Side-scrolling, door-booting, and criminal-annihilating, Door Kickers: Action Squad is sure to fill the “I haven’t blown anything up today” hole that is burning through your chest. With couch and online co-op, you and your partner can blast through terrorist-filled house after drug-lord-filled house together. Just don’t expect anything deeper than east to west shooting.

BREACHER UP!

So you’ve decided that enough is enough, and you’re tired of all these tactical, realistic shooters. You just want to boot the door in and deploy some pure justice. Door Kickers: Action Squad is coming in hot! This recent title is the successor (definitely not the sequel) of the 2014 Door Kickers, developed by KillHouse Games. While the original Door Kickers was a hardcore, top-down strategy in which you control a Special Reactions Team (SRT) or a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, Action Squad takes the arcade co-op approach. While tactical thinking isn’t absent in Action Squad, you won’t be needing to dig too deep into your tactical knowledge to win the day. Just don’t forget that there are hostages to rescue and your partner is not a meat shield.

You can pick between five different classes (Assault, Breacher, Shield, Agent Fergie, and Recon), all of which sport different weapon systems and asset deployments such as sniper support or even a light machine gun teleported right into your hands. While at first glance, Action Squad appears to be fairly simple and plain, it is an absolute joy to play with a friend. This title generates its own comedy just out of the ridiculousness that can ensue on each mission — from poorly placed grenades to falling through the wrong skylight into a nest of trigger-happy criminals.

While there is no shortage of fun to be had in Action Squad, don’t think that you’re getting any sort of story, character development, or even reason (other than rescuing the female hostages littered through the compound) that explains why you and your partner are breaching and clearing these buildings and vehicles. You will simply drop in, engage in some chaotic firefights, and exfiltrate from the area of operation. Don’t be too harsh or critical, though. We know exactly what Door Kickers: Action Squad is for.

LET’S BE HONEST

We didn’t come to Door Kickers: Action Squad for anything more than a fun riot of bullets and silliness. The developer team responsible executed this nearly flawlessly. There are enough mission sets and levels to keep you occupied for a fair amount of time. Granted, I do have a few (loosely using this word) “complaints.” I would have been thrilled to see weapon aiming done with the mouse and a crosshair, but that could pose an issue with controllers. I would have enjoyed seeing a level editor as well. Who knows? In the future, we might see mod support or even community-created maps brought to the table.