Released three years after Wing Commander, the first Star Wars: X-Wing game may not have been the first space flight sim, but it was certainly a pioneer of the genre. Similarly, the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series was far from the first arcade-y dogfighter, but its cinematic and technical qualities were unmatched at the time. Naturally, then, there was a lot of excitement when EA announced a sort of spiritual successor back in 2020: Star Wars: Squadrons.
Developed by EA Motive, Star Wars: Squadrons received favorable reviews across the board from critics, with many praising the game’s core flight mechanics and its authentic atmosphere. However, a common complaint of Star Wars: Squadrons was the amount of content in the game at launch. Though Squadrons‘ initial sales were solid, players quickly started to drop off, and now 5 years later, Star Wars: Squadrons has been largely forgotten about. But there’s still a lot of potential in another Star Wars-themed flight sim, it would just need to do things a little differently.
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A Star Wars: Squadrons Follow-Up Could Work Under The Right Circumstances
A Star Wars: Squadrons Successor Would Need to be More Consistent With Post-Launch Content
Star Wars: Squadrons was not marketed as a fully-fledged, full-length AAA experience, nor was it priced as one. That being said, $40 is still a decent amount to pay, and Star Wars: Squadrons‘ short single-player campaign and two multiplayer modes left many fans wanting more.
The content that was there was enjoyable, but Star Wars: Squadrons‘ lackluster progression systems and severe lack of modes didn’t do much to incentivize players to keep coming back. There was an attempt to encourage players to return to Squadrons about a month after launch with the release of the free B-Wing and TIE Defender updates, but subsequent updates didn’t really add any new content to the game, and players soon started to look elsewhere for their space sim kicks.
Fans can’t know for sure, but if Star Wars: Squadrons continued to receive substantial content after launch, it may have lived a lot longer, and it’s something that a potential Squadrons follow-up would need to at least try. New modes, new ships, new story content, and new unlockables are all something that could have kept fans invested in Star Wars: Squadrons.
A Star Wars: Squadrons Successor Could Do Better If It Was Attached to Other Star Wars Projects
But probably the easiest way to make a Star Wars: Squadrons follow-up succeed is by attaching it to a pre-established piece of the Star Wars universe. For example, Squadrons featured a cameo from Star Wars: Rebels‘ Hera Syndulla, and a Squadrons successor could lean all the way into that and be a Rebels-focused video game where players pilot the Ghost or fly an X-Wing alongside the rest of Phoenix Squadron.
Alternatively, a Star Wars: Squadrons follow-up could take players on a greatest hits tour of the Skywalker Saga, letting players pilot Jedi starfighters in the Clone Wars, Rebel A-Wings in the battle of the second Death Star, and Poe’s New Republic X-Wing in the attack against Starkiller Base. Though standalone Star Wars video game stories can be great, a space flight sim would benefit from being attached directly to key characters and moments from the franchise that wider audiences are aware of.
- Released
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October 2, 2020
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
- Publisher(s)
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Electronic Arts