STAR WARS™: Squadrons

I went into Squadrons expecting the usual EA compromise, and instead got something that felt like a genuine simulation product with a Star Wars skin on top. The flight model is built around real-time power diversion between engines, weapons, and shields, and that single mechanic is responsible for everything interesting that happens in the game. Shoving power to engines to charge a speed burst out of a furball, then flipping everything to lasers the moment a TIE Defender lines up in your crosshairs, then dumping it all into rear shields as you run for cover, all while tracking two capital ships trading fire in the background. That loop, once internalized, is genuinely satisfying and closer to the 90s X-Wing and TIE Fighter simulators than anything in the past two decades. The single-player campaign runs roughly ten hours and alternates between New Republic Vanguard Squadron and the Imperial Titan Squadron in the post-Return of the Jedi era, letting you fly both factions' ship rosters. You get four classes per side, including the fragile but terrifying A-Wing, the sturdy X-Wing, the shieldless TIE Fighter, and the slower support-oriented U-Wing and TIE Reaper. The campaign acts as a long tutorial for multiplayer, which is smart structuring, and the difficulty ramp respects the player enough to introduce advanced maneuvers like drifting gradually rather than front-loading everything. The story itself is serviceable without being memorable. Critics noted weak character development, and that assessment is fair. The missions, though, do a solid job of showcasing setpieces and making you feel like a participant in a larger conflict rather than a protagonist watching cutscenes. Multiplayer launched with just two modes: Dogfight, a 5v5 team deathmatch, and Fleet Battles, the more interesting offering where both teams coordinate fighters, bombers, and support ships across attack and defense phases to destroy an enemy capital ship. Fleet Battles is where the asymmetric faction design matters most, because TIE ships without shields require completely different power management habits than their New Republic counterparts, and a coordinated team that mixes roles correctly will dismantle one that treats it like a simple deathmatch. Post-launch, free updates added the B-Wing and TIE Defender to the ship roster, which was a welcome gesture. The bad news is that Motive treated the game as a complete product at launch and did not build a content pipeline around it. Queue times as of 2025 and 2026 are long, the remaining player base is experienced and min-maxed, and jumping into multiplayer cold today means getting run over by veterans who have refined their loadouts for years. If multiplayer is your primary reason for buying, manage your expectations accordingly. The hardware support deserves a mention because it is unusually thorough. Full HOTAS support is present on PC from launch, VR headsets are compatible on PC, and the cockpit-only first-person perspective, which some players find claustrophobic, transforms into something extraordinary with a headset on. The sound design throughout is authentic to the franchise, and the visual design of the maps, filled with nebulae, wreckage, and capital ships exchanging fire, holds up well. For players approaching this as primarily a single-player or co-op versus AI experience, the game delivers more than its Mixed Steam rating suggests. For players hoping to find a thriving ranked 5v5 scene today, the math is harder to justify.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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