Door Kickers – Top Down SWAT

I watch anxiously as my officers break down the door to gain entry to the house, guns at the ready. Following the path that I’ve set for them, they slowly approach the entrance to the living room. They pause. One of them takes out a flashbang and tosses it into the centre of the room. A blinding flash of light enveloped the room, accompanied by a loud disorienting bang. The officers move into the living room, taking down the incapacitated suspects with precise shots, saving the hostage that was about to be executed. Our job here was done.

Welcome to Door Kickers.

In Door Kickers, you’re put in command of a SWAT team that is deployed to tackle a variety of situations ranging from hostage rescue to serving arrest warrants. At the start, your team will be limited in terms of equipment and classes, but as you play, more options will be made available to you.

There are two main modes in the game, Campaign and Single Missions. Single Missions are where you can practice your tactics and familiarise yourself with the game without any drawbacks. In Campaign mode, however, if any of your officers are killed and you choose to continue rather than restart the mission, they’ll be treated as KIA for the remainder of the campaign. But fret not, you can get them back if you complete the campaign or reset your progress. Iron Man mode is also available for those that really want to put their tactics to the test.

Gameplay wise, it’s like a top down version of SWAT 3 or 4 with the planning mode from the earlier Rainbow Six games thrown in. You can play the game entirely in real time mode or meticulously plan out your entire game plan before hitting that big red “Go” button and kick down the door. If you run into an “Oh, snap!” moment, don’t worry, you can pause the game at any time to react to the situation.

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At first glance, the game might seem simplistic and straightforward, but as you play the game, you might notice details that reveal a deeper tactical element to the game. Officers armed with long rifles are unable to raise their weapons if they’re standing too close to a wall. Officers that are stacked too close to one another may result in the rear officer’s field of fire being obstructed.

If you have knowledge of CQB tactics or fighting in urban environments, you will be pleased to know that you can utilise those tactics in the game. With a bit of work, you can make your officers “slice the pie” when clearing a hallway, doorway or window or have a pair of officers lock down an entire corridor while the rest of your team clears the room adjacent to them.

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As you play the game, you can unlock more classes and equipment that will give you more options, allowing you to experiment with different ways of tackling a mission. You could have two officers that are of the Stealth class, making their way silently through the back door and attempt to secure the hostages before your assault team breaks down the front door. Alternatively, you could go with a frontal assault led by a pair of Shield officers, drawing fire from hostiles while your other officers take them out. For every successful mission that they come back from, your officers will gain experience and their stats will improve with each rank up, affecting their overall performance during missions.

From the second campaign onwards, the difficulty will go up as you start dealing with more elements that complicate your mission: tougher and better equipped enemies that are a step above the unarmoured pistol packing baddie; racing against the clock to secure all of the evidence before they can be destroyed; and planning for more complex mission layouts which can have multiple levels. No pressure, right? All in a day’s work.

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Door Kickers also has Steam Workshop support, allowing you to download new maps, weapons or even gameplay overhauls to enhance your overall experience. If you’re interested in getting your hands dirty and making your own content for the game, there’s an inbuilt map editor which you can use to create your own maps and share them on the Steam Workshop for others to try.

For non-mappers, there’s a sample mod that you can check out to see how does it all work under the hood. If you need more information, you can check it out here – http://inthekillhouse.com/steamworkshop/

Overall, Door Kickers is a good game, but it’s something that I’d recommend to play for short periods of time as there isn’t an overarching story or anything and the game might become repetitive for some.

There’s been talk about a sequel, but there hasn’t been much news from Killhouse Games so far, though they have released an action spin-off called Door Kickers: Action Squad which I might take a look at another time.

TLDR: 1-2 Player top-down tactical game where you take command of your own SWAT team and take on various situations. Officers can level up and more tactical options unlock as you play.