STAR WARS: Squadrons
This really makes you feel like a pilot in Star Wars. The sound design and the flying mechanics are brilliant. It feels so good flying around; especially in VR which is very immersive and works really well on a Valve Index. The single player experience is solid and a good way to learn how to play the game, but it's really about the multiplayer. At time of release, the multiplayer was severely hindered by bugs and poor matchmaking, but they've been working hard on it since then and it's now in a really good place.
Pros
- Flying is great fun
- The sound design is great. The TIE fighter noise is so iconic, and being able to fly one is exhilarating
- You can play as both sides
- Power management system for transferring power between shields, weapons and engines
- You can control the direction of shields
- Good maps
- VR mode works well, although it still requires a controller, doesn't work with Index Knuckles
Cons
- When you're in hangars between missions, there are NPCs walking around and you're instructed to "Go to the briefing room" but you're stuck to the floor and can't move (it's not a bug). You can only look at things that are far away and click on them
- Text is fuzzy on 1440p
- It's a shame that VR requires a normal controller instead of using the Knuckle controllers but at least it works
- Mouse control scheme has that drag mode instead of directly moving the ship
- If you crash into something you should blow up, not bounce off
- Unlike games like Overwatch, where you can hide behind things to avoid fire, there's not much you can do when you're getting shot at here. If someone's decided to chase you, you're going to die.
- Again comparing to Overwatch, it's difficult to tell what you did wrong when you can be killed instantly by someone you can't see
- The matchmaking is awful. We lost 95% of dogfight matches about 30:10, and the 2 matches we won were 30:3