Star Wars: Squadrons is a worthy heir to the glory that was the Rogue Squadron series. Players have been given an experience in Star Wars: Squadrons that will no doubt be a favorite for a new generation of gamers who missed out on the titles that serve as both its foundation and its inspiration.
Star Wars: Squadrons bases its gameplay around a core loop of content that doesn't get old despite its simplicity. While there are a few bugs out of the gate, the game plays well overall and takes players on a ride through an important but often forgotten section of the Star Wars universe. Star Wars: Squadrons also provides a welcomed look into the forces of the dark side and the inner workings of the Empire.
The primary gameplay in Star Wars: Squadrons single-player mode consists of running various missions for either the Empire or the New Republic and seeing how the story plays out from the cockpit. Normal difficulty mode is quite a challenge to get used to, as players are thrown into the fray with seasoned pilots and expected to learn by doing. Players are given control over every aspect of their ship, and this attention to detail is commendable. The pre-flight check up at the beginning of the game displays just how much work was put into making sure the whole game could be played with the HUD turned off, because players can get all of the information they need right there inside the ship.
Star Wars: Squadrons multiplayer, however, is a great time, especially for players who just want to practice flying and fighting without interruptions. The multiplayer is actually easier at launch than the main game because unlike games like Call of Duty, most players haven't been practicing this for decades. Newcomers may find it easier to build skills with other new players than it is fighting against an AI that doesn't have to fiddle with foreign control schemes.
Learning to control Star Wars: Squadrons ships can be a bit of a challenge in either mode, especially for players who aren't used to flight sims. The stock controls are a bit confusing at first, but these can easily be remapped in the menu for players who want something a bit simpler. Acceleration can be a problem on controller especially, as the player is expected to slow to half acceleration for sharp turns, but only has the thumb stick to do so rather than a throttle which can be physically moved to the midway point. These challenges are present but are never game-breaking, though, and are easily navigated with some fiddling around.
In terms of performance, Star Wars: Squadrons runs well for the most part, but certainly exhibited its fair share of issues at launch. On PlayStation 4 Pro there was a fair amount of stuttering and frame skipping during cutscenes. Lip syncing would drop out from time to time in the early game, but this issue seemed to resolve itself after the first few cutscenes. The biggest issue was a number of crashes that occurred during hardware intensive sections of gameplay. This will likely be patched with time, but was a major problem on day one.
The story in Star Wars: Squadrons is serviceable but isn't groundbreaking by any means, but it does the job well enough. The general back and forth between the two factions of the Empire and New Republic is a particularly welcome addition to the game. Players are used to seeing all of the ins and outs of the Rebellion, but it is nice to be involved in the planning meetings for Imperial missions for once.
One annoying issue is that much of the story is delivered through conversations with members of the crew, but the player is unable to explore the ship and address these people. The player is locked into a first person view of the hanger and must click on which person they want to speak to. This lack of free movement makes it feel as though all of these interactions could have simply been shot as cutscenes, where graphics quality really shines. Everyone is brilliantly designed and performed, to the point where players might want to put the controller down and just listen to them banter. The game itself looks slightly less realistic than Battlefront II during gameplay, but this was never a majorly noticeable issue and didn't detract too much from Star Wars: Squadrons' polish in cinematics.
Overall, Star Wars: Squadrons is a great game, with challenging fun reminiscent of the property's golden years in gaming while also serving as proof that a Star Wars experience doesn't need microtransactions to be a successful one. However, bugs on all platforms need to be fixed, so some players may want to wait a while to pick up a copy until it's a bit more stable. Either way, Star Wars: Squadrons is still a must-play for major fans of the franchise.
Star Wars: Squadrons is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PlayStation 4 code for the purposes of this review.