Combat in the upcoming VR-compatible Star Wars: Squadrons isn’t as simple as jumping into a ship and shooting an enemy down. If you want to rule the battlefield, you’ll need to get familiar with the game’s power management system.
Developer EA Motive gave us a deeper look into this mechanic in a recent update on the game’s official website. Star Wars: Squadrons’ power management system essentially sees players divert resources to one of three main areas: engines, lasers and shields. While it’s possible to have all three balanced out, top tier players will want to get a grip of this customization to secure the advantage in battle.
Star Wars: Squadrons Power Management System Explained
As you might expect, diverting more power to a particular area will help you excel in that field at the expense of the others. But that’s not the full extent of it; you’ll also get special abilities should you max out one of those options. Lasers for example, will automatically overcharge when powered to the max, giving you an initial burst of fire that deals double the amount of damage. Engines, meanwhile, will unlock an extra speed boost when topped up.
Shields work a little differently, as not every craft has them. For those that do, you can double their strength at both the front and back of the craft. If your ship doesn’t have a shield, though, you’ll have access to a power converter that lets you change power between lasers and engines much more rapidly.
Each area has a big benefit, then, but you’ll need to choose the right time to max them out. Go full strength on your lasers and you’ll move much more slowly with far weaker shields, for example.
It’s good to see some tactical depth being layered into Squadrons rather than, say, just lifting the existing flight mechanics out of a game like Battlefront. The game is out on October 2nd with full PC VR and PSVR support on their respective platforms. You can keep up with everything we know about it right here. Let us know what you think about the Star Wars: Squadrons power management system in the comments below!
An EA Community Manager clarified today that HOTAS support on the upcoming multiplayer space combat game Star Wars: Squadrons is only confirmed for PC at the moment, and that the team has “nothing to share” regarding support on other platforms like PS4 or Xbox.
Star Wars: Squadrons is an upcoming first-person space combat game set in the Star Wars universe, featuring multiplayer game modes and a singleplayer campaign. It will be available on PC and consoles, with Valve Index, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive support on PC and PSVR support on PS4.
We also learned that alongside controller and joystick support, the game would have HOTAS (hands on throttle-and-stick) support at launch as well. However, recent comments from EA clarified that HOTAS support is currently PC-only, and that the team has no further comment on HOTAS support on console. Here’s the full comment from Reddit:
“To clarify, right now we’ve only confirmed HOTAS support on PC. We have nothing to share beyond that at this time, but I’ve raised that feedback to the team. Sorry for any confusion! We’ll keep you posted.”
For those looking to get the most immersive experience possible while playing Squadrons in VR, a HOTAS setup is definitely the way to go. However, these recent comments indicate that this will only be an on option for PC VR players. For those who planned on joining the fight in PSVR, it seems likely that you’ll be stuck using a DualShock 4 right now. Hopefully that will change before release on October 2nd, though.
Are you looking forward to Star Wars: Squadrons? What platform will you be playing on? Let us know in the comments.
We’re past the halfway mark in 2020 and we’ve already seen some great VR games release this year. But what else is coming between now and the end of the year? Let’s take a look at upcoming VR games for the rest of 2020.
Some recent announcements have elevated what was looking like a rather quiet H2 2020 to an exciting few months. We’ll be taking off in X-Wings and making Dreams come true.
At long last, Media Molecule’s fantastic creation tool is ready to add VR support. Dreams is essentially a development engine unto itself, letting players make their own games and share them online. The brief tease we’ve seen of VR support so far is hugely exciting. This will arrive as a free update to owners of the base game.
The much-anticipated Oculus Quest port of Onward is very nearly here. The ever-popular military simulation shooter makes its way to the standalone headset with all the same features including, multiplayer, single-player and cooperative modes as well as, crucially, cross-play with PC VR players. If this port is up to snuff, expect Onward on Quest to be one of the biggest upcoming VR games for 2020.
Solaris: Offworld Combat (Rift, Quest) – August (PSVR in 2020)
The makers of Firewall: Zero Hour return with a new multiplayer VR shooter that trades Rainbow Six for Unreal Tournament. Solaris offers 4 v 4 battles in which players sprint and slide across maps, picking up new weapons and finding the high ground. Given the developer’s past experience, we’re hoping for a top-quality VR shooter here.
Star Wars: Squadrons (PSVR, PC VR) – October 2nd
We’ve been lucky enough to have lived out several Star Wars dreams in VR already, but Star Wars: Squadrons seems to have struck a particular chord with the fanbase. The chance to jump into the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter in VR makes us a little weak at the knees. Fortunately, we’ll be seated for its online multiplayer battles and single-player campaign, though. This is probably the most anticipated of the upcoming VR games in 2020.
Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond (Rift) – 2020
Respawn Entertainment is one of the game’s industry’s best developers, which gives you more than enough reason to be excited for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Add in that this Oculus exclusive sees the developer return to a series it helped established as Infinity Ward, plus the promise of an expansive campaign and multiplayer support, and you have one of the most promising games of 2020.
Lone Echo 2 (Rift) – 2020
Lone Echo’s sequel has been a long time coming, but we’re hoping it finally enters orbit in the second half of this year. It’s high time we checked in on Liv and Jack after the first space odyssey’s dramatic cliffhanger and, now that Ready at Dawn is owned by Facebook itself, we wouldn’t expect this Oculus exclusive to hold back.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught (PSVR, PC VR) – 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners may have stolen hearts and minds on PC VR and PSVR platforms already, but we’re just as excited for VR veteran Survios’ take on the zombie franchise. Aimed at the TV show instead of the comics, Onslaught delivers a full campaign with iconic characters including none other than Darryl Dixon, voiced by Norman Reedus himself. Definitely keep this on your radar for upcoming VR games 2020.
Want to make your X-Wing VR experience as immersive as possible? We’ve got good news for you: you can turn off the Star Wars: Squadrons HUD (heads-up display) elements.
Developer EA Motive confirmed as much talking to IGN. The VR-compatible flight combat game will feature a ‘Hardcore Mode’ that will take some of the HUD and user interface (UI) elements away.
“When you start the story,” creative director Ian S. Frazier explained, “we ask if you want the standard experience – which we’d expect most players to take – or a hardcore mode, which gets rid of a bunch of UI that helps you localize yourself in space, and makes you rely entirely on the readouts in the cockpit. So for the folks that are newer to the genre, I’d expect them to play standard, and for the folks that have tonnes of flight experience, they might want to try that out.”
We’d imagine that plenty of VR players will also want that more immersive experience, though it might be necessary to get used to the game with those elements enabled first.
In another win for authenticity, though, Squadrons will also let you disable visible customizations for both your craft and other players’. In other words, if someone wants to decorate their X-Wing with a decal, you’ll be able to choose if you can see that, or just the regular X-Wing skin.
“Some players aren’t going to want to see any of that,” Frazier explained. “It won’t matter how plausible it is, they just want to keep it to exactly what we’ve seen in the films, no more and no less, and we totally get that. And so we have an option in the game to hide everybody else’s cosmetics. So if you flip that on, then all of a sudden, if you want to put a racing stripe or whatever on your own TIE Fighter, you’ll see it, but everybody else’s is just going to look like a normal boilerplate TIE Fighter for you.”
Again, this seems like a move that will speak to a lot of players that want the authentic Star Wars experience in VR. Squadrons is out on October 2nd with optional support for PC VR headsets on PC and PSVR on PS4. You can find out everything else we know about the game right here.
Will you be playing with the Star Wars: Squadrons HUD disabled and cosmetics off? Let us know in the comments below!
Looking to dust off your flying skills before jumping into the cockpit of an X-wing or TIE fighter? Before EA’s upcoming space combat game Star Wars: Squadrons launches on PC VR and PSVR October 2nd, you may consider popping into a few of these VR-compatible flight combat games to get a head start on the competition.
Star Wars: Squadrons will have a few modes at launch, including a single-player campaign, and both a 5v5 multiplayer dogfighting deathmatch and objective-based battle mode. That said, there’s sure to be plenty of room for novice and pro dogfighters across all game modes. Check out the gameplay trailer to learn more.
Anyway, here’s our roundup of a few great VR flight games, which span simulator and arcade subgenres. We’ve listed both PC VR and PSVR games below.
PC VR
VTOL VR
VTOL VR is the quintessential VR-native flight combat game, which includes multi-role jets and an immersive, interactive cockpit that lets you flip switches, press buttons, and manipulate the virtual flight controls with your own two hands. That’s something that probably won’t be possible in Squadrons, so you might as well enjoy it.
Free is a good price—especially for this full-featured MMO that puts you in basically any plane you can imagine, past and present. You don’t have to pay anything to jump right into a number of military-style jets and helicopters from some of the biggest battles in history. Arcadey controls for novice players, and bespoke ‘realistic mode’ designed for more experienced players.
Digital Combat Simulator World is another great free-to-play title focusing on authentic and realistic simulation of military aircraft, tanks, ground vehicles and ships. There may not be any X-wings, but there’s a bustling playerbase ready to hunt you down.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is definitely on the simulator side of things, but also approachable enough for new players. If you’re not well versed in flight combat games, you may be better off playing DCS World or War Thunder first before you throw down the cash for this one, which features detailed recreations of some Soviet/Nazi battles of WWII. Although released on Steam for PC in 2014, its VR implementation is on par with other retrofits.
Elite Dangerous is an MMO space sim that definitely has dogfighting. Will you be able to dogfight in space immediately? Not a chance. You’ll need to work for it, build out your ship, and learn the complex controls before you’re ready to cruise the universe.
EVE: Valkyrie is a space-based dogfighter that brings team-based battles to both SteamVR and PSVR platforms. It’s a multiplayer-only affair, which was its biggest stumbling block in the beginning, although its developers CCP eventually added support for traditional monitors in effort to pad out its largely empty servers.
From what we know about Squadrons so far, Valkyrie would have probably been one of the best jumping off points to get you used to team-based aerial combat. CCP has since abandoned the game about a year ago and some users have reported an inability to find matches. When you can, it’s probably one of the best training tools for Squadrons.
This single-player space dogfighter puts you in a Minos Starfighter where you lay down law at the mysterious edge of inhabited space. Complete increasingly difficult contracts for the United Trade Consortium and try to stay alive.
This arcade-style flight game isn’t a dogfighter in the slightest, although it does offer a casual entry point into the genre without being frenetic or violent. Perform tight maneuvers through rings, shoot down balloons, and make precision landings. It’s all good fun in Ultrawings.
Think of this one as a big, big step towards the first proper Star Wars VR game. EA’s Criterion Games did the legwork implementing VR into the company’s Frostbite engine, and Motive Studios took that and ran with it, creating Star Wars: Squadrons. It’s a taster, not competitive, and well worth exploring. It’s also free.
You’re not getting the full fat arcade-style combat experience here in PSVR; it’s only a VR mode that features three missions not seen in the campaign and online modes. It’s typical Ace Combat fun, but way too short to drop the $60 on its own merit.
Star Wars: Squadrons is shaping up to be the ultimate space combat fantasy for Star Wars fans and we’ve got all the details you need to know right here in one place. Everything from release date, gameplay details, game modes, supported controllers, and more are included in this guide.
What Is Star Wars: Squadrons?
Star Wars: Squadrons is an intense first-person view space-combat game set in the Star Wars universe that features both a single-player campaign and multiple multiplayer game modes. It is fully playable in VR. The vast majority of the game, other than cutscenes, takes place entirely in the cockpit of various iconic Star Wars ships.
What’s the Star Wars: Squadrons Release Date? Which platforms?
The game will release on October 2nd, 2020, for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. On PC it will support all major headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index plus PSVR support on PS4.
Will Star Wars: Squadrons Work On Oculus Quest?
No, at the time of this publication nothing has been said about Star Wars: Squadrons releasing on the Oculus Quest. However, with an existing PC VR copy of the game and a wired connection to a VR-capable PC it should work that way. Facebook declined to comment when we asked why the game is “Oculus Recommended” but every SteamVR game we’ve tried with a compatible PC and the Oculus Link USB wired connection to Quest has worked.
The Oculus Quest is an Android-powered VR system with a processing chip that’s extremely limited in what it can show by PC VR, and even PSVR, standards. So while we don’t know if Star Wars: Squadrons will ever run natively on the Quest in a completely standalone way, we expect it to work over Oculus LInk with a USB connection and probably over options like Virtual Desktop that are also likely to include some added latency.
How Can I Pre-Order Star Wars: Squadrons?
Star Wars: Squadrons will be $40 across all platforms and at this time there is no digital deluxe or collector’s edition available above that.
There are a handful of pre-order bonuses for Star Wars: Squadrons already depending on your platform. For PC, you can pre-order the game on Origin, through Steam, the Epic Games Store, or Amazon however we only know for sure that VR will be supported on the Steam version. We have not heard confirmation of VR support for the Origin or Epic versions of the game.
If you go the PC route and subscribe to EA Access and/or Origin Access Basic you can try the game for free for the first 10 hours at launch. You also get a 10% discount if you decide to buy it. And if you’re Origin Access Premiere, you can access the entire game for free.
If you decide to get the game early, here are the pre-order bonuses:
New Republic Recruit Flight Suit (Epic)
Imperial Ace Flight Suit (Epic)
New Republic Recruit Starfighter Skins (Rare)
Imperial Ace Starfighter Skins (Rare)
New Republic Recruit Decal (Common)
Imperial Ace Decal (Common)
What Are The System Requirements On PC To Play In VR?
Minimum with VR
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 3 3200G
Processor (Intel): Intel I7-7700
Memory: 16GB
Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon RX 480 or Equivalent
Graphics Card (Nvidia): GeForce GTX 1060 or Equivalent
DirectX version: 11
Multiplayer Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard Drive Space: 30GB
Recommended with VR
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 3 3200G
Processor (Intel): Intel I7-7700
Memory: 16GB
Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon RX 570 or Equivalent
Graphics Card (Nvidia): GeForce GTX 1070 or Equivalent
DirectX version: 11
Multiplayer Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard Drive Space: 30GB
Does It Have Full VR Support?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons will have complete VR support for the entirety of the game. All of the campaign, all multiplayer, and everything else is fully playable in VR on both PC VR headsets and PSVR for PS4. Even outside of VR, the game is only playable in first-person inside the cockpit.
Will There Be Cross-Play?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons has full cross-play across VR, non-VR, and all platforms. You can play multiplayer with friends on any supported platform regardless of whether they’re in VR or not.
What Advantages Do You Get In VR?
We haven’t played the game for ourselves yet, but based on footage, interviews, and past experience with VR cockpit games, there is certainly the possibility that skilled VR players will have an advantage over non-VR players.
For example, looking around in the cockpit, being able to lean, and look in a direction that your ship isn’t facing to track targets and be more aware of your surroundings could be crucial. Some ships will have more open cockpits than others, such as an X-Wing vs. a TIE Fighter, granting more visibility by by design.
Can You Disable The In-Game HUD And Just Use Your Cockpit Only?
Yes, according to Ian Frazier in an interview with GameSpot you can use only the instruments and information in the physical cockpit itself if you want. All of the same information is naturally integrated there and displays accurately in real-time.
What About Motion Controllers?
As far as we have seen there will not be any motion controller support. As of now the options are either gamepad, keyboard/mouse, or HOTAS for PC; for PSVR, it will support DualShock 4 and HOTAS, but HOTAS support requires downloading the Day One patch.
Is The Cockpit Interactive?
No, from what we’ve gathered you will not be able to interact with the cockpit directly.
Will It Have Flight Stick Or HOTAS Support?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons will have flight stick and HOTAS support on PC VR and PSVR. More details on specifically supported sticks will become available closer to launch.
Which Trilogy / Era Is It Set During? Which Locations?
Star Wars: Squadrons is set immediately after the end of the original trilogy, just after the second Death Star was destroyed and the Battle for Endor is over. This puts it before the sequel trilogy. Ship designs and cockpit aesthetics are themed after the classic, original designs from the original trilogy of films.
Yavin Prime, the base planet near the rebellion base on Yavin 4, a gas-giant planet that hosts a large Republic presence.
Esseles, Imperial planet with an icy ring that’s home to a listening post the Empire uses to spy on the Republic.
Nadiri Dockyards, a starship manufacturing facility the Republic defends at all costs from Empire attacks.
Sissubo, this planet is surrounded by the destroyed remnants of salvaged Imperial ships, parts of Project Starhawk, and is very risky to fly through from all the debris.
Galitan, a remote moon that was pulled apart into molten fragments floating throughout open space.
Zavian Abyss, hazardous space region filled with electrically-charged asteroids from a surrounding maelstrom.
What’s The Single-Player Campaign About?
Details are very scarce on the campaign in Star Wars: Squadrons, but we do know that it’s fully playable in VR. So far it looks like the story may center on the Republic’s development of Project Starhawk and the Empire trying to disrupt plans. You’ll play as both the Empire and the Republic during the campaign.
What Are The Multiplayer Modes in Star Wars: Squadrons?
So far EA have discussed two multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Fleet Battle. In Dogfight you’ll engage in 5v5 battles with respawns in space in your chosen starship trying to win for either the Empire or Republic. Basically Team Deathmatch. Fleet Battles will be the bigger, longer, and more involved game mode, hopefully similar to Capital Supremacy or Galactic Conquest from Battlefront 2. There will be a dogfight at the start, then the battles shifts to a more objective-oriented approach depending on which map you’re on.
Can Game Modes Be Played Solo Or In Co-Op?
Yes! All modes can be played solo with bots, co-op against bots, and even offline locally. It’s unclear if you can do one person in PSVR and the others outside of PSVR on PS4, but we assume not. Playing offline doesn’t yield the same level of rewards, but you do still get something for your effort.
Can You Play As The Empire And Republic?
Yes! Both sides are available in multiplayer and both sides are represented in the single-player campaign. The campaign switches between perspectives.
Which Republic Ships Are In Star Wars: Squadrons?
There are four Republic ships to choose from: X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, and U-Wing. Specific details on each are as follows:
X-Wing, the most balanced between firepower and defense and is the go-to “fighter” ship of the Republic. You can think of this as being similar to a base “assault” class in an FPS.
A-Wing, this is an “interceptor” class ships which are faster and more maneuverable than fighters.
U-Wing, this is the support class ship for the Republic, it can provide supplies and repairs to allies and also disrupt enemy systems to make them easier targets.
Y-Wing, these are the “bomber” ships for use against large enemy vessels in Fleet Assault.
Which Empire Ships Are In Star Wars: Squadrons?
There are four Empire ships to choose from: TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Reaper, and TIE Bomber. Specific details on each are as follows:
TIE Fighter, similar to an X-Wing, but a bit faster and no shields.
TIE Interceptor, similar to an A-Wing with even more speed and maneuverability.
TIE Reaper, this is usually used to transport troops but will take on the support role here.
TIE Bomber, similar to the Y-Wing for functionality.
How Does Power Management Work?
Star Wars: Squadrons’ power management system essentially sees players divert resources to one of three main areas: engines, lasers and shields. While it’s possible to have all three balanced out, top tier players will want to get a grip of this customization to secure the advantage in battle. More details on that here.
What About Ship Cosmetic Customization?
As you progress through the game in the campaign and in multiplayer you rank up and earn two different types of currency that can be used to make cosmetic changes like paint and interior decorations. Full details on cosmetic options aren’t available yet.
The way you truly differentiate yourself in Star Wars: Squadrons from other ships in the same class as yours is by customizing the weapons. The currency you earn can also be used to change or upgrade your loadout with over 50 different components including alterations to flight speed, handling, and defensive stats. There are also different types of weapons as well.
What About Microtransactions Or Loot Boxes?
EA has confirmed that there will not be any microtransactions at all in Star Wars: Squadrons. You cannot spend real money on anything — once you buy the game you own it all and have to unlock everything through in-game progression. They’re not looking Squadrons as a “living game” and aren’t planning on a battle pass system.
Yesterday during the EA Play showcase, the publisher debuted the first-ever gameplay for Star Wars: Squadrons, an upcoming space flight combat game coming to both PSVR and PC VR headsets (including cross-play). During an interview with Polygon, the creative director, Ian Frazier, explained this was the plan from the very start.
A lot of people were surprised to find out Star Wars: Squadrons has full VR support, myself included. Given EA’s relative silence on VR as a medium ever since the excellent X-Wing VR Mission released as an update to 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront, they haven’t shown much interest.
In the interview though, Frazier makes it clear that this game was designed with VR in mind from the very beginning of development. This is not a “VR port” or anything like that — it’s an intrinsic part of the game and was obvious from the beginning.
“We started the game, and we had the initial prototype up and running very quickly,” Frazier said. “Much faster than normal. We were very pleased with that. We got it running in a week. And we had it running in VR by the end of the second week. So this game is like, really, really, really, from the ground up, both 2D and VR.
“And why? I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head there. From a business standpoint, talking about how do we “optimize the amount of money this game is gonna make,” VR doesn’t make sense. It’s a much smaller audience than the broader market. But why are we doing it? It’s because we think it’s cool.”
Anyone that has followed VR for any period of time knows how important this is to making a good, immersive VR game. As great as games like Skyrim VR and Borderlands 2 VR can be, that’s mostly due to them already being great games we wanted to play in VR, not because they’re actually designed well for VR headsets.
In a lot of ways, cockpit games sidestep many issues by their very nature. Elite: Dangerous launched before VR headsets were consumer-grade but it’s still one of the best VR games out there because it’s just a natural fit.
“Not to give the super obvious answer, but we started this project and we went, ‘You’re seated in a cockpit,'” said Frazier. “‘You have a fixed reference frame. You’re immersed within this role as a pilot on both sides, both factions.’ It’s a game that naturally fits in VR. You don’t need to port it to VR. This is a game that is capable of being — not every design is capable of this — but this design was capable of supporting both kind of intrinsically from the outset. And who doesn’t want that?
I know not everybody has VR, and that’s fine, but if you do or if you’re even considering it, we thought this is an amazing opportunity to let players do something that like… I don’t know about you, but playing the the Rogue One VR mission in the first Star Wars Battlefrontis frigging amazing. And you see that and you’re like, “Can I just have a lot more of this?” And we thought, ‘Well, yes. Yes. You can. We’ll build that.’ And so that’s very much what we’ve been doing with Squadrons.”
Star Wars: Squadrons is slated for release on October 2nd for $39.99 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC with VR support on PSVR and all major PC VR headsets as well as support for HOTAS controllers. The entire game is playable in VR, including the campaign and all multiplayer modes, including cross-play across VR and non-VR and cross-play across platforms.
Star Wars: Squadrons is coming to PC, consoles, and VR headsets on October 2nd. And while we got our first look at gameplay of the upcoming dogfighter in a special premier last night, it’s still not entirely clear what’s at stake for VR players.
The game’s creative director Ian Frazier sat down with Gamespotin a video chat where he touched upon subjects like the game’s progression system, the choice to nix microtransactions, and what sort of difficulty levels there will be across both the single and multiplayer modes. Because the game can be played entirely in VR though, Frazier dedicated some time to talking about the game’s VR implementation.
“I personally prefer VR because of the immersion factor, but playing in VR is more like being a real pilot, and being a real pilot is hard,” Frazier told Gamespot.
Image courtesy Motive
Frazier explained that some of the game’s ships—notably the very open X-wing and the comparatively closed TIE Fighter—create some natural bottlenecks for players. The X-wing offers a much more open canopy, which in turn gives the player more things to focus on, and viceversa.
“Being aware of all your instrumentation, physical space—it’s very challenging for many players, so we found that 2D, and/or being in an Imperial ship, [those things] kind of counterbalance what you’re losing and what you’re gaining in terms of focus,” Frazier continued.
Image courtesy Motive
Still, it’s clear VR players will have some material advantage over players on traditional monitors. The deadly combination of a VR headset and HOTAS setup in capable hands may be a boon for players with the stomach for twisty-turny action, best exemplified by what Frazier calls ‘drifting’, or using the ship’s airbrake to make a tight, sudden maneuver.
The lack of VR motion controllers would be a blow to in-cockpit immersion though, however Frazier says that players will be able to turn off HUD elements and rely on the ship’s interior instrumentation—a VR-native design choice if there ever was one.
While we’re still waiting to see the VR mode action from inside a headset, it’s heartening to hear that VR seems to have always been a part of the game plan with Squadrons.
EA’s Montreal-based Motive Studio says they specifically took learnings from Starfighter Assault and the Rogue One: VR Mission at the beginning of the game’s development. Frazier calls his team’s work like “standing on the shoulders of giants,” as Criterion were the first to implement VR in EA’s Frosbite engine with Rogue One: VR Mission.
“If [Criterion] hadn’t done that, this would have been a whole lot harder for us to build. The whole ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ thing, it’s very much a big part of the outstanding work that team did to make this game possible.”
Star Wars: Squadrons is slated to launch on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 2nd, priced at $40. You can check out the gameplay trailer below.
This week has been dominated by EA’s Star Wars: Squadrons news, from the fact that it’ll be cross-platform to the entire experience being VR compatible there’s plenty to look forward to. To whet that appetite even further a gameplay trailer has been released detailing plenty about the title.
While the first reveal trailer at the beginning of the week certainly set the scene it was purely cinematic footage, very flashy but without showcasing what the player would see. Now you get to see inside some of the spaceships you’ll be flying this October and all the intricate components and displays vital for a successful mission.
The trailer first discusses the single-player portion of Star Wars: Squadrons, how you’ll step into the shoes of both New Republic and Imperial pilots, with it’s story set after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. This isn’t the core experience however, that’s left for the multiplayer portion.
Offering team-based 5v5 battles, there are four ships classes to chose from: Fighter, Interceptor, Support and Bomber, each having unique attributes for particular missions. There will be a Dogfight Mode for those who love to test their skills in the fastest craft, while Battle Fleet is a three stage mode where players have to defend or attack. Ending with either destroying or saving the giant carriers.
Also detailed were the customisation options which players can unlock as they progress. These range from aesthetical changes like changing your ship’s colour or your character’s race to improving the core components of the ship; adding new missiles, a different deflector shield and much more.
Let’s also mention how good Star Wars: Squadrons looks, whether that’s against a carrier in space or dogfighting in the clouds of a gas giant. The action looks intense and exactly what you’d hope for from this type of videogame.
Star Wars: Squadrons will feature support and cross-platform gameplay between PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while on the VR side PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, Valve Index and HTC Vive headsets are included. The videogame has a launch date of 2nd October 2020 with pre-orders already available. For further updates on Star Wars: Squadrons, keep reading VRFocus.
EA just gave us our first look at gameplay of Star Wars: Squadrons, along with plenty of new details about its single and multiplayer modes.
The Squadrons debut on the EA Play today (seen below) gave us plenty of new information about the space dogfighting game. The single-player campaign, for example, sees players take on the roles of both Rebel and Imperial pilots. Different ships represent different classes. The Interceptor Class, for example, is represented by the A-Wing on the Rebels’ side, and the TIE Interceptor on the Imperial side.
Moving on to Squadrons’ staple feature, the multiplayer offerings, we saw two modes detailed. Dogfight Mode, for example, sees you going head-to-head with enemy ships in 5 vs 5 battles. Players can select their own loadouts, featuring items like Tractor Beams and more.
Squadrons’ biggest mode, though, is Fleet Battle. Again, five players on each side take part in bigger battles that roll out in stages. Each match starts with a dogfight before players lead an assault on different capital ships. It reminds us of the main modes in EA’s Battlefield series (or, to a lesser extent, the new Star Wars: Battlefront games).
Plus you’ll be able to customize your pilot and kit out your cockpit with cosmetic items.
As confirmed earlier this week, all of Star Wars: Squadrons will be playable on PSVR and PC VR headsets. EA says the game is ‘Oculus recommended‘ on PC, though. The game’s out on October 2nd and, like you, we’re very much looking forward to it. It’s actually not the only new Star Wars VR game headed our way this year, though.
