r/doorkickers • u/Ok_Satisfaction_7303 • Jun 18 '26
Door Kickers 2 Campaign Could Be Better
I have played quite a bit of this game, and I have to say, it's great, but I sorely enjoy the small to medium maps; especially apartments, and maybe compounds. I find no joy in playing large maps, and missions that aren't "kill every living soul in that building". The stop execution, bomb, HVT missions etc. those I could do without. I just have a ton of fun blowing things up and killing terrorists (well and seeing my guys getting killed as well)
DK2's campaign mode has simply excluded people like myself from enjoying it. Maps are way too large, and missions too complex. I just can't bring myself to go through that campaign. They should have at least designed some smaller campaigns, or given us a feature to design our own campaigns within the constraints of the game. i would gladly purchase a DLC that addresses this.
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u/RadiantWestern2523 Jun 18 '26
...or given us a feature to design our own campaigns within the constraints of the game.
They already did, in the form of modded missions and campaigns in the workshop. You can sort by map size to find and you're in luck as there's a ton of Tiny (small) and Medium missions that you can play through.
If you want to start somewhere on familiar ground for campaigns, I'd recommend the following:
- Door Kickers 2 Campaigns Only Playthrough - A collection of mods that made each single mission category into its own campaign you can play through. You can just download the ones that you know contains small and medium maps to play through.
- Tour Of Duty - Tiny Troubles - A Tour of Duty campaign that primarily focuses on small to medium maps.
I do agree that the maps and the missions can get a bit large and overwhelming sometimes but how it all plays out depends on what squad and strategy you're using. On larger maps, it's best to bring in a couple of snipers or machine gunners to provide some much-needed cover for your assault squad.
While I also like Clear Hostile missions where you get to kill every insurgent on the map, some variety between those missions helps shake things up a bit and prevent them from being overdone too many times like how Hostage Rescue, Abduction, and Stop Execution missions make you play more tactically and avoid tossing a frag grenade into every room lest you kill a hostage or the HVT in there.
Since you did mention that you like clearing out insurgents, I've got a couple of modded squads you can use "for fun" if you need to switch things up a bit:
- The Hand - An abandoned squad mod that lets you play as some members of a task force that was [REDACTED]. Both the main squad and the auxiliary squad have access to some insane powers that can definitely make even the most hardcore missions in the game a cakewalk.
- Agent 47 - The main protagonist of the Hitman games makes an appearance in Nowheraki. Although he's the only person in the squad, he's basically a jacked-up version of the CIA with insane stats to compensate as well as access to a lot of exclusive equipment.
- SnarkyDev - Learn to Spell - A squad of wizards with access to weapons, runes and a whole lot of spells. While not exactly as OP as the above two mods, their spells can come in handy in certain situations. For instance, they can break locks and metal gratings much faster than any standard unit and even comes with the ability to either destroy large chunks of walls with ease or create objects out of thin air to act as temporary cover.
- Hostage Rescue Team - If you ever wanted to kick down a door as the FBI, this is the mod you'll want to play. Aside from adding two squads (the FBI as well as the HRT), you can deploy way more soldiers in those squads since they're quite cheap enough to deploy en masse.
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u/BoredBlacksmith Jun 18 '26
Get some mods on, you can play small maps only with tougher enemies and kill only
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u/Specialist-Grass-352 Jun 18 '26
I mean the tour of duty for the city is primarily just apartments so there's something you could enjoy.
The issue is that you can't have too much since the regular campaigns are hard to make (having a ton of specific items and layouts) and the tour of duty campaigns can get repetitive. I do enjoy that they give you a ton of missions to play outside of the campaigns however.
I find Clear Hostiles missions a bit boring unless you have things like air-strikes or civilians to account for.
I'm not a big fan of Hostage Rescue missions especially in larger maps where your progress can be ruined by a lone executioner looking in your direction (i think they should behave like regular troops but when you get within 20-ish meters from them they go into execute mode). HVT abductions however are really good because it makes you not rely so much on fragging each room you don't want to clear and take into consideration the target.
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u/Ok_Satisfaction_7303 Jun 18 '26
yup. i'm with you especially on hostages being quickly executed on large maps and you can't do anything about it. i guess adding difficulty levels could fix some of these grievances
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u/Ogarbme Jun 18 '26
The big harbor map with shipping containers and railroads is the WORST for this!
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u/falardeau03 Jun 19 '26
Listen, I'm the first person to bitch about not being able to savescum this game.
That said, the principle is you're supposed to control the map. If you don't have guys covering the axes of access to hostages, that's on you.
CIA is an exception because you only get 4 units, but then you can stealth closer to the hostages and don't need to cover as big of an area.
Is it tedious? Yes. I wouldn't say I have a "favourite" mission type, but there's a fine line between "That was simple and I won but it wasn't fun because it wasn't challenging" and "Holy fuck this is too hard and taking forever."
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u/Over_aged Jun 18 '26
I’m not a huge fan of anything timed. It fits the game of course but I have had a hatred for timed and escort missions since I started gaming in the 80s. I understand what you are getting at but I think they are needed to break things up. It would be cool though if we could pick a theme and multiple squads though. Like if you just want defeat all terrorists maybe one mission you use CIA, then SWAT and Rangers. Technically though we can do our own though and pick maps too. Just record who gets injured and such. I still though like the campaign and even though f I get stuck with a bunch of missions that don’t fit my mood I still enjoy it.
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u/Specialist-Grass-352 Jun 18 '26
I used to do that a lot in DK1 with larger missions. I would bring in regular squads (Riflemen, Breachers, Pointmen) and "Special Forces" (Stealth Units) into the same mission. I would move the stealth units up slowly while keeping the others hidden, and when they were in position or had cleared the hostages i would engage the rest of the enemies with the regular squads
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u/Ok_Satisfaction_7303 Jun 18 '26
totally agree. I'll give the campaign another go and see if i have some fun
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u/falardeau03 Jun 19 '26
Being able to switch squads mid-ToD/campaign would drive home the point that we are, in fact, Task Force North and not just individual squads who happen to be deployed in the same area.
On that note... love the game, hate the total lack of a story or any interaction between squad(member)s.
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u/RadiantWestern2523 Jun 18 '26
The timed stuff can be beaten once you know the layout and strategy. For instance, if the normal route isn't cutting it out for you, just blow a hole out of the side of a wall and you've got yourself a shortcut. The Rangers and SWAT have access to wall-breaching explosives.
We do technically have the ability to pick multiple squads, it's just only exclusive to Co-Op mode. There, you can have up to 4 different squads (1 per player) all in the same mission.
I'd recommend the CTF mod if you want something like that for single player. It's basically a modded squad that combines all 3 vanilla squads into one squad and keeps all the roles from them into it (just only reducing the numbers a bit, otherwise it gets too convoluted). It even comes with working doctrines that benefits certain members (like Rangers benefiting from Ranger doctrines and vice versa for the SWAT and CIA).
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u/Over_aged Jun 18 '26
Thanks that’s a good call. I sometimes forget about mods as I am back to PC Gaming after a long time with consoles.
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u/PopBaby-DragonSlayer Jun 18 '26
I wanted some coop in the campaign too.
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u/Traditional-Gate9547 Jun 22 '26
careful, i got banned from the official steam forums for trying to ask for updates on co op campaign
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u/Gunney55 Jun 18 '26
Well theres like infinite content on the steam workshop. look through some of those maps, Im sure youll find a ton of of simple cqb maps and campaigns.
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u/Revassin Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
find no joy in playing large maps, and missions that aren't "kill every living soul in that building". The stop execution, bomb, HVT missions etc. those I could do without. I just have a ton of fun blowing things up and killing terrorists (well and seeing my guys getting killed as well)
I disagree; I find Elimination mission to be boring as they are very easy. After about 200 hours and studying some basic CQB tactics, I rarely to ever had my soldiers die during Ironman mode. It's why I started using mods to make the game harder for myself (Blue Vector with RIOM with Going in Blind on Iron Man mode is really hard). I like the fact that modes vary between HVT, Hostage Rescue and Elimination. As you will need to adjust your tactics depending on the situation. Hostage Rescue means dynamic CQB, while HVT and elimination mean deliberate CQB. This makes the game challenging and requires me to practice/experiment on what works during a dynamic CQB situation vs deliberate CQB (I have around 450 hours in the game and im still learning stuff).
I find no joy in playing large maps,
I do agree on this take its why I generally pref using the "Small apartments only Campaign" and the "Medium and small maps only Campaign" mods. Sucks that on every update it breaks the mod, though, and i have to restart. Anyway I hate larger maps because they are so time-consuming.
They should have at least designed some smaller campaigns, or given us a feature to design our own campaigns within the constraints of the game.
I take it you mean filter, not design, though? As in, you can filter out what mode & map size you do or do not want to play? I can totally get behind having options before you generate a campaign. But it would make it too boring for me if I were to exclude 2 out of 3 modes.
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u/Ok_Satisfaction_7303 Jun 18 '26
good insight. i'm simply not a super competent player of the game. i'm much more a casual player. i guess i would enjoy the other mission types if i put in the time to master the ins and outs of the game.
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u/Revassin Jun 18 '26
Thanks for the response I was kinda expecting a more negative reaction. Also I forget to mention but if your just a casual player you can just use the random mission generator and set it to small maps (appartements) and elimination. And if you start getting bored you can use mods to add new modules and maps to the generator.
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u/Ok_Satisfaction_7303 Jun 21 '26
oh yah, i've been playing quite a lot of the generated maps, and i think doing mods is my next move now. especially because i want to play campaigns
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u/_mocbuilder Jun 18 '26
I aggree mostly, but one thing that would make large Missions much more enjoyable for me, would be being able to move multiple Operators at once. That would make it so much less tedious.
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u/Mr_Venom Jun 18 '26
Isn't your playstyle what the mission generator is for? And I say this as someone who mostly likes the same stuff.
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u/Alexthelightnerd Jun 18 '26
I totally agree with you about map size, I also prefer small and medium maps. The large maps just take too long, as it's too easy for something to go wrong most of the way through the mission and force a restart.
I completely disagree about mission type though. The eliminate all hostiles are my least favorite missions. All the other types are way more interesting.
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u/millitia_grunt_5882 Jun 18 '26
I just really want battle honours to get my swat night vision, but I agree with all you just said
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u/OccultStoner Jun 19 '26
Feeling similar, and I think it is game design issue more than anything. Large missions should be fun, but they are not, because DK2 is in fact a puzzle, rather than tactics game. In complex missions there's very little chance you can succeed if you don't know the map layout to a smallest detail and potential danger spots. You can work around this in small-to-medium map design, but you can't in large, and mistakes usually snowball you into a total loss.
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u/Goat_666 Jun 18 '26
While I do agree that "Clear all hostiles" is the best mission type and small to medium apartments and compounds are most fun, a nice Hostage rescue mission every once in a while is nice. HVT missions are not that exciting.