PC & console game reviews
Red Five standing by.
Star Wars: Squadrons almost seems like a reaction to an entire generation of Star Wars games. Slick spectacle has been the calling card of EA’s time on the series, which has meant that games such as Battlefront looked the part, even when they sometimes didn’t feel it. This first-person dogfighting simulator, on the other hand, wants you to live it. As you plonk yourself into the seat of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter, every detail and decision is designed to immerse you in the cockpit of a starfighter, to turn idle daydreams of whooshing through a galaxy far, far away into a tangible experience.
That it succeeds regularly in conjuring up moments of supreme wish-fulfilment is a testament to the approach developer Motive has taken. Giving you eight different ships, split evenly between the
New Republic and Empire, there’s a level of complexity that comes with piloting, with granular details you might expect to see in Elite: Dangerous rather than a Star Wars game. Whether it’s directing power to a craft’s laser or shield system, setting the throttle to half-speed to make your ship more manoeuvrable, or learning how to drift through space so you can do a quick 180-degree turn and surprise other attackers, there’s a level of depth to the fantasy of flying an X-Wing in Star Wars: Squadrons that you might not expect.
However, this level of detail comes with the trade-off that your first few flights are bound to be spent learning just how to read your cockpit. Power gauges are a small strip of LED lights on your left, your ship’s shields and health on a screen to the right, your ammo supply a small box just underneath the windshield… is it a windshield in space? Anyway, you know what I mean. My larger point is that Star Wars: Squadrons wants you to learn
Every detail and decision is designed to immerse you in the cockpit of a starfighter, to turn idle daydreams of whooshing through a galaxy far, far away into a tangible experience.
how to fly, and while that can seem initially daunting at first, especially if you’re expecting something similar to what EA has delivered in recent years, but sticking with it makes every threading-the-needle manoeuvre or game of chicken with an enemy fighter all the more rewarding.
That sensation is only improved when you slip on a VR headset. Squadrons is fully playable in PC VR or PS VR (I played it on the latter), and it simply ramps up the excitement and immersion of being in a cockpit.
★★★★☆
Star Wars: Squadrons offers an exhilarating take on dogfighting in a galaxy far, far away, which helps elevate a functional single-player story and provides a strong foundation for a focused multiplayer experience.
Ben Tyrer