Star Wars Squadrons - The Modern Day X-Wing vs TIE Fighter

Got this for £20 yesterday.

Played a few hours and it's fairly enjoyable if a bit unremarkable. I wish the mission briefing stuff was text based because I cannae be arsed with sitting through this pointless crappy dialogue. Shooting mechanics are fun enough though it feels a little sterile. I think I'd enjoy it more if I felt more engaged, more to do with my mood than the quality of the game perhaps. When it comes to customizing your ship before a mission I just can't be strawberry floated and go default. Will plough on and hopefully I don't bounce off it so much. Would be good to get an opportunity to do the VR stuff as I hear it's cracking.

The campaign is average but it really excels in MP.

Motor though the single player and jump in a few games

Getting a bit worried about losing my rank if I have a run of bad games so I've been playing co-op vs AI quite a bit.

I have an X-Wing and TIE Fighter dedicated to ion weaponry (plus the stealth hull) so I can help to quickly knock out cruiser shields. I might try and conjure up some ion-based interceptors too, but they would get shot out of the sky far too easy.

The instant full speed boost + piercing torpedo/proton bomb combo is pretty great for getting slow bomber craft quickly to their targets and doing high damage when you get there. If speed isn't a big deal, just a straight ion & proton bomb combo craft can do crazy damage.

The TIE Defender works best if you can put together a high maneuverability load-out. It feels best used as a heavy Fighter. I've no idea how to use the APS unique component properly yet.

The B-Wing is most effective as an anti-capital ship bomber. I don't think there's any way to make it comfortable to pilot though, it maneuvers like a goddamn vertical boat. The body rotation ability is cool but distracting, and ultimately has no real use. Perhaps to provide a semblance of a moving target for capital ships if you're on a straight line trajectory toward them? But even then you're a much bigger target to craft to either side of you.

The auto-targeting laser cannons are all bullshit. Avoid.

Just got this via the epic shop for £10.99 thanks to a promo coupon

Can't wait to give the VR mode a spin (which i hear is a neat trick)

The VR made me feel unwell for a while after getting it, but now it feels pretty natural to me. I don't know how I played without it.

Is the campaign worth a go on this, without VR?

Tomous wrote:Is the campaign worth a go on this, without VR?

It’s alright. Not fantastic. I don’t know how they made it boring. But flying an X-wing / tie fighter and shooting the others (and star destroyers) is very cool, but somehow wears off really quickly.

I lost impetus with the campaign to be honest but I do want to finish it at some point. My main issue with it is the menus. Having to look around and trigger conversations to get briefings etc is such a pain. I know it's supposed to be more immersive but just give me the bloody info and a couple of buttons please.

Haven't done any VR missions yet. I managed to get it running the scrapyard training mission in VR on a 1050 Ti but I'm not sure how well it will hold up with more than one ship on the screen!

Bertie wrote:

Tomous wrote:Is the campaign worth a go on this, without VR?

It’s alright. Not fantastic. I don’t know how they made it boring. But flying an X-wing / tie fighter and shooting the others (and star destroyers) is very cool, but somehow wears off really quickly.

There's only so much you can do in a starfighter, and it all involves exploding enemies, directly or indirectly. To their credit, the devs did a lot to inject variety into the proceedings, both in the campaign and the multiplayer, and created the best Star Wars starfighter combat game since Rogue Squadron, but it's always going to be a bit of a limited experience.

I hope for a Battlefront-scale sequel that takes full advantage of all the classic Star Wars film battles, and ones from the TV series' as well. There are many more fighters to fly, worlds to fight over, and even a few more ways to fight.

It would be cool to bring in two-person fighters, let players command turbolaser batteries, or have players temporarily controlling Corvette-size ships.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

Bertie wrote:

Tomous wrote:Is the campaign worth a go on this, without VR?

It’s alright. Not fantastic. I don’t know how they made it boring. But flying an X-wing / tie fighter and shooting the others (and star destroyers) is very cool, but somehow wears off really quickly.

There's only so much you can do in a starfighter, and it all involves exploding enemies, directly or indirectly. To their credit, the devs did a lot to inject variety into the proceedings, both in the campaign and the multiplayer, and created the best Star Wars starfighter combat game since Rogue Squadron, but it's always going to be a bit of a limited experience.

I hope for a Battlefront-scale sequel that takes full advantage of all the classic Star Wars film battles, and ones from the TV series' as well. There are many more fighters to fly, worlds to fight over, and even a few more ways to fight.

It would be cool to bring in two-person fighters, let players command turbolaser batteries, or have players temporarily controlling Corvette-size ships.

I partly agree. They could do more land based missions (they are none). By throwing in some bombing objectives (e.g. hoth, or that scene from force awakens over the water). If they do those, you can have an insta kill from ground contact. Maybe you can chase through the canyons and use a bit more skill.

These missions are very samey, and all in space.

Bertie wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:

Bertie wrote:

Tomous wrote:Is the campaign worth a go on this, without VR?

It’s alright. Not fantastic. I don’t know how they made it boring. But flying an X-wing / tie fighter and shooting the others (and star destroyers) is very cool, but somehow wears off really quickly.

There's only so much you can do in a starfighter, and it all involves exploding enemies, directly or indirectly. To their credit, the devs did a lot to inject variety into the proceedings, both in the campaign and the multiplayer, and created the best Star Wars starfighter combat game since Rogue Squadron, but it's always going to be a bit of a limited experience.

I hope for a Battlefront-scale sequel that takes full advantage of all the classic Star Wars film battles, and ones from the TV series' as well. There are many more fighters to fly, worlds to fight over, and even a few more ways to fight.

It would be cool to bring in two-person fighters, let players command turbolaser batteries, or have players temporarily controlling Corvette-size ships.

I partly agree. They could do more land based missions (they are none). By throwing in some bombing objectives (e.g. hoth, or that scene from force awakens over the water). If they do those, you can have an insta kill from ground contact. Maybe you can chase through the canyons and use a bit more skill.

These missions are very samey, and all in space.

You're right, the environmental variety isn't great. It would be cool, for example, if you could go on a bombing mission to a world like Eadu, the stormy mountainous planet from Rogue One, having to navigate low through the mountains and gorges. Rogue Squadron had missions like that and they were good fun. They could do more with gas giants like Yavin - flying in a radiation-hardened ship into a huge maelstrom, that tosses your ship about, to take out a secret Imperial thingy, or set up a secret Rebel whatsit. Would've been cool to fly through some towering cityscapes as well. Cato Neimoidia - the world with huge bridge cities from RotS - would be a spectacular site to fight over. Or Mygeeto, with its dense snowstorms and sprawling cityscape.

Another fun thing could be to play as another player's onboard droid, going through minigames and such as you go in order to keep the main player going, boost their ship and all that.

Ground assault missions could also see one side have the option to man ground-side defenses, as well.

Has anyone had issues with getting this to work on a Rift via Steam? The video just doesn't play on the headset.

Super Dragon 64 wrote:Has anyone had issues with getting this to work on a Rift via Steam? The video just doesn't play on the headset.

Occam's razor answer: have you toggled VR on in the in game settings? I'm on a Quest 2 using the EGS/Origin version and that's what I have to do every time the game loads apparently.

I had thought that I tired that but, after restarting the PC, doing just that worked. It really is incredible in VR but definitely one for short bursts!