Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger Hands-On

If you want to kill someone during a military campaign, you’re usually restricted to controlling one soldier from a personalized perspective or playing commander to a legion of troops with a view from above. Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger combines these two different play types, letting you switch between real-time strategy and first-person shooter with a touch of a button. We had a chance to play through one of the levels today and came away with a better understanding of how these two different styles work in tandem.

The level we played through took place in a jungle, with trees lining the dirt-paved road that we slowly worked our way down. There were also fallen trees that we could take cover behind, serving as the only defense against our enemies. There are two different squads of three troops each, and you can play through the whole game cooperatively with another player or have the AI control the other team. One specializes in infiltration, so they have quieter guns such as a sniper rifle as well as nonlethal grenades like the flash bang. The other squad focuses on assault, and they have much more powerful weapons. Rocket launchers, SMGs, and the deadly, explosive grenades are in their arsenal, so you can choose which squad you need based on your play style and the objectives you need to complete.

When played from a first-person perspective, it controls very much like a standard military shooter. Caution is the key because you can die from just a few gunshot blasts if you aren’t careful, though hanging away from the action for a few moments regenerates your health. You can crouch behind obstacles to shield yourself from enemy fire, toss grenades into a group of bad guys, and line up a headshot with your iron sights. Movement is restrictive, though, and you often can’t veer far off the path because trees block your way. Given that you have three people in your squad, you can switch between them at will, which gives you access to a wider variety of weapons. Also, because you can switch characters while one is reloading, you can fire almost continually at your enemies without fear of the dreaded reload pause.

You can switch to an overhead perspective by tapping Y, and the transition is smooth. The camera zooms out from the eyes of your character up above the earth, which makes it easy to adjust to the shift. From here, you can move a cursor around the map to scout the best way to ambush your enemies, as well as issue orders to your troops. The commands are limited, but it’s easy enough to issue them. You can point toward a spot and have your troops either walk, run, or crouch over there, and they will automatically fire at any hostiles they come across. By putting your cursor over an enemy unit, you can give your troops more specific orders, such as tossing a grenade. The real-time aspect isn’t as in-depth as other games in the genre, given that you have only three troops to control and no way to build up a base or get more resources, but it works well enough.

The objectives are standard issue for military games. We were told to clear out an enemy encampment, cross a river, and board a helicopter. The gameplay in Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger isn’t unique, but the combination of two established genres is. Stay tuned for a final verdict when the game comes out later this year.