N E ED TO K N OW
Space dogfighting action in a galaxy far, far away
DEVELOPER EA Motive
PUBLISHER EA
REVIEWED ON GTX 1080, Intel i7-7700K, 16GB RAM
MULTIPLAYER Yes
LINK ea.com/games/ starwars/squadrons deathmatch) and Fleet Battles, which are tug-of-war contests between two enemy capital ships. If you destroy enough of the enemy team’s fighters you can push forward on the offensive to attack their capital ships in stages. Fleet Battles are great play spaces because they demand some strategy, but still allow for plenty of flexibility – they provide structure to dogfights that give moment-tomoment victories more meaning.
They also force you to make decisions more complex than picking the fastest ship. You can pilot a heavy bomber and focus on dealing big damage to those capital ships, but you’ll need teammates in nimbler craft, like the A-Wing or TIE Interceptor, to take down enemy fighters. Imperial teams really need a support ship, which can provide them temporary shields to stick it out in longer battles. Ship customisation plays into this well: ion cannons can take down shields quicker than lasers, while certain high damage missiles are ideal against capital ships but can only be fired from long range.
With random players there’s only so much coordination you can do, but I’ve played enough of Fleet Battles to feel confident that it’s a mode people will keep developing strategies and tricks for, with Discord groups planning out their exact ship selections and arsenals to complement each other like MOBA players before a match.
When I went into dogfights with a full team of PCPP colleagues, we got better at pinging targets and shooting enemies off one another’s tails. That experience amplified the fun of simply juking an enemy or nailing a TIE Fighter with a perfect laser blast – which is saying something, because the core flying in Squadrons is already exhilarating. When I weave through the cracks of an asteroid field to dodge a torpedo, it’s hard not to let out a Han Solo whoop.
Playing in VR makes that feeling even more intense, and even gives you some advantages. You can look