Door Kickers: Action Squad

About Door Kickers: Action Squad

It’s a side-scrolling SWAT game where you kick down doors, rescue hostages, and shoot terrorists. The pixel art style hooked me immediately—reminds me of old arcade games I played as a kid. You pick a class like breacher or assault, gear up with shotguns or flashbangs, and dive into missions across buildings and streets. The strategy comes in planning your breach: do you blow the door, peek through windows, or toss a stun grenade first? I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve replayed a level just to save that last hostage without taking a bullet. It’s not a deep simulation or anything, but the fast-paced action keeps me coming back. The co-op multiplayer is a blast with friends, though I mostly play solo on my pixel 7 since my gaming buddies aren’t into mobile stuff. For a paid game, it feels like a complete experience—no ads interrupting your raid.

Features & Highlights

The class system is the standout feature for me. You’ve got the breacher (shotgun, heavy armor), the assault (rifle, balanced), and the shield guy (slow but invincible from the front). Each one changes how you approach a room. There’s also a ton of weapons and gadgets: silencers, lockpicks, even a battering ram. The missions vary from saving hostages in a bank to clearing a warehouse full of armed thugs. I spent a whole Saturday afternoon on the “House of Pain” level—took me like 30 tries to three-star it. The retro soundtrack thumps hard during firefights, too. My only gripe on the feature side is that the multiplayer matchmaking can be dead unless you coordinate with friends. The game also tracks your stats, which I appreciate as a numbers nerd—like accuracy per weapon or hostages rescued. It’s got leaderboards, but I don’t bother with those since I’m not competitive online.

User Experience

The controls took some getting used to on a phone. You swipe to aim, tap to shoot, and drag to move. On my Pixel 7, it runs smoothly at 60fps with no lag, but the touch buttons are a bit small for my thumbs—I’ve accidentally kicked a door instead of reloading more times than I’ll admit. The UI is clean: mission select screen shows your star rating and any collectibles. I like that you can pause mid-mission without penalty, because real life interrupts sometimes (like when my cat knocked over a cup of coffee last Tuesday). Loading times are quick, maybe 3-4 seconds for each level. The tutorial is decent but doesn’t explain advanced tactics like using walls for cover or bouncing flashbangs off corners. I figured that out by failing repeatedly. One thing that bugs me: the game asks for storage permissions, which feels excessive for a side-scroller. I checked and it only uses 500MB, so why the prompt? It’s a minor annoyance from a privacy perspective.

Pricing

This is a paid app—I think I paid around $4.99 for it. No subscription, no energy timers, no watch-an-ad-for-continue nonsense. That’s refreshing. There are in-app purchases for some cosmetic skins and a few extra characters, but I haven’t bought any and still feel like I got my money’s worth. The base content includes like 60 missions plus the co-op mode. It’s not free-to-play predatory, which I respect as someone who keeps a close eye on my spending. I remember checking my Google Play purchase history and seeing only this one charge from KillHouse Games—nothing else hidden. Compared to other premium mobile games, it’s reasonably priced. The only con is that some of the cooler class unlocks (like the “Sapper” with remote charges) are behind a $1.99 IAP, which feels a bit stingy for an already paid game. But honestly, the default classes are enough to beat everything.

Updates & Support

I’ve seen maybe three or four updates since I bought it in early 2023. They added a new mission pack called “No Way Out” and fixed some pixel collision bugs. That’s fine. But the support experience was disappointing. Last October, I had an issue where my progress reset after a phone update. I emailed KillHouse Games through their site and got a reply four days later saying, “Try reinstalling and restoring from backup.” The backup didn’t work, so I replied asking for more help. That was crickets for two weeks. I eventually just replayed the levels, which wasn’t terrible since I love the game, but it left a bad taste. The support page mentions a Discord server, but I don’t use Discord for privacy reasons. If they had a proper FAQ or a forum, that would help. As is, you’re mostly on your own if something breaks.

Security & Privacy

Here’s where my antenna went up. The app asks for storage permissions (read and write access) which I almost denied on principle. I looked at their privacy policy—it’s a short PDF on their website. They claim they don’t collect personal data or sell it, but they do use third-party analytics (I spotted Google Firebase in the permissions list). For a single-player game with no account system, why does it need to phone home? I checked my network traffic with a firewall app on my Pixel 7, and it sends occasional anonymized crash reports and session lengths. No location or contact data, thankfully. But the storage permission is still suspicious—do they need it for save files? Other games manage without that. I haven’t seen any tracking for ads since it’s paid, which is a relief. I wish they’d explain the storage access in plain language on the app store page. As a privacy-conscious user, I put up with it because the game is offline-playable and doesn’t nag you, but I’m watching for any shady behavior. So far, so good.