Who would’ve known that a few years after the launch of the PSVR we would have received a fully-fledged Star Wars flight game in VR, with Hotas support, from EA of all companies! It’s finally here everybody, Star Wars Squadrons is out! So the question now is, is Star Wars Squadrons any good?
Star Wars Squadrons has you playing as pilots from both the rebels and empire after the Battle Of Endor. The story introduces a wide variety of new characters from both sides of the battle, and does a decent job at building the missions up, but isn’t really anything mind-blowing. If you’re interested in this game for the lore or story, then look elsewhere.
Where the game really shines is in its gameplay. You’re put into the cockpit of a wide variety of iconic ships, getting to see everything close up. It’s really awesome getting to look inside these ships and seeing all of the technology and detail that’s gone into them. You’re able to control the direction of the ship, where you fire, ship speed, what targets to select when to shoot missiles, and you also get to focus the ship energy on specific aspects. These aspects include speed, fire recharge rate, defense, or a balance of all three. And as you play through the story they slowly introduce you to more and more mechanics, like EMPs, commands, stealth, and others that I won’t spoil.
Another important aspect of the ship is how it controls. You can use either the Dualshock 4 or Hotas 4 controller in the game. I would highly recommend trying to get a Hotas 4 controller for this game, as it really enhances the immersion. I know that these controllers have recently risen in price, and have been selling out everywhere, but if you can get a good deal on one I would definitely try to pick one up. The Dualshock 4 controller is still good, but I really believe the Hotas 4 controller brings this game to the next level!
Now aside from the single-player side of the game, there is also a multiplayer side. There are two modes to play, including fleet battles and dogfights. Fleet Battles have you and your squadron trying to break through the enemy’s fleet defenses while also trying to destroy their flagship before yours is destroyed. And dogfights are 5 versus 5 battles that have each team trying to get to 30 kills to win the battle. I really enjoyed these multiplayer modes, and will definitely be coming back to them a lot in the future. The multiplayer is also cross-play with the non-VR version, so you shouldn’t have issues finding matches, at least for a long time. There are also customization options, a ranking system, voice chat, missions, and more to make the game more interesting.
Star Wars Squadrons is actually a pretty difficult game as well, you can choose between 4 different difficulties in the story mode, but even when I was playing on normal I died several times in my playthrough. Part of the reason is that it does take a while for most players to get used to this style of gameplay, even for me after previously playing Ace Combat 7 in VR. It did take a while for the game to click with me, so if you start the game and aren’t feeling it right away, then please stick with it.
One final thing I would like to discuss is the visuals and audio of the game. The developers did an excellent job recreating the world of Star Wars, all of the iconic models and sounds are here, along with music that fits the game perfectly. I will say the game is a bit blurry on the graphics side of things, but not to the point where it bothered me or distracted me from the gameplay.
So overall, Star Wars Squadrons is a must-have PSVR game! If you like Star Wars, or just want a fun ship combat game, then you need to check out Star Wars Squadrons. This is an example of a Triple-A VR game done right and is something I’ll continue to return to for years to come.
