If you've ever dreamed of what it would be like to fly through space in an X-wing while dogfighting TIE fighters, Star Wars: Squadrons is a must play. Sitting down in the cockpit of your favorite starfighter is a surreal experience. Not only is the cockpit perfectly recreated, but the actual experience of flying feels faithful to the source material. Familiar characters from Star Wars lore make appearances in the campaign and planets we've seen in films are given new life from the view of a starfighter. The controls feel tight and the combat strategy is surprisingly deep, but given that this is only a $40 title, more content is left to be desired. Star Wars: Squadrons is comprised of a short campaign, about 8 hours, and two multiplayer modes. Though this isn't a full priced title, the lack of content surprised me. While value is subjective, there is an apparent disparity between the amount of content you get in Squadrons and the breadth of content you can get for $20 more in Star Wars: Battlefront II when comparing the two titles. If you visit any of the forums for this game, it is clear that there is a solid and passionate fan base. After playing Squadrons consistently from launch, I believe that this game was not made for the masses. The depths that Motive Studios went to when developing Star Wars: Squadrons should be praised, but I do think that it decreases the approachability for most gamers. I am saying this as a seasoned Battlefront II Starfighter Assault player: multiplayer matches are super difficult. There is a hardcore fan base for this game and I feel like I end up against the best players in every match. The Fleet Battles game mode has a ranked system, but I found that this would be more applicable in the Dogfight game mode where there are less random variables like AI fighters and turrets. The deep mechanics that I didn't expect from Star Wars: Squadrons start with a unique power management system, where the player can divert power to various subsystems to strategically approach scenarios in the best way. Trying to outrun a ship firing on you from behind? Throw the power to the engines and hit the boost to outrun the tailing fighter. Attempting a bombing run on a Star Destroyer, but the turbo lasers are blasting you from the front? Flip the power to your shields and power them up in the front for additional protection. Finally have that A-wing you were chasing for five minutes in your sights? Divert all power to your lasers and let that rebel scum have it. Star Wars: Squadrons excels at providing options for the player in the heat of battle. If a fighter comes out of nowhere and starts blasting you, you always have a sense that there are options for you to escape the predicament at hand. Choosing the right method though is much more difficult than one would expect. In addition to deep power management mechanics, Motive Studios implemented a starfighter customization system. Players not only select between various starfighter classes, but they are also able to choose the loadout for their ship that best fits their desired play style. I found myself equipping the highly shielded bombers with barrage rockets and homing mines that transformed my starfighter into an X-wing and TIE fighter hunter. The freedom and choice of customization is felt in the midst of battle as well. When an enemy destroys your ship, you can quickly deduce what sort of load out they are using and counter it. Cosmetic customization is also an appreciated feature present in Squadrons. These customizations range from hull color and pilot outfit to in cockpit decorations, like a Baby Yoda bobblehead. Squadrons has plenty of aspects to criticize, but customization depth is not one of them. The influence of the classic TIE fighter and X-wing series from back in the day is apparent, but there are also clear signs that Star Wars: Squadrons contains the DNA of Star Wars: Battlefront II. If you are familiar with some of the issues and bugs with Battlefront II you will definitely notice similar problems with Squadrons. The recurrence of identical bugs from Battlefront II leads me to believe that Squadrons is using the same technical backbone Battlefront II was built on. Another unfortunate feature that was preserved from Battlefront II is the clunky matchmaking and experience reward menus. After you complete a multiplayer match you are shown your stats and also your experience reward. If you quickly back out of this final menu, you will not receive any of the experience from the match you just played. Compounding the frustration from the XP menu is the odd choice to force the players back to the main menu after every match. You are still queued up for the next round, but matchmaking can take a while resulting in a loss of momentum from match to match. Star Wars: Squadrons matchmaking system is not conducive for quick and casual play sessions. I generally feel like I have to devote at least 45 minutes to Squadrons to load in, matchmake, wait for my teammates to ready up, play the match, and then sit through the XP menu. In an age where popping into gameplay is almost instant in next-gen, Squadrons feels like a burden to play at times. I love the gameplay and the mechanics are masterfully created, but the infrastructure it was built around is a deterrent. The campaign does not suffer as much by frustrating waiting periods, but it does highlight a missed opportunity for players to explore the capital ships you are briefed on. When loading into a mission you are met with a massive and beautiful hangar, but you are only left with the option to stand in one location or click to the next. Kind of like a classic point and click adventure game. These small disappointments are lessened once you load into the actual mission and begin flying alongside characters like Wedge Antilles. Squadrons' campaign successfully transports you to the 'far, far away galaxy' and recreates the feeling you had watching your first Star Wars battle on the big screen. It does suffer from the generic 'go here and destroy this' repetitive mission structure, but overall it does not overstay its welcome and I walked away with a positive experience. Star Wars: Squadrons is another example of Electronic Arts clawing back their trust with the Star Wars fan base. Months before the release of Squadrons, I wrote a blog post discussing the importance of how fans receive this title. After playing Squadrons and reading various reviews, I feel like EA delivered on their commitment to do better with the Star Wars IP. Though this game has it's issues, I highly recommend it for any Star Wars fan or combat flight simulator fan. Busch League Gaming gives Star Wars: Squadrons a 6 out of 10. For our full podcast review, visit https://www.buschleaguegaming.com/podcast/star-wars-squadrons-podcast-review.

X-Wing vs Tie Fighter is a PC flight classic. It was chaotic, a great mix between sim and arcade gameplay, and was a blast to play and you felt like real Star Wars pilots. Squadrons try to re-capture this lightning in a bottle by letting you play as both New Republic and Empire pilots. You fly in Vanguard Squadron for the New Republic and Titan Squadron for the Empire. You play as an unnamed pilot in each squadron and the story is set between movies VI and VII after the battle on Endor. The New Republic is trying to build a new starship and they needed Empirical parts for it while an Empirical captain is trying to stop them and wipe them out. The characters are interesting and well written and the story is rather tense with a constant tug-of-war on who keeps getting the advantage. While you're playing as one side you don't know what's happening on the other and won't find out until you switch back after a few missions, it's really intense and I loved it. That's not to say the story is memorable or anything, but it's a good start as I'm sure more of these games are to come. Once you create your pilot, which is a rather basic, you jump into the base of either side and this is where things differ from other Star Wars games. You stand still and can only spin the camera around and click on contextual items. Outside of inspecting your ship, you can talk to the other squad members optionally which gives you insight as to what's going on in the war and a more detailed context of what is just going on in the Star Wars universe. The voice acting is great and each character had a great personality, but still nothing super memorable. Once you get your briefing and select your craft you head on out. The first time you start up you are launched out into space in real-time and it's exhilarating. Flying never gets old and it's a shame the story is only 14 missions long. Each side has the same controls, but the Empire ships have more firepower and the Rebel ships have more shielding. Controls are slowly unlocked and dished out over the first few missions, but it's the same all around. You can shift power between engines, lasers, and shields (shields if they are equipped) to allow more speed or firepower. This is essential as you will constantly flip between these as well as diverting more power to either engines or weapons when you are the Empire. Sometimes when you destroy capital ships you want to go slower with more power, but fighting Tie Fighters, Reapers, Bombers, A-Wings, etc. will require more finesse and speed. The steering feels rather smooth and each ship feels different. Either slow or long or even zippy, the ships are well designed. Shooting something down is rather satisfying as there is a button to flip between enemies and once you track them the system can lock on for missiles or you can shoot them down with lasers. The system will tell you if you are out of range and you can't just lay down fire forever. There are meters for refilling everything from lasers, missiles, repair kits, scatter flares, etc. You can call in for refills, but this also has a refill meter. It's a delicate balance of using your resources wisely and this is where the simulator part comes in. The arcade part is the instant lock-on, the less obtuse flight controls, and not doing insane stuff like pre-flight checks, fuel, etc. While I'd love a full-on simulator version of this game, what we get is fine as the balance is nicely done. I just wish the mission was more varied. I know the game is about shooting things down, but rarely did anything new come up outside of shoot these things down. It was fun attacking a giant Star Destroyer or the Starhawk itself that loomed overhead and felt like a planet. Targeting ship systems was fun and even flying inside one here and there was also a blast, but most of the game is just shooting small ships down and it got old after awhile. I wanted more scripted events or something as I can shoot down small ships all day in multiplayer. The final two missions were also a serious pain as you need specific weapons and ships to complete certain objectives and I constantly died until I figured it out, and they dragged on far too long, but the rest of the missions were entertaining the first time around. The ambiance is also very Star Wars-y with chatter and banter during flights, iconic ship sounds, blasters, explosions, and great music. The game also looks amazing. The character models are detailed, the ship cockpits look like they were ripped right out of the movies with a lot of glowing lights, and strange shapes, but I would love to walk around the base more and just have more variety in missions. The four or five ships per side were fine, you can change the load-outs for various items like ion blasters to knock down shields faster, various engines and hulls that sacrifice one aspect to gain another such as acceleration, maneuverability, shield recharge time, etc. and there are a lot of options which mostly becomes useful in multiplayer. I feel like what we got was just part of a huge design doc and a lot of stuff got cut. I wanted a grander story, maybe some missions where you fly inside a planet and not just in space, more interior levels, and more scripted events. The space battles look great with giant asteroids, huge planets in the background, and beautiful space backdrops, but I wanted more. The multiplayer is something that I felt wasn't fun for too long. Unless you master the controls and a specific ship you're going to die a lot. There are dogfights and missions that have you taking down larger ships and working together. I found the dog fights were boring after some time, but the bigger battles were a lot more entertaining, but I still don't see this game having longevity in the multiplayer department for very long. Overall, the game plays, looks, and sounds great but feels like it wants to be more of a simulator than an arcade game sometimes, then in others more arcade. It needs to either balance these out better next time or pick one. I wanted more mission variety, a more epic story, and the ability to walk around the shipyards. What's here is fantastic, and should be played by flight game fans or Star Wars fans.

Bought the game for the VR experience, but felt it was a let down. The game does not support VR controllers at all. No motion controls, but also not even the option to map joystick or buttons as a form of game controller. I'm ok they didn't want to put the extra work into mapping the cockpit for motion controls, but to not allowing me to use the valve index controllers for their buttons and joysticks at all, makes this unplayable for me.