Laser Squad

Laser Squad is a one or two player turn-based tactics war game where the player is tasked with mission objectives such as assassination, infiltrate and destroy, and hostage rescue operations. Some mission objectives are achieved by eliminating enemy troops by taking advantage of cover, using squad level military tactics, and careful use of weaponry.

Before each mission begins, the player is given a limited amount of credits to purchase weapons and armour for their squad. The player then chooses the starting position for their squad members by placing them on one of the designated deployment squares.

Following the completion of Rebelstar, Julian Gollop started work on Laser Squad as his next project. Along with his brother, Nick, he set up Target Games with the aim of developing and publishing their future games.

Taking the core elements of the Rebelstar series, Gollop introduced many improvements such as multiple scenarios, expansion kits, weapon configurations, improved AI, linked story lines, and line-of-sight rules. The line-of-sight and hidden movement features were something that Gollop was keen to integrate into Laser Squad because it was prevalent in board games, which many of Gollop's games had taken influence from. Julian felt that previous games were too easy, especially for experienced gamers, so difficulty levels were introduced.

The original ZX Spectrum release was widely praised for its innovative approach in bringing tactical wargaming to the 8-bit computers, blending strategy with arcade-like action, which appeals to a broader audience, including those new to strategy games. Critics stated that the game creates suspense and tension, particularly through its close-quarters combat and the uncertainty of enemy movements.

While ACE felt that the control system "takes a little while to get used to", others praised it, with Sinclair User highlighting the menu system as logically organized and intuitive, contributing to smooth gameplay. The multiple difficulty levels provide a challenge that keeps players engaged with the two-player mode adding plenty of re-playability.

Following on from Laser Squad, Mythos Games released a fantasy game Lords of Chaos, which shared similarities to Laser Squad. Laser Squad has been described as one of Julian Gollop's most influential games and one of the best 8-bit strategy games, and was instrumental to the development of the subsequent X-Com games. In fact, a demo of Laser Squad 2 was used as the starting point in developing UFO: Enemy Unknown for publisher MicroProse.

The Laser Squad franchise was revived by Gollop's Codo Technologies in 2002 with the play-by-email game Laser Squad Nemesis, although this departs from the turn-based action point system and does not have customizable weaponry.