Welcome to the Oasis, my name's Mike and today
I am beyond hyped to be talking about a brand
new Star Wars game that supports virtual reality
that will be coming out later this year for
PCVR and PSVR headsets and that is Star Wars
Squadrons.
Rumours of a new Star Wars game from EA have
been circling the internet for a few months
now, ever since a Playstation store listing
appeared for a unannounced project, titled
Star Wars Maverick.
Along with the listing was some artwork showing
a lone Star Destroyer baring down on a small
squadron of X-Wing fighters.
The artwork along with the codename 'Maverick'
giving a nod to the classic movie 'Top Gun'
suggested that this was going to be an aerial
combat game where you could pilot iconic star
ships from the Star Wars universe.
Then, running up to last weekend the EA Star
Wars Twitter account announced the official
title of the game as Star Wars Squadrons,
they also posted some awesome artwork and
stated there would be an official trailer
reveal on Monday 15th June.
Now at this point, I was interested in the
game as I love the Star Wars movies and I
was a fan of Rogue Squadron which was a Star
Wars aerial combat game back on the N64.
But then my interest went to full on excitement
when a fellow named Jeff Grubb who works for
Venturebeat tweeted that Squadrons will have
full VR support.
Now after getting excited and very disappointment
due to the Playstation 5 console reveal having
no mention of VR at all, I was trying to keep
my expectations in check.
Roll on Monday and the trailer dropped for
the Squadrons however it didn't suggest that
it would be supporting VR anywhere in the
trailer.
I quickly had a root around the official website
and low behold it stated;
Immerse yourself in the pilot’s seat completely
with the option to play the entirety of Star
Wars™: Squadrons in virtual reality (VR)
on PlayStation®4 and PC with cross-play support.
Hell yeah now I've gone from being excited
to full on hype mode and the reason I'm so
excited is that we had a taste of what this
would be like almost 4 years ago when EA packed
a VR X-Wing mission into the original Star
Wars Battlefront game on PS4.
This was exclusively available for the Plasystation
VR and it was the first time we could experience
what it was like to pilot an X-Wing in virtual
reality, and the short 20 minute experience
is totally awesome and I'll include a full
play through of that mission at the end of
this video if you want to check it out.
But for now let's get into the details of
Star Wars Squadrons and what we know about
the game so far.
The game will feature a full single player
story campaign set after the events of Return
Of The Jedi seen from alternating perspectives
of both the new republic and the empire battling
for the galaxy.
I really like this idea of seeing this story
pan out from both sides of the fight and being
able to get into cockpits of fighters from
both the Empires Titan Squadron and the New
Republics Vangaurd Squadron.
Now, the single player story sounds great
but what will keep players coming back for
more is of course the online multiplayer.
The multiplayer will feature 5 v 5 strategic
space battles between New Republic and imperial
fleets which will be VR cross platform play
between both PC and Playstation players.
Teams will be able to plan skirmishes together
in a briefing room prior to heading out to
never-before-seen battlefields, including
the gas giant of Yavin Prime and the shattered
moon of Galitan.
You'll also be able to modify your starfighter
and adjust the composition of your squadron
to suit varying playstyles.
Pilots will have to work as a team and complete
tactical objectives suggesting that there
will be strategic elements to the gameplay
and that players must choose a balanced squadron
of different ships to take on various objectives.
You'll be able to take full control of different
starfighter classes including classics such
as X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, U-Wings, Tie
Fighters, Tie Interceptors, Tie Bombers and
Tie Reaper Fighters.
And on top of the intense dogfights you'll
also need to manage the power between weapons,
shields, and your engine on the fly to get
the most out of your starfighter.
The multiplayer will provide a progression
system where you can climb the ranks and unlock
new components like weapons, hulls, engines,
shields, and cosmetic items to keep the gameplay
fresh and engaging.
From the Steam listing it suggests that the
game will use gamepads along with keyboard
and mouse inputs over full VR motion controllers.
So we have just over 3 months to wait as the
game will be releasing on the 2nd of October
on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, although Xbox won't
be getting VR support. The game won't be releasing
on Quest as I know this will be asked in the
comments but you will be able to use the Quest
to play this game when connected to a PC using
Oculus Link.
Now, I love that we're getting more Star Wars
in virtual reality. The Star Wars Vader Immortal
series was pretty decent allowing us to wield
light sabers in VR and Star Wars Secrets Of
The Empire from the void was a VR experience
that allowed us to team up with friends to
go undercover as storm troopers which is still
my favourite Star Wars VR experience so far.
We also have another VR Star Wars game from
ILMxLab coming soon called Tales From The
Galaxys Edge which links to the theme park
experience at Disneyland, I look forward to
hearing more information about that game which
I would imagine will be coming around Oculus
Connect.
I know a lot of people are concerned EA are
involved in Squadrons but they've moved away
from forced platforms recently with their
library of games now available on Steam and
seemed to have dropped the loot boxes and
micro transactions.
They also recently proved themselves with
the like Jedi Fallen Order which personally
I really enjoyed so I'm feeling hopeful for
Squadrons being a solid VR title.
Of course, what we really want to see is some
gameplay but thankfully we won't be waiting
too long as EA have a full gameplay reveal
coming on the 18th of June at 4pm PDT. As
soon as the event is live, I'll post a link
in the description and pin a comment.
In the meantime let me show you a play through
of the X-Wing VR Mission from Battlefront
to give you a taste of what to expect from
Star War Squadrons in Virtual Reality.
Let me know if you're as excited as me for
Star Wars Squadrons in the comments below
and without further ado, let's dive in...
