For the Empire! Hands-On with Star Wars: Squadrons
Post by nachosjustice @ 01:00am 23/07/20 | Comments
An accessible space sim with the promise of plenty of depth has me itching to get back into my flight suit.
Many moons ago, former DICE legend Patrick Bach scoffed at the notion of Star Wars Battlefront having starfighter battles in space when I asked about their omission from the DICE reboot. Fast-forward not so many moons from that point and DICE released a moon-sized DLC drop with Battlefront’s Death Star content, complete with – yup, you guessed it – starfighter battles... in space.
While for me, and I’m sure many other Star Wars fans, the prospect of space-based starfighter dogfights was an inevitability for Battlefront (and, indeed, Battlefront 2), Bach made a good point when he shut down the pitch at the time: battles in space are boring.
That’s not sarcasm, either.
Think about it. Whether it’s a solitary X-wing vs a solo TIE fighter, a squadron of New Republic pilots battling Imperial flyers, or a friggin’ fleet of Alliance starfighters against the Empire’s best, no matter which way you cut it, if the only backdrop is a whole lot of black, dotted with starlight, that’s going to get real old, real fast.
And it wouldn’t matter if it was the space outside Sullust, Coruscant, or the floating debris of Alderaan (too soon?) because, despite a big orienting planet, you’re still just dealing with boring old space. You know, a vacuum.
As far as I can tell, Star Wars: Squadrons is set exclusively in space, but it’s the opposite of boring from what I got to play recently.
That’s because developer EA Motive is treating the various space-based battlefields as maps: as in, there’s a space-load of objects to jink around, battle over and zip through. From the two multiplayer ‘maps’ I played as part of a recent virtual hands-on preview, EA Motive’s take on space feels inspired by DICE’s Conquest maps in Battlefield. There’s a lot of open space on the edges for unencumbered traversal, but the centre is where the action happens.
Except, like Battlefield, lurking around the fringes is a good way to get killed in a fly-by. In Squadrons, it’s easy to fall into the trap of solo pursuing a desperately evading enemy starfighter too far from the protection of your squadron or the escapability of giant floating objects. Sure, you may score the kill, but you’d better believe that you’re going to be the next obvious target for a recently respawned vengeful wingman.
But I’m getting ahead of myself because you absolutely don’t want to throw yourself into the deep end of multiplayer space combat before, at the very least, taking the prologue for a spin. I actually suspect you’ll be forced to play it before you can jump into multiplayer.
That’s what Creative Director Ian Frazier recommended in our recent in-depth interview, and I soon saw the wisdom of it when I was going through the motions of getting used to flying a TIE fighter with keyboard and mouse. It didn’t help that the game refused to invert my look – aka ‘normal’ look (yep - Ed.) when it comes to flight sims (not to mention how your head works) – which created an artificial difficulty modifier that soon had me switching to a thankfully inverted controller.
Fleet Battles multiplayer mode, flying for the Rebels and Imperials.
Assumedly, that bug will be addressed in the final release, and the Red Five wannabes will absolutely be able to get their jollies with a joystick or get HOTAS under the collar. That’ll likely be the ultimate way to play when paired with out-of-the-box VR support at launch.
Even glancing at the control layout gives you a sense that EA Motive is lightsabering a line in the Tatooine sand that has enough depth for old-school X-wing vs TIE fighter devotees but also not such an intimidating layout that it’ll deter new recruits. Those newbies may be put off by the lack of third-person view – it’s fixed in first-person perspective, the way Lord Vader intended – but there’s no denying how incomparably immersive this design decision is.
The sound design, in particular, is nerdgasmly awesome in how EA Motive has spliced the familiar Star Wars soundscape with an appropriate boom for how a shields-melting cannon should sound inside the cockpit of a starfighter.
The prologue will familiarise you with the basics of shifting power between cannons, engines and, if you’re Rebel scum, shields. That’s right, Nuna-ball fans, EA Motive is beholden to the Star Wars canon rules of starfighters and all Imperial starfighters ships sans shields. They are, mercifully, more manoeuvrable than their Rebel counterparts, and it’s a lot less mentally taxing to manage two power systems, but Alliance pilots will appreciate the extra protection that shields provide.
Early on, you’ll likely juggle everything in terms of max power: full power to shields when chased, full power to cannons when chasing, and full power to engines when you’re closing a gap or getting out of trouble. Full power to engines also builds a super-handy boost for getting out of hairy situations or, when you’re looking to lose a dogged pursuer, popping a space-drift manoeuvre that adds welcome variety to endlessly cutting and increasing speed to hopefully turn the tables on whoever’s turning in on your tail.
Of course, the other way to do that is by zipping around and through the stacks of space junk or space stations that test the nerve of the starfighter on your six. Despite the fixed first-person perspective, EA Motive has found a great balance between letting you feel like you’re scraping close by surfaces without having to be too aware of how far your starfighter’s chassis extends above or to the side of the cockpit. It feels like the equivalent of first-person shooter logic, where the eyes of your avatar are technically on top of your head, to help avoid situations where you can’t see an enemy but they can see the top of your noggin.
You’ll still bash into stuff if you push it too far, but this is rarely a death sentence unless you’re on low health. What will kill you is the loss of momentum and the short work fully charged cannons will make of your limping starfighter. On top of this, fully throttling down will eventually stop you dead in space, so it’s important to get a feel for your throttle settings. Refreshingly, the armour of your ship doesn’t automatically regenerate, and too much damage leads to tension-building cracks in the canopy and all manner of alarms to let you know how much trouble you’re in.
Dogfight multiplayer mode, flying for the Imperials.
The time to kill is noticeably high, particularly in Dogfight mode, but this seems to be EA Motive’s attempt at bolstering the kind of escapability that leads to twisting and turning dogfights that make you feel as though you deserve to holo-paint your latest victim to the side of your starfighter. That said, the time to kill feels incredibly short in the signature Fleet Battles mode, which plays out like a tug-of-war space battle.
There’s a lot going on in Fleet Battles, so much so that it’s difficult to track starfighters and a lot easier to focus on the bigger targets, which you’re supposed to be concentrating on anyway. Destroy enough human pilots, AI-piloted starfighters or enemy raider ships, and you build morale for your team. Build enough morale, and you push the enemy back to defend their mid-sized ships. Do that again and it’s time to take on their flagship. If you’re on the other side of that morale boost, you’re on the defence.
As a Rebel pilot you’ll quickly learn why a Star Destroyer earned its namesake: veer too close, and you’ll be dead before you can say, “Go for Papa Palpatine.” It’s a similar story for that earlier line of defence, or any ship bigger than the four core starfighter classes. When Fleet Battles warns you that you’re in enemy territory, you’ll be dead if you don’t turn tail and heroically retreat.
These lumbering hulks are built to take a beating, and you’ll need the help of the rest of your squadron for any hope of punching holes in them. As is the tradition, your best bet of whittling down their health is by focus-firing on points of interest: shield generators, targeting system, power core. Do enough damage, and lightning-spewing weak points open up on the ship that take extra damage, too.
But if the shields are up, your attacks will feel a whole lot weaker. That said, get under the shield of a capital ship to deal more damage and offer a bit of extra protection for threats outside the shield, but then you’re up against a whole mess of capital ship batteries that suddenly only have eyes for you. Plus, straying too close makes you a juicy target for the momentum-obliterating tractor beam.
This is where switching between ships becomes crucial in Fleet Battles. You can do it the speedy way by going down in a blaze of glory, or trying your best to smash an A-wing into the bridge of a Star Destroyer. But you can also just full-speed it back inside your flagship’s hangar and instantly switch to any of the four classes. You’ll soon find that whether you’re attacking or defending, and which stage of the tug of war you’re at, will determine what your Squadron composition should be.
Like Overwatch, Squadrons lets you know when your squadron composition is lacking in at least one of the four categories of starfighter, but that’s more a reminder than a rebuke. You can stack a squadron with one type of ship, but that will create obvious weaknesses in your wing’s composition. Support ships, for instance, seem like a thankless role, but just because they can quickly heal damaged friendly fighters – a goddamn godsend when you’re a long way from repairs – doesn’t mean they can’t be configured to dish out the hurt, too.
In fact, there’s a deep system of unlocks across multiple categories per ship, per faction, which means you can mix and match components that focus your starfighters to specific roles or to suit your personal tastes of how you like to battle.
A couple of hours was enough time spent in the cockpit to know that there are a lot more hours of playability in Star Wars: Squadrons. It felt bare bones in terms of time to get used to the basics of the ships, the different components, and to make me realise how much more fun will be found when I’m playing with a fully communicating squadron. But so far, it has made me feel a greatdisturbance sense of excitement in the Force.
While for me, and I’m sure many other Star Wars fans, the prospect of space-based starfighter dogfights was an inevitability for Battlefront (and, indeed, Battlefront 2), Bach made a good point when he shut down the pitch at the time: battles in space are boring.
That’s not sarcasm, either.
Think about it. Whether it’s a solitary X-wing vs a solo TIE fighter, a squadron of New Republic pilots battling Imperial flyers, or a friggin’ fleet of Alliance starfighters against the Empire’s best, no matter which way you cut it, if the only backdrop is a whole lot of black, dotted with starlight, that’s going to get real old, real fast.
"Despite a big orienting planet, you’re still just dealing with boring old space. You know, a vacuum..."
And it wouldn’t matter if it was the space outside Sullust, Coruscant, or the floating debris of Alderaan (too soon?) because, despite a big orienting planet, you’re still just dealing with boring old space. You know, a vacuum.
As far as I can tell, Star Wars: Squadrons is set exclusively in space, but it’s the opposite of boring from what I got to play recently.
That’s because developer EA Motive is treating the various space-based battlefields as maps: as in, there’s a space-load of objects to jink around, battle over and zip through. From the two multiplayer ‘maps’ I played as part of a recent virtual hands-on preview, EA Motive’s take on space feels inspired by DICE’s Conquest maps in Battlefield. There’s a lot of open space on the edges for unencumbered traversal, but the centre is where the action happens.
Except, like Battlefield, lurking around the fringes is a good way to get killed in a fly-by. In Squadrons, it’s easy to fall into the trap of solo pursuing a desperately evading enemy starfighter too far from the protection of your squadron or the escapability of giant floating objects. Sure, you may score the kill, but you’d better believe that you’re going to be the next obvious target for a recently respawned vengeful wingman.
"It’s easy to fall into the trap of solo pursuing a desperately evading enemy starfighter too far from the protection of your squadron or the escapability of giant floating objects..."
But I’m getting ahead of myself because you absolutely don’t want to throw yourself into the deep end of multiplayer space combat before, at the very least, taking the prologue for a spin. I actually suspect you’ll be forced to play it before you can jump into multiplayer.
That’s what Creative Director Ian Frazier recommended in our recent in-depth interview, and I soon saw the wisdom of it when I was going through the motions of getting used to flying a TIE fighter with keyboard and mouse. It didn’t help that the game refused to invert my look – aka ‘normal’ look (yep - Ed.) when it comes to flight sims (not to mention how your head works) – which created an artificial difficulty modifier that soon had me switching to a thankfully inverted controller.
Fleet Battles multiplayer mode, flying for the Rebels and Imperials.
Assumedly, that bug will be addressed in the final release, and the Red Five wannabes will absolutely be able to get their jollies with a joystick or get HOTAS under the collar. That’ll likely be the ultimate way to play when paired with out-of-the-box VR support at launch.
Even glancing at the control layout gives you a sense that EA Motive is lightsabering a line in the Tatooine sand that has enough depth for old-school X-wing vs TIE fighter devotees but also not such an intimidating layout that it’ll deter new recruits. Those newbies may be put off by the lack of third-person view – it’s fixed in first-person perspective, the way Lord Vader intended – but there’s no denying how incomparably immersive this design decision is.
"That’s right, Nuna-ball fans, EA Motive is beholden to the Star Wars canon rules of starfighters and all Imperial starfighters ships sans shields..."
The sound design, in particular, is nerdgasmly awesome in how EA Motive has spliced the familiar Star Wars soundscape with an appropriate boom for how a shields-melting cannon should sound inside the cockpit of a starfighter.
The prologue will familiarise you with the basics of shifting power between cannons, engines and, if you’re Rebel scum, shields. That’s right, Nuna-ball fans, EA Motive is beholden to the Star Wars canon rules of starfighters and all Imperial starfighters ships sans shields. They are, mercifully, more manoeuvrable than their Rebel counterparts, and it’s a lot less mentally taxing to manage two power systems, but Alliance pilots will appreciate the extra protection that shields provide.
Early on, you’ll likely juggle everything in terms of max power: full power to shields when chased, full power to cannons when chasing, and full power to engines when you’re closing a gap or getting out of trouble. Full power to engines also builds a super-handy boost for getting out of hairy situations or, when you’re looking to lose a dogged pursuer, popping a space-drift manoeuvre that adds welcome variety to endlessly cutting and increasing speed to hopefully turn the tables on whoever’s turning in on your tail.
"It feels like the equivalent of first-person shooter logic, where the eyes of your avatar are technically on top of your head, to help avoid situations where you can’t see an enemy but they can see the top of your noggin..."
Of course, the other way to do that is by zipping around and through the stacks of space junk or space stations that test the nerve of the starfighter on your six. Despite the fixed first-person perspective, EA Motive has found a great balance between letting you feel like you’re scraping close by surfaces without having to be too aware of how far your starfighter’s chassis extends above or to the side of the cockpit. It feels like the equivalent of first-person shooter logic, where the eyes of your avatar are technically on top of your head, to help avoid situations where you can’t see an enemy but they can see the top of your noggin.
You’ll still bash into stuff if you push it too far, but this is rarely a death sentence unless you’re on low health. What will kill you is the loss of momentum and the short work fully charged cannons will make of your limping starfighter. On top of this, fully throttling down will eventually stop you dead in space, so it’s important to get a feel for your throttle settings. Refreshingly, the armour of your ship doesn’t automatically regenerate, and too much damage leads to tension-building cracks in the canopy and all manner of alarms to let you know how much trouble you’re in.
Dogfight multiplayer mode, flying for the Imperials.
The time to kill is noticeably high, particularly in Dogfight mode, but this seems to be EA Motive’s attempt at bolstering the kind of escapability that leads to twisting and turning dogfights that make you feel as though you deserve to holo-paint your latest victim to the side of your starfighter. That said, the time to kill feels incredibly short in the signature Fleet Battles mode, which plays out like a tug-of-war space battle.
"Destroy enough human pilots, AI-piloted starfighters or enemy raider ships, and you build morale for your team. Build enough morale, and you push the enemy back..."
There’s a lot going on in Fleet Battles, so much so that it’s difficult to track starfighters and a lot easier to focus on the bigger targets, which you’re supposed to be concentrating on anyway. Destroy enough human pilots, AI-piloted starfighters or enemy raider ships, and you build morale for your team. Build enough morale, and you push the enemy back to defend their mid-sized ships. Do that again and it’s time to take on their flagship. If you’re on the other side of that morale boost, you’re on the defence.
As a Rebel pilot you’ll quickly learn why a Star Destroyer earned its namesake: veer too close, and you’ll be dead before you can say, “Go for Papa Palpatine.” It’s a similar story for that earlier line of defence, or any ship bigger than the four core starfighter classes. When Fleet Battles warns you that you’re in enemy territory, you’ll be dead if you don’t turn tail and heroically retreat.
These lumbering hulks are built to take a beating, and you’ll need the help of the rest of your squadron for any hope of punching holes in them. As is the tradition, your best bet of whittling down their health is by focus-firing on points of interest: shield generators, targeting system, power core. Do enough damage, and lightning-spewing weak points open up on the ship that take extra damage, too.
But if the shields are up, your attacks will feel a whole lot weaker. That said, get under the shield of a capital ship to deal more damage and offer a bit of extra protection for threats outside the shield, but then you’re up against a whole mess of capital ship batteries that suddenly only have eyes for you. Plus, straying too close makes you a juicy target for the momentum-obliterating tractor beam.
"You can stack a squadron with one type of ship, but that will create obvious weaknesses in your wing’s composition..."
This is where switching between ships becomes crucial in Fleet Battles. You can do it the speedy way by going down in a blaze of glory, or trying your best to smash an A-wing into the bridge of a Star Destroyer. But you can also just full-speed it back inside your flagship’s hangar and instantly switch to any of the four classes. You’ll soon find that whether you’re attacking or defending, and which stage of the tug of war you’re at, will determine what your Squadron composition should be.
Like Overwatch, Squadrons lets you know when your squadron composition is lacking in at least one of the four categories of starfighter, but that’s more a reminder than a rebuke. You can stack a squadron with one type of ship, but that will create obvious weaknesses in your wing’s composition. Support ships, for instance, seem like a thankless role, but just because they can quickly heal damaged friendly fighters – a goddamn godsend when you’re a long way from repairs – doesn’t mean they can’t be configured to dish out the hurt, too.
In fact, there’s a deep system of unlocks across multiple categories per ship, per faction, which means you can mix and match components that focus your starfighters to specific roles or to suit your personal tastes of how you like to battle.
A couple of hours was enough time spent in the cockpit to know that there are a lot more hours of playability in Star Wars: Squadrons. It felt bare bones in terms of time to get used to the basics of the ships, the different components, and to make me realise how much more fun will be found when I’m playing with a fully communicating squadron. But so far, it has made me feel a great
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Posted 12:43pm 23/7/20