I have a long, contentious history with Star Wars video games. There’s been a lot of them, and more of them are forgettable than memorable, but the ones that I have the fondest memories of are the space flight games. Rogue Squadron and X-Wing, and TIE Fighter are some of my favorite experiences in a galaxy far, far away. Games like the two former are the ones that tend to get the most right. It could be that it’s just easier to make something feel right when you can focus on the smaller details of cockpit experience and maybe not get so concerned with trade embargos and space senators' intricacies.
In any case, Star Wars: Squadrons is, in many ways, the Star Wars game of my dreams. It gets so much right but is also concerningly light on content, and with EA already announcing that the game will not be getting any DLC, it feels like a game that will never get a chance to realize its full potential and if you’ll excuse me with this one...take flight.
Star Wars: Squadrons (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC [reviewed])
Developer: MOTIVE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: October 2, 2020
MSRP: $39.99
The basics of Squadrons will feel straightforward if you’ve played any other flight simulator. You pitch the ship up and down, maneuver left and right, aim your crosshairs to fire missiles or lasers, and even drop bombs depending on what you’re flying. Every map in multiplayer and single-player mission is set in space, so maintaining a certain altitude is never a concern. That fact also opens you up to have some pretty crazy fun with maneuvering your ship.
Unless you bump things all the way up difficulty wise, you could probably coast through most of the roughly seven-hour campaign with just the basics. Shoot, dodge, repair, repeat, but if you’re willing to engage with the more intricate systems at play, you can really do some impressive stuff with these ships. There’s a pretty intricate system built around diverting your power.
Every one of the eight ships in Squadrons is equipped with at least two basic systems, weapons, and engines; some also have a shielding system that will work the same way. When you launch a ship, all of these systems are running a balanced power level by default, but the player can choose to route power from one system to another. This allows you to boost your engines' power to increase your speed at the cost of dealing less damage with your weapons and vice versa.
Essentially taking a hit on the abilities of subsequent systems allows you to boost the others. Ships like TIE fighters that have no shields also allow you to route all power to a single system temporarily. This renders the other completely inoperable but gives a far more impactful boost to the other. While most of these nuances aren’t exactly game-changing, the snap decision making can mean the difference between getting taken down by another player. It sure makes the sim aspect of things come alive as you watch the different instruments in your cockpit fluctuate.
While the ships all look great and have distinct feels, it’s what’s happening outside of your cockpit that really makes this experience come together. Much like the Battlefront series, Squadrons handle sound design expertly. The sounds of blaster bolts, proton torpedoes, and droids hard at work repairing your vessel all elevate this whole experience. Buzzing a Star Destroyer deck and hearing the distinct sound of TIE fighters buzzing past really pulls you into the world.
The campaign follows two pilots flying for the New Republic or former Rebel Alliance and the other flying for the post Return of the Jedi remnants of the Empire. It isn’t a groundbreaking Star Wars tale, but it follows the first Star Hawk ship's creation. A vessel built by the New Republic to rival Star Destroyers. You’ll swap back and forth between both squads as their paths cross and even see a few familiar players from the original trilogy as well as Star Wars Rebels.
Most mission objectives are fairly simple and exist to teach you the larger roles of each ship, but the missions take you to some fairly exciting locales: color-filled asteroid belts and scrap yards filled with decaying cruisers, just to name a few.
Once you’ve wrapped the story, there’s plenty to enjoy in the multiplayer modes. You can unlock a plethora of customization options for all your ships, as well as your two pilots. All unlocks are bought using an in-game currency acquired from leveling up, and as the game exists now, there’s no way to spend real-world money on these cosmetics.
On top of physical changes, you can also purchase different weapon and hull components that change how your ship works in multiplayer. These changes are mostly small, like having less overall health but more shields and altering the firing p’ firing pattern, but it’s nice to see options to fit different play styles.
Once you’ve decked out your dashboard and are ready to take flight, you can choose from two game modes. The basic dog fight mode is easy to hop into and, subsequently, the most fun. The simple deathmatch feels good; dodging lasers and getting into bouts with other fighters is well-paced and easy to understand whether you’ve beaten the campaign or played the first fifteen minutes. I found myself unironically yelling, “WOO!” as I blasted enemy TIEs.
The Fleet Battle mode is a different beast altogether. Here we have an undeniably built for Esports 5v5 objective-based multiplayer mode. Here each team enters with two frigates and a battlecruiser class ship. Your goal is to build morale by destroying both enemy players and AI fighters to push forward eventually and lead an assault on the enemy teams cruiser. The tug-of-war aspect can make going into a match a pretty large commitment. When playing with strangers, a match would sometimes take over an hour, but I could imagine things going a bit smoother with a familiar team working over a Discord channel.
When this mode comes together, it does a pretty good job of simulating a climactic Star Wars fleet battle, but more often than not, it can be a frustrating, messy slog that culminates in strangers yelling at you.
The real reason I want to keep playing Squadrons is to be immersed in dog fights in the Star Wars universe. It isn’t all perfect, but the ships look and feel great. There also isn’t anything more exhilarating than outmaneuvering an A-wing through an asteroid field.
It’s worth noting that for a game so finely tuned, Squadrons feels a bit light on content. The campaign isn’t terribly long, and with only eight ships and six multiplayer maps, content will dry up pretty quickly. Since EA has also already noted that no DLC will be coming, I can’t help but feel like Squadrons was abandoned before development even finished. It seems to me that at some point, the studio planned for this to be a big Esports player, but something along the way changed.
Verdict: Squadrons does more right than wrong, and if you’re a fan of the Kessel run and flight sims, it might be the perfect experience for you; however, with no real support insight and the rather light content offering, you might be better suited to wait for a sale this holiday.
Wait for a sale
Author: Rich Meister
[ This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]