Star Wars Squadrons

Star Wars: Squadrons on PC is a first-person space combat game built around cockpit flying, tactical dogfights, and coordinated fleet assaults. The official storefront identity remains STAR WARS: Squadrons; no verified rebrand, replacement edition, or renamed PC version currently supersedes it. Developed by Motive and published by Electronic Arts, it combines a self-contained story campaign with competitive and cooperative online modes.

The important distinction is focus. This is not an open-world space RPG or a broad trading simulator. It is a mission-and-match-based starfighter game where mastering your craft, reading the battlefield, and supporting your squadron matter more than galaxy-wide exploration.

Cockpit Combat And Power Management

Every mission is played from a first-person cockpit perspective. You fly recognizable New Republic and Imperial starfighters while managing pitch, yaw, roll, throttle, targeting, weapons, shields, engines, and countermeasures. The interface places much of that information inside the cockpit, so awareness comes from instruments, warning tones, visual cues, and communication rather than an external camera.

The defining mechanic is tactical power management. Power can be routed between engines, weapons, and shields, allowing you to accelerate, recharge defenses, or improve offensive pressure according to the situation. Good pilots do not simply hold the trigger; they anticipate the next exchange and convert power at the right moment.

Boosting creates additional movement options, while drifting lets a pilot change direction during a boost and keep a target in sight. Shielded New Republic craft can focus protection forward or backward, whereas Imperial starfighters rely on different defensive and energy-management considerations. That asymmetry gives both factions a distinct handling identity instead of making their ships interchangeable skins.

Loadouts add another layer of decision-making. Components can alter weapons, hulls, engines, shields, and auxiliary systems, creating tradeoffs between speed, durability, firepower, lock-on behavior, and utility. The strongest setup depends on the objective and your role, not on a universal upgrade path.

Story Campaign And Practice Tools

The single-player story alternates between the New Republic's Vanguard Squadron and the Empire's Titan Squadron. It presents both sides of the conflict and functions as an introduction to the game's ship classes, controls, objectives, and combat vocabulary.

Story missions move through authored scenarios involving escorts, attacks, defenses, capital ships, and other military objectives. The campaign is best understood as a focused narrative route and training ground rather than a branching role-playing adventure with open-ended exploration.

Difficulty settings allow players to choose a gentler introduction or a more demanding test of flight and combat skills. Practice-oriented activities are useful for learning energy routing, drift timing, target selection, and the differences between fighters, interceptors, bombers, and support ships before entering competitive matches.

Players seeking a larger single-player space adventure should note the structural difference from roguelike space shooters such as Everspace. Squadrons is about deliberate starfighter sorties and team objectives, not procedural sectors, persistent exploration, or repeated runs with long-term ship progression.

Dogfights And Fleet Battles

Dogfight is the direct multiplayer option: two teams clash in first-person starfighter combat, with pilots combining target priority, positioning, power control, and support abilities to defeat the opposing squadron.

Fleet Battles is the deeper competitive mode. Two teams work through a multi-stage objective battle involving smaller vessels and a flagship. The front line shifts according to team performance, so a successful attack can create an opening while a failed push can force your squadron back into defense.

Fleet Battles rewards more than individual eliminations. Pilots must coordinate attacks on subsystems, protect allies, manage morale and momentum, and decide when to disengage. Bombers, support ships, fighters, and interceptors contribute in different ways, making composition and communication important even when one pilot is mechanically stronger than the rest.

The game also supports Fleet Battles against AI, including cooperative play with other players. That gives newcomers a lower-pressure way to learn capital-ship engagements and lets groups practice without immediately entering the ranked environment.

There is no verified campaign co-op or split-screen story mode in the official PC feature information. Cooperative play is associated with multiplayer scenarios against AI, while the authored campaign remains a solo experience.

Ships, Factions, And Progression

The New Republic and Galactic Empire do not simply share mirrored vehicles. Their starfighters use different defensive philosophies, handling profiles, and tactical strengths. Learning when to exploit those differences is central to surviving against experienced pilots.

Ship roles include balanced fighters, fast interceptors, heavy bombers, and support craft. A fighter can handle changing priorities, an interceptor excels at pursuit and pressure, a bomber threatens major targets, and a support ship helps sustain the squadron through repairs, resupplies, and battlefield utility.

Progression is deliberately focused on options rather than conventional character power. Players earn access to ship components and cosmetic rewards through play, then use those choices to refine starfighters and pilot presentation.

That structure matters for the business model. Official EA materials describe Squadrons as a self-contained game in which progression, unlocks, and rewards are earned through gameplay. The PC storefront presentation does not establish a free-to-play transition or a season-pass replacement for the original package.

PC Controls, VR, And Accessibility

PC players can use keyboard and mouse, a gamepad, a joystick, or a HOTAS setup. EA's PC control documentation confirms that HOTAS users may need to map controls manually for their specific hardware, which is important for anyone expecting a universal plug-and-play flight profile.

The game supports full-game VR on PC, including the story and multiplayer experiences. VR is not a separate mission pack; it changes how you occupy the cockpit, inspect instruments, track targets, and judge movement through head position and cockpit awareness.

Controller layouts and flight controls are remappable. Options include inversion, sensitivity, vibration, subtitle presentation, chat text size, colorblind profiles, voice chat controls, voice-to-text, and text-to-speech features.

Speech audio is available in English, German, Spanish, and French according to EA's PC audio documentation. The official PC storefront information lists interface and subtitle support for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish variants, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Polish, and Russian.

Steam players should account for the EA Account requirement. The Steam listing identifies EA Account linking as a third-party account requirement, while the game is also distributed through EA's PC ecosystem and Epic Games Store. Online functions additionally depend on the availability of the game's network services.

Who Should Play Star Wars: Squadrons?

Squadrons is a strong fit for players who want a concentrated starfighter experience with real cockpit instrumentation, power routing, loadout decisions, and objective-driven multiplayer. It also suits Star Wars fans who prefer flying an X-wing, TIE fighter, Y-wing, or similar craft over playing a ground soldier.

It is less suitable for players looking for open-world exploration, character builds, a large persistent economy, or a long campaign with extensive branching choices. The story is a contained introduction to the flight model, while the deeper replay loop comes from practice, loadout experimentation, Fleet Battles, and competitive mastery.

Players who want a more accessible third-person approach to cinematic space combat can compare its mission structure with story-led transforming-fighter games like Strike Suit Zero. That comparison highlights Squadrons' more specialized design: it commits to cockpit combat and squad tactics instead of external-camera spectacle.

Similar PC Space Combat Options

Space action games such as Starlink Battle for Atlas overlap with Squadrons through starfighter combat and customizable ships, but the structure is different. Starlink emphasizes exploration, planet-to-space travel, and on-the-fly ship assembly, while Squadrons concentrates on authored missions and tightly organized battles.

Everspace is closer in its fast action and ship-focused combat, yet its roguelike progression and broader travel structure make each game serve a different audience. Strike Suit Zero is more linear and cinematic, while Squadrons offers greater emphasis on energy control, first-person immersion, and team roles.

The useful buying question is therefore not which game is universally better. It is whether you want a dedicated virtual cockpit and squadron tactics, or a broader space adventure with exploration, ship building, and persistent progression.

Star Wars: Squadrons FAQ

Is Star Wars: Squadrons still the current PC name?

Yes. The official PC storefront identity remains STAR WARS: Squadrons. No verified renamed edition or replacement PC product currently supersedes it.

Does Star Wars: Squadrons have a single-player campaign?

Yes. The campaign alternates between Vanguard Squadron of the New Republic and Titan Squadron of the Empire, introducing the game's ships, controls, factions, and combat systems through authored missions.

Does it support multiplayer co-op?

It supports cooperative multiplayer through Fleet Battles against AI. The official PC information does not list campaign co-op or split-screen story play.

What is the main multiplayer mode?

Fleet Battles is the signature objective mode, built around two teams pushing through a staged fight toward the opposing flagship. Dogfight provides a more direct team combat format.

Can Star Wars: Squadrons be played in VR on PC?

Yes. The entire game is designed to be playable in PC VR, including the campaign and multiplayer modes. VR is optional, and standard display play remains supported.

Does it support HOTAS and controllers?

Yes. PC control options include keyboard and mouse, gamepad, joystick, and HOTAS. HOTAS users should expect to manually map controls for their hardware.

Is progression pay-to-win?

Official EA materials describe a self-contained progression model where ship components, cosmetics, and rewards are earned through gameplay. The game is not presented as a free-to-play service with paid combat upgrades.