Star Wars Squadrons

One of my earliest (and fondest) childhood gaming memories was playing the original Rogue Squadron. It was before I had any sort of console and was on my family's PC with a big, beefy joystick. I was straight-up awful at it, as I was with most games before I hit 12-13 years old, but the fact I still remember that game is reason alone to tell me it was special, and I know I'm not the only one. 

EA has - to put it nicely - been struggling with the Star Wars license for a while now. As a business case study, it's almost shocking how stupid some of their moves have been when fans are consistently asking for next gen versions of tried and true Star Wars games. Rogue Squadron was one of those titles, so suffice it to say that many, including myself, were giddy when Squadrons (a spiritual successor) was announced. 

Especially given that it comes on the heels of last year's Rath Awards "Game of the Year", Jedi: Fallen Order, it feels like EA might finally be on the right path. Especially as more details with Squadrons began coming out: it's got a single player, it has 0 micro transactions (something EA has butchered themselves with in the past), the game would only cost $40, and it has a multiplayer. Everything was sounding great and gameplay looked even better. 

Eager to play, I picked up Squadrons Day 1 (which is super easy when it's only $40) and found myself immediately impressed. If I'm being honest, it's continuously impressive for a long list of reasons, but - much like another recent game - it has potential to be so much more. And with the developers straight up coming out and saying they'll not be adding ANY content to it, it's a shocking move that makes me feel conflicted about my opinion and confused as to what EA is trying to do. My confliction comes from the appreciation that this is a "you get what you see [read: pay for]" which is something that seems lost in gaming these days. In an old fashioned sense, this game is an old-school, one-and-done transaction. You purchase said game, and the disc has it all. But I'm confused why EA would do this, other than to look at it later and say "Look, we gave you exactly what you asked for!" when gamers complain about their money-tactics. 

And we should be clear, if there's truly no more content coming to Squadrons, it's legit only a $40 game. Meaning, it's short and it may not be in your circulation by the end of the year. That's sad to me because it's a game begging for streams of content because the foundational gameplay is so incredible, there's so much potential, and there's already a baseline of goodwill with gamers if they only paid $40 to get in the door in the first place. 

So yeah, outside of the gameplay Squadrons is yet another confusing Star Wars move by EA.

Not my actual screenshots (Xbox is less friendly in this sense)
but yes, the game looks amazing

Luckily, Squadrons borders on jaw-dropping when it comes to the gameplay which, at the end of the day, is the stuff that matters. This is more strategic and beefy than most other Star Wars flight games we've played, and it takes the excellent bones of what was in Battlefront II (flying ships were easily the best part of that game) and advances it. Each ship's interior is intricately detailed, which is good because there's no 3rd person view. As someone who prefers that view, I can admit that I missed it, but eventually got used to the claustrophobic, but more realistic cockpit angle. From there, you have various tools and weapons at your disposal and, depending on the ship you're flying, you have to manage power between your weapons, engine, and shields. Some ships even let you place more emphasis on your front shields vs. back shields, etc. You can see where the strategy is deeper than normal, much to the benefit of the game, and when you start considering the different loadouts that allow you to choose engine, shield, and weapon enhancements, it can suit your play style and keep you entertained. 

Hope you brought an
Empire-issued BarfBag!

Once you're actually flying, the game...ahem...soars. It's often intense as you're taking down enemy fighters, protecting objectives, dodging missiles that lock on, and repairing when you can. Certain ships are more fun than others (I prefer the super fast TIE Interceptors or A-Wings) but you'll immediately notice the weaknesses for each. For example, the aforementioned TIE Interceptor might as well be useless against large Capital Ships and thus you'll want to switch to something with a little more health. The response of the controls while flying is stellar, but takes some getting used to if you're not commonly in 1st person for these games. Drifting - which is awesome - is difficult to pull off and feels almost "locked" behind needing to put power toward your engine, so that's probably my only control gripe is that sometimes ships' turn radius don't feel as tight as they should be given that they're A) fake ships with crazy technology and B) in the vacuum of space. Given that you'll be turning a lot (to track enemies), it does lead to more boring moments where you're at a dead stop in space and simply turning to point yourself in the right direction.

Also impressive, and something that EA hasn't ever done "less than stellar" at is the visuals and Star Wars effects of it all. We're treated to some jaw-dropping graphics of space with planets, nebulas, crashing moons, and huge ships in the distance. It looks distinctly "Star Wars" and that applies to the sound effects too; everything is ripped straight from the films in which they were birthed. TIE fighters have that iconic and eerie, hollow drone while droids beep and ping as they fix your ship and X-Wings have that distinct "wap, wap, wap" laser cannon fire. Nailing the feel of Star Wars isn't something EA struggles with. My only complaint here would be that the game is permanently in space - which is awesome - but it also lacks the distinctly more intense locales of being on a planet, close to the ground, etc. Harking back to the original Rogue Squadron, some of the most iconic missions have to deal with ground-based objectives and there's none of that here. 

Levels with debris are consistently intense (even if you don't automatically die on impact...)

I was left wanting with the story. Granted, Star Wars is a bit hit-or-miss on its stories throughout all mediums lately, but what's here is more about the presentation than anything else. Cutscenes are very rare and instead we get the story delivered to us in boring and awkward visits to the Imperial or Rebellion hangars. You play as a pilot on both sides - which you would think creates a TON of potential for the plot - but ultimately it's just there so you can get to fly different ships. In the hangars, you get huge exposition dumps in the form of briefings. In broad strokes, this story is pretty cool on paper, but this delivery feels like it stifles it. In these hangars you can also get to know your crew by speaking with them. These are even more boring because it's basically forced and unnatural character development where I press "A" to talk with them, they talk for 1-2 minutes, and the moment is over. There are no branching conversations or anything and the whole affair in hangars feels shockingly dated in a game that features some awesome late-gen gameplay otherwise.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Multiplayer is where I felt the game to be most lacking however, even though I initially thought it was fairly deep. Shocking to me, but I felt the MP in Battlefront II for Starfighter Assaults was better than this game. Not because of the gameplay, but because of the depth and excitement. Squadrons has a simple dogfight 5 vs. 5 mode (which feels light on quantity of combatants) and Fleet Battles. Dogfights are fun enough, but get old quickly while I found Fleet Battles - that you can play against AI or humans in ranked matches - are outright broken. They're objective based battles, which is perfect for a game like this, but the computer throws in purposeful swings in the battle that become so obnoxious it can lead to 20, 30, 40 minute games. Without going into the gory details, there's a lot to fix here and the game is begging for new modes. What's worse is that Battlefront II might as well have more content in the multiplayer suite for flying because it features awesome hero ships (flying as Slave I was insanely fun) and more varied locales. Progression is also awkward because there are tons of cool unlockables, but they're not exactly things you can oodle and awe at while in deep space. Ship skins, bobble heads, pilot gear, etc...it's all well designed but there's very little area I can actually show it off. Multiplayer, unfortunately, is where Squadrons somewhat died for me because the developers promise to not create any more content rang clear in my mind, emphasizing that the MP I had was exactly what I paid for.  

I come back to one of my original statements that I'm not sure what the business strategy was here. Squadrons is a game that screams "I have potential!", yet the decision to make it a half-assed effort outside of the incredible core gameplay strikes me as both really sad and a missed opportunity. A $40 price point softens that blow, sure, but it also means the door is opened for more gamers to eagerly purchase some "Prequel Trilogy" DLC or to continue to build the base with new MP modes, ships, and more. The stubborn statement that no new content will be added means that this game might as well be dead given that some heavy hitters are less than one month away, not to mention new consoles. 

CONS

• The decision to not create any more content for this game is strikingly odd. It has so much going for it that it feels like a huge missed opportunity
• Campaign is on the shorter side
• Multiplayer is light and the Fleet Battles might as well be broken. They're annoying back and forths
• Often a side effect of flying games, when chasing the AI I find it resulted in a few too many instances of circling...and circling...and circling until they're finally in your sights and you're at a standstill
• Cheesy and awkward "briefings" to move the story forward and character development is forced through similarly poor interactions in the hangar
• Would have liked to seen some on-planet missions/maps
• I'd like a 3rd person view (even if only for campaign)

PROS

• Core gameplay is some of the best ever developed for air-warfare games. There is some deep, on-the-fly strategy here and it's much deeper than it appears on the surface
• EA, per usual, nails the visuals and sounds of Star Wars. This game is gorgeous and sounds even better
• Earns bonus points for only being $40
• Good variety of ships and customizations you can make to them
• Campaign is frequently exciting and features some intense missions
• Multiplayer can be fun. I found Dogfights to be the best thing offered
• Scratches the itch - perhaps not completely - that many of us have had since playing Rogue Squadron as kids

Rath's Review Score | 8/10