EA earlier this week showed off a Cinematic Trailer for their upcoming Star Wars: Squadron game, also mentioning that we would only have to wait a few days until EA Play before we get to see some Gameplay footage. With EA Play airing yesterday (or midnight this morning in the UK) they were true to their word, giving us a few more details about the game, a release date and more. Star Wars Squadrons sees players taking part in 5vs5 multiplayer space dogfights across several different ship classes and modes. ‘Dogfight’ mode for those looking for something simple is just a straight-up 5vs5… Uhh… Dogfight and a more complex ‘Fleet Battle’ mode.
Of course if multiplayer isn’t your speed, then as mentioned you can take part in the Fleet Battles with AI, and there’s also a Single Player campaign that sees you playing both sides as you create an Imperial Pilot and New Republic Pilot, that takes place after Return of the Jedi. Alternating between them as you play through the campaign.
The meat and potatoes of the game outside of the campaign seems to be focused on the ‘Fleet Battle’ mode which sound like a variation along the same ideas as Rush/Breakthrough. Set across several stages it sees 5 vs 5 (or AI) it starts with a dogfight in the center of the map, followed up by attacking/defending 2 “medium-sized capital ships” and then finally an all-out battle over trying to take out your opponents’ flagship by targeting specific sub-systems. It also sounds like this can flow either way, so if you win the dogfight and capital ships but then fail to seize the offensive and take out the flagship, you might see yourself pushed back to ultimately defending your own flagship. If that wasn’t enough the Fleet Battles mode even includes a social hub for you to hang out before jumping into the action and “Solidify strategy, co-ordinate loadouts, and prepare for takeoff” or get yelled at for picking the wrong ship.
On the subject of picking the wrong ship, Tie Fighters, X-Wings, A-Wings oh my! The game sees 8 ships (4 per faction) spread over 4 classes of ship at launch. Bombers, Fighters, Interceptors, and Support.
It’s also fully playable in VR for those who don’t suffer from motion sickness. Oh and players rejoice as they have said there will be no lootboxes, and you can unlock cosmetics and components just by playing the game.
Star Wars: Squadrons will come to Xbox One, PS4, and PC (Epic, Origin, Steam) with Crossplay support on October 2, and is available to pre-order now for £34.99/$39.99/€39.99
