Star Wars: Squadrons

Picked this game up cause it reminded me of the ever popular game series rogue squadron and so far it's been a good intriguing game. Too bad EA decided to make it more about the online experience, outside of that, customizing your pilot is fun and along with that it almost just feels like an expansion pack for battlefront 2 (2015). Not bad at all for 39.99! Would recommend the game to anyone who enjoyed rogue squadron and Star Wars in general!

Continuing my theme of playing Next Gen Star Wars Games, I went back and replayed Star Wars: Squadrons and here is my review for the game. The premise of the game focuses on Vanguard Squadron of the New Republic & Titan Squadron of The Empire as they attempt to win the war after the battle of Endor.

Characters Now you play as Vanguard 5 & Titan 3 but your character is silent and you see the game through your point of view so what your character looks like doesn't really matter. I personally feel like the age of silent protagonists should be over and it is pretty lazy. I never cared about my character and the game did nothing to make me care.

This is even more frustrating because this game is filled of really interesting characters. Phil Morris plays Lindon Javes who is an Imperial defector and the new leader of Vanguard Squadron. Lindon is a cool character and I thought he was a good leader of the group here.

On the other side we have Terisa Kerrill played by Peta Sergeant and she is your typical Imperial Captain, she is angry and out for revenge and she seems to revel in the role and has a clear objective for the imperial side of the story.

The two squadrons are really fun. Vanguard Squadron has Gunny, Frisk, Keo & Grace. They're fun and layered characters, Frisk is a trandoshan who are usually villains in the Star Wars universe so it is cool to seeing him on the light side. The other members of the team are great too and have distinct personalities.

Titan Squadron has Grey, Shen, Vonreg & Sol. They are truly loyal to the Empire and it is actually refreshing to have characters who are fully committed to this side. Shen is basically half droid and his backstory is really fascinating. The rest of the team have their uniqueness too and that is really cool when before we have just seen generic imperials.

Story The story is okay, I like the two squadrons and the fact that it is the New Republic who are the ones building a new super weapon when in the past that has been more of an Empire thing. But the game does lack some depth and the ending is pretty terrible, it doesn't give much indication on what happened to any of the characters and is just an excuse to try and get DLC or a sequel that is just lazy.

Side Content The issue with this part of the review is that in 2024 nobody is playing the online of this game, I tried to find matches online for ages and I couldn't find any. Though I do remember that this games online wasn't that impressive to me to be honest. There aren't enough modes to sink your teeth into and the offline side content is even less which is a big shame. Especially as this game really focuses on its multiplayer it is well below the expectations of other games.

Gameplay I cannot deny that it is fun taking control of iconic Star Wars ships from inside of the cockpit. There is so much satisfaction when you take down an enemy fighter or a capital ship. Though I don't feel like it was as good as I wanted, The ships are quite slow and at times it feels like the game revolves on you banking left and not much more. Also, maybe I am the only one who found it harder to play as the imperials due to the fact that the TIE fighters don't have shields, I know that is the same as the lore but it made me not really want to use them as much. Lastly, I don't know what it is with recent Star Wars games but at one point this game has a huge difficulty spike that really feels out of place and makes the game truly unforgivable.

Graphics Easily the best part of this game are the graphics, this game really nails the Star Wars feeling and is really made by people who love the franchise. You get to fly lots of iconic ships and just the sound design makes you fall in love with the feeling of the game.

Overall Overall, Star Wars: Squadrons is an average game that fall short of what it set out to do. The single player is okay but in 2024 the online is worthless so I think this games life cycle has truly ended and is not worth the money.

Rating - 5/10.

The graphics and customization in this game is something that other developers should look at as a good standard. However for a Star Wars Story, the story mode holds little engagement. Each mission is the same as the last. Fight enemy fighters, blow something up, rinse and repeat. There are no moments that keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next. MULTIPLAYER needs work. Fleet Battles are entertaining but get old quickly if you play multiple matches in a row. Dogfighting is not enjoyable whatsoever, the Republic always wins, their fighters have shields, the Empire's do not. I believe this game was a huge missed opportunity. There was so much that could have been incorporated into this game that simply went unused.

This Star Wars space simulator looks and sounds neat, features four different spaceships for both the Rebel Alliance and the Empire with wildly different playing styles and a good level of customization, both functional and cosmetic.

The single player campaign, set after the destruction of the second Death Star, jumps back and forth between playing as a Rebel and an Imperial pilot with intertwining stories. Multiplayer allows for space battles with either simple dogfights or more elaborate fleet battles.

It's solid, although there is room for improvement, like a few more ships (TIE phantom, B-Wing...) and WAY more multiplayer maps. Incidentally, I appreciate the lack of micro-transactions, with EA apparently learning the lesson after the Battlefront 2 uproar.

7/10

The experience and having an experience inside a spaceship is very good and even incredible, but it ends there, and it's difficult to adapt this style of game well, I feel it lacks content, multiplayer and a variation and more customization of both the gameplay and the ships, in general you will have fun piloting and a new and immersive experience, but unfortunately it ends there. I would find it more interesting to have spaceships along with land battles and more customizations like in the battlefront franchise.