More Details Revealed About Squad's Early Access Phase

Offworld Industries' Squad looks like it very well could be the next big thing in shooters. The Unreal Engine 4-powered, 100-player tactical shooter from some of the creators of the Battlefield 2 mod, Project Reality, looks like it may even be able to rival ArmA in due time. The Early Access release is happening on December 15th and, as such, Offworld have seen fit to release even more information.

Two new factions have been revealed. The Russian Ground Forces will be available with both woodland camo and desert camo options. Their weaponry will be based on near-past and present weaponry that they use. They will be up against the irregular Militia, "a homegrown defense force with an eclectic mix of uniforms and weaponry."

In order to increase immersion and make the game more atmospheric, Offworld have implemented Simul truSky. truSky "generates weather system data and updates it in real time, provides a day-night cycle based on latitude, longitude, time-of-year based on the real world locales of Squad’s maps" for the utmost in realism. In the future, truSky may be used for real-time weather changes, such as rain and snow, and "dynamic volumetric atmospherics" and fog.

Rounding out the new reveals is a set of four new maps. Chora is "a dusty town of a few thousand residents." It features a "sprawling rural river valley and agricultural zone" that has been a conflict zone for almost a decade. Sumari Bala is "a literal maze of walled residential compounds, market complexes and alleyways" that is designed to confuse squads that don't prepare well enough. Fools Road is a remake of a map from the Project Reality mod featuring a "a huge graphical overhaul of the lighting and eastern european foliage." Trains and "rail-related statics" and "bunker/trench systems" will also be making an appearance in this remake. Jensen's Training Range is a small range featuring two close-quarters arenas for squads to train in. "Continuous updates for training scenarios" are planned for this map as community-hosted servers begin to go live.

For more information, head to the official website. You can still pre-order the game for $30 until tomorrow. It will be $39.99 when it launches on Steam Early Access on December 15th.