Review for Star Wars: Squadrons. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 02/10/2020
They are well 17 years that Star Wars fans have been waiting for this moment. Since the third installment of the never-too-praised Star Wars series: Rogue Squadron appeared on GameCube (ignore the foot missions, please) and put us at the helm of an X-Wing in the skies of the galaxy for the last time in a game completely dedicated to the challenges between the ships designed by George Lucas at least. Because yes, the Star Wars: Battlefront appetizer in 2015 with its Fighter Squadron mode was partly served to bring to mind the glories of the 90s of X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter and Rogue Squadron, but it's only today with the release of Star Wars: Squadrons on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Google Stadia that Electronic Arts brings us back to fighting in space as it should, with a dedicated title and a considerable budget. And sold at the discounted price of € 39,99, plus.
What do you say, this all sounds good, but you can't trust Electronic Arts, especially if it is an online game? All understandable, but be aware that Star Wars: Squadrons does not offer the side to any possible criticism on the management of DLC, additional content and microtransactions. The EA Motive team was very clear from the start: invest your 40 euros and you will get everything on the disc, nothing more, nothing less. In fact, in Squadrons there are two types of currencies, one useful to unlock new components, shields and weapons for your starfighter and the other to embellish it or dress up as the most elegant pilot of the Empire. Not to mention that you can also invest some of your earnings in an Ewok bobblehead, absolutely inevitable on your dashboard. All this without absolutely no microtransactions or additional downloads, neither now nor ever.
There is a starfighter for each of us
And this proves, after the road test of the title, generally good news, but partly also one of the reasons why Star Wars: Squadrons may surprise you, but only for a limited time. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, Squadrons is a multiplayer first-person shooter, with two modes dedicated to 5v5 online challenges in the skies of the galaxy far away, putting us at the helm of one of the 8 aircraft available, divided into two factions (Empire and Republic) and 4 classes with decidedly different behavior in battle: Fighter, Interceptor, Bomber and Support. The subtle and less subtle differences, strengths and weaknesses and flight behavior between the 8 fighters are the core of the experience with the game and the fruit of a commendable work both visual and balancing by the developers.
Let's take for example the two main fighters, the ones we all know and gave the title to the 1997 game: the X-Wing of Skywalker's memory and the TIE-Fighter with its famous “swooosh”. At first glance and as stats they might seem a bit like the "assault" class in many FPS: reliable devices that adapt to all seasons and probably almost indistinguishable pads in the hand. Instead Star Wars: Squadrons here demonstrates enviable depth and a study of the material from which it is truly remarkable, going to differentiate the two shuttles in a decisive way: driving a TIE will be faster with short repeated shots as the boost will recharge more quickly, while the X-Wing can count on 4 lasers fired at the same time and on its deflector shields, absent in the Empire's aircraft.
Empire which, however, will be able to compensate with a generally greater firepower and a system to re-direct energy from the engine to the weapons and vice versa. If we add the many weapons available including mines, homing missiles, turrets and the customization of engines, hulls and deflectors, in addition to the different resistances and abilities that offer for example the powerful Y-wing Bomber or the support TIE Reaper, it is easy to understand like team play and experience will be key to getting the better of your enemies in deathmatches.
Flight lessons
Why Star Wars: Squadrons is not the arcade experience you might expect: it is a competitive title that will require training, constant attention to all systems and not only to become familiar with all these spaceships but also to become familiar with a control system to say the least celestial in its flight management but not easy to digest. Don't worry if you need some time to master the management of the two analogs for direction (right stick) and acceleration + roll (left): it is absolutely normal to make a mistake at the beginning, but it will be just as satisfying when you manage to get away from it. more complicated situations with agility (the game then comes to you with limited impact damage) after gaining experience.
Experience that we advise you to accumulate with the single player Story mode, a more important slice of Star Wars: Squadrons than expected. In story, divided into 14 missions lasting about 20 minutes, we will follow the events of two squadrons (Vanguard and Titan) respectively belonging to the Republic and the Empire, complete with cutscenes, dialogues and pre-battle briefings. Don't expect crazy twists, but the quality of the scenes and characterization of the characters surprised us positively. What instead the less convincing is the variety of missions: first of all they are all set in space, without any moment even fleeting on the surface of a planet; secondly it is seen quite clearly that places, situations, ships and mechanics of the single player are simply those of the multi but remixed. In the long run, we suffered a bit, also because there are only 6 locations and they include history and multiplayer maps: not many.
A spectacular Star Wars experience on every platform
After engaging in some deathmatch challenges and completing the campaign, you will accumulate hours with the last mode: the Fleet Battles (Fleet Battles). Here, the gameplay finds the square of the circle, in a large challenge that will see the 10 players face each other to be able to destroy the flagship of the opposing fleet, with mechanics that are partly reminiscent of those of a MOBA and already seen in other shooters ( Titanfall or Battlefield). The field will in fact be filled not only with player-controlled shuttles and large fully armed flagships, but also with other AI-controlled aircraft. Each killing you manage to complete will give morale points to your team, allowing you to take turns attacking all the complex systems (shields, tractor beam, navigation) of the Frigate or the Star Destroyer, up to the destruction of one of them and victory for the successful squadron in the enterprise.
An adrenaline rush that can change owners at any time: so are the Fleet Battles of Star Wars: Squadrons, a game that in addition to fast and effective gameplay also offers first-rate technical sectors (4K and 60 frames per second practically fixed on Xbox One X, and well - apart from some sporadic slowdown in the last few missions of History - also on One S) with very high level of detail and some of the most beautiful views in the gaming world. Not to mention that on PC and PlayStation 4 you can also play the entire game in VR!
For the final gloss of a product that has absolutely convinced us and of which we recommend the purchase to all Star Wars fans and those looking for a multiplayer challenge with a high learning curve, we reconnect to our initial talk on DLC and microtransactions. Clearly EA Motive wanted to distance itself from the stormy past of Electronic Arts on the subject and give us an old-fashioned game: 40 euros, affordable price and what is there is not cheap, absolutely. However, this not presenting itself as a Game as a Service certainly will not help the only real flaw of Star Wars: Squadrons, namely its longevity: once the story is complete, the multiplayer will be able to accompany you for a long time but we are sure that the presence of sun 6 maps and 2 modes will tire you sooner or later. Immediately, however, after Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order a year ago, the troubled between Star Wars and Electronic Arts gives us a second consecutive success, a truly refined title that demonstrates the maturity of these consoles ready to retire but still able to give us so many emotions.
► Star Wars: Squadrons is a Shooter type game developed by Motive Studios and published by Electronic Arts for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 02/10/2020
