GROUND BRANCH is a first-person tactical shooter about small teams carrying out deniable operations. Online co-op supports groups of up to eight players, while PvP pits two teams of eight against each other. Multiplayer is online only; there is no local or split-screen co-op. You can play selected missions alone, but friendly AI teammates are still planned, so a solo operator goes in without computer-controlled squadmates. The game is currently a Windows PC release through Steam.
A round begins before anyone reaches the mission area. In the Ready Room, you can see what your friends have packed, visit the firing range, and choose from the available missions or insertion points. Then the group moves through a compact but detailed environment, where sight lines, doors, darkness and the sound of movement all matter. It is a deliberate, high-lethality pace: a short exchange can end a run, and the game asks more of your attention than a fast arena shooter.
Build the operator you want to take in
Loadout customization is a big part of the time between missions. You choose an operator’s appearance and clothing, then put together a primary weapon, sidearm, protective gear and carried equipment. Many items have attachment slots, and pouches on a vest or belt determine what you bring. Weapon sights, lights, lasers, grips and suppressors can be positioned along the available rails, while the kit screen also lets you change camouflage and other outfit details.
Those choices have practical effects. A heavier kit can reduce movement and stamina; a long rifle can be awkward around close doorways; and the position of an optic changes how much of its sight picture you see. Armor adds another layer to the tradeoff. Plates protect only the areas they cover and can be worn down by hits, while softer protection on a helmet or vest helps against some pistol rounds. You can alter armor coverage and loadout weight before a deployment rather than unlocking a new tier of equipment later.
The customization is detailed without a character progression grind. Weapons and equipment are available from the start, and the game has no gear unlock track, loot boxes or cosmetic store. Saved loadouts make it easier to keep a few different setups ready, but the reward for another operation is the mission itself and the variety of configurations you can take into it. If your group enjoys comparing weapon builds and operator looks, the Ready Room gives that interest somewhere to live. If you want levels, perks or a stream of permanent upgrades, that loop is largely absent.
The game does not assign everyone a fixed class or a special ability. Your weapon, armor, pouches and equipment define what you bring to a mission, and the same operator can return with a different kit next time. That keeps your friends on equal mechanical footing while making their equipment choices visible in the Ready Room. A flashlight-equipped rifle and night-vision gear create a different setup from a light daytime kit, but neither unlocks a higher character tier.
PvE missions with different kinds of pressure
Quick Missions supply most of the repeatable co-op structure. Terrorist Hunt is the clearest format: enter a map and eliminate the hostile AI. The number and placement of enemies can vary, so the same location can create a different sequence of contacts across runs. Defuse turns that search into a timed objective, asking the group to locate and disarm bombs while enemies occupy the surrounding area.
Intel Retrieval has a more focused route. Your team searches for a laptop that contains the objective, then carries it to an extraction point. Finding the correct device changes the goal from clearing an area to getting a player and their cargo back out. The online group can share the same objective, while the map’s alternate approaches and shifting enemy placements give each run some room to unfold differently.
Extraction adds a person to bring home. Hostile captors hold a friendly hostage, and combat nearby wears down their morale; when that meter empties, they execute the hostage. Once freed, the hostage can follow a player, move to a marked spot or take cover. In co-op, the last player to interact becomes the person the hostage responds to, so control can pass between teammates during a rescue. It gives an otherwise familiar clear-and-extract mission a fragile objective that can be lost if the fighting escalates around the captors.
The Operations menu links a small set of campaign missions under a hotspot. Its opening chapter in Northwest Pakistan contains two operations, played in sequence: finishing the first unlocks the second. Their voiced briefings, recurring characters and scripted events provide more context than the quick mission board. Still, this is a short prologue rather than an extensive campaign. Additional chapters are planned, and the current version does not include friendly AI partners for filling out a squad in offline Operations.
Enemy AI is present in the co-op modes and has received a major rework. Enemies can respond to sound, react to being hit, take cover or retreat, and remain around assigned guard areas. Difficulty settings change the challenge, and a later hotfix rebalanced them alongside other performance changes. Even with those systems, enemy accuracy and responsiveness can feel uneven from encounter to encounter, so the opposition may be less predictable than a fixed scripted route.
A different game when the other team is human
GROUND BRANCH also supports online PvP, with team modes that change the same spaces into contests over players rather than AI. Team Elimination asks each side to outlast the other; Deathmatch variants focus on individual or team kills. Hostage Rescue gives attackers a teammate to recover while the opposing side defends, and Dynamic Take and Secure has one side locate and seize a flag placed by the other. These modes move the pressure from enemy patrols and objectives to human opponents who can choose their own routes and timing.
PvP can be the better fit if your group wants adversarial rounds or a reason to return to the same maps after working through the co-op objectives. Public servers are available alongside sessions you host yourself. Co-op centers the group on one shared mission; PvP puts your friends against human opponents and gives each round a different kind of challenge.
You can host a listen server from the game and invite friends through Steam. Dedicated servers are also supported, and the developer provides free server files; paid hosting partners are another option if nobody wants to keep a game client running as host. Since the game is distributed for Windows through Steam, it has no cross-platform console or Mac/Linux client pool to join.
The listed minimum requirements are Windows 10 64-bit, an Intel Core i5-9400F or AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 16 GB of memory, and a GTX 1060 6 GB or Radeon RX 580 8 GB. It needs 40 GB of storage and broadband; an SSD is recommended.
Maps, darkness and the pace of a run
The settings range from tight interiors to outdoor compounds, forested areas, a port and a multi-level tanker. Each setting changes how much of the mission unfolds at close range and how much ground separates one objective from another. A map can be played at different times of day, with selectable moon phases for night operations. At night, night-vision gear changes what you can see, while flashlights and infrared equipment create their own visibility tradeoffs. There is also a training complex with firing ranges and a killhouse, giving the group a place to handle its customized weapons between missions.
The atmosphere stays restrained and grounded. Briefings frame the work as covert operations, and the Ready Room feels like a staging area rather than a menu of loud rewards. In the field, the first-person view tracks the operator’s body and weapon, so the muzzle, stance and visible limbs all occupy space in the world. Doors can be opened or breached, and weapon handling, stamina and armor give movement and equipment a physical quality. The result feels closer to a tactical simulation than a cinematic action campaign.
Voice chat is built into online play. Positional voice lets nearby teammates talk in the space around them, while a team radio carries speech across the group; text and prerecorded voice messages are also available. That gives a group options if a player does not use a microphone, and it means the game does not require a separate voice-chat app. Communication is part of the mission’s soundscape: the low-key briefings and radio calls sit alongside footsteps, doors, distant shots and weapon noise rather than a constant stream of score alerts.
That focus also defines the limits. The two-operation prologue is brief, the game has no friendly bots to round out a small online party, and it does not build a long-term character or equipment progression track. Multiplayer requires an online connection for co-op and competitive play, and each player needs access to the Windows Steam version. On the other hand, your whole group can use its chosen equipment from the beginning, host a session itself, and move between PvE objectives and PvP rounds without a separate seasonal ladder or loot economy. GROUND BRANCH fits friends who want configurable missions, deliberate gunfights and time spent shaping their kits as much as using them.