Meridian: Squad 22 Preview

Real Time Strategy games are a more niche genre recently so it’s nice to see a mini resurgence over the last couple of years. Meridian: Squad 22 is the sequel to 2014’s story focused RTS Meridian: New World by Elder Games, a one man indie studio, that is currently in Early Access.

Squad 22 has a focus on base-building and from the off evokes StarCraft and the later Command & Conquer titles with both its colourful aesthetic and its approach to the campaign narrative. Squad 22 currently has three game modes: Campaign, Squad Missions and Conquest.

The game’s campaign has you controlling the eponymous Squad 22 as they investigate the disappearance of a crew of colonists after humanity’s first attempt at colonisation leaves no trace. Missions are strung together via interactive intermission sections where you control the main hero and talk to and otherwise engage with the squad. It sets up some interesting character drama and the cutscenes that are currently in-game look pretty good!

On the subject of looks, this game is gorgeous, for the work of a single guy the production values are off the chart, the art design and direction are really nice with suitably futuristic looking buildings and vehicles sitting really nicely on the lush grass and desert terrain. They have a nice amount of neon glow and the units all have a consistent look. One concern is that the infantry/soldier units tend to blend into each other a little and don’t have a huge amount of visual character.

The game itself does throw in some unique ideas of its own: some missions have you make an actual choice in-game that drastically alter how they play out and let you experiment with different playstyles a bit. Squad 22 also plays with some light RPG elements too: around the map are canisters that enable you to unlock new units and abilities rather than having them tied to building progression. This forces you out of the comfort of your base and makes you engage.

The other modes are also interesting in their own way. Squad Missions are unique missions where you have a specific set of units and an objective, recover a drone using just three stealthy infiltrators, for example. There aren’t a lot of these currently but they are a fun diversion. Conquest, however is a much bigger time investment.

In Conquest you are presented with a view of the planet with a selection of hexagonal zones, each zone is a procedurally generated skirmish/mission with the idea that you work your way across the map to the red endgame mission. There isn’t a lot of structure to the generated missions so it does come across as a little bare but there is a lot of promise here. This kind of almost meta-campaign potentially adds a lot of replay value and as there isn’t a dedicated skirmish mode this would be where you spend a lot of time once you’re finished with the campaign.

Squad 22 does have a few issues in this Early Access state, controls in particular could do with some love, shortcuts for jumping to buildings or immediately being able to queue certain units would be nice to have for example.

Meridian: Squad 22 might not revolutionise the RTS but it seems to be shaping up to be a good all round title and conquest mode has the potential to be a great, great thing. It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on if you are a fan of the genre!