Star Wars: Squadrons, EA Motive’s first major solo project following its contribution to other games set in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, is out today, and early signs point to it having hit a home run with the modestly-budgeted title.
Make no mistake: this is definitely no Star Wars Battlefront II or Jedi: Fallen Order in scope or size, and for the incredibly fair launch price of $40, there’s more than enough content here to justify that figure, with Squadrons‘ story mode alone being substantial enough to consume an entire day’s session of gaming. There’s no one-size-fits-all estimate to give in terms of exact length, of course, as individual skill, familiarity with the genre and difficulty level all play a huge role in formulating just how much entertainment can be squeezed out of the single-player portion and Squadrons is, after all, primarily geared towards online multiplayer.
Speaking of difficulty, though, you’ll be able to choose from Story (Easy), Pilot (Normal), Veteran (Hard) and Ace (Very Hard) before kicking off your career as a star pilot, with Normal – the level of challenge that most will pick by default – reportedly taking in the region of 8-10 hours to get through. Considering the campaign included in DICE’s 2017 Battlefront sequel takes roughly the same amount of time to finish, there’s little to complain about here.
As far as multiplayer goes, there’s plenty of meat on the bone to be found. With six maps, four ship types and numerous customization options to choose from, the game has a strong foundation for EA Motive to build on. Whether it’ll see fit to release any DLC in the future remains to be seen, but as it currently stands, you won’t get much better quality or value anywhere else in the medium for $40.
Star Wars: Squadrons is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
