GROUND BRANCH

I have a soft spot for games that punish you for running. After spending time in GROUND BRANCH's 1.0 release, the first full version after eight years of early access development by BlackFoot Studios, I can say it scratches an itch that almost nothing else on PC bothers to address. This is a slow, deliberate, high-lethality tactical shooter built around the idea that a single bullet from any direction ends your run, and that peeking a corner without thinking first is how you go back to the lobby. If your read on Rainbow Six Siege is "this used to be about something else," this game was made for you. The weapons system is the standout. Forget the stat-slider approach that passes for gun customization in most shooters. Here, attachment placement is physical and consequential: push a scope too far forward on the rail and your sight picture shrinks; bring a suppressed long rifle into a CQB map and barrel collision will physically slow your movement through doorways. Mag pouches sit on your plate carrier where you put them, not where a UI designer decided they should go. The True First-Person system backs all of this up by keeping your camera at actual eye level, so your feet stick out of cover if you are not careful, and enemies can see and shoot them. That is not a gimmick. It changes how you take up position. Overwatch players complain about hitboxes; GROUND BRANCH players argue about height-over-bore when shooting around walls. Game modes support up to 8-player co-op PvE and 8v8 adversarial, with adjustable AI difficulty for solo sessions. The 1.0 update added a narrative skeleton, mission briefings, and a more structured solo experience that addresses one of the game's longest-running criticisms. The Workshop is live, which matters for longevity. On the negative side, the AI has been a persistent weak point throughout development and still draws complaints in recent community discussion. The 1.0 release polished animations, environments, and interaction systems, but some rough edges that trace back to early access remain visible, particularly in visual fidelity and AI behavior under pressure. Recent launch-window reviews are split: a loyal community gives it very positive marks overall, but the last-30-days window on Steam skewed negative around launch, which suggests either launch bugs, server strain, or the gap between long-term fans and newcomers hitting an unpolished onboarding experience. From a performance and netcode standpoint, the game runs on Unreal Engine 4 and is not particularly demanding, though server stability at 1.0 launch is something to watch. TTK is brutally short by design, which means net hiccups hurt more here than they would in a health-pool shooter. If you are looking for a ranked ladder with matchmaking infrastructure and seasonal updates, look elsewhere. This is community-server, find-your-own-squad territory. Workshop support and a committed niche playerbase help, but you will want a regular group to get the best out of it. Randos work in co-op; adversarial with strangers is inconsistent. The studio has communicated that 1.0 is a starting point, not a finish line, with substantial updates planned into 2027. That is either reassuring or a yellow flag depending on your tolerance for buying into ongoing development. The bones are genuinely strong and the gunplay is among the most mechanically honest in the genre. Whether the rest of the game grows to match them is a question that will get answered over the next eighteen months.

Fred · Scout Team

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