Star Wars Squadrons

[Will]

It does look cool, I’m quite looking forward to playing this one. I guess the single player is not too big and intended as training for getting into the multiplayer. They also seem to suggest that all of the upgrades are just collected in-game rather than things you need to pay for. That can’t be right can it?

[Ronnie]

8 hours ago, will' said:

They also seem to suggest that all of the upgrades are just collected in-game rather than things you need to pay for. That can’t be right can it?

Yep, it was stated after the reveal trailer. Like Fallen Order, no micro-transactions.

[Will]

Well that’s pretty cool. Also awesome that the whole thing can be played in VR. Quite looking forward to it now.

[Ronnie]

FANTASTIC gameplay trailer, it's funny I wasn't expecting such a in-depth overview of the game, I figured they'd do what they did with Fallen Order and give us a 5 or 10 minute unbroken slice. Not complaining though, it's all looking really great!!

I've made my peace with the whole first-person thing. They've obviously put a ton of work into the visuals and customisation and it'd probably be a bit easy if you could see the whole ship + surroundings.

The character customisation thing really surprises me. It makes a lot of sense for the multiplayer but I figured Lucasfilm would want to keep a tight lid on the canon and use specific characters in the storyline. Maybe there is a distinction between the two modes but that's not what the trailer suggested I don't think.

Great to hear Hera speak! And that must be Rae Sloane in there too. 

My only slight worry is from a visual pov, especially how noisy all the environments look. It's a really modern trend with scifi/fantasy to fill the screen with as much stuff as possible. The new Star Trek shows do this constantly. But it's a small gripe, I guess they have to distinguish each map somehow. The only other thing are the star trails when boosting are pretty garish but you need that kind of thing in flight games to show the direction of travel.

There seem to be a TON of components available, which is great. There's an inherent issue with this game because Rebel ships are supposed to be far stronger than Imperials (no shields, but superior numbers), and it'll be interesting to see how they deal with that. You can clearly see TIE cockpits showing no shields.

The fact that the whole game is in VR is amazing, and it's probably (finally) the killer app I've been waiting for to get a rig. I just wish Sony would hurry up and release a wireless PSVR2.

I'm going to assume there's match-making for all multiplayer modes, there better be otherwise I'm pretty screwed. Overall though, it's all looking fantastic 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Ronnie

[Ronnie]

Outlets went hands-on and previews came out a couple of days ago, with plenty raving about how great it was to play.

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It really only took a few minutes to assure me that the developers at EA Motive hadn't screwed anything up here. This is genuinely the 2020 reimagining of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter I hoped it would be, with some beautifully rendered cockpits and combat arenas set around space stations and stunning multicolored nebulas. 

While flying might be a bit more forgiving than it was in those games 20-plus years ago (I ricocheted off walls a few times without taking too much damage), this is still more sim than Rogue Squadron. It's first-person only. You have to actively manage your power system between shields, weapons, and engines to suit the moment; you can also rebalance your shields from front to back with a button press, which will help more skilled players survive dogfights. Aiming your standard laser cannons doesn't give you a leading target reticle that tells you exactly where to shoot, so you'll have to get a feel for that yourself, eyeing the speed and distance to your target.

The Flight Sim we've been waiting for - PC Gamer

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Ask any fan of Star Wars what they most yearn to reenact in a video game, and they’ll likely tell you two things: lightsaber duels and space battles.

Last year’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from Respawn gave us the first in a strong and sleek package. Now, another Electronic Arts studio — the Canadian developer Motive, which was responsible in part for Star Wars Battlefront II — is bringing us the second in the form of Star Wars: Squadrons. It’s a space combat game that puts you in the cockpit of classic Star Wars spacecraft, including TIE ships and the New Republic Wing series, with a unique story campaign and robust multiplayer modes inspired by EA’s Battlefield and Battlefront series.

It’s an astonishingly difficult game if you’re unfamiliar with the broader flight sim and space combat genres. But Squadrons is also accessibly designed, much like a racing game, with a set of systems that automate away harder tasks until you learn, improve, and — once you’re ready — really take flight.

Squadrons is chaotic, exhilirating and very difficult - The Verge

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Right out of the star-gate, the good news is that the flying and combat in Squadrons felt solid. If you like trying to shoot at where the other guy is going to be while wiggling your spaceship to shake off the proton torpedo on your tail, you’ll be in Gammorean Heaven. I played with a mouse and keyboard, but other participants reported a similarly good experience with a controller. The game’s targeting system is effective and fairly intuitive, and although it’s been a minute since I got my dogfight on, I found myself immediately flashing back to my Rogue Squadron days. Targeting and strafing a turret on the surface of a Star Destroyer, the chatter between me and my teammates, jumping from one level to the next, the detailed sounds of lasers and explosions I shouldn’t actually be able to hear in space — it all felt right.

Squadrons knows what it’s about. It’s a very focused game, on a path as narrow and thrilling as any Death Star trench. If you’re into first-person space combat, I doubt a tighter package will come along this year. And if you’re a fan of multiplayer team sports, you could certainly have a lot of fun putting together a squad of fighter pilot friends and taking a run at becoming the scourge of the servers. The developers clearly have a lot of love for the Star Wars universe, as evidenced by the gorgeous, pop-art and propaganda-inspired cutscenes that help set the game apart from a generic Star Wars look. So if you yearn for a return to simpler days, but with a few new monkey wrenches thrown into the works to keep things interesting, Squadrons has a seat waiting for you.

Narrow but deep, like the trench run - IGN

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Ronnie

[Julius]

Game will be at Gamescom this Thursday:

Looking forward to seeing more!

[Ronnie]

Wonder what it could be. Maybe just a story mission?

[Julius]

Single player trailer from Gamescom:

Loved that New Republic propaganda at the start, game looks good. I'm (still) in. 

Really aren't leaving much up to the imagination with Project Starhawk though, are they? Guessing this means we'll finally get to see one in action! 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Julius

[Ronnie]

I'd love it if the game ends at Jakku but I guess that's unlikely.

Looks amazing.

[Julius]

Gone gold!

Just a few weeks now. Not sure how long I'll put into the online, but looking forward to digging into the campaign - however short it is - all the same!

[Ronnie]

 

Colour me (very) interested

Edited September 12, 2020 by Ronnie

[Julius]

CG short is up. Paging @Ronnie!

Looks absolutely phenomenal.

Holy hell, this must have cost a fortune! Reminds me of the CG shorts for The Old Republic. I know they said CG before, but still, I wasn't expecting movie quality CG. Genuinely looks better than some scenes in the more recent films at times.

Stunning environments and vehicles, still not nailed faces and some surfaces in CG (the TIE helmet in the cockpit and the TIE surface when whipping around come to mind), but seriously, incredible. Awesome use of the Imperial March too, the music really tied this thing together in a big way.

Praying there's another one! 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Julius

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

CG short is up. Paging @Ronnie!

 

Holy fuck. That was OUTSTANDING! 

I was expecting a couple of minutes from an in-game cutscene, definitely not that! Loved it, so many cool moments/camera angles/tactics. Slight nitpick, the iconic X-Wing sounds effects weren't quite there, but everything else was top notch.

Cheers for the heads up @Julius I'd somehow forgotten this was today. Wonder if we'll see more Shorts before the game's release. Also wonder if this is the character you play as on the Imperial side in-game (even though he's customisable). It's funny for a budget title that they've said they have no plans to offer expansions for, EA/Lucasfilm then put so much money into commissioning a short like that.

PS: Please, once he's done with watching Rogue One, someone kindly show this to JJ as an example of how to make a STAR WARS space battle. Not one of his generic pew pew ones that you've forgotten before the film's even over 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Ronnie

[ArtMediocre]

That was incredible! What an amazing short! Great animation, and the action had me on the tip of my seat all the way! Good job to the team behind this. It was great to see a space battle from the imperial perspective as well. Gives me vibes to the Old Republic cinematic trailers, so damn good. 

I am more hyped for the game, but please please let there be more of these shorts in the coming weeks

[Ronnie]

Would love at least one more of these for the New Republic pilot, but that'd be 15 minutes of near film quality CG so I'd understand if it's just this one.

[Ronnie]

Bit weird how this is out in two days but you wouldn't know it. There's been such little marketing since the initial push. Maybe they spent their whole budget on that Hunted short, I could believe it!

Hopefully this isn't being sent out to die giving EA the excuse that "no one wants space combat games".

[Julius]

5 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Bit weird how this is out in two days but you wouldn't know it. There's been such little marketing since the initial push. Maybe they spent their whole budget on that Hunted short, I could believe it!

Hopefully this isn't being sent out to die giving EA the excuse that "no one wants space combat games".

Yeah, I've heard very and seem very little about it being advertised, and I don't think reviews are going up until Friday? I know that it's a shorter, budget title when compared with the Battlefront games and Fallen Order, but still, I don't think EA are backing this enough (especially seeing as it's going to be standing on the pillars of an online community). 

I'm interested in seeing how the story plays out, but my expectations really aren't that high for the story. On EA's watch we've had the Battlefront II campaign, which was very predictable, uninspired (Luke killing bugs? Really?) and honestly a bit boring , and Fallen Order. While much, much better (and by far the best Star Wars game EA has to offer, Respawn did a great job), I do think it took quite a while to pick up some momentum, though it really kicks off in the second half. I think of some of my favourite moments in Fallen Order's story and I just don't see Squadrons having similar surprises in store, especially seeing as we've already seen so many characters coming in from the other Star Wars media out there. 

I really have no idea how long I'm going to end up playing this game. Absolutely in for the campaign (it having a Star Wars story is unfortunately enough to get me onboard), but I really don't know how much I'll play online? I put a lot of time into Battlefront's online (something like 150-200 hours?) and Battlefront II's online (probably half of what I put into Battlefront's?), but I really don't know how long I can see myself putting into Squadrons' online. My biggest concern is it being first-person, I can see that causing a lot of frustration. I still wish that we'd end up with a third-person perspective, but I'm not optimistic about our chances of that. 

Not long now, at least. I'm a big fan of getting smaller titles you can spend a week or two with, and this will be the third "budget" title I've picked up for around £30 (the other two being Tony Hawk 1+2 and Mafia Definitive Edition) in the last few weeks. Hopefully if this does well we can see a real Battlefront campaign or other single player adventure on a smaller budget. Maybe a Republic Commando revival? 

All of this just makes me want to break out the PS2 and play the best Battlefront again (the original Battlefront II) 

[Ronnie]

Reviews are out, getting great scores, it's about 80+ on Metacritic. I've not dived into the write-ups too much but the campaign is around 6-7 hours (longer than I was expecting tbh), the gameplay is apparently a brilliant mix of the Factor 5 games + the old school X-Wing/TIE fighters and is loads of fun. The only negatives I've seen at a quick glance are about the storyline being a bit average.

A couple of big Star Wars online voices (SW Explained and Eckhartsladder) both said the game is amazing, good enough for me.

[Ronnie]

EA starting to redeem themselves with the SW license now. Battlefront II's turnaround, Fallen Order and now this. Better late than never! 

[Julius]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

EA starting to redeem themselves with the SW license now. Battlefront II's turnaround, Fallen Order and now this. Better late than never! 

It's such a surprising thing when trusting your development studios to make a good game actually ends up with them putting out a game well received by fans  

It's one of those things for me that while, yes, these studios are owned by EA, the success of their Star Wars games hinged more on their studios pushing for some creative control: DICE's continued support after EA were practically about to pull the plug and bury Battlefront II, and their continued discussions within the community; Respawn throwing Frostbite out, and sticking to their guns by going with Unreal Engine; and Criterion getting a chance at a smaller scale outing, which I can't see being handed to them on a silver platter. 

All of this is to say that I hope for us Star Wars fans that this is far too little, too late for EA to hold onto the license exclusively. We've had just three major AAA games come out under EA's watch in 7 years, two of which are in a reboot of an already existing series (and wasn't exactly built from the ground up, heavily reliant on much of the work DICE has done on Battlefield), and as of tomorrow we'll have one smaller game (spun off from a mode in one of those three AAA titles). Yes, we saw Visceral and Amy Hennig's game get shot down, but even if that was released by now, that's still such a meagre return in terms of output for the second largest IP in entertainment, and especially considering the size of EA (and the runaway success of things like Ultimate Team). 

I think they have time for one or two more smaller projects (Republic Commando reboot? A Squadrons sequel, assuming it's successful?), Battlefront III, and a sequel to Fallen Order before they lose exclusivity in 2023. I'm not intimately familiar with EA's complete set of studios, but I could see Disney wanting a High Republic game a few years from now too, so I wonder if that's something they'd trust EA with, and perhaps could already be in the works if they have the manpower for it?

Once the deal is up, I would then expect them to still hold onto the license for future Battlefront games and to make a third and final entry starring Cal Kestis, but then I just want to see Lucasfilm make a new licensing arm of their own and let other developers go to town on the franchise, so that we can get some more fresh and exciting Star Wars games out there. EA getting exclusive access to those rights is still the second most bizarre thing to me to come out of the Lucasfilm purchase. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

It's here! 

Going to start getting it installed for later, not sure how much time I'll put into this today but should have put a decent amount in by the end of the weekend! Hope the story is decent enough, then will hopefully check out online after 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Julius

[bob]

Oooh wow, someone on Reddit got this up and running in VR through Virtual Desktop.

https://v.redd.it/rj2qm2545lq51

Looks awesome! So tempted to try this now, as it's a VR game you can play sat down!

[Ronnie]

Played the prologue, wow there's a lot going on! I'm used to flight games like this but it was pretty challenging to learn all the controls. Had to invert y axis and I swapped the left and right stick around, and much preferred that. By the end of the prologue I was diverting power and getting the hang of it much better!

Awesome fun so far, loving it. Lasers feel so satisfying to shoot and the sound design is top notch. 

Loved seeing all the little touches like the carriers from Rebels and the cockpits look fantastic.

Gonna grab something to eat then dive back in.

[Will]

This is really fantastic. Played through the Prologue and loved every minute of it. Feeling like you’re actually sat in the Tie Fighter and X-Wing is just so cool, really a great experience.

On 10/3/2020 at 5:21 AM, Ronnie said:

Had to invert y axis and I swapped the left and right stick around, and much preferred that. By the end of the prologue I was diverting power and getting the hang of it much better!

I inverted the y-axis but that’s a great shout to swap the stick around - will definitely do that for my next play session.

[Ronnie]

This game is amazing, confirmed.

The actual dogfighting is pretty much perfect.

Online is TOUGH, not tried Fleet Battles yet but even the main dogfights mode is intense. I kind of feel like they could do a better job matching players of the same level, but otherwise, it's so much fun.

The story missions are fantastic, I wish there were more of them because the various objectives really freshen up the experience.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Ronnie