Door Kickers 2 Task Force North - A Superbly Realistic Tactical Experience

Door Kickers 2 Task Force North is probably the game that I was anticipating for a long time in the FPS genre, but eventually, I found it somewhere else. I had already marked a few upcoming top-down tactical shooters in my calendar, but apparently, I was missing something bigger. Door Kickers 2 is a project that would’ve gathered hundreds of thousands of players by now if it was seen.

Before talking about the game itself, let’s talk about what we could expect from an isometric tactical experience with a special focus on single-player missions. This way, we can evaluate the game much better.

What You Should Expect From a Tactical Game

Tactical games are all about having a plan. It’s not like Doom Eternal. You can just rush in and tear your enemies apart. Depending on the level of realism, tactical games mostly require you to think, and maybe think twice, before doing anything stupid.

It’s like story-driven games, where you are given different options, and following each one could result in a different outcome. In tactical games, it’s your actions that define the outcome, and the number of options depends on your creativity and smartness. You already have the tools to get the mission done, you just need to figure out how and when to use them. And everybody could figure it out in his very own way.

What is the Shining Star of Door Kickers 2?

Now, in order to make it happen, to let everyone has his own experience, the developer needs to figure out the requirements of a multi-dimensional level design. This is the part that Door Kickers 2 excels at. Level design easily distinguishes itself from any other aspect of the game.

Each mission has a high value of replayability, and most of the time, replaying missions over and over is the key to success. Door Kickers 2 is not an easy game. You can just earn the best score in your first playthrough of each mission. Depending on the situation, you need to figure out so many things, and sometimes, you just don’t have enough time to think twice.

Up to a point, you have to replay missions since you need to get the hang of the map, but after that, you replay missions on your own choice since you want to get them done with a flawless plan. This is a great achievement for developers, and it’s all about mastery in level design.

How You Play Door Kickers 2

Despite featuring brief visual guides for each one of the gameplay mechanics, it might take you several tries to get the hang of controls and character abilities.

Before the beginning of each mission, you can choose your squad from four different classes, each with its own weapons and abilities. Since the games try to remain as realistic as possible, don’t expect futuristic gadgets or cutting-edge drones.

Once you finished picking up the squad, you enter the planning phase, where the gameplay starts. You will have full control over every action of each soldier, except for shooting. The soldiers will shoot at enemies once spotted. This might sound disappointing, but don’t get me wrong, this is the actual realism.

In missions, you can’t get any intel from a certain location on the map unless it’s on the direct sight of one of your operators. While the location of hostage or objective remains the same, the behavior of enemies might change in each attempt based on your plan.

In such a situation, you can’t really control shooting in the game even if you are given the tools. Also, remember that Door Kickers 2 is a strategy tactical rather than a shooter tactical.

Before ordering the squad to start the mission, you have the ability to plan the whole mission till the end, or just set some initial tasks, or do nothing and just hit play to evaluate the initial position of the squad. Hopefully, the game allows players to pause the mission at any given time and add new tasks for each operator or edit the previous ones. You can even change or add tasks in real-time while operators are going according to the plan.

The planning options are always active for you. You can breach reinforced surfaces, peek through doors, throw grenades, flashbangs, or smokes before entering an area, and have the other operators cover an engaged soldier. You can even control a soldier’s aim and order him where to look while moving.

What is Available in the Early Access Phase of Door Kickers 2?

Currently, the game features 50 stages, each representing a unique map with different objectives. The scale of maps grows as you progress through the stages. While the initial missions might feature small maps with three to six interiors areas, the final missions feature a whole consulate under the control of terrorists.

The game features both single-player and co-op modes at the moment. However, playing it in co-op with random matchmaking is almost impossible as finding a match with a relatively small player base could take hours. So, if you want to play it in co-op, you’d better have a squad already.

Furthermore, the game features a map editor that allows players to create their very own maps and missions and share them on Steam Workshop with other players. Another factor that adds high replayability value to the game.

What New Content the Game Will Receive in the Full Release

The number of missions will be doubled in the full version and more operator classes will be available as well. Below, you can check out all the planned content for the full release of Door Kickers 2:

• Approximately 100 Handcrafted Single Missions, most of which can also be played in 2-4 Player Co-op Multiplayer
• Almost 20 missions handcrafted specifically for Co-op play
• Mission and location generator for unlimited gameplay
• Steam Workshop Support
• 3-4 Playable Units / ~8 Trooper Classes with new gameplay options and styles
• over 60 weapons and pieces of usable gear
• Night missions, infiltration, disguises, and undercover work
• 12-16 Enemies and NPCs including disguised insurgents and Third-Actor Spec Ops and Agents
• New locations and environments (Oil Installations, Military bases, Embassies, Famous Missions, etc.)

Door Kickers 2 Task Force North is now available on Steam for PC in the Early Access phase. The game doesn’t have an exact release date for the full version, but it’s expected to fully launch in the first half of 2022. You can get it now for $19.99.