Squad is a tactical shooter based around squad gameplay designed to encourage teamwork and communication. A match is played between two belligerent teams, with each team being made up of squads that cap at nine players. Players in squads select from various soldier classes which play distinct roles in combat, such as suppressive fire from an automatic rifleman, anti-tank support from a MANPATS gunner, or medical support from a combat medic. A squad of players is led by a squad leader, who can communicate with other allied squad leaders and construct structures such as forward operating bases and defensive emplacements.[4] Any squad leader can additionally nominate himself for the position of commander, who, once voted into position, can coordinate his team's battle plan and call in additional support such as UAV recon and artillery.

Squad borrows many of its gameplay aspects from its predecessor, Project Reality, with its game modes placing heavy emphasis on team coordination.[5] Matches take place on extremely large realistic battlefields up to 36 km2 (14 sq mi) in size, facilitating the use of a wide variety of vehicles such as main-battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, transport trucks and helicopters. The two teams, utilizing vehicle and infantry warfare, compete over various objectives, such as strategic locations to hold or weapon caches to destroy.[6] To facilitate maneuver warfare, squad leaders can construct forward operating bases around the map, which provide a team-wide location for soldiers to respawn and must be kept supplied by a logistics network. Both teams are kept in check by the "ticket" system, which simulates combat effectiveness. The loss of strategic locations, destruction of forward operating bases or vehicles and soldier deaths all remove tickets from a team's pool, and a match ends once a team's ticket pool has been reduced to zero. A team that fails at defending too many of its strategic objectives will begin to lose tickets rapidly, starting at a loss of one per minute and capping out at a maximum of ten per minute. As such, teams have the ability to achieve victory in multiple ways, such as exhausting the enemy's ability to fight or by completing all of their tactical objectives.

There are eight playable factions in Squad, which change based on the map and game mode being played. The real-life militaries featured include the United States Army, Russian Ground Forces, Canadian Army, Australian Army, British Army and most recently added the United States Marine Corps. Three generic stock factions are also included: the Insurgents, modeled after various Middle Eastern insurgent groups, the Irregular Militia, modeled after the paramilitaries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the Middle East Alliance, a fictional military alliance amalgamation of the armed forces of various Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries.

Squad is a tactical shooter based around squad gameplay designed to encourage teamwork and communication. A match is played between two belligerent teams, with each team being made up of squads that cap at nine players. Players in squads select from various soldier classes which play distinct roles in combat, such as suppressive fire from an automatic rifleman, anti-tank support from a MANPATS gunner, or medical support from a combat medic. A squad of players is led by a squad leader, who can communicate with other allied squad leaders and construct structures such as forward operating bases and defensive emplacements.[4] Any squad leader can additionally nominate himself for the position of commander, who, once voted into position, can coordinate his team's battle plan and call in additional support such as UAV recon and artillery. Squad borrows many of its gameplay aspects from its predecessor, Project Reality, with its game modes placing heavy emphasis on team coordination.[5] Matches take place on extremely large realistic battlefields up to 36 km2 (14 sq mi) in size, facilitating the use of a wide variety of vehicles such as main-battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, transport trucks and helicopters. The two teams, utilizing vehicle and infantry warfare, compete over various objectives, such as strategic locations to hold or weapon caches to destroy.[6] To facilitate maneuver warfare, squad leaders can construct forward operating bases around the map, which provide a team-wide location for soldiers to respawn and must be kept supplied by a logistics network. Both teams are kept in check by the "ticket" system, which simulates combat effectiveness. The loss of strategic locations, destruction of forward operating bases or vehicles and soldier deaths all remove tickets from a team's pool, and a match ends once a team's ticket pool has been reduced to zero. A team that fails at defending too many of its strategic objectives will begin to lose tickets rapidly, starting at a loss of one per minute and capping out at a maximum of ten per minute. As such, teams have the ability to achieve victory in multiple ways, such as exhausting the enemy's ability to fight or by completing all of their tactical objectives. There are eight playable factions in Squad, which change based on the map and game mode being played. The real-life militaries featured include the United States Army, Russian Ground Forces, Canadian Army, Australian Army, British Army and most recently added the United States Marine Corps. Three generic stock factions are also included: the Insurgents, modeled after various Middle Eastern insurgent groups, the Irregular Militia, modeled after the paramilitaries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the Middle East Alliance, a fictional military alliance amalgamation of the armed forces of various Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries.