Squadrons

2015 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens premieres in Los Angeles.

EA announces Star Wars: Squadrons game

Star Wars: Squadrons is a first person space combat game that lets players fly a variety of ships.

Squadrons

2015 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens premieres in Los Angeles.

EA has announced a new Star Wars game Star Wars: Squadrons. It’s a first-person space combat game with an emphasis on multiplayer. It will however also have a single player campaign which will take place after the Battle of Endor.

Squadrons, which is developed by Motive Montreal, will let players fly a variety of Star Wars ships including the X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, U-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber and TIE Reaper fighters.

STAR WARS: SQUADRONS RELEASE DATE

EA won’t be revealing game play until the company’s EA Play Live event on 18 June. It promises a variety of multiplayer modes including “Fleet Battles” where the goal is to work with your teammates to destroy a capital ship as well as a traditional dog-fighting mode.

Star Wars: Squadrons is set to be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 2 October for $39.99 (R686,52).

CUSTOMISATION OPTIONS for Squadrons

Star Wars: Squadrons also shows that EA has learned some considerable lessons from the loot box debacle that marred the first several months of Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The game will offer extension customisation options for both game play altering items like weapons, hulls, engines, and shields as well as a variety of cosmetics to customise their cockpit, ship, and pilot appearance. The company promises that everything will be “earned solely through game play.”

CROSS-PLATFORM SUPPORT

The cross-platform support with multiplayer supported between players on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC is a welcome improvement.
Squadrons will also be compatible with VR headsets on PC and the PlayStation 4 for players who want even more immersion. Unlockables will be earned solely through game play.

NEW SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN

Squadrons will also feature a new single player campaign set after the Battle of Endor, which will put players into the shoes of pilots from both the New Republic’s Vanguard Squadron and the Galactic Empire’s Titan Squadron.

While recent Star Wars titles (like Star Wars: Battlefront II) have put players in the cockpits of X-Wings, TIE Fighters, and other iconic vehicles from the franchise, it has been over a decade since there was a major Star Wars game devoted to space battles, the most recent being 2003’s Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike for the Nintendo Game Cube.

There is a long pedigree of star fighter combat games in the Star Wars franchise. The most famous are the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games released for PC in the 1990s that focused on more realistic space combat.

The focus on exclusive first-person dog fighting could mean that this is the modern successor to the X-Wing franchise that fans have been waiting for.

EA has yet to announce whether it will be offering a next gen version of Squadrons for the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Also read: Step back in time: Star Wars’ first Comic Con panel

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