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Door Kickers: Think Twice Before You Kick Down Every Door

By Wes Ellis3 min read
A top-down Door Kickers floor plan with a SWAT team clearing rooms around a central lobby.
Rating
Platform
Steam · 15 hrs
THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • 4 out of 5. About fifteen hours on record.
  • Real-time with pause lets you plan a breach, then adapt when it goes sideways.
  • Lots of content, a big arsenal and a busy modding community.
  • The learning curve is steep, and your troopers' pathing sometimes needs babysitting.

"FBI, OPEN UP! ...or don't, we'll do it anyway!" That was my Steam headline, and it's the first lesson Door Kickers teaches you, usually the hard way. Kick the door without a plan and you'll lose people. Plan it right and a perfect breach is one of the most satisfying things in any strategy game.

Think Rainbow Six meets Frozen Synapse, seen from straight overhead.

What it is

You command a SWAT team from above. Each mission is a floor plan: a hostage rescue, a bomb defusal, a drug raid, an arrest. You draw paths for your troopers, set where they look, choose when they go through doors and what they throw in first. Then you hit go and watch it play out.

A top-down Door Kickers street scene with police cars, parked vehicles and a team moving into a building.

The game runs in real time with pause, so you can stop and change the plan the moment something surprises you. And something always surprises you.

What worked

The tactics. Every mission is a puzzle with several solutions. Go loud with breaching charges, or quiet with lockpicks. Stack up at a door, or split the team and hit two rooms at once.

Plenty to play. Several campaigns, more than 80 missions, and a mission generator for when you run out. There's 2-player co-op too.

Loadouts. A big arsenal of weapons and gear, and classes that fill real roles: Pointman, Assaulter, Breacher, Shield, Stealth. Your choices matter.

The modding scene. It's busy, and it keeps the game going long after the official content.

Presentation. The clean, minimal top-down look makes it obvious where your people can move and shoot. Distinct weapon sounds help you read a fight as it happens.

An overhead view of a Door Kickers team moving through an office building toward a plaza with a fountain.

Tip

When your troopers do something dumb, it's almost always the route. Pause, redraw the path with fewer tight corners, and try again.

What didn't

Steep start. The tutorial is thin, so the first few hours can be overwhelming.

Pathing. With several units in a tight space, path planning gets messy, and troopers occasionally get stuck or make questionable choices.

Unlocks. Having to earn better weapons can be frustrating early on.

No more Mac support, if that matters to you.

Who it's for

Strategy fans and tactical shooter fans who enjoy the planning more than the execution. If you loved the planning screens in the old Rainbow Six games, you'll feel right at home. If you want quick action, the pace will feel slow.

Worth it?

Yes. It's held up well. Door Kickers 2 has more features, but the original is still a focused, tense experience, and during a sale it's an absolute steal.

If you like being punished for bad positioning, Brigador is the loud, explosive cousin of this game.

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