemingly disbanded. Offworld, possibly busy building out its Starship Troopers co-op FPS, recruited Mercury Arts, a team founded by members of the Post Scriptum modding community, to take the reins of Squad 44.
The rebrand could also signal the start of Squad 44 becoming more like Squad going forward. After years of promising no paid DLC in Squad, this year Offworld introduced paid cosmetics in hopes of keeping Squad's development well-funded. If you know the crowd that enjoys playing milsims daily, you could guess how immediately unpopular that decision was. But it seems like Squad's player base has adjusted, and I bet Squad 44's players will have to do the same at some point.
Squad 44 is available now on Steam.
