SQUIDS FROM SPACE

I'll be honest: my first instinct when I see a free-to-play Early Access shooter that hasn't had a developer update in over six years is to close the tab. Squids From Space made me keep it open longer than expected, though the reasons why are almost entirely gameplay-side rather than anything to do with the game's current health. The setup is an asymmetric 8v8 top-down shooter built around two very different factions. Humans bring shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, and dynamite bundles. Squids counter with disintegrating rays, freeze rays, and pilotable Crawler Tanks. The weapon feel is deliberately arcadey and top-down twin-stick responsive - not the kind of thing you're going to notice polling rate on, but the input response is snappy enough to not feel like a liability. Both sides can also loot the other faction's gear mid-match, which opens up some situational plays that keep the mid-game from feeling scripted. The resource loop is worth mentioning separately: teams collect materials scattered around the map, return them to base, and unlock better weapons as their score climbs. It adds a light action-strategy layer that stops this from being pure deathmatch chaos. The primary mode revolves around capturing the enemy leader - a human General for the squids to snag, or the Squid Brain for the humans - and dragging them back to your base without getting hit. Dropping the leader mid-run resets the carrier, which creates those genuinely tense momentum swings that make team shooters worth playing. There are additional modes including objective-based vehicle destruction, and matches run roughly 10 to 15 minutes, which is a sensible length for casual team PvP. AI bots fill empty slots automatically, so you won't be staring at a half-empty server - though the quality of those bot fills is another matter. Here is where the reality check comes in. The last developer update was years ago. The Steam community boards have recent posts about server connection errors and controller crashes. The player pool is thin. Bots are propping up most sessions at this point. If your crew is willing to coordinate a group buy and show up at the same time, there's a genuinely fun asymmetric shooter buried here - one that reviewers at the time compared favorably to Fat Princess in terms of its capture mechanic and compared in spirit to early Splatoon-era team chaos. Solo-queue, though, is a gamble on whether you'll hit real opponents or spend the round outrunning bots with a freeze ray. If you care about ranked progression, active matchmaking, or any semblance of a competitive ladder, this does not have those things, and the development trajectory makes it clear that it never will. What it does have is a clever asymmetric design, responsive controls, and a retro 1950s B-movie aesthetic that is genuinely charming rather than gimmicky. That's a real foundation - just one that's been sitting in amber since Early Access.

Fred · Scout Team

Shooters

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