After playing Red Dead Redemption II finally this year, for a total of 138 hours it turns out. Though these 138 hours were very enjoyable and has done me enough Western themed media for the next few months, at least. For a palate cleanser I decided, I should go in the complete opposite direction and I decided that would be Star Wars Squadrons. I focused on the campaign as I knew it would be pointless trying my hand at the multiplayer, even nobody would be playing it. I knew going in that I would do well enough in the space combat as it doesn’t require the quickest responses as it is an open space and coupled with my flight skills meaning I would be as nimble as a bantha on ice. This assumption was proved correct. I did however improve a little bit as I went through the campaign.

Alongside my flight skills being not great, I also on occasion got lost when trying to identify where objectives and enemies were. Despite this, Squadrons provides an enjoyable experience and has enough of that not quite clean late 70’s scifi design, a good gameplay loop. As well as decent if unremarkable story and characters. Despite them being unremarkable there is enough in the story and characters to power past the stiff and on occasion awkward character animations and dialogue outside of cut scenes. That said, the few cut scenes as these are well animated and directed. While the story wasn’t that remarkable as the defining factor in the campaign is the conflict between Lindon Javes and Terisa Kerrill, former Imperial fighter pilots turned adversaries. This shaping the core conflict keeps the story contained besides a few appearances of characters from the wider universe.

The gameplay loop being good is only tinged by limited variation in the types of gameplay. Each level starts with conversations with your squadron before moving into the briefing then moving to optional conversations with superiors and the squadron that give background, a little more mission information or relationships before going into the main flight gameplay loop. The levels don’t suffer from the repetition issue as objectives and roles change as the type of starfighter available are restricted by the requirement of the level. On some levels you do have a free choice of the star fighter you want to use.

While the game does have character creation, this is streamlined and has no impact on the single player campaign other than voice lines during combat encounters. The opposite can be said for the starfighter customisation as you can modify the offensive and defensive capabilities, shields the hull and engines. All customisation comes with both positives and negatives for example gaining more health at the expense of acceleration and manoeuvrability.

All in all a very fine game to pass to the time and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.