About Squad of One
Squad of One is a top-down action game built around replays. You lead a single commando into a short mission, and each attempt you make is recorded. When you start the next try, the mission resets and every earlier try plays back beside you as a squadmate, repeating exactly the moves and shots you made. With up to five tries per mission, one player becomes a squad of five, and missions are solved by planning who does what across those tries.
The game is free to play on Smaz Games in a desktop or mobile browser. There is no download, no in-game shop and nothing to buy.
How the echo system works
Each mission gives you five commandos: Rook, Fuse, Vex, Patch and Ace, each with a colour and a number from 1 to 5. During a try, the game records your position, aim, dashes, shots and grenades. A try ends when you press End Try, when you are hit and go down, or when the timer runs out. In every case the run is kept and becomes an echo.
On the next try the whole map resets: enemies, doors and objectives return to their starting state. Your echoes then replay their routes while you play live, and enemies react to them as if they were real soldiers. Because echoes follow a fixed route, they can be stopped. A gate that is shut, a standing wall or a passing train will block an echo, and an echo that is shot down stays down. Echoes can also carry intel, and touching an echo that picked it up hands it to you.
If the fifth try ends without success, the operation is over and you start again from try one with no recorded routes.
How to play a mission
- Read the mission brief. It names the objective and points out anything new.
- Choose a class for your first commando and send them in.
- Do part of the job, for example standing on a HOLD switch to keep a gate open, then press End Try so that commando keeps doing it as an echo.
- On the next try, use the open path the echo gives you, deal with the guards, and pick up the intel.
- Carry the intel to the green exit ring before the timer runs out. Every mission finishes this way.
Picking up intel for the first time adds ten seconds to the clock. Each try lasts between 30 and 80 seconds, depending on the mission, and the last ten seconds count down on screen.
Objectives you will meet
- Hold switches: stand on HOLD to open a gate. If the echo holding it falls, the gate shuts.
- Arm pads: two pads must be held at the same time, which usually means one echo and one live commando.
- Alarms: stand at an alarm box for a second to cut it and stop more enemies arriving.
- Capture, rescue and defend rings: stay inside until the meter fills. Stepping out drains it, and in defend missions enemies inside the ring also slow you down.
- Sabotage: destroy a marked tower with gunfire or grenades.
- Chase and escort: race to a ring and stay there, or keep an ally or echo close to a slow intel carrier.
- Transport: hold switches to run cable cars, boats and lifts, or dash across a zipline.
- Bosses: each large boss locks its armour partway through your first and second tries, so it takes at least three commandos to finish one.
Operations and missions
The campaign is split into operations, each set in a different place. The first eight have twelve missions each: Jungle, Arctic, Volcano, Desert Oil Fields, City Streets, Rooftops, Swamp and Arena, and each ends with a boss such as the Iron Orchid in the jungle or the Night Mayor in the city. Later operations are shorter and include a multi-storey car park, an abandoned theme park, an airport, a subway train yard, a factory, a construction site, a museum, a ski resort, a stadium and a cargo harbour. Missions within an operation unlock in order, and new operations open as you collect stars.
Besides the campaign there is a Daily Raid, with one fixed mission each day that resets at midnight UTC and tracks a day streak, and a World Tour of generated missions with its own ranks from Rookie to Legend.
Enemies
Enemy types include grunts, turrets, shield carriers, snipers, rocket troops, dogs, drones, heavies, hunters, marksmen, stalkers and duelists. Turrets and heavies take many hits, while dogs and drones go down quickly. The in-game manual has a page describing what each threat does.
Controls
Keyboard and mouse
- Move: W, A, S, D or the arrow keys
- Aim: mouse
- Fire: hold the left mouse button
- Dash: Space or Shift
- Grenade: hold the right mouse button to aim and release to throw, or press E to throw straight away
- Sniper scope: Q
- End the current try: R
- Pause: P or Escape
- Choose a soldier before a try: keys 1 to 5, or Enter
The game captures the mouse when you deploy. Escape pauses and releases it. Mouse sensitivity can be changed in Settings.
Gamepad
- Left stick moves and right stick aims, which also fires. RT fires and LT scopes.
- A or LB dashes, X or RB throws a grenade, Y ends the try and Start pauses.
Touch
- The left stick moves. The right stick aims and fires once pushed past a short distance.
- Dash and grenade buttons sit on screen; hold the grenade button to aim and release to throw. Sniper players also get a scope button.
- End Try and pause buttons are on screen.
Stars, classes and rewards
Completing a mission earns one star. Two or three stars depend on finishing within a target number of tries and with a fast final try; the results screen shows both targets. Most missions aim for two tries, while bosses allow more. Stars unlock five classes: Rifle from the start, then Shotgun, Demo, Flamer and Sniper. The Demo carries extra grenades, and the Sniper's shots pierce through targets. Stars also unlock helmets and squad colours, and a medal case records milestones. The title screen shows a rank from Recruit up to Commander. There are no weapon upgrades to buy.
Tips
- Plan the first try as setup. Opening a gate or cutting an alarm, then ending the try early, often beats trying to do everything at once.
- Press End Try as soon as an echo has done its job. The next try starts with that help in place.
- Remember that echoes do not adapt. If a guard moves into an echo's path, change your live route to cover it.
- Protect echoes that hold switches. If they fall, gates close behind you.
- Use dash to cross open ground and to get out of a rocket's path.
- Against a boss, expect to use at least three tries and spread your damage across them.
- For three stars, finish in fewer tries and keep the final run quick.
- The Field Manual, reached from How to Play, explains every objective type with pictures.
Settings and comfort options
Settings include music, sound effect and menu sound options, screen shake, crosshair size and colour, mouse sensitivity, graphics quality, reduced motion, reduced flashes, weather effects and a game speed slider from 50% to 100% for players who want more time to aim.
Saving progress
Stars, best times, unlocks and settings save automatically in your browser. On Smaz Games this game uses browser saves only, not account saves, so progress stays on the device and browser you play on. Settings has a Start over option that keeps a backup of the old save first.
Devices and orientation
Squad of One plays on computers with keyboard and mouse or a gamepad, and on phones and tablets with touch. Phones must be held in landscape. If a phone is upright, the game pauses and asks you to turn it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Squad of One free?
Yes. It is free in the browser on Smaz Games, with no download and no purchases.
What happens to my earlier tries?
Each one replays as a numbered, coloured squadmate on your next try, doing exactly what you did.
How many tries do I get?
Five per mission. If all five are used, the mission starts over from the first try.
Can I play with a controller?
Yes. Gamepads are supported for play and for menus.
Does it work on phones?
Yes, in landscape, using two on-screen sticks with dash and grenade buttons.
Why did my echo stop?
Echoes follow their recorded route. A shut gate, a wall or a passing train can block them, and an echo that is shot down stays down.
How do I unlock new operations?
Collect stars. Each operation opens at a star total, and missions inside it open one after another.
Is there a difficulty setting?
The campaign has no difficulty menu; missions get harder as you progress. The game speed setting can slow the action down.
Who made Squad of One
Squad of One was made by Saratoga Games, an independent studio in Cape Town, South Africa, run by solo developer Sean Wyngaard.
If you like Squad of One, try
Smaz Games has other games from the same studio that test timing and control. Caveman Taxi is a physics flying game with campaign missions and daily challenges, and Super Air Hockey pits you against computer rivals on a 3D table.