STAR WARS: SQUADRONS

Motive’s dogfighter wisely focuses on strategy over spectacle

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Nothing is quite so true to the spirit of Star Wars than pinching things from the past. This latest entry in EA’s oeuvre is a first-person starfighter simulator that casts an eye back to the ’90s heyday of the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, and centres on the giddy delight of being thrust into a dogfight – illuminated by distinctive green and red lasers that streak across the cockpit, soundtracked by angry squeals from Imperial TIE fighters on your six. More importantly, it echoes a past when what you bought was what you got. So yes, this feels like a reaction to Battlefront II’s troubled launch.

It’s focused and intricate in a way that Star Wars games haven’t been for a while, and that starts with the ships you pilot. Step into the cockpit of one of the eight on offer and you’re presented with an array of retrofuturistic buttons and faux-CRT screens that instantly evoke a sense of nostalgia, but these visual flourishes are more than childhood memorybait. For instance, in your pilot’s peripheral vision is a power management system similar to the ones found in the