STAR WARS: Squadrons

If u don't mind spending 3$ on a strictly solo experience then its worth it on sale. But expect to no play the multiplayer at all. Its beyond the grave. Worth it on sale for the fantasy of flying a tie fighter.

It is a miracle to me that this game even exists. I spent countless weekends using an old joystick and running low poly dogfights in Balance of Power, X-Wing, Tie Fighter and X-Wing Alliance (note: either number or vary your sequels enough so that it seems like new iterations are coming out instead of changing just one word). The fact that EA would take the risk to go back into mission based sim dogfighting, a long since dead genre, is a triumph by itself.
I don’t know about current technical issues, and I hope those get corrected for those who purchase it in the future.
However I do know about what it was like pulling a zero-g on a dime u turn in a Tie Interceptor, dodging rockets and locking all weapons on a pursuing X-Wing to finally crack shields and bring him down. The trailers for this game are insanely accurate for the gameplay experience if you have the skill to crack it.
Toning down some of the more esoteric sim aspects so all actions can fit on a controller is appreciated as I get older. Gone are the days of finding desk space for a joystick and keyboard, memorizing 30ish keyboard shortcuts just to remember how to lock on, cycle targets, reroute power to weapons and match target speed.
Narrative is largely forgettable, walking menus are nostalgic but ultimately too slow contrast to gameplay. However it’s those gameplay moments and player actions that stick with me. Piloting a wide variety of crafts and varied enough missions that I never feel bored when I’m in the black.
Double check with discussion boards before purchasing, but I wholeheartedly think this is worthy of anyone’s time if it’s still in operation. Happy hunting.

Somehow, EA made a decent star wars game...
Ok, lets get the important bits first:
This is NOT a modern "TIE Fighter". It doesn't has NEARLY the same amount of subtlety, charm, attention to detail, complexity in controls or conversation flows. You will specially realize as you read the dialogues NPC have with you (which are one sided since you dont ever reply back, you just hear them monologue and talk to a wall, thanks to having you create and customize your own character, which you barely even see, name, which you barely even read, and voice, which you barely even hear. Really wish the game just used a pre-made character and had more interactions with the NPC instead) and the over reliance on alien characters that is trying to appeal to a more disney star wars fanbase rather than the original ones, as if the fact that the game takes place after episode 6 is not enough indication. The game is linear and you cant pick to fly for the empire or the rebels for the entirety of the game. The game switches you constantly between teams, to which there's only 1 ending that you end up in.
This is more of a first person Star Wars Rogue Squadron in terms of design and complexity. If you are ok with that, you can enjoy the game with ease.
The game runs INCREDIBLY WELL for how it looks, and while i dont think hundreds of people bitching about the EA Origin (Or whatever it is called now) store DRM service, the game doesn't force it anymore to play, so no need to worry about installing another storefront, which is something Ubisoft could learn...

I'd like to preface this by saying that I've only played the single player, I've only played in VR, and only played with a flight stick.
This is what I've wanted to experience ever since I was a little kid, playing Rogue Squadron on my friend's pc growing up. Just being able to experience Star Wars in VR, a full game and not just a little experience like the Oculus Vader game, is just incredible. Looking around the cockpit, changing power distribution, getting shot down because if I was actually flying an x-wing I'd almost certainly end up like Porkins.
There are legit complaints, but if you get this game on sale and have a flight stick, it's worth it. If you have a VR headset as well, absolutely get it.
Obviously this is my subjective opinion, but I've had fun with it. Just don't take it too seriously and you will too, I'm sure.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Pros:
I had a lot of fun with it playing though the story since we haven't really had something like a dedicated Star-wars flight sim in a long while. While its basically the flying from Battlefront 2 with a few extra bells and whistles its far from terrible and is visually pretty good, particularly when playing in first person.
Cons:
Its basically abandoned now, last update of any kind was several years ago and as far as I know the multiplayer is basically dead. Which is a pity because both the B-wing and Tie-defender that they added later are ONLY in the multiplayer, making them useless unless you want to play multiplayer against bots which grows stale quickly.
Overall opinion: Not absolute trash but at the point where your best off buying it cheap in a sale, playing though the story and then never really touching it again. Not a bad game and enjoyable while it lasts but lacks any staying power once you finish the story and get tried of stomping bots.

Wait for this to be on sale.
Don't pay the full price the online part is nil as nobody is playing.
So it's hard to find matches.

That being said this is a 8/10 good story line but linear at times with a little bit of replay value.