STAR WARS™: Squadrons

Review

Star Wars Squadrons is the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise. Coming from the X-Wing vs TIE Fighter glory days, Star Wars Squadrons turned out to be a fine addition to the franchise with its fun competent gameplay, solid depth, and great visuals.

The plot of Star Wars Squadrons takes place right after the Battle of Endor.  The Empire just got hold of some information; Alderaanian survivors are trying to escape the Empire.

The Empire sends their best squadron, the ‘’Titan squadron’’, to hunt down the survivors. In a plot twist, the Titan squadron commander defects and helps the Alderaanian survivors escape the Empire.

On the other side, The New Republic is about to start Project Starhawk, which the Empire gets wind of and tries to sabotage the New Republic efforts.

Coming from the X-Wing VS TIE Fighter glory days, I must say Star Wars Squadrons lived up to my expectations with its solid first-person gameplay and great visuals.

Gameplay: Star War Squadrons’ main highlight is its first-person space dogfights. On one hand, the simple base gameplay added a sense of excitement with easy to learn controls, and on the other hand, the difficulty in mastering the controls made the gameplay challenging. The gameplay in its entirety takes place in a first-person perspective and inside the cockpit of your spacecraft.

The choice between the Fighters, Bombers, Interceptors, and Support spacecraft’s plays an important role in your Galactic domination.

Each class of Ship plays an important part throughout the game, and each has its pros and cons. Fighters are jacks of all trade and masters of none, good for fast-paced dogfights and can also hit enemies pretty hard. Bombs are slower and hard to maneuver but are heavy hitters. Interceptors are fast attackers, good for getting a head start from your squadron and hitting the incoming enemies head on, but not very good at tight turns and handling multiple fighters in combat.

The Support Spacecraft is important, keeping the whole squadron well-stocked, but is not good at dogfighting.

An important part of the game is managing your spacecraft’s system resources, switching between Engine power, Weapon power and Shield power, or balancing system resources between all the systems. Each plays an important part during combat. It might look simple but learning when to switch or balance system resources can be a bit tricky in the heat of combat.

Switching the powers to increase Engine power or to increase Weapons power can lead to victory and defeat.

Maneuvering the Spacecrafts was simple, with its simple control layout of Throttle up and down with W and S, Roll left or right with A and D.  More accurate movement and targeting can be achieved with mouse movement.

Multiplayer: The star attraction of Star Wars Squadrons is its suite of multiplayer game modes. Currently, there are two Multiplayer game modes available:

1. Dogfight: In this game mode 5v5 intense spacecraft dogfights take place throughout six different maps and between two squadrons, The New Republic’s Vanguard Squadron and Galactic Empire’s Titan Squadron.

2. Fleet battles: In this game mode you and your squadron are tasked with bringing down the enemy fleet and defending your fleet at the same time. The Fleet battles take place throughout six different maps and can be played after reaching level 5.

VR, The game brings a brilliant VR experience to the table, with its immersive visuals of the galaxy and smooth gameplay. The entire game can be experienced on VR.

Visuals: as with other Star Wars games, Star Wars Squadrons also brings amazing Galactic visuals and artistic tone to complement its amazing gameplay. Speeding throughout the galaxy and enjoying its beauty was an amazing experience. Although the playable area is not as vast as it seems, you will appreciate the spacious environment of the space around you. Sometimes the beauty can be a bit overwhelming during the heat of combat.

Review written by BiteMexD for Zeepond.com!