Season three landed, I got curious, and I installed Squid Game: Unleashed expecting a lazy cash grab with a famous logo stamped on it. It is not that. It is a fast multiplayer party game where you run through challenges from the show against a lobby of other players, and it is genuinely fun. My verdict is a maybe, for one simple reason: Fall Guys already does this, and it does it better. What this one has going for it is the franchise, and one very unusual decision.
There is no cash shop. None.
No ads either. No $99 bundles, no timers nudging you toward your wallet. Characters, cosmetics, upgrades, all of it comes out of in-game money you earn by playing matches.
There is even a mystery box, which is a loot box in every way except the one that matters. It costs about two or three matches worth of in-game currency. That makes it feel like a reward for playing instead of a slot machine holding your card details. For a free mobile game with a name this big on it, that is close to a miracle.
Red Light, Green Light, and a lot of falling
Your first match is a tutorial in a disguise. You get dropped in against bots, or against people running face first into walls, and you win. It is obviously built to hand you that win. Felt good anyway.
The level design after that is more varied than I expected. Some challenges come straight from the show, Red Light Green Light and the glass bridge among them, and those are the ones worth showing up for. Others are generic obstacle courses that could belong to any party game. The mix is what keeps it from going stale.
It is fast, it is chaotic, and it is heavier on the hardware than it looks. New phone or tablet, no problem. Older device, expect some lag and stutter.
Squid Game: Unleashed forgot the part where you die
Elimination comes in three flavors. Some levels hand you unlimited respawns, some cap you at around three lives, and a few do it the way the show did, where one mistake and you are out.
That variety keeps matches quick and easy to drop into. It also removes the single thing that made the series grip people. If losing just means you pop back in and try again, there are no stakes, and without stakes this is a colorful obstacle course wearing a Squid Game skin. The psychological edge is gone.
What is left is the violence, and the game is cheerfully into it. It celebrates when you stab someone or knock them out with a bat. That might be the most Squid Game thing in the whole app.
So should you install it?
You can party up with friends, though I stuck to solo. People were grouping up in chat, so the community is alive.
Here is the honest version. If you want the best game of this type, go play Fall Guys, which has more polish and more content behind it. If you want a free party game built on a franchise you already like, one that never once asks for your money, this is a pretty good one. Both things are true at the same time, which is exactly why it lands on a maybe.
