Last Updated on June 21, 2020 by Mark P.
The most recently announced Star Wars game from EA has a lot of hype going for it, especially since it is an especially rare breed of Star Wars game, what with the first-person flying and all. That said, this title was revealed very recently, so not many people knew much about it. Now though, we have some more info to share with the expectant masses regarding everything we know about Star Wars: Squadrons at this exact moment.
EA has described the game as an “immersive, first-person space dogfighting experience.” There’s a lot of good news: for one, it’s scheduled to release on October 2nd on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, so not only will just about everyone be able to play it, but the release date isn’t that far off either. Of course, lots of games have been getting delayed lately, and there’s no guarantee the same ill fate won’t befall Squadrons. Here’s hoping for the best on that front.
Of interesting note is the fact that the game will only cost $40, which is quite a bit less than the price of a new game these days. Why the game will be this lower cost is unknown, though it admittedly raises a few questions about how much content the game will have, regardless of how good the gameplay looks so far.
Speaking of content, here’s what we know about that: Squadrons is being developed by Motive Studios, working together with Lucasfilm. It will have a dedicated single-player story mode, but also several multiplayer modes that will allegedly have no microtransactions whatsoever.
In the multiplayer modes, players will get to control either New Republic or Imperial pilots, and work together with four other wingmen to achieve the multiplayer objective. While piloting iconic starfighters, presumably from the Original Trilogy only considering the playable factions, players will work together to either take down an enemy capital ship or go head to head in dogfights. These are the two game modes we know about right now, but that’s not to say there won’t be more when the game releases.
The game is going to have a great deal of cosmetic options, such as pilot customization, ship exterior customization and cockpit customization. However, all of these cosmetic items will be acquired through gameplay and nothing else. You won’t be able to buy them with real money. This is probably due to how much criticism Star Wars Battlefront II received for having microtransactions, something that EA is no doubt not willing to repeat.
On the other hand, players will get to unlock new equipment, ships, weapons, etc. By leveling up in the game. This makes it seem fairly likely that cosmetic unlocks will focus more on milestones or achievements of some sort, perhaps things like beating single-player on the hardest difficulty or downing a certain number of players. Either way, it’s nice to have cosmetics to earn rather than buy: it provides players with a certain incentive, and it certainly makes a bigger impact on the field of battle.
EA has also said that Squadrons will let players experience never before seen locations in the Star Wars universe, such as Yavin Prime and Galitan. As far as where the game’s single-player story falls in the grand scheme of the Star Wars universe, it takes place after Return of the Jedi, during the period in which the Empire crumbles and the New Republic is established. With all of the action taking place after the destruction of the second Death Star, you’ll get to experience events from the perspectives of both a New Republic pilot and an Imperial one.
While the story is an original one, there is no word on if it can be considered ‘canon,’ that is, whether or not it is something that officially happened in the continuity of the films. But then again, do we really want anything to be canonized in the same universe as the sequel trilogy at this point?
All in all, EA has promised a compelling and original story set in the Star Wars universe, with a cast of characters that we can hopefully get behind and actually like. Of course, Battlefront II offered an original story as well, and it was… lackluster, to say the least. Here’s to hoping Squadrons will have a story with a lick of sense and more than one or two characters we can actually like.
At the same time, EA has also mentioned that some well-known Star Wars faces will cameo in the game: thus far we know this includes Wedge Antilles and Hera Syndulla.
Squadrons is already available to pre-order, though it is, once again, not a full-price game, for some reason. It is $40 USD across all platforms. For Origin and EA Access subscribers, they’ll be able to play Squadrons for 10 hours for free once the game launches, and once that time is up, they can purchase it for 10% off. Not at all a bad deal if you aren’t quite sure if you’d really enjoy the game or not.
Origin Access Premiere subscribers will get access to the full game at no cost (other than the cost of their subscription, naturally). If you are looking to pre-order, you can do that at pretty much any digital storefront, including Xbox, PlayStation, the Epic Games Store or Steam.
That pretty much wraps up everything we know about Squadrons right now. It’s all some pretty general stuff, but it’s also quite a lot to learn about a game that was only just recently revealed. To know both price and a release date, as well as game modes, is quite a lot of knowledge this early on. Of course, anything is subject to change, especially release dates and pricing, but at the very least we have something we can reasonably expect as of right now. If any more news about Squadrons is revealed, be sure to check back in with us to learn all about it.
