GROUND BRANCH

It is everything I like in a FPS, but it has the realism aspect to it which takes it over the top. I know the game is still in development, but I like it so far!

game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
game gets repetitive
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What to love it, but it's virtually impossible to spot the enemy AI. I've got the friendly AI calling out contacts and I still can't see them.

so far i really enjoy the game and i can see good stuff in the future for it but for now i give it 6/10, fixes:

fix shoulder when leaning on max pov cause it looks like you are breaking your arm.

Add more female looks and hair styles and more.

add more camo and armor and weapons and such.

more snipers with ir lasers and pistols and more.

better setting layout.

add like a hud like in ready or not so you know if you are hurt or not.

more open bigger maps where you can lay and snipe.

add a way to aim sideways, unless the setting just doesn't show or im blind to see it.

fix voice lines so they don't sound so Ai And Robotic.

add more ir and suppressors for weapons.

and such and etcs.

else 6/10 for now.

This game is unfinished, even by early access standards. Gun play and mechanics seem promising, but AI and mission design hold it back severely.

Ground Branch captures the essence of tactical shooters in their purest distilled form. There's admittedly not a whole lot of things the game tries to do, and it doesn't pretend to do otherwise. However, the overarching objective the game strives to achieve results in one of the tightest and most compelling FPS experiences on offer anywhere. The weapon handling and shooting mechanics are excellent, the gear customisation is excellent, the environments are thoughtfully designed, and the atmosphere is on point. All of these lend themselves to a tactical shooter that feels truly tactical. Barring the lacklustre AI, it's difficult to really level a criticism at this game.

There is a lot of cool stuff in this game that i love. Unfortunately half of it is broken.

The typical problems exist here like most tactical fps games.

Enemy and friendly AI are as dumb as it gets.

commands are ignored.

Enemies will be able to see you and shoot at you but you will not be able to see them. you are often just killed from a random direction no matter how careful you are. The Ai might not notice you standing right next to them or they may instantly see and kill you from across the map.

In a game where pve is a big focus obviously thats a huge problem.

Instead of adding new features fix the ones that are broken first.

I can give the game a recommendation once these problems are addressed. But knowing this genre they most likely wont be.

Heres hoping.

The game is.. weird. Its like a tactical tech demo even with the new update, better than before but not by a whole lot, movement is still janky, AI is weird and will T-1000 you out of no where or just stare into the darkness unaware, I don't or can't notice if the armor even does anything in the game. I may have just been spoiled by ready or not but this game is going to suffer from technical debt FAST. Is it better than before? Yes, should you buy it? On sale maybe.

Needs a lot of AI improvement, definitely not for a singleplayer

This game has some good ideas and some things that work, but right now it doesn't come together into a full package.

Until they add good enemy AI and hopefully some engaging missions, I don't think this game is worth the price of admission.

i would say a pretty customizable milsim game. though not enough. gunplay feels quite natural and smooth with high/low ready stances. nightvision is where this game shines, imho. scopes other than red dot that are compatible with nv googles are blurry as one can expect. ir illumination options are the peak. ai is dumbass fun and can headshot you from a mile away, you can also customize the bots. i think pvp is the best mode to play this game. you are there up against some fellow milsimmers. quite enjoyable as of now. still, GB lacks one of the key elements of any milsim, true weapon customization. just add stocks man. i want to use my ak with a magpul or something. or i don't want to stick to the original stocks. frustrating to say the least. arma, ready or not and every so called 'milsim' except tarkov and some indie games have the same issue. you can't really fully customize which sucks. i would recommend it despite the unreal engine, ai and other things.

Solo play Nope! Online play YES!

The game with friends? Absolutely awesome, total blast. But the single-player with AI teammates? Oh man, that’s Some of the worst AI I’ve seen in a long time. It’s like they hired a bag of rocks and taught it to hold a rifle.

And the command menu? Easily a contender for worst UI in gaming history. Whoever designed that must’ve been on a strict “no brain cells” budget that day. Love the game but this is just so lazy and half assed. From this dev I honestly expected better, This has been talked about and promised for quite some time. Truly a let down in its current state.

But seriously, if you’ve got friends to squad up with, this game shines. Just don’t come here expecting a solid solo experience just yet. Yes the Solo AI technically exists, but it’s so bad it feels like the devs added it out of spite.

And wait till its really on sale not this 10% off BS.

I really can't recommend this game. It's development has been incredibly slow and still feels like an early beta. It's missing so many basic features and has quite a lot of bugs. Get ready or not instead

This game has been out for seven years now and still only offers a "demo" of the campaign mode, while both friendly and enemy AI are still downright frustrating. Movement and gun handling are meant to be realistic, but just feel clunky and awkward. This game is one of the reasons I don't buy early access anymore.

I've been supporting Ground Branch since the early alpha days, and seeing where it is now with Update V1035 is incredible. The game has matured into one of the most authentic, rewarding tactical shooters you can play and V1035 pushed it to a whole new level.

The biggest highlight of V1035 is the AI overhaul.
Enemies are no longer static targets. They react to gunfire, communicate with each other, flank intelligently, use cover effectively, and force you to adapt in ways that feel natural and challenging. Suppress an enemy, and he might pop smoke and reposition. Kick a door open, and you might find yourself staring down a full ambush. Enemies are aggressive when they need to be and defensive when it makes sense. Every engagement now feels like a chess match where one wrong move will get your whole team wiped out.

AI behavior feels alive:
✔️ Enemies will advance cautiously when they have the advantage.
✔️ They’ll fall back and regroup if they’re suppressed.
✔️ They react to your noise, whether it's gunfire, footsteps, or opening doors.
✔️ They’ll even push through smoke if you get too comfortable.

Because of this, missions are no longer about just memorizing spawn points or "clearing the map" robotically you have to think tactically, coordinate with your team, and adapt on the fly. No two runs feel the same anymore, which keeps the tension high and the gameplay fresh.

Beyond the AI, Ground Branch remains a standout in tactical gaming:

✔️Gear Customization: Everything from optics placement to magazine types is adjustable. You can build your operator exactly how you want no restrictions, no level gates.
✔️Realistic Movement: You can lean, peek doors slowly, vault obstacles, climb ladders, and adjust your stance fluidly. Movement feels heavy and deliberate no run-and-gun twitch shooting here.
✔️Planning is Critical: Draw on the mission map, coordinate breach points, split teams to cover multiple angles.. Ground Branch gives you the tools to approach missions your way.
✔️Hardcore Combat: There’s no HUD clutter, no hit markers, no regenerating health. A single bullet can end the fight, and every shot counts.
✔️Dedicated Servers and Custom Matches: Host your own missions, tweak difficulty, and fine-tune scenarios exactly how you and your squad want them.
✔️Constant Developer Support: BlackFoot Studios continues to listen to player feedback and refine the experience without watering it down or chasing trends.
✔️Friendly fire- Friendly fire is always on, and believe me, you’ll feel it. Whether it’s getting domed during a panic breach or eating a teammate’s stray 5.56 in a hallway, online matches are full of "accidental" team kills. But that’s part of the charm. Ground Branch doesn't hold your hand. You have to communicate, clear your sectors properly, and trust your team because mistakes are fast, brutal, and very permanent.

V1035 proves that Ground Branch isn't just surviving, it's thriving.
The AI improvements, performance updates, and mission enhancements show a real commitment to quality and realism. It's not an arcade shooter. It's not a milsim locked behind layers of menus. It's a pure tactical experience where smart planning, sharp shooting, and real teamwork are what make the difference.

If you’ve been waiting for a tactical shooter that respects your time and rewards your effort, now is the time to jump into Ground Branch. And if you've been here since the beginning, like I have, V1035 feels like a huge payoff and it’s only getting better from here.

TL;DR: Ground Branch has incredible customization and immersive tactical mechanics, but suffers from shallow content, broken AI, missing core features, and painfully slow development.

Pros:
-Great Customization (imo unrivaled in the tac shooter space)
-Cool “tactical” features (high/low ready, manual reload mechanics, etc.)

Cons:
-Lacks of substance and replayability in current state
-AI is either brain-dead or god-tier aware/aim with no balance
-No hit interactions (no flinching even when dumping rounds into enemy)
-No health or armor systems
-Development is painfully slow

Damn, where do I start? I genuinely like Ground Branch and want to see it succeed. There’s something special here, and with enough polish and foundational improvements, it could become something great. HOWEVER, it has some pretty glaring issues in it's current state.
Let’s start with the positives. With the addition of Steam Workshop support, Ground Branch offers unmatched weapon and character customization. No other game in the genre comes close. It also implements some really cool and underused mechanics like high-ready and low-ready stances, and reload systems that require you to manually hit the bolt catch if you previously interrupted the animation. But aside from that, this game needs some considerable work.

Currently, GB lacks meaningful content to keep players invested. As of writing this, 1035 has just released, and I've played the campaign, but it hasn't really changed my perspective because the game’s foundation and base experience is still scuffed. Once the initial thrill of kitting out your operator wears off, there’s little incentive to keep coming back. The AI is another major weak point — either completely oblivious or absurdly aware and accurate, with no real middle ground. Don't get me wrong, larping as your favorite cool guy operator with your cool-guy weapon system is awesome and all, but with how busted the AI is currently, GB ends up being a glorified shooting gallery at lower difficulties, and unplayable at higher difficulties.

On top of that, in a game entirely focused on cool guy operators shooting cool guy guns, the lack of hit interactions makes gunplay feel boring. Enemies don't react to being shot - no flinching, no stagger, nothing - which kills immersion and makes firefights feel static and unrewarding. They just keel over and ragdoll suddenly.

Other reviewers have also mentioned this, but Ground Branch has been in development since 2008. I get that Blackfoot Studios is a small indie team, but at this pace, we might not see a fully fleshed out game for another decade. At $29.99, Ground Branch just doesn't justify the price in its current state when it’s missing crucial features and the core gameplay experience still needs significant polish.

Other features are sorely needed too that other reviewers have mentioned — a proper health and armor system, meaningful mission variety, etc — but none of that will matter if what is currently in the game doesn’t get polished and flushed out first.

game is dead,, no players left dont bye,, they lost the communuty by being so slow :( sad,,

I really wanted to like Ground Branch, but in the end, it feels like little more than a glorified dress-up game.
Despite being in early access for seven years at the time of this review, the game shows signs of poor development management. The gameplay is clunky, the sound effects feel like placeholders, and the AI is downright terrible in every aspect.
Updates are few and far between, and when they do arrive, they rarely address the game’s core issues in any meaningful way.
I genuinely want the game to succeed and become the immersive experience it has the potential to be, I just hope I'm still around to see it happen.

a gun ricing/tacticool roleplaying simulator with the guise of a milsim attached. there's more detail in the camo/color selection for your outfit than there is in the ai itself, which is still incapable of taking cover despite how many features they add to make it "smarter". it doesn't matter if the ai can see your laser and react accordingly if it can't stop standing in the open or walk through a door and shoot at the same time. but hey, you can be tactical! so the game is good!

absolutely horrendous graphics the gameplay is good but having the gull to charge for this ms paint looking piece of trash is annoying because most of the time you die from an enemy that you cant even see because hes so far away the dooky graphics doesnt let you see him

This game has good customization, some missions and mod support, still needs a lot of polishment and more content, a long way until release

the most helpful review is still 100% accurate. good gunplay and customization but there's no content here

The ai is very buggie and unrealistic, they are able to kill you with one shot from over 100 yards away, they get stuck is doorways sometimes, the height over bore is also very unrealistic and over exaggerated to the point where you have to aim under the dot and iron sight all of the time. Barely any support for amd cards, no fsr3, just garbage fxaa and taa that don't even work and leaves a jagged image all of the time. However it is very good on performance and amazing weapon and operator customization, thats probably the only good thing I can say about it.

I mean come on BlackFoot can we do better next time you update this game? if ever

One of the greatest tactical games, super immersive!

Playing dress up is pretty cool. Its like playing with GI Joe's. Id recommend playing just for the barbie dress up room.

Pros:
-easily the most realistic FPS money can buy
-made by the same devs that made the OG Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games
-weapon customization is very in depth
-maps are VERY well designed and every little detail on every map is very well thought out
-AI are very well designed
-very abundant and active modding community

Cons: (most of which are probably getting fixed since game is still in early access)
-has some early access teething issues
-need more weapon attachments
-character customization kinda sucks at the moment, you have the option between 6 female characters and 6 male ones all literally named male/female 1-6 with the only customization being three levels of facial hair
-not a lot of good gear or outfit options

Overall for $30 this game is a steal and even if it were priced at $60 or $70 it would be worth it. if you have the money and you're into hardcore first person shooters you should 1000% buy it.

Bought it, played it for whole 10 minutes with friend, liked game, quited it and left to play Ready or Not LOL.

Games is good since last time I played it xD

Right now I can't recommend the game. Gunplay is awesome but AI sucks. They've said they're going to improve AI and until they do I can't recommend the game. Go play Ready or Not for now or Arma

PTSD is real, the new community test update have ai, and I keep leading them through obstacles they can't understand, so i felt confident, but then BOMP- Alpha Grizzly got popped in the head and died. I never felt so Guts berserk betrayal before. I sat by exploded vehicle that has png fire and felt so depresseduhh. 😭

Pretty awesome game, the mods you can get from the workshop make it even better. If you are into terrorist hunt type of gameplay with basically unlimited customization then this game is for you. Only thing missing is a few AI teammates that can fire and maneuver realistically, and this game would be gold. For now you do lone wolf or find a team online. I know they have release v1035 as of this review, and it does have AI teammates, however they seem to be lacking. IF they could get them to function like Raven shield AI teammates this would be the greatest tactical shooter ever made. The gunplay and the way it feels to move and shoot in this game, combined with the sounds and atmosphere are unmatched in my opinion. And yes you can black ops II dolphin dive.....

if youre into milsim games this one of the best ,only lacks a bit of content and it could have been bigger (more maps , better ai, etc) in my opinion. but all things considered 8/10

The game itself is fun if it wasn't for zero audio on AI, buggy ass server use, and the lack of brain on any of the AI patterns. They randomly just decide to be God and brain you through bushes when it's nighttime out even when I haven't made any noise, or pulled aggro. It's fun customization wise, and at first during gameplay, but It's incredibly repetitive right now. I want to recommend it, but it needs alot of work right now, as It's INCREDIBLY plain and buggy.

I don't recommend this game if you're expecting a stupidly realistic or super entertaining experience, because from my experience those are both the positive and negative points I got from just playing this attempt at a full game, as it's been 7 years in development. It's something you would only play for 20-30 minutes because, honestly, you would quickly get desperate or tired of doing the same thing over and over again, plus the unstable AI of this game wouldn't help much either. (Curious fact that nobody cares, this game came out the same day I have my birthday, August 14th lol)

Positives:

- The weapons and the customization of them are very detailed and quite complete, let's say they are well done.

- The mechanics of this game are very interesting and surprisingly good, they are things that I have seen in few games (I don't really know how good they are from other points of view, the most tactical games I've played so far are Operation: Harsh Doorstop, Cs2, PUBG and Tarkov lol)

- The way the grenades work in this game seems very "cool" to me, they feel and work well (sometimes against you, but that's just me apparently)

- It's an "entertaining" game to play with your friends or with people you probably don't even know, but at least it fulfills the mission of being an entertaining game, which is the most important thing at the end of the day. (I think)

- You can put together different plans to complete the mission, and that surprisingly may or may not work (especially in TH and disarming the bomb), although that means doing your job no matter what the vast majority of the time.

- In my opinion, the AI of the enemies (and very suddenly) comes to work well. But there's not much positive to say about that either.

Starting with the negatives:

- My conflict right now is with the enemy AI. The enemy AI is just stupid/brainless, I wouldn't say inept, honestly. Enemies just stand still and wait for you to pass in their field of view and then spray you with bullets. Their movement is very erratic and weird to a certain extent, as if they have severe arthritis and find it hard to move. Speaking of moving, another conflict I have with the enemy AI in this game is that the enemies have no footsteps, so it's practically impossible to predict where the enemy is going (or maybe it's just me, but I'm saying this from experience). Also, damn it, the enemies seem to have aimbots, because if you dare to cross their field of vision, they will simply activate their aimbot and kill you without giving you a chance to do anything.


- The game is just repetitive, after 4-6 games you play TH you'll get bored or tired of doing the same thing. And if you are like me, you will have to play youtube videos or background music to not get bored while playing. Because playing this game with nothing in the background is the same as hell for me, and even that, hell seems better to me than having to play this for more than 20 minutes.

- If there is something that I like and that catches my attention in tactical games, it is the night missions, sneaking silently through enemy territory using night vision, infrared lasers and stealthily eliminating enemies always catches my attention, of course. Now imagine you want to do the same in this game and you see that your dream of doing the same is trampled by Ground Branch, because apparently the enemies are not affected by the darkness and see you without any problem, sending to hell your dream of going as an experienced military in night missions (or as they say that kind of thing)

I do not recommend this game to get rid of being bored, believe me you will end up more bored than you were before. Honestly, this game is only worth it when it's on sale. I bought it for less than 10 dollars I think, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it.

7/10.

Edit: nothing, just misspelling in a point lmao

Hyper realistic, very fun, my first endeavor in teh PC world coming from console for the last 20+ years.

I like the quality of the game and the diversity compared to other shooter games. If I were to compare this game to Arma 3, I would say I enjoy how easy it is to get into a Ground Branch match. I enjoy the shooter game!

Peak game, really actuate weapons, pistols and shotguns are accurately ranged unlike every other shooter, If you have friends it is ideal bc at higher difficulties the AI has godly reaction time. 9/10 almost infinite playablity if you have friends and mods.

Best tactical shooter to play with friends and even randoms. Guns and customization are the best i have seen, cant wait for this game to keep developing.

Updates are kinda slow but its a cool cqb game for nerds who like to larp

This game has no substance

Incredible customization of weapons and gear, great gunplay.

Absolutely lame "missions" and maps.
No creativity or imagination has went ( at least i didnt notice ) into the maps or mission structure.

Its not worth buying because there is nothing to "play" here, it has no purpose.
Maybe if I was a 10 year old and had the imagination, i would enjoy this.

Nothing to see here.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☑ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

claims to be hyper realistic, yet there are no ballistics, and the AI its from year 1999 minus the footsteps because there are not any. does the gun barbie very well tho, bought is just for that but its so annoying to play when the missions barley function. understanding its an indie dev may help with the pain but its been out for 7 years at this point and not having foot steps for the enemies in a military sim is wild work. last update for beta didn't address the core issues, but hopefully it could improve but it doesn't seem like things will change any time soon.

They are cooking with the updates lately, truly a thing of passion. Back when I bought it, it was kinda dry, but damn it got good. Even if multiplayer servers may not be super populated all the time, you can always just hop into lone wolf and still have loads of fun. Runs well on my linux machine as well, albeit some of the foliage can look a bit odd depending on what AMD driver and distro I was using.

Spend more of my time dressing my guns up like Roblox DTI then actually killing things. Always great fun when I do eventually get to it though.

the game is really fun but is a little harder if you play on a laptop the game mostly expects you to have an keyboard and mouse so the touch pad might randomly stop which leaves you very vunerable

Good game, very realistic, high quality, very in depth. also am i the only one who finds the pvp mode to be funny with friends because they say the most dumb thing imaginable and then get shot over the radio?

This is a game the same way flappy bird is. There's no variety or reason to play it for more than 30 minutes, it's utterly mindless and every so often I'll come back to play it for 20 minutes hoping something of substance was added. It's still, after 7 years of being on steam, a shooting gallery of braindead AI worse than something you'd find in a 1980s arcade game. There's still no friendly AI or interesting mission generation to make the game remotely interesting, which is tremendously disappointing given the game's admittedly very good gunplay.

only issue is the guns sometimes shoot marshmallows and don't kill the enemy but other than that its fun

this game is addicting! love the close quarters and man you really gotta pay attention to your surrounding. gameplay is a blast

Feels like ready or not in it's alpha build but with a very different setting and approach to combat.

i wonder how this has a Very Positive review score. I get that people are starved for tactical shooters, i know i am, but there is barely any semblance of an actual game here.

the guns work and feel solid, but the way missions flow in multiplayer makes no sense. Doesnt feel like theres any actual game here, just pieces of things. I really hope they pull it off, but goddamn its been 7 years and every time i boot it up a wave of depression goes over me and i realize Ready Or Not is gonna be the best modern iteration of the Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon era of games we're gonna get.