Post Scriptum

No, Squad 44 or Post Scriptum is not dying.
An honest review of the game and why I am recommending it.
V1.1 of the review
The Gameplay
Since I am someone who is looking at a game's gameplay first whilst considering its quality, I am naturally going to tackle this subject first.
While Squad 44 is a First Person Shooter game, it emphasizes heavily on the communication, coordination, combat awareness that a Military Game can provide.
In other words, no, you are not going to win because you have the most kills, but rather because you made sense of the chaos around you, you and your team, and took advantage of every opportunities that shown themselves during the battle.
This alone is really satisfying.
"But wait? Why don't you play Hell Let Loose then? Isn't it the same?"
Well no, definitely not, I am even arguing in favor of Squad 44 on the gameplay part (and as well in other aspects but we'll get back to it).
Why? Why am I asking this rhetorical question in the first place?
Hell Let Loose is indubitably Squad 44's direct active competitor when it comes to WW2 Milsims, hence the comparison here.
Hell Let Loose is a game I would qualify as very linear:
Each objective are devided in sectors, that implies a clear frontline, is this a good thing?
Well it's boring, simply put; Opportunities for flanking are really restricted and predictable from the enemy.
Hell Let Loose has too much of a Meta, hold this area, if you do not, you are bound to lose, and this is annoying.
There are a lot of other points to be made here, as in gameplay superiority Squad 44 offers over Hell Let Loose, but this is a review of Squad 44, so let's not get ourselves lost.
If you want to know more about my views on Squad 44 vs Hell Let Loose, let me know in the comments.
The art
I include in this section sound design, visuals, music, etc...
Squad 44 is a blessing to the ears, I mean it.
No other games made me feel stimulated and immersed in the current action of the battlefield as this game, it is top notch.
The MG42 sound especially takes me to another epoque, I can not stress this enough.
Not to mention the tank shell ricocheting.
As far as the visual goes, the game is gorgeous, the maps are beautiful and feel alive.
On the topics of maps, they are really good; They offer a lot of point of interests, difference in elevations to play with, and landmarks that can be taken advantage of.
Yes some of the building may feel empty, I never considered this as a problem however.
The game features appealing music, but it is not its main focus however.
The Community
So this is when the review tackles a bit of a problematic aspect, the main one I believe, the one that is cited by the negative reviews the most in my opinion.
The Community is not bad per se, or toxic rather, but it is lacking in quantity:
There are times of the day in which the game is simply unplayable
Due to a lack of player base, the game suffers from a chronic low state, in which no servers have enough players to play a full game, and is stuck in a "seeding" mode.
This to me is the main problem of Squad 44.
But really then, does that make it a bad game?
I think it is a far stretch to think so.
The Hope
This is section is a love letter to Squad 44, and a plea to the community, and interested buyers, to support the game by any means, or just by playing it even.
Squad 44 deserve more love than it is currently getting, not by the developers, but by the community.
I am optimistic that with good communication with the developers and the community, we can build a strong player base back up, and live a new era of Squad 44.
Conclusion
Yes you can play Squad 44, and you should if you are even remotely interested in milsims, but in full honesty you won't be able to play whenever you want, that's the only issue that persists to me.
I hope this review was helpful and satisfying to you.
Let me know in the comments if you want to know more.
Share your opinion in the comment too, I am interested!
See you people on the frontline.

Great game. It needs more marketing to increase player base and bring more people over from squad to finally start competing more with HLL.

Niche game - definitely flawed but still deserves to be more popular than it is. Worth buying if you want a WW2 milsim. Tons of content for the money: 24 maps (with variable weather/time of day), military units from 9 different countries, 102 playable vehicles, 160+ weapons, and many mods that add even more.
Pros:
- THE BEST TANK COMBAT IN GAMING (more detail later in review)
- Infantry gameplay is peak when your squad/team locks in. No other game hits quite the same IMO
- Most historically accurate WW2 shooter on the market, with the best sound effects/sound design
- Features WW2 theatres not seen in most other games (Battle of France 1940, Battle of Crete, Pacific theatre)
- 15+ more maps and 80+ more vehicles and weapons from various mods
- Active mod scene with battles from 4+ different WW2 theatres in development
- The most popular gamemode just got revamped - old stale meta has been replaced with randomized objectives, so every match will be fresh
- Passionate milsim-realism clan match scene ("PSRM" i.e. "Post Scriptum Realism Mod") with events every Saturday + Sunday (and some Thursdays). I highly recommend you try it out if you're interested in tactical combat in the fog of war, where every life matters. Bases of fire, suppression and maneuvering, coordination and pre-planning, desperately shouting critical info down the battle line trying to relay it to a radioman and up the chain of command. Lots of fun, if that's your thing.
Cons:
- No singleplayer mode, No PVE mode
- A microphone is basically mandatory. If you are no mic and in any role besides basic rifleman/medic, people will flame you for no communication. If you are a squad lead or platoon commander with no mic, they will also ask server admins to remove you from your role.
- Steep learning curve for new players who are only used to COD or Battlefield, and no tutorial gamemode. Newbies have to learn by asking questions in-game, watching youtube videos, or asking for help on the official discord server.
- Current game devs are contracted only to work on the game part-time so updates are slower than otherwise.
- The code base they inherited is spaghetti - a base of amateur modders hacking past old Squad game engine mod limitations, buried under layers of work-arounds by short-term temp coders under the previous dev studio.
- New updates almost always come with bugs. They're reported quickly and the critical ones get a hotfix and the majority of bugs are fixed eventually, but some still haven't been fixed.
- Optimization and performance has steadily gotten better, but you would expect a game of this age to get better FPS than it does.
- The game is very CPU heavy and runs far better installed on a SSD vs a hard drive.
- Playerbase is currently very, very small (but dedicated). COD/Battlefield players would look at the active server count and call it a dead game. I disagree, I can easily get into a full match any day of the week - but I also don't play at odd hours.
- NA/EU servers currently start emptying around midnight west coast NA time. AU/NZ players probably play on CN servers due to timezones.
- If your team has 0 experienced players the match will be a bad time, since inexperienced players typically aren't aware how to drop rally spawns for the squad, or do logistics to build team spawns
- There's salty and vocal old players with a hobby of complaining "game's been ruined/dead game/game should be reverted to how it was X number of years ago" everywhere they have an opportunity to
Tank combat highlights:
Imagine the fun, chaos, and coordination of each vehicle being crewed by a squad of players (like Hell Let Loose) but with variety, detail, and damage modeling similar War Thunder.
- Open your hatches to stick your head out for more visibility, and risk getting shot in the face
- Spin out of control as one side of your tracks get blown off
- Realize you've been screaming commands to a dead man, since the enemy's last shot penetrated your armor and killed your driver
- Deploy your smoke canister launchers and scramble outside to conduct field repairs
- Limp away from danger with broken gears in your transmission and a damaged engine
- Get disabled amongst enemy infantry and try to survive as they shoot out your periscopes and set your fuel tanks on fire
- Die as the fire burns you alive, or spreads to your ammo and your turret jumps into the sky
- Study the enemy and learn their armor thickness, weakspots, and locations of critical components. Practice ranging your gunsights and learn which ammo types are available to each tank. Master how to kill with one well aimed, armor penetrating shot to the ammo rack
- Angle your armor and watch enemy rounds ricochet
- Immobilize enemies with damage to their tracks, engine or transmission
- Defang heavily armored enemies by disabling their cannons or turret rings
- Or just decrew the enemy with a big gun and APHE. Empty tanks can't fight back
- Dominate the late war battlefield in a King Tiger or Jagdtiger, or the early war in a Matilda or Char B1
- Speed across the battlefield in Hellcats and M10s, or lie in stealthy ambush in a Jagdpanzer or Nashorn
- Roam around in an AEC scout car and detonate careless Tigers with a good flank and a single expert shot to the side
- Spew hellfire in a Char B1 flammwagen, Churchill Crocodile, or Sherman Zippo
- Lob rockets in a Calliope or Panzerwerfer, or rain death in an Ostwind
- Shred lightly armored vehicles with a .50 cal
- Recreate that scene from Fury, rolling up in a Sherman with hull and coax MGs blasting, a guy manning the .50 cal on the back the turret, and infantry trailing in your wake
Infantry gameplay highlights:
- Bayonet charge your enemies
- Ride into battle on the backs of tanks
- Jump out of a plane and parachute onto the battlefield, or fly gliders down to landing
- Attack beaches from landing craft that ferry you ashore
- Range your rifle to engage enemies at distance
- Become a specialist rifle grenadier, light mortarman, sapper, AT, marksmen, flamethrower, and more
- Call in strafes, dive bombers, paradrops, gliders, and artillery
- Dig up fortifications and prepare cover and defenses
- Build player controlled mortars, heavy MGs, AT guns, howitzers, 20mm flaks and 88s
- Manhandle AT guns into firing position, and then drag them back into cover
- Be deafened by the thunder of artillery or the roar of a Tiger's engine as it charges toward you
- Identify enemies by the distinctive sounds of their weapons, their uniforms, or by how they carry their rifles as they run
- Locate enemies by listening for footsteps, the rustling of leaves, the rumble of engines, or the squeaking clatter of tracks
- Toss bundle grenades, gammon bombs, satchels, white phosphorus, molotovs, frags, and smoke
- Plant magnetic mines on vehicles or charge them with the suicidal Japanese lunge mine
- Watch friends and enemies get shredded into a mess of flying limbs, or explode into a cloud of red mist
Lots of fun to be had in this game.
-----
If you made it to the end of the review I'll share a good tip:
You DO NOT have to sit AFK in the server browser/main menu when waiting in queue to join a full server (it's not Hell Let Loose). You can play a match or practice in ANOTHER server while waiting in queue to join the full one.
Just join the half empty or empty server from the server browser first. Once you've connected and loaded into the match, press ESC to use the server browser again and join the queue for the full server. Now you can play while the queue progresses :)

>Download Squad 44
>Have a great match, team is communicating and completing objectives
>Look at HLL playercount
>"Hmm, many more players, must be better"
>Get in match
>Nobody talking
>Can't bipod my FG42
>Can't freelook
>No bayonet
>Uninstall HLL and reinstall Squad 44
This game is so much better than HLL but its downfall is its playercount. Even still, the community I experienced here is far better, and I'd rather have 200 concurrent players who want to communicate and win the game rather than 3000 players who might as well be NPC's. If you are debating between the two, get this please.

After several thousand hours, I think it's time to share my opinion on Squad 44.
The game was once a gem for those who enjoy immersive gameplay. Unfortunately, a lot has changed over the years, yet not much. I still log in basically every day, but I'm chasing memories more than enemies these days. Unfortunately, the number of active players continues to decline, and free weekends don't change that much. I think the game is on its last legs, and the last survivors are hoping for a small miracle. U can play on 1-2 full servers in the evening but servers are basicly all empty in the daytime and due to the lack of new players u can feel the veterans loosing the will.
Despite everything:
All in all, it was the best WWII experience I've had in my long gaming career.
Sound 9.5/10
Gameplay 8.5/10
Graphics 7/10
Performance 6/10

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don’t look too long at it
☐ MS‑DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☑ Will eat 10% of your 1 TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ Replayability }---
☐ One and done
☐ Maybe after a year
☐ Worth a second run
☑ Played it 20 times and still not bored
---{ Microtransactions }---
☑ None
☐ Only cosmetics
☑ Slightly pay-to-progress (Supporter/DLCs)
☐ Pay-to-win
☐ More shops than gameplay
☐ Casino Simulator
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

I have played Milsims in the past. The best comparison in this case is obviously Hell Let Loose (HLL). But at this point I'd pick Squad 44 over HLL any day of the week. This is especially true, since Offworld took over, to update the game in terms of content and visuals. These Updates have been huge, with new maps and overall impprovements. Even with everything not being optimal, when it comes to performance, this game should have a bigger player base.
For reference I will compare Sq44 to HLL, not because I think one game is better than the other. I don't. Sq44 is just more appealing to me. They outdo eachother in different departements, but end up being different games within the subgenre of WW2 milsims. The comparison simply makes it easier for me to explain the specifics of Sq44.
Main differences to HLL:
1. Tactical gameplay is a more detailed in Sq44. It is not a big step up, but it is noticable. In comparison there are tweaks to every system in the game: map and sound design, game modes and tactical gameplay, character managment and gunplay. While not big on their own, these changes overall elevate Sq44 to a more challenging game. Let's say it is not called Squad . . . 44 for no reason. And it might make the difference for you picking one over the other or playing both HLL and Sq44 because they complement eachother for that reason. I wanna mention one thing specifically. Ultimately, how teamwork is appplied in Sq44 makes the biggest differnce: since only Squadleads can ping and they also only can build Spawn points with other players from their own squad (2 free roles or 1 specialist), teamplay becomes a must, way more at least than in HLL, where you can still do things on your own (which I wouldn't recommend either) in comparison. Since additionally the ticket system in Sq44 actually conributes to the winning conditions unlike in HLL, tactics will change during the game if necessary and medics are actually a more important role. And you can feel that while playing. Players are communicating a lot more, due to it being a necessity and the atmosphere is more cooperatrive, than in other squad based games.
2. Maps: Sq44 aims for realism and a slower but intense pace, on big, more open (but not empty maps); HLL on the other hand goes for dense maps and a faster pace. Both are valid approaches. But Sq44 maps are really big and beautiful maps They even went so far to recreate Iwo Jima 1:1. And I have to admid before Squad 44's Iwo Jima I never liked the asian war fronts very much. In Sq44 I love it and after seeing it in the playtest I am looking forward to Guadalcanal. The size of the maps makes the game slower, but it doesn't take away from the intensity of the fights. To me it feels more like a distinct and slow built up, until two armies meet in a deadly crescendo, while at the same time I am still awestruck, by certain views the game provides.
3. Graphics: The game looks really good with its own style. Here and there you can see that it is not as polished as other games. But not being polished does not mean it is broken. Not at all. But you can see i.e. in HLL, that some details are just done better and more polished. But even with its flaws, Sq44 is in a state, in which it doesn't have to hide at all and it really comes down to your preference, which style you like more. Technically graphics is the one department, in which HLL lies ahead of Sq44. But not to a degree, that it is not more a matter of taste than quality at this point.
3. Sound design is amazing and the best I ever have experienced in a war game. This is where Sq44 really shines. There are sounds in this game, I haven't heard in any other game. It is a little overwhelming at first, but one gets used to it pretty quickly. Especially, when you have played similar games before. But it leads to an atmosphere unmatched in other games, I have played. It is loud but distinct, awesome, really scary and threatening at all times, even when you are not in a fight yet. This is what I'd associate with being in a war zone. The only critcism for me would be that vehicles are already very loud, even when they are still far away, which makes it hard to judge, how close they really are. Otherwise the sound offers a lot of information, that I am missing in other games. To me this difference is so big, that it is hard for me to get back to HLL because it fades in comparison, while not being bad at all. But in this case greatness outshines a job, that is "just" well done. It really feels unfair to say this. But that is simply, how good the sound in Sq44 is, Period.
4. Effects: I'll make it short. When things blow up THEY BLOW UP, and it will take a long time until I get tired of seeing a tank getting ripped into pieces. I find them a lot more appealing and immersive than in HLL. Explossions and shockwaves are impressive. And the smoke resulting from these events has a real but authentic feeling impact on the battlefield.
5. Gunplay: Guns feel and sound really good as expected in this genre and animations are very detailed. It is a really nice feel. Due to the impact of stamina on weapon sway, the ranging mechanic and how suppression is handled in the game, it also offers a layer of complexity, I appreciate a lot.
The game has two main problems.
1. There are only two servers (sometimes three), with enough players at all times: one asian and one us server. But it means there is a player base and you are not missing out. It just means the game has no options when it comes to servers and play modes. Which is sad, because you will only see a limited amount of modes, the game has to offer. Hopefully this game gets more recognition in the future. It certainly deserves it and it would hopefully result in a bigger playerbase.
2. Performance is not optimal. I am not playing on a high end pc. So performance becomes more and more an issue for me. But I can get my 40 fps out of most modern games. Sq44 struggles with that and is an older game. If this is gamebreaking for you and you don't wanna mess around with settings, don't touch sq44. It is on the good side of playable and I don't mind. But in general it is a noticable issue and it might be for you, when you play on a lower graphics card (for reference: mine is GForce 1660 Ti).
Overall Squad44 is a very underrated game at this point, even when not everything is perfect. The updates within the last 1.5 years have been incredible and make it now one of the best milsim-fps out there. And it certainly doesn't have to hide behind any other, when it comes to ww2-themed shooters. In fact it is exceeding the competition in several departments at this point.
However I also think HLL and Squad44 are games in their own rights. For new players, who never played a game like this before, I'd still recommend to start with HLL. It is a little more forgiving, and still not an easy game. For everone else I'd say it is worth gaving both. especially since you can find Squad44 for a really cheap price. But in general I'd say that for me HLL feels tame but beautifully polished, while Squad44 feels raw, brutal and unfiltered. Beatles vs. Rolling Stones. It'd be ignorant to choose one over the other. You pick both. But forced into deciding for only one of the two, even with its flaws, Sq44 will be my choice without a doubt.