Do you remember the “golden gaming days” in the 90s when we were sitting in our X-Wings, Y-Wings and A-Wings fighting against the evil Galactic Empire? Do you also remember the fun we had when crushing the Rebel insurgents in our TIE-Fighters, TIE-Bombers, Gunboats or Interceptors. Star Wars fans really had some good times in this era of space action simulators like “X-Wing”, “TIE-Fighter”, “X-Wing Alliance”, etc. But then, all of a sudden, it became quite quiet in this galaxy far, far away.
Developer EA's Early Marketing
Sure – there were other games to play. “Descent: Freespace” or its successor “Freespace 2” for example. They’re still very good titles, but they're not set in the Star Wars universe. No Luke, no Leia, no Vader.
What about the Battlefront series, especially “Battlefront II”? You can fly those “frag them all” missions available there, steering a TIE-Fighter for example. All this is true…, but nevertheless, it’s not the same. Fans and players wanted to have a modern version of the classics, and they got it when “Star Wars Squadrons” was released earlier this year.
Squadrons
Star Wars Squadrons: Ship Models is a good mix because it offers you a solid single player campaign giving you 14 missions to play. This doesn't sound like very much, but these missions are very well designed, exciting and filled with lots of action all while allowing you to choose a difficulty level that let's it be fun. You want to fly the missions with closed eyes? The Story Mode is yours. You really need a challenge? Choose Ace and you will be sweating – promised! Star Wars Squadrons doesn't only concentrate on one fraction. Instead you will fly missions for the New Republic as well as for the remains of the Galactic Empire as the game is set in after the Battle of Endor. Death Star II… ‘nuff said.
On the other hand, however, you can also take part in cross-platform multiplayer matches.
Would you like to play a quick and easy 5v5 Team Deathmatch? No problem, just choose your side and your favourite fighter, you can change it anytime during a match, and have a go. The team scoring 30 victories first wins.
The crème-de-la-crème is the Fleet Battle game-mode though.
Your mission is to attack and destroy the enemy capital ship. As an Imperial you have to make sure that the Republic’s Mon Calamari MC75 cruiser won’t survive, while as a Rebel you have to blast the Imperial Star Destroyer into pieces. This is not as easy as it might sound and you really have to work as a team if you want to be victorious. Protect your bombers in your A-Wing or Interceptor, pray for protection if you fly a bomber yourself, shoot down enemy players and AI fighters, take care of corvettes, light cruisers and - the most important thing – avoid crashing into asteroids, floating debris or even other players in the heat of the battle.
You see, there is lots to do.
Being successful in Team Deathmatches
Squadrons Director Ian S Frazier or Fleet Battles means that you will rank up and earn provision points as well as prestige. Use these points to upgrade your fighters. You want to use different laser cannons instead of the standard version? You want to fly faster, be more maneuverable, get stronger shields? There is lots to unlock and to test. You can also buy paint schemes, cockpit accessories or different clothes and uniforms for your alter ego if you like. These won’t affect the gameplay, they’re just nice cosmetics to look at.
So – now we’ve got the game itself with it's content. Will there be more in the near future, e.g. DLCs? Well, yes and no. When the game was published in October 2020 many people said “This is it. Play it, have fun, but there won’t be more content.” What a sad statement! Squadrons became quite successful, though. The single player campaign is good, the multi player battles are fun and flying X-Wings, Y-Wings, TIE-Fighters, TIE-Bombers, etc, just feel great.
Then, all out of nowhere, a new patch 4.0 was announced and published on December 12th, 2020. This patch contained several fixes and… two new star ships, i.e. the Imperial TIE-Defender and the New Republic’s B-Wing. The joyful cheers of the players can still be heard in the galaxy by the way.
The B-Wing is a heavy attack ship that absolutely shines when attacking enemy capital vessels. It uses ion beams in order to cripple a ship’s shields or other subsystems. Furthermore a B-Wing has the ability to equip a so called “Gyro Component”. Once activated the ship itself rotates around the cockpit which is quite useful if you want to attack a Star Destroyer with heavy bombs.
The Empire’s TIE-Defender, however, is the only true Imperial fighter using shields whilst TIE-Fighters, Bombers or Interceptors rely on a reinforced hull system. Its special component is the “APS” or “Advanced Power Supply” which is able to overload an already maxed subsystem in order to make it even more powerful or recharge very quickly, e.g. the laser cannons or the shields.
So, there is lots to do and lots to fly out there. Only the spirit of Darth Vader knows if there will be more content to come next year. New single player missions maybe? New maps?
Anyways, grab your joystick, your gamepad or your mouse and keyboard, buckle up and give ‘em hell, pilots! And may the Force – light or dark – always be with you!
Are you playing Star Wars Squadrons or are you planning to give it a go? Please let us know in the comments below. Thank you!
WRITTEN BY LCDR AlexRider
EDITED BY Silek
