At the close of this weekends’ CitizenCon, the annual Star Citizen fan convention, Chris Roberts and CIG announced that Squadron 42 is officially “feature complete” and has moved into a polishing and performance phase. And the spiritual successor to Wing Commander - a game and franchise that had a huge impact on my personal love of gaming - is looking really good.
Squadron 42 is the standalone, single player RPG action adventure game that CIG have been developing in tandem with the ongoing development of Star Citizen. The story takes place in the same universe, a few years earlier than the MMO timeline, and features a number of big name A-list actors: Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, Gary Oldman, Henry Cavill, and others I’ve missed, all have featured roles in the game.
And many of them appear in the 26 minute “I Held the Line” feature video that was released at CitizenCon. The video features developer leads showcasing some of their teams’ work and a number of in-game scenes.
This is why I backed Star Citizen all those years ago, and why I’ve accepted the sarky comments with a smile, and continue to champion it with that same smile.
I reckon 12 months to a release date, 18 months to an actual release.
I’m just glad that we should now start seeing some of the S42 features rolling into Persistent Universe - cockpit HUDs; character creator options - new faces, new hair, etc.; location mini maps; improved UIs; better zero G animations; improved environment lighting and textures… A bunch of things that have are now “feature complete” that are desperately needed QOL things in SC itself.
It originally was. Early backers should have access to both if they purchased a game package before February 2016. From then game access was sold separately and you could get either Star Citizen access or pledge for Squadron for $45. When buying one of the standalone packages you could opt to add on the other game for an additional $20, but I think that option is only available on initial purchase. Could be wrong on that one though.
Currently though you can’t get Squadron as a separate package. It was removed from sale 5-6 months ago, allegedly in preparation of a price increase. I think it’ll be brought back soon at $60. I also read something about an EU regulation that prevents the sale of an item without a delivery date. If that’s true, and with no release date anytime soon, it may be a while before it’s return to the pledge store.
Another year gone and we eventually have a first look at some gameplay. It’s the full hour of the game’s Prologue, so the gameplay stuff shown is pretty minimal and mostly intro tutorial type stuff.
The Prologue reminds me of the single player games from back in my day - lots of back story and cutscenes to introduce the world and the main characters. Being a Chris Roberts production, it is also stupidly over the top visually. The fleet battle cinematics are amazing.
Thankfully, it also shows that the writing and acting are not going to be a horrible, cringey Wing Commander moviesque mess. Having an A-list actor cast that includes Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, and Mark Strong (who all feature heavily in the prologue) amongst many others definitely pays off in terms of the acting.
I think it’s an excellent showcase for the games’ potential and got really caught up in the action and emotion in it. Your mileage may vary of course. My biggest issue with the video was the very vague and very wide “2026” release window revealed at the end.
Worth watching full screen and with decent volume if you can.
oof, spoke too soon, make that 3 then