Meridian: Squad 22 is a 4X RTS, in the style of the 90s games.
It is the second game in the Meridian series and is a massive improvement from the first one, Meridian: New World.
It's not required to have played New World to understand the story but it will give you more of an insight as to what's going on.

The game is made by one person and is focused on single player only.

In its current stage there’s 4 missions available but the story so far is progressing quite well and the missions have been fairly different from each other.
There are points throughout the story where you have choices to make which gives you different rewards.

You can only play as one faction but there are multiple AI factions with their own units for you to face.

There are three tech trees (combat, economy and defence) which lets you unlock new units, abilities and upgrades in an order you want.
This is done by collecting the three different research points (samples) scattered across the maps and making choices in the campaign.
In total there’s 17 different units available, including Infantry, mechs, tanks, naval and air.

There’s no Skirmish but there two alternative modes instead.
The first being World Conquest in which you fight on different territories against the AI and the difficulty increases from Easy to insane. As you get closer to the enemy’s HQ the harder the maps are. There are around 100 territories, give or take a few dozen, you can do as much or as few as you want to reach the main target. However the more maps you do the more samples you can collect.
Additionally there’s a fourth tech tree available in conquest that give you extra benefits.
Any excess points can be spent to ‘auto-win’ ‘Hard’ and ‘Very Hard’ territories to make it quicker and less of grind to get through.
The map generation is a little restricted in design.

The second one is Squad Missions, not yet available, but the name suggests extra missions you can do that’s not part of the campaign.



For those that have played Meridian: New World here’s a few changes:

Graphics and animations have taken a large step forwards and also includes camera rotation and zoom.
More units are available and introduces naval units too but customising weapons isn’t possible anymore
AI and Path-finding has been improved and less hassle.
Commander’s abilities and research have been merged.
- Abilities have been altered to use cooldowns instead of using up energy. There are less abilities. Heal also repairs structures.
- Research are carried on through missions instead of building a new research lab each time.

Anyone that has played and liked it should probably like Squad 22 even more.



During closed beta, the developer listened to all feedback and many changes were made, lots of AI balancing and better performance.
He’s always active on the forums for all his games.


Worth a try for anyone that likes RTS games, particularly campiagn and a challanging AI.

Developed by Elder Games and published by Merge Games & Headup Games, Meridian: Squad 22 is the sequel to one of my favorite real time strategy games made by an indie dev team. And I take some liberties on the term “dev team” since this title, much like the first one in this series, was also the hard work of a single very talented man: Ede Tarsoly. To create an RTS such as Meridian: New World took some effort. But to go further than that and launch another game just two years apart which irons out almost all the previous one’s flaws, is a feat truly worthy of admiration.

Meridian: Squad 22 is once again, a strategy game driven by a storyline. The novelty to this sequel however, is that a certain number of choices you undertake during some missions, will affect the following ones and subsequently the rest of the campaign. This provides us with a well deserved replay value even if the game itself is anything but short. I was most pleased to see that the pathfinding and general confusion of the AI on the map, are issues long gone. The skirmish mode takes place on randomly-generated maps so you always have an extra challenge, apart from the enemies which will be more aggressive this time around. In Squad 22 we now have the full spectrum of warfare, with the inclusion of both aerial and naval units compared to the the previous title’s predominantly land-based troops.

The game is richly detailed, from both the texture quality of the units & terrain and even the research tree, which really encourages you to explore and find research canisters (a shout-out to Starcraft 2’s brilliant tech advancement choices). You can’t really complain that this wouldn’t be a strategy title worthy of 2016’s relatively high standards.

The sound score has been composed by Hexany Audio and it truly gives this game, a soundtrack to match its looks and Sci-Fi atmosphere. And as expected, the voice acting is on par with the rest of the game sounds. An obvious step forward in regards to the less than enthusiastic voice work from New World.

+ Beautiful graphics and soundtrack
+ Steam Trading Cards & Achievements

- Still no multiplayer modes

Squad 22 is a clear example that you don’t need immense budgets, to create a fully functioning and aesthetically pleasing strategy title any longer. What a small team of highly talented people have proved, is how far we’re come in terms of game design over the last few years. As polished as this game is right now, the Early Access label should not deter anyone from purchasing it. Steam Achievements and Trading Cards are just the icing on the cake at this point.

Rating 8/10

This review was submitted for Elite Giveaways, check us out for more reviews ranging from Indie games to AAA titles.

I Think this game is huge imporovment from the first game. But I would have liked to see a skirmish opation

i liked Meridian: Squad 22 and I will try to explain to you why.

I'm not a particular fan of the strategies, but this game I sunk into the soul. Perhaps its graphics and game guide for beginners. There was not any problem. All realized and began to play. Beautiful, interesting and valuable justified.
On my old PC, 2010, the game was at medium settings just fine. It made me happy.

If you like this genre, you'll love the game.

Squad 22 is a pretty decent follow up game to the first Meridian game that came out a few years ago. Personally I've enjoyed my experience so far and if you've got 8 bucks I doubt you're be upset with your purchase. That being said, it doesn't stand out in some major field gameplay wise, but it's pretty fun regardless.

I'll give a better review when I can sit down and play a bit more!

Fantastic strategy game with lots of options and a cool campaign. The story and cinematic cut-scenes are amazing so far, and the research tree is very well done!

Recommended.

A fantastic old-school RTS with an innovative research system. At the time of writing this review, there are only 4 campaign missions available, but it's all really great. I can't wait to find out where the story is going. The music and sound effects also blew my mind and to me, these are easily the highlights!

There's also a Conquest mode which gives you randomly generated missions to play. I can see how this could get repetitive in the long run, but for now it works really great!

A thumbs up from me, I definitely recommend this game!

Hey! :)

What can I say? Ede made great progress with Meridian Squad 22. As you know it's linked with Meridian New World and Ede made great progress.

The game is not one of those AAAs but its the work of one man and he did a hell of a great job. I can say that the voice acting is impressive, graphics are good, the game offers a lot of cutscenes (which help with better understanding the campaign and what's going on), the HUD is very cool and very optimized and last but not least the game loads extremely fast, which is WOW, you double click on the icon and Meridian starts instantly!

I have only positive things to say about Meridian Squad 22 since I appreciate the work of Ede, but of course there are some minuses and I should point them out: there are hotkeys but some essential ones are missing, for like queueing buildings or when you give order to units, combat doesn't involve much tactics and there is no multiplayer.

The campaign and the story is worth for playing the game, it's gonna catch you!

Looking forward for the final product! Eventhough it's in Early Access it's much more stable than many other fully released games! :)

https://youtu.be/8G2XEEH07O8
+ Only 1 Developer: Ede Tarsoly Can you believe it?
+ Visually the game looks absolutely stunning for an RTS. Tons of detail. The grass, and trees sway in the wind. Bright vivid neon styled colors for many of the projectiles and units that all add to this futuristic Sci-Fi appeal. Great explosions and particle effects.
+ The gameplay is a load of fun especially if you enjoy other RTS games. I'd consider it a mix between Starcraft 2 and Command and Conquer. I had no problem hopping straight into this game, everything felt natural.
+ A research / tech tree that follows you throughout the game. This encourages you to explore the maps to discover research cannisters which will allow you to unlock new units, upgrades, turrets, production perks, and so fourth.
+ Ground, Air, and Navel Units. They all seem well balanced, and it honestly looks fantastic to have a large group go to battle with another large group.
+ A pretty decent story. You are about 1000 years into the future, and Earth is overpoulated. A colony ship was sent out to find a new planet to inhabit Meridian. Their communications were cut off. Earth sends Squad 22 to go investigate.
+ Epic soundtrack
+ Conquest Mode, which is basically skirmish battles against AI at differing difficulty levels 1v1 while taking over plots to take over the world.

This game is in Early Access so don't take these too seriously
- In campaign, if one of your "main characters" dies you lose the mission and have to restart. This is incredibly annoying as they tend to look similar to regular infantry with slightly more health. The enemy AI tends to focus fire on one unit at the time, so if they focus on one of your heroes you may suddenly lose the mission. :(
- The UI is a bit too small, especially when trying to read dialogue. I think it should be enlarged or perhaps add an option to.
- Campaign is unfinished, but that is to be expected.

~ Single-Player Only. Some people may be turned off by this as RTS games are known for their multiplayer. Personally I think focusing on the story and missions is a great thing as many RTS games of late have had pretty boring campaigns. The missions in Meridian: Squad 22 feel meaningful and challenging.

Loved everything only a quarter way through the story but so far its blown my mind that one guy made this, if you loved Meridian new world, or any older RTS games i think this is the one for you!
Has an amazing story to tell, and with its RTS mechanics it can tell it in such a uniqe way!
THE GAME LOOKS AMAZING TOO!

Nothing bad to say about this game!