[crizza]

What got me interested: Can fly B-Wing?

[Det. Bullock]

What got me interested: Can fly B-Wing?

Nope, cut out because it was filling the same role as the Y-wing like it happened at the time with the launch version of X-wing vs Tie Fighter.

[Su-tehp]

Ace Azzameen among the rebels, who knew? :wink:

Uncle Anton told him not to get involved......  😭

We never did find out what happened to Uncle Anton. And we never did find out why he did what he did, did we?

[starlord]

Sadly that is correct.

[Mobius]

From my perspective as a die-hard PS4 player using a dualshock, it's taking a while to get used to controls. I haven't tried Multi yet, as I'm focusing on single player mode.

[0rph3u5]

From my perspective as a die-hard PS4 player using a dualshock, it's taking a while to get used to controls. I haven't tried Multi yet, as I'm focusing on single player mode.

I am using a knock-off 360 controller, so I am in the same boat - but it is mostly a matter of getting used to set up around wheels to navigate the options for trageting and comms. Targeting feels especially weird at times, but then the targeting automatically snaps to the ship you are shooting at anyway. Freelook is the most annoying to control, as it is a mode toggle with double pressing the right stick.
Thankfully often used commands in single player are mapped to single and double presses.


I really like the use scenery in many missions, even if it trips up the AI at times - I was already going to double down on the use scenery pieces for upcoming missions, but now I am convinced that's the road to go.

The Single Player however cannot just not hide that it is an expanded upon VR techdemo - its got some cool moments in the gameplay, but aside from the abundance of scenery, but only a few things that haven't been realized in FSO yet (although they should be possible with some work).

Spoiler:

One thing I really liked about Imperial sections is that is makes it really believable how the fighting force superior in number and tech keeps getting their arse handed to them.

[Scourge of Ages]

If anybody wants to watch the game in action, here's a really good LP by MATN:

[Colonol Dekker]

Love me some space combat simulation but not sure I'd enjoy this.

[Det. Bullock]

I did what I think is the last sequence of empire missions and I'm glad they didn't sugarcoat the empire like I feared they would.

Spoiler:

You get a mission whose main objective is "go kill some civilians to piss off the Republic and make them fall into a trap" with a medal awarded if you massacre all of the civilians before you get to the main target and the next mission gives you a medal for killing civilians fleeing from a shipyard.
And yes, the republic pilots and officers on open comms actively berate you for it or even try to convince you not to be the absolute war criminal ass you are for once.

Love me some space combat simulation but not sure I'd enjoy this.

The single player is very old school wing commander in narrative style but with more variety in the missions.

[Grizzly]

I've been playing Squadrons too

I like how it's pretty complex and hectic, it's basically all I wanted from a multiplayer space sim released in 2020.

Even the unlock system is very lenient: Each component costs 1 point to unlock, you get 2 points each level up (so basically each match at my rate), you can unlock anything in any order. It's a far cry from the likes of most Battlefields.

[Det. Bullock]

At the moment I haven't even tried multiplayer.
I still work because a total of three people have decided to have their vacation in October so I have another week before I can have the time and the patience to play multiplayer on my crappy wi-fi.
Especiallly considering that as long as there are guests I might get randomly interrupted in the hours of the day my brain is actually active enough to deal with human opponents even if my shift hasn't technically started yet.

Also there are bugs in the achievements so even replaying the campaign for the medals is out of the question for now.

[Grizzly]

Been playing more and more of this, especially its multiplayer.

The singleplayer is fine, throughout its missions it's hectic, star-warsy fun. I like how the rebel squad are all a bunch of misfits whilst the imperial squad are all egocentric assholes. What I don't like is how the hangar conversations are written: It's just the other pilots talking long monologues at you, which is weird enough with your pilot literally having a voice. It's just too long and doesn't really fit the rest of the dialogue in game.

The multiplayer is amazing and clearly what this game revolves around. The game has character here still: Each player gets a call-sign, each player can select their voice's personality, and the pilots all talk to each other still, which really helps the dogfight movie feel.
Here the difference between the TIEs and the alphabet-wings becomes most apparent: The TIE Fighters are not the flimsy "goes down in two shots" thing it is in the 90s games, but they still lack shields and are more manoeuvrable then their Republic counterparts. They are also far more "in the moment" wonders: Whilst the republic pilot has to systematically overcharge their systems and plan ahead wrt what system they feel they need the most when entering combat, the TIEs can just happily shunt their excess power from engines to weapons and back: If a TIE pilot decides that the thing in front of them needs to die right now, it can happily drain all the power from engines, becoming a mobile turret, and blast away.

Meanwhile, in my lovely X-Wing (I'm adoring the X-Wing), whenever I spawn in I overcharge the shields first, then weapons, and then put all power in engines. The overcharge in the alphabet-wings drains very slowly, so I can use the increased manoeuvrability that having more power to engines offer, and then boost away once my shields or weapons are drained, to safely recharge from a distance.

Fans of WW2 pacific fleet combat will note that the TIEs tend to occupy the same space of the A6M Zero of being really good turn fighters whilst the Republic ships are more like the Wildcats' booming-and-zooming, and yes. They absolutely nail that feel.

Also you can paint the X-Wing pink which is great. And the Imperials get the option of slapping royal purple on everything, which is also very good.

[mjn.mixael]

Interesting.. I loved the single player, but when I started playing multi I got frustrated and bored. Haven't even felt like picking the game back up even. Different strokes I guess.

[Grizzly]

I'm enjoying the SP more and more as I get deeper into it.

[crizza]

Considering the game, since they add the B-Wing and TIE-Defender...

[CP5670]

I picked this up and started the SP campaign. I'm liking it so far. The flight mechanics and controls have a very Freespace-like feel, more than any game I have seen in years.

I've got a Reverb G2 headset coming in and am wondering if it's worth waiting for that before I get further into it. People are saying the VR in this game is well worth it.

[ah_jim]

Enjoyed the SP. Multiplayer can be annoying when MM'ed with people that just don't die.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Gotta say I'm enjoying this quite a bit. The mechanics are freespace-y, but the actual flying is quite different. More floaty and ace-combaty, particularly given the drift manoeuvres.

Tried playing with m+k and it was quite painful flying that way. Works great with a gamepad, the controls are quite intuitive too. Not tried multiplayer yet so can't comment on it.

[Colonol Dekker]

Managed to fire it up in VR,  immersion is great, I think on PS4 VR halves the resolution or something so gonna try it off VR next chance I get.
Gameplay is OK.  👍

Not tried multi yet.   

[CP5670]

This game is awesome in VR. It really feels like Freespace or TIE Fighter taken to the next level. The SP campaign is short but quite varied and immersive. I initially tried a gamepad but ended up using the keyboard-only config I'm used to with FS. The cockpits are very detailed and make it feel like you are really there.

It's poorly optimized on PC though. I have to run it in 60hz in VR, as it doesn't get 90fps consistently on any settings or resolution (falls to 45fps with reprojection) even on a top end PC. It's still very usable though and the 60hz flicker is less noticeable in a dark game.