For fans of Star Wars: Squadrons is a nice little game, with its $40 price, decent campaign, competitive multiplayer mode and VR . But, while it's certainly a game made for Star Wars fans, Star Wars: Squadrons doesn't really do anything new for those fans either - especially when it comes to its same-old story.
[Warning: The following contains generalized SPOILERS for Star Wars: Squadrons.]
Star Wars is a finnicky franchise, given the polarizing feelings within the fanbase over just about everything. A major issue with its direction in recent years is an ongoing attachment to the Original Trilogy era that doesn't appear to be ending any time soon. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, there was clearly a need to get the franchise back into a positive place, and going back to the Original Trilogy definitely accomplished that. But the Original Trilogy is now wildly oversaturated, and it's become tiring for fans.
Star Wars: Squadrons continues to be more of the same. The game's story is still set in the Galactic Civil War and the Squadrons' many crossovers with Star Wars books and TV shows, but there's just nothing new here. All of the EA Star Wars games so far take place in this era, and any time the Empire is given some level of focus in the story, there's a defector. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of it, but after seeing it several times, it's just kind of boring.
EA Needs To Be More Creative With Star Wars
EA needs to get more creative with its Star Wars license, and every game doesn't have to have some connection to a movie. The Star Wars universe is limitless, so EA could do just about anything it can think of. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a great example of what was an original story that had almost nothing to do with anything else that existed at the time. It's more than possible to create original characters in a completely different section of the galaxy (Disney allowing) or even in a completely different time period. And if EA has to connect these games to other pieces of media for whatever reason, there are other ways to do that than just latching them onto the Original Trilogy.
There's about to be a The Mandalorian has been a massive success because, even though it takes place shortly after Return of the Jedi, it's an original story that's not tied down or too tightly connected to anything else and is given the room to just be itself. Star Wars: Squadrons is a half-decent game, but enough of the Galactic Civil War. It's time to try something new.
