More Star Wars you say? Well I don’t mind if I do! EA dropped the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Squadrons yesterday, and my fragile little mind has been blown. While we have yet to see any gameplay, the premise we have been given is exciting enough for some! Taking to the stars, the game will feature a single player campaign where you play as members of the New Republic’s Vanguard Squadron or the TIE flying pilots of the Empire’s Titan Squadron. Both groups will also feature in a 5 v 5 multiplayer mode with upgrades and cosmetics apparently earned solely through game performance? (finally learned a lesson EA?)
Really all we know so far is we’re getting a game that seems to be the love child of Rainbow 6: Siege and the N64’s Rogue Squadron (yes the word Squadron will be appearing a lot). The story is looking to be an exciting 2-sided tale with the hopeful New Republic pushing the offensive against a faltering Empire, set a few years after the Battle of Endor, Squadrons will have appearances from heroes like Wedge Antilles and, perhaps even more excitingly, Hera Syndulla from Rebels can be seen during a briefing. This shot of the Republic pilots meeting can also be used to work out a rough timeframe for the action as the hologram on the table between them is showing a New Republic Starhawk Battleship, a vessel built by the goodies not long after The Emperor took and express elevator ride into the Death Star’s reactor core. So, things are slowly moving towards the famous battle of Jakku.
From what little we have seen and heard, you will have a few choices of what ship you bring to bear in each mission. The New Republic bringing X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings and U-Wings while their Imperial rivals are rolling with TIEs, Interceptors, Bombers and Reapers. With this Mixed bag of craft, it seems like team set up will be key, similar to other team-based games. However, this might not be all the ships we get, obviously some may be unlockable, so I’ll just sit here with my fingers crossed hoping to see a B-wing in the mix! I would assume that most of the multiplayer modes will be like death match or capture the flag modes. So far, the term first person is being thrown around though I find it hard to believe that Motive Studios would put so much effort into modelling this incredible starfighters and then NOT allow you to drop into a Third person view for them! But I suppose we’ll have to wait and see for the first smidgen of gameplay we get.
My biggest hope for this title will be that we get a story with absolutely no involvement from Jedi or Sith, just like how Solo was a fantastic caper film that didn’t have to rely on the saber wielders for its plot, Squadrons could be an exciting adventure in a large galaxy that doesn’t ALWAYS have to fall back on a Jedi or two.