Star Wars: Squadrons Review

October 2, 2020

4 minutes

Star Wars: Squadrons has finally released. Ever since this game was announced fans were eager to finally play a new Star Wars game, especially after how successful Fallen Order was. That game followed a Jedi navigating his way through the Empire controlled galaxy, but Squadrons allows you to play as either the Empire or the Rebellion.

Also, unlike Fallen Order, we are entirely set up in ships, flying, dogfighting, and completing missions. This is an interesting component to the Star Wars universe of games and a throwback to the older ones that became extremely popular. We have played the dogfights in Battlefront, but this takes it to a whole different level.

Graphics

The graphics of this game are incredible. The detail in the maps and the sky is absolutely mind-blowing. Each map hosts a different sort of atmosphere and they have made it look absolutely insane. The details in the clouds, the rocks, meteors, and everything around you is well done.

The game was announced only a few months before its release and some fans were nervous that the $39.99 game won’t be as detailed as hoped. But, they certainly delivered. Along with the detailed maps and skies, the aliens and humans all have great detail to them.

The inside of the ships, now this is mind-blowing. I actually feel like I am flying an X-wing or a TIE fighter. The gauges, scanners, and computers are all authentic looking. There are the vibes of the original trilogy and the scanners they had then, but it is also clearly updated, clear, and very helpful.

Controls

The controls aren’t complicated and are easy to pick up quick, especially with the beginning walkthrough. The only thing that starts getting difficult is keeping track of where you want to put the power, should you put them in your shields? Or do you need some speed or firepower?

It seems that with practice the easier this all becomes. It is very necessary to stay aware of what is going on, missiles are extremely helpful but not always reliable. When chasing down some prey, but receiving fire from the back, it may be smart to give more power to the shields and give yourself some cover to get out of a sticky situation.

The speed boosts are always helpful.

Single-player

The single-player features are a lot of fun. The story line is very well thought-out and has some real depth to it. These characters are extremely lovable from the beginning, the Rebellion is full of hopeful kids who want to stop and bring down the Empire.

While the Empire is exactly what you thought it would be… and better. The Star Destroyers are insane and the hangars have so much detail they feel like they are directly out of the movies. The Admirals are tough and the pilots are ruthless.

The ability to bounce between the Empire and Rebellion gives good insight to the back and forth of the war. It also makes it extremely difficult to pick sides, you get to see both sides of each story, the Empire truly believes in what they are doing, but the Rebels are desperate for freedom.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer modes are a lot of fun, too. The strategy game modes are well thought out and the dogfights is just unleashing mayhem on the other team, which is a lot of fun.

Some things do get tricky and I can honestly say I get turned around sometimes, especially in pursuit of someone else, but overall the game is a lot of fun to play and extremely immersive.

Sitting in the cockpit of your favorite Star Wars fighters is a great feeling. Plus, I saved up enough to ball out on the Sandcrawler dash piece, which I must say looks incredible and I think that was a very nice shoutout from the team over at EA.

The home screen and colors are all extremely well done and I don’t know about you guts, but I get a total 70s vibe from the set up. I love everything about this game and I’ve only played it a few hours.

What will you be playing Squadrons on? Thank you for reading and remember, utinni!

3 responses to “Star Wars: Squadrons Review”

Silk Cords

October 7, 2020 at 7:12 pm

This is one of those reviews where yah drive me nuts. 😀

You’re too quick to point out the legitimate good and overlook the bad. That in turn hurts your credibility as a reviewer. Just well meaning advice there, not an attack. 🙂

I’d agree with 90% of your review. HOWEVER… The solo missions arc is ridiculously short. The original X-Wing game had 50+ missions not counting both varieties of training OR the DLCs. Said DLCs each had more content than Squadrons.

The trouble is the big gaming companies think the universe revolves around PvP play. Probably because the PvP crowd is LOUD. It’s exactly that reason that many gamers (me included) HATE HATE HATE PvP. Those players are some of the most obnoxious, toxic gamers on the planet. PvP also always ends up being about who has the most time playing, so the one living in mom’s basement playing 16 hours a day gets all the rewards and then squashes the newcomer and casual player.

Normally, I wouldn’t go on such a rant in a reply, but there’s a LARGE number of old X-Wingers that have been dying for a true sequel or even an upgraded original… For decades. Instead they cater to the PvP trolls.

There’s also the issue of quite a few bugs in the game too. HOTAS (Hands On Throttle and Stick) controls are marginal at best on PCs for starters. In a combat flight sim, that’s a crime in and of itself. EA has turned around and improved from where they were 6 to 9 months ago, BUT I still remember the OLD EA from Bard’s Tale Trilogy days… The company that would have died rather than release a buggy game, and immediately patched any minor bugs found.

Overall good game? More or less. Worlds of potential, but I’m actually NOT buying unless they significantly expand the single player campaign and fix the bugs.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Jacob Mahady
  
  October 7, 2020 at 7:23 pm
  
  Yes it’s short but the reality of these games is that it rely’s on PVP. They aren’t necessarily “louder” but that’s just where the money is at for these companies. A longer campaign would have been fantastic, but a longer campaign for Fallen Order would have been better.
  
  The PVP allows for you to play it over and over, focusing on a campaign makes it too linear and the game is destined to die out.
  
  I also play on XBox and my controller settings are fantastic there. Easy to fly, easy to control, easy to make adjustments and change power so all around I just don’t have negative things to say about it.
  
  Plus it’s not the usual $60-80 game it’s only $40. I assumed the campaign wouldn’t be anything significant. Most of the advertisements that I had seen building up to it made me believe it was going to be an online game.
  
  Try out the game and see for yourself. A couple places are having 20% of sales.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  1. Silk Cords
    
    October 7, 2020 at 7:59 pm
    
    Sorry, first hand experience for decades with PvP in Everquest 2, City of Heroes, Champions Online, WoW, SWTOR, Conan Exiles, and probably half a dozen other games. PvPers are NOT the majority of players by any means. They do have a BAD habit of ruining games for other players however.
    
    There are more regular gamers and RP’ers than PvPers on almost anything outside of First Person Shooters. Yet even on SWTOR it’s the PvP crowd that the Devs listen to, esp in terms of character class balance.
    
    Destined to die out? Most PvP’ers jump ship to the next big game at the drop of a hat. The regular gamers and RP’ers were the ones that hammered NCSoft to re-open City of Heroes for 20 years, and then finally did so on their own without company support. Those are the kind of fans EA should be marketing to.
    
    The same kind of LARGE fan base of the originals that I mentioned who have been waiting for a TRUE X-Wing sequel.
    
    BTW, linear is EASILY fixed with a random mission generator outside of the campaign proper OR the ability to create your own missions like City of Heroes and Star Trek Online had.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply