If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few days, it’s this: being a pilot in the Star Wars universe is brutal. I have newfound sympathy for Porkins, the rebel pilot who briefly appeared in A New Hope, who must have entered his cockpit full of adrenaline and aspirations… only to have it all end with a stray laser. This is the reality of flying through the chaos of space battle, and Squadrons wants you to know it.
Made by Motive Studios, Star Wars Squadrons is really a game of two halves – in several senses of the word. Split into a ten-hour campaign and two main multiplayer modes, both sides somehow feel completely different despite sharing the same set of controls, with the story favouring immersion and the multiplayer providing more of the compelling star-fighting experience I was looking for. The latter is where Squadrons’ gameplay truly comes into its own, and is only made better when experienced in the terrifying beauty of VR.
Before you get stuck into the multiplayer, however, you’ll probably want to test your piloting skills in the game’s campaign mode – which has its moments, but never quite reaches the same heights as the multiplayer.
