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After a couple of years in early access, Door Kickers 2 version 1.0 is finally out. I could let the number of hours I have speak for themselves but I believe the game deserves more than a few words. So here's my in depth review of DK2.

Organic, demanding, engaging, sometimes frustrating but always rewarding, Door Kickers 2 is a very special game with a unique, addictive gameplay and compelling mechanics that offers hours upon of hours of fun.
-Organic because the game feels very open and never holds your hand. You're never restricted in how you want to play or at which pace. There's no grid or action points. There's always more than one way to solve a problem. There is no clear-cut, right or wrong answer to complete a mission, and usually no two runs of a mission will be the exact same. No matter what squad you choose to play or how you approach a situation, the game never discourages you from doing so. Most of the environment is destructible and with the right tools you can create new paths through walls and fences. There's about eight different ways you can interact and breach doors and gates. Overall, the game's organic nature brings a kind of complexity and depth that's hard to find anywhere else.
-Demanding and engaging in the sense that the game is highly interactive and gives you a high level of control over your units : you manage and think from the point of view of every troop you control in relation to each other. Constant involvement from the player is required and there's always interesting and complex decisions to be made ; you have to deal with a lot of moving pieces. Whether it comes to gear loadout or squad composition, the way you approach a map and overall the amount of things to consider, the game can get pretty cerebral, to say the least. The vast flexibility of actions it offers makes for a meticulous yet engaging exercise in planning and experimentation. It offers a level of tactical and strategic freedom that boggles the mind with possibilities. The game also has a way of simulating the chaos and uncertainty of combat and makes the players think on their feet and adapt to changing situations. The overall experience can definitly feel overwhelming and straight up taxing in the first few hours, and the learning process can be painful, but it's worth pushing on.
It can also feel overly complex and micro-management intensive, especially in the begining, because everything happens on the micro level in DK. But I will say this : micro is the price to pay for precision and higher level of control. Now don't get me wrong, you can always throw your troops in a general direction and hope for the best, but in my opinion the game starts to really shine once you learn to manage your troops efficiently. For example, you will notice that bumping the muzzle of a rifle into a wall will make that trooper compress his gun. There will be a delay until he's ready and able to engage a possible threat. This second is enough to cost that soldier's life, and possibly the whole squad after that. This is preventable by adding one or two more commands to his path or by simply chosing a shorter gun that can manoeuvre better in close quarters. Precise CQB movement and more complex formations will also require more input from the player to be effective. There's a lot more situations like this where "micro-ing" will give you an edge in combat and these little things become noticeable with playtime. It might feel tedious at first but I can assure you that it gets faster with practice and playtime. Don't expect high RTS levels of click rates but it can get pretty busy especially since most actions are done with the mouse and keybinds are rare.
-Sometimes frustrating because the game has an element of randomness which in a way, I find to also be addicting. Arguably, it also adds replayability. You can run the same plan mutiple times and you'll notice that sometimes you'll win a gunfight, sometimes you won't. Want that clean run challenge where nobody gets injured at the end of a mission? It won't always be up to you and it won't always 'feel' fair. You don't do any of the shooting after all ( for the most part ). Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose. Now don't get me wrong, despite some things being out of the players control, the game is still very much skill based. Some people consistently suck at XCOM, others are consistently good. Are they just lucky? No, they understand the game and they're skilled at it, despite its RNG aspect. I'd argue this also applies to DK. You will probably remember the times where it was against you more than the times it was in your favor.
Weapon choice and most importantly tactics will give you the edge you need to win gunfights : it's about putting the odds on your side. The game makes you responsible for most of the actions of your troops and so it's completely on you to keep them alive. For example if you expect engagements to be at a certain range you can equip different weapons, scopes and ammunition accordingly or you can try a different approach. I think a lot of new players won't like this side of the game because it can make gunfights feel like a coin toss, depending on how you play of course. After a while, you are able to feel when you're going to lose or win an engagement. Also, remember that "chaos and uncertainity of combat" part? Well, this is part of the game. You either learn to enjoy it or you go back to playing chess like the nerd you are.
-Rewarding because almost every decision you make has a direct impact on gameplay. The game is challenging and the feeling that comes with finally completing that complex hostage rescue operation in a surgical way or a bomb defusal mission against all odds really is something special. It has that capacity to make you feel like a tactical mastermind when you finally overcome an obstacle by thinking out of the box and being creative. Or when you get that flank or that perfect synchronized entry into a building. Figuring out and overcoming some of the toughest maps the game has to offer is a unique experience that's hard to forget. I also find the game has a certain beauty to it when you manage to get perfect coordination and cohesion between your squad. Watching that feels like a highly choreographed dance when everything just clicks and flows.
Although the game might appear simple or casual at first sight for many, DK2 has quite a learning curve and skill ceiling. It is accessible and easy to get into but the more you play the more you'll find that the small things matter and have an impact on gameplay. The game has many subtleties and nuances but also depth that start to reveal themselves once you get the hang of it. I'm still learning little things and improving after my time in it. I highly recommend new players to not skip the tutorials and come back to it if necessary.
I have a lot more to say about the game but steam won't let me, so here's my conclusion.
When it comes to engaging tactical combat, rewarding gameplay and organic planning, it doesn't get better than Door Kickers 2. It's a dream game for me and there's just nothing else like it. Everything mentionned in this review makes for a compelling, polished, high quality strategy/tactical action game with insane replayability and hours upon hours of interesting gameplay and near infinite amount of content. It scratches that military-tacticoolness-door-kicking-CQB itch like no other game can and I still find it engaging, exciting and fresh everytime I launch it. CQB lovers, tactical masterminds and larpers alike will feel right at home in this indie masterpiece.
For a game made by a very small team I think this is a big success and something they can be extremely proud of. This title is an underated gem and I hope it will have a long life ahead. I can't recommend it enough.
Time to say goodbye. ( check my maps and my YT channel )

Door Kickers 2 is an extremely well crafted indie game that couldn't be simpler to work with. you buy it, install it, and that's all there is to it; no microtransactions, nickle-and-diming, no FOMO, nothing. you get the whole thing right away.
The whole thing, in turn, consists of a tightly crafted strategy game that somewhat blurs the lines between real time and turn-based combat in a similar fashion to FTL:Faster Than Light, with its freedom to pause the game at any moment to make complicated decisions or complex maneuvers involving multiple troopers. It's extremely approachable - you won't need crazy reflexes or gaming skills to play, all you need is a few braincells and the ability to click a mouse and a spacebar.
While this means the game is extremely easy to get into, it has a -lot- of advanced techs, tricks you can learn, nuances in equipment and trooper customization and more advanced strategies and maneuvers. The maps are often highly destructible, collateral damage and civilian casualties a frequent risk, and your opposition frequently is well entrenched, outnumbers your troopers, and has more than enough firepower to swiftly end your mission moments after you start the mission. The existing campaign structure does a good job easing you into more complex missions however, as early encounters only involve 2-4 troopers fighting less than 15 enemies on average.
Things swiftly start becoming more demanding and complicated once you start going for the various campaigns, such as Indian Country, which will frequently require you to navigate slums LOADED with civilians and potential terrorists hiding in every corner, sometimes ambushing you from blind spots, all while prohibiting simpler solutions like "throw a frag grenade at the problem until there isn't a problem" due to all the civilians in the area. Other campaigns include executions of prisoners, where being even remotely sloppy in your approach will escalate a hostage situation into a bloodbath where your foes start murdering prisoners as a deterrent. Other times, there are BOMBS primed to explode that you absolutely must defuse in time, placing a clear time limit on your mission. Some missions can be best described as "would you like to break into a bunker? would you like to do that IN THE FRONT? do you think that is a good idea? do you want to painfully learn why it isn't?" Other missions require capturing important VIP targets alive, a difficult undertaking when they will often be very heavily guarded and may even have an escape route available. Many, many scenarios exist and are available, from arresting dangerous criminals in the middle of populated areas to desert warfare to counter-insurgency operations to taking over enemy encampments or compounds completely full of hostiles and, sometimes, prisoners.
All these challenges, and yet you are given incredible freedom in how you tackle them. not only are you able to very granularly customize your troopers, going as far as how many ceramic plates they pack on their vest and what ammo variant they have on their gun, what optics, suppressors-or-not, grenade types and amounts, special tools, and so on, you also have enough trooper classes to arrange your squad into specialized sub-squads. You can also duplicate squads and customize them in completely different ways. Want a Rangers regiment for urban warfare? give everyone M4s, kevlar vests, some frags, some smokes, the occasional flashbang, include LMGs and sniper support, have a couple breaching charges and go to town. want a quieter, sneaky unit for hostage rescue work? make a second Rangers regiment with everything the first one has but its own loadout setup and just give everyone suppressed MP5SDs, exclusively equip them with smokes and flashbangs, consider sticking to raid-class armor (only including armor plates in front, so your troopers are unarmored to side or rear, but lighter and thus more mobile), heck, add spy cameras to peek under doors before stomping buildings, bring slap charges to breach windows and doors without accidentally killing hostages or civilians in a blast... All units have unlockable equipment options, which can also be cheated effortlessly if you don't feel like grinding things out, or lose your progress for some reason or another, all it takes is a little detour to the game's files and editing a text document on wordpad. It's very accessible, made entirely to let you customize your troopers to your exact needs...
...and that's not even all you can do, because Rangers are just -ONE- of the available units. Rangers provide you with well-equiped generalist soldiers with good capabilities and equipment, but you also have the Militia SWAT unit, a low-budget paramilitary force of locals that trades the modern gadgets and convenient firepower for SWAT shields, low-deployment cost of fodder units (which are actually very capable if placed and used correctly, militia can absolutely hold a chokepoint and provide safety to your better equiped entry team) and specialized sapper / EOD units with more destructive tools crammed in just two dudes than half the ranger squad can normally field. And if you want to be a sneaky subtle ninja, there's also the CIA, with undercover operatives able to traverse the map undetected, assassinate key targets quietly, and Black Ops troops with a great variety of gear and the firepower to either be a distraction for your undercover units to sneak by, or to work as an extraction team to recover your spies.
All these tools and possibilities available for you to put in use on the various campaigns the game comes with, from the intro/tutorial levels of FNGs Welcome to Indian Country, Deck of Cards, All the Way, and even a relatively robust procedural map generator that can give you hundreds of missions randomly generated on demand.
BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE.
you thought the game had all this content? I havent mentioned the part where it is MODDABLE AS HELL and has workshop support. By now there are hundreds of extremely high quality missions, ENTIRE campaigns and custom map packs made by the community, and with updates to the map creation tools it is common for more elaborate maps to include triggers, patrol routes, and as much (sometimes more) mechanical depth and nuance as official maps.
There's entirely custom playable units and squads, too, ranging from recreations of real-life armed forces to generic units to memes.
I'll take this chapter to give a huge shoutout to people like Levan, Brian, Briz, DBoy - and by now, DOZENS of others - who have been creating very high quality units and mods, such as Task Force TORO, the IoV collection which by itself has several times more guns than the original game and multiple playable squads, the Tier 1 Overhaul that adds nuanced guns and reworked functionality to default weapons and units as well as a black-ops team, the FBI HRT mod that gives you modern police forces and specialized SWAT teams, the Rainbow 6 squad with some of the most refined loadout options I've ever seen in a unit, unique mod tools such as custom fatigues and camouflages for your units...
The game has been refining itself for the past year and according to updates regarding future content, all such units will be conveniently useable directly from this very Steam Workshop, with the upcoming doctrines feature that allows you to customize behavior and techniques specific to your unit (so yet MORE customization and strategy opportunities) and an Ironman / Roguelike gamemode where combat losses carry over to the whole campaign.
If you enjoy strategy games, some milsim, and shooting games but would like a slightly more RTS-esque approach to things and a greater focus on planning instead of wierlding the gun yourself and clearing rooms in FPS fashion, I genuinely cannot come up with a lot of games that offer as much as Door Kickers 2, let alone for its price.

If you looked at this game's store page and thought it looked a little corny, you'd be in the same boat as I was when I first found out about this.
~150 hours later and I seriously cannot stop thinking about it. It perfectly rides the line between being accessible enough for anyone to get into and enjoy but has enough depth and nuance to its game mechanics for you to endlessly try to master. this game can get endlessly complex in its planning and execution, and there are 100 different things you can screw up, but not once have I ever been confused by any of the game mechanics. if you DO fuck it up, i often find it obvious as to what I did wrong, and you can always watch a replay of your failure if you ever desire.
If you DON'T fuck it up, well, lets just say I don't think I could ever put into words the satisfaction of planning a breach into a room and executing it perfectly. the pure feeling of watching your guys enter a room, and clear it of enemies with minimal resistance after figuring out how to approach it makes all the failure worth it in the end, if you ask me.
The tools given to you combined with the quality map design allow for a wide variety of solutions to a level, too. while some solutions are obviously better than others, I've never felt 100% railroaded by the game.
all this on top of an extensive set of modding tools as well, there's a bunch of modded units out there, and the custom levels I've played are on par with and sometimes exceed the quality of the base game.
HOWEVER.
I think this game's store page does not do this game justice, especially to people who aren't familiar to CQB Theory. I was in a similar boat.
I am not a police officer, I am not current/former military, I have seen a couple real life CQB training videos online but I have never truly "understood" it the same way one who does CQB professionally might. even with the limited knowledge I had before hand I was still put off by this game.
It wasn't until I watched some YouTube videos of someone narrating their thought process while playing that the game truly clicked for me. If I never found those videos, I don't think I'd have bought this game.
If you are at all hesitant on your purchase, I strongly recommend that you go watch videos of people who are good at this game, and are able to explain the decisions they make. If you still don't "get it", then I'd say to hold your money for something else.
TL;DR, 10/10, makes me wanna close the blinds and clear my house with a Nerf gun