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SWAT snipers and shield troopers bring a touch of class to Door Kickers

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Door Kickers’ latest update leapt it closer to the game it’s promised to be since it began its Early Access alpha. You no longer have varying degrees of rookie to play with. Instead you have five different trooper types, a levelling system, and an offsite sniper, always ready to headshot a bogey.

The five classes added in alpha 8 cover a broad spectrum of play and you’ll likely want a team made up of a mix of the fellows. The Pointman, for instance, is a fast mover and quick to shoot. Great to lead the charge except for his light armour. The Assaulter is good at medium to long range, happily holding down an open space but not so good in corridors. The breacher is who you want in a tight spot; they’ve powerful close quarter damage but they’re loud and naff at a distance. It’s your Stealth trooper that you want when hostages are at stake. They’re who you want leading a flanking maneuver.

Finally, the Shield. This chap carries a wall of bullet-soaking metal. Walk him down a corridor and all in front of his bastion are ineffective. He can’t shoot for sausage, though.

Separate to the classes you can control in the level, there’s a new off map asset, the sniper. Available to call in from time to time, they can headshot enemies sat in cover. Saving your troops the trouble of risking death out in the open.

There’s now also a levelling system in place. The levels don’t yet mean anything but in time they will be linked to perk unlocks.

Door Kickers is pouring whisky on the graves of SWAT and Rainbow Six, honouring their hardcore tactical shooter memories. I fell in love with the game when reviewing it and every update since has only strengthened my affections. If you like the sound of rescuing hostages using a team of fully-armed badasses then go pick up a copy.

Here’s the full change log:

Features:

– Shield trooper class

– Snipers (off map asset available in select missions)

– Windows

– Troopers gain XP and advance in rank (though nothing to do with that, yet!)

– Better enemy AI + pathfinding

– Added “open replays folder” option + replays file name

– Improvements on trooper control

Fixes:

– Trooper statistics are no longer updated after watching a replay

– Less sounds overlapping in replays

– Stealth Class no longer kicks doors

– Silenced weapons are no longer heard through walls

– Flashbang target no longer resets to default when setting a gocode

– Fixed a bug where a dead trooper would not be replaced

– Fixed a bug where completing HostageRescue on a mission with more than 1 rescue zone would not end mission

– Fixed playing “Aborting” sound after shotgun-breaching a locked door

– Fixed a couple of crashes, tweaked some stuff and in general improved the game in too many ways to mention here.