Star Wars Squadrons - Review

One of my favourite game series of all time, if not at the top of the list are the Rogue Squadron games from Factor 5. They combined Star Wars and flying in a way that hadn’t been done for a while but managed to make it accessible to all and still challenge you to improve, the problem was that they stopped making them. When Electronic Arts announced a new Star Wars flying game, honestly, I was worried because the studio making it was Motive and I didn’t like the flying in the campaign of Battlefront II. But as I really enjoy both Star Wars and flying games, I figured why not give it a go, but now that I have, I was right to be concerned.

Star Wars Squadrons takes a dual role in its story, focusing on the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire, as one attempts to gain a foothold in the galaxy post the destruction of the second Death Star and the other attempts to regain control. Your characters are created by you, one for each faction and they are recruited into each side, as the newest member of their respective squads, Vanguard for the good guys, Titan for the bad. The story’s prologue is set just after the events of the destruction of Alderaan and follows the Empire’s attempts to destroy all refuges who managed to escape the destruction of the planet. You are under the command of Lindon Javes, but after taking out a few turrets and such at a station, discover the fleeing people and find that Javes has become a traitor to the Empire and helped the refugees escape. The problem with this, is it is the exact same story that Motive did with Battlefront II and it didn’t work there and it doesn’t work here. You are given very little time with Titan squad, before you are then placed into the cockpit of the New Republic, so any thoughts you have are washed away and a whole new cast of characters are introduced.

This is where the story falls apart, by bouncing back and forth between them, each time you start to feel connected to one, you are forced into the other and vice versa, it would have made more sense, to offer two “separate” stories, but have them take place at the same time, opposing points of view and all that. As they are, any momentum that you build up is quickly erased and you are left on the other side of a conflict and honestly, neither side is all that appealing, thanks to the characters you have to interact with. Electronic Arts had been touting that the entire game was playable in VR on PlayStation VR and I am sure it would have been a treat, but on Xbox One, it felt like the game was designed for it and regular viewing was an afterthought. The characters in both squads are only available to you once between missions and once you have spoken with everyone, you have to move onto the briefing and I use spoken to as a description, because your character doesn’t speak. Instead, when you engage in conversation with someone, you just stand there and let them talk and once they are done, they walk away, and you can’t do anything.

This brings up another problem with the gameplay, the lack of gameplay outside of flying, creating characters for yourself, names, faces, voices is well and good and does work with the multiplayer mode, but in the campaign it is wasted, you may as well have been Member X for all you contribute. In the midst of battles, you can’t even engage your squad in acceptance of orders, instead they will randomly, only to say the most pointless things and they say them a lot. My biggest complaint with the story is that it feels disconnected from events around it, when the big base is attacked, help is not called in, until a mission later, making it feel like an afterthought and if the New Republic’s big objective is a new ship, then you would expect there to be more support for it, but instead those supporting it bugger off, just for a asinine reason.

Wonky missions, unable to respond to commands and other things I could deal with, if the flight controls were good, but I didn’t like them and that was after almost 30 minutes remapping them to something manageable. Once I had controls to something I could use, I then had to adjust to being stuck inside the cockpit, which again reinforced the concept that the game was VR only at some point, now interior is fine, but mandatory, no thanks. People might tell me I am wrong, but one of the best things about the Rogue Squadron series was that it let you play your way, you can remain outside, or go inside, there was no reason to lock this down and for all their thing about making it an immersive experience is crap, when most of the time, I couldn’t see anything, because there was ship in my way. Some ships, like the X-Wing have a pretty decent view from their cockpits, but most of the Tie Fighters did not and while it was nice to be able to free look around the cockpit, once, being unable to see things and rely on the game to tell me where things were, kind of broke the immersion they were going for.

The game does let you turn off the assists and play with just the ship internals being your only reference and I can see the appeal in that, it is not for me, but I can see the appeal. The problem again, comes from things like the radar not really working the way it needed to and again I am going to compare it with Rogue Squadron. In that series, you had little indicators to tell you if someone was above, below or on your level, pretty straightforward stuff, here, there is none of that and when ships can fly out to insane ranges, having a red dot tell you the direction, but not tell you anything else, it means you have to scan for a tiny dot, amongst a background of tiny dots. Worse still, there is no targeting computer, the X-Wing has them, but the game does not offer them as an option, which is just bizarre. Now don’t misunderstand, the game does a lot of good thing as well, like being able to change up your power settings, to apply more power to shields or weapons, but when the core controls and viewpoints are busted, the rest just feels kinda moot.

When you load up into the multiplayer, things are more exciting, purely because you are playing with real people and the fleet battles are intense. You can jump into dogfights, but they can be over quickly, if you are unprepared, but a fleet battle, even if you lose a round, still keep you in the fight. They consist of 10 players, 5 on each side and consist of three rounds, the first takes place in the middle of a large space, where you have to down as many ships from the opposing team as you can, win the round and you push forward, taking the fight to the capital ships and if you take them out, you get a shot at the big on, the flagship. Because of how large these are, sometimes the matches can drag on a little, but if you have a good squad with you, then you can really sink your teeth into it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you can upgrade your pilot and ship and the latter of the two is where you want to be spending time, because you can increase the range of your lasers, change how your missiles behave and more. The only real stupid thing is that you can paint your ship, but as you never get to see it in combat, it becomes a little pointless.

Speaking of pointless, let’s talk about the presentation, or lack of effort with it, but first the good, the game looks amazing, no matter the ship you are in, things look great. Being seated in the cockpit of an X-Wing or an A-Wing is a real treat, and seeing the wear and tear, the damage that was repaired in a rush, it all adds a level of authenticity to the game that others have lacked. The characters are a mixed bag, some of them feel bland and generic and others feel fully fleshed out, the only one to escape that is Hera Syndulla, as she got a lead role in Star Wars Rebels, both Lindon Javes and Terisa Kerrill are far more rounded than the members of the respective squadrons, but that is because of how they are presented. Sometimes when you go in for a briefing, you get to see them walk back and forth and while they do, they show emotion and it makes them all the more believable, but this brings us to the bad points. The rest of the characters are bland, they are either in their ships or standing near them in the cargo bay, and when I say stand, they could easily have been replaced by 2d cut-outs and the effect would have been the same.

But what makes it really disappointing is that the locations are so wonderful to see, from the dangerous Zavian Abyss, to the wreckage of several imperial ships above the planet of Sissubo, each location is stunning. The problem is, because the game rarely lets you explore, you are only going from fight to fight, or escorting something, requiring you to stick close and it feels like a wasted chance and given the lack of hidden objects in each stage, at least that I couldn’t find, the potential for so many amazing moments is passed by. There is one other thing that really irked me and it is beyond minor, but I could not help myself, each time I saw, it made me rage and that is when you are playing as the New Republic and you lift off from the cargo bay to head out on your mission, there is a massive dust cloud that is kicked up. The ship is in space, why is there a massive dust cloud, it makes no sense and given that the Empire has no dust cloud, it stands out as something added for effect and wasn’t needed at all.

On the audio side, things are much better, purely because the games soundtrack by Gordy Haab captures the spirit of John Williams iconic score, but also layers in some amazing new pieces, to make it stand out as its own thing. The games main theme alone has quite the range and each time I heard it, I fell in love with it a little more, it is just that good, but it is not the only good track, most of the score is wonderful and could be played amongst the main themes of the movies without feeling out of place. The games voice cast is a mix of amazing talent and then odd, as Hera is a returning character, Vanessa Marshall returns to provide the voice and it does anchor the show to the known Star Wars universe, but it is the addition of other Star Wars vocal alums like James Arnold Taylor and Tom Kane that make it stand out. The addition of Dennis Lawson, back again as Wedge Antilles is just icing on the cake, making the second time he has voiced the character in a game and after his brief cameo in the recent Rise of Skywalker movie. The sound effects are also top notch, the feeling of strafing a Star Destroyer, only to dodge turbo laser fire, as the enemy attempts to get a lock onto you, it is epic, there is no other word for it.

Star Wars Squadrons had the potential to be something amazing, but with multiple frustrating design choices. it easily squanders that potential. The story is pretty by the numbers and bouncing back and forth between the two sides, breaks any momentum any side manages to obtain. The game looks and sounds like Star Wars though and the multiplayer mode is fun, there was just too much wrong at its core, for the force to be with it.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Electronic Arts

The Pros

+A lot of detail on the ships and locations, makes it feel like you are in Star Wars

+Multiplayer is fun and can be a significant time investment

The Cons

-The fact you are locked in place via 1st person, does not make the game immersive

-Piloting the ships can feel like trying to ice skate in a blizzard