Surprisingly, EA made a lower-budget Star Wars game without any micro-transactions. The game has a small scope compared to a game like Battlefield, with the gameplay focusing on dog fights in space.
The main campaign took me around 10 hours, but higher skilled players would complete this game quicker. A glitch prevented me from finishing one mission; I was just battling endless waves of Tie-Fighters. Restarting from check-point just had the same issue, so I had to restart from the beginning. The second attempt allowed me to complete that mission.
In the campaign you switch between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. Throughout the campaign, you are introduced to the mechanics of the game and get to try each of the ships; so it’s essentially a large tutorial for the multiplayer.
The missions are basically as you would expect. You follow your team members whilst they talk, you defend certain ships, have to attack certain flagships, destroy waves of enemies.
When the mission is complete, you are awarded medals. There’s ones for completing it without dying, completing in a certain time, completing the optional objects and more. Aside from that, I wouldn’t say there is much replay value to the campaign.
In between missions, you can click on your team members in the space station to engage in dialog. You are a silent protagonist though, so you just listen to their dialog. I often thought you were positioned too close when talking, but it also felt your character was tiny, and had to angle the camera upwards to see the other person’s face.
When you are in your craft, the view is locked inside the cockpit (you can’t change the camera to view from behind), and each cockpit looks different. Their attributes and load-outs can require different strategies. For example, X-Wings are quite balanced, Y-Wings are built for bombing runs, A-Wings are extremely fast and nimble. The Empire’s ships have no shields but they can focus extra power to speed or lasers.
All ships allow you to switch energy to focus on balance, speed, lasers or shields (Rebels only) by pressing the number keys 1-4 (if you play with keyboard). If you are focussing on speed, you can then press the spacebar to boost.
For keyboard controls, A and D rotates your ship, and W and S accelerates or slows down. Weirdly, your ship can come to a standstill, which I don’t recall happening in any Star Wars film or game. Usually there is a minimum speed. Staying at a standstill means you can play like a fixed turret, but you are also an easy target to be shot at.
The main component of Squadrons is its 5v5 online multiplayer. There’s not many maps and they largely play similarly. There is a team deathmatch mode as well as the Fleet Battles mode; an objective-based tug-of-war. Each team starts off with a flagship and two frigates, and your goal is to first destroy the frigates, then you are allowed to target the flagship. There is a morale bar which you increase by defeating enemies, and once it is full, an AI Corvette appears to help launch an attack, whilst the opposition falls back to defend. This repeats until the flagship is destroyed.
I thought Squadrons was decent enough but I never felt that engrossed in it. I’d imagine it would be much more immersive if you play in VR.