Star Wars: Squadrons In VR Is A Dream Come True

Note: This VR-centric review of Star Wars: Squadrons is intended as a companion piece to my colleague Alex Kane's excellent full review.

You can find that here.

I was about six-years-old when my Dad introduced me to Star Wars, coincidentally the first year I got into videogames.

At that point, the movies were already decades old, but they'd been re-released and lost none of their magic, or so I'm led to believe, because seeing the original trilogy for the first time was the most incredible cinematic experience of my life at that point.

Of course, in the years that followed we've seen movies of varying quality (and games to match), but playing Star Wars: Squadrons in PlayStation VR over the last few days had me feeling like a six-year-old in a cinema seat again.

From A Certain Point Of View

It's important to stress that unlike Star Wars Battlefront's X-Wing mission, this is no mere standalone mode or tech demo.

Instead, the entirety of Squadrons is playable in VR - from its menu through to the closing credits, and it's well worth putting on your headset for.

Being able to look at a TIE Fighter in the hangar before getting inside adds a sense of scale that VR is perfect for, and taking that same starfighter for a spin and looping-the-loop around Star Destroyers put the biggest grin on my face.

Switching perspectives, literally, to a Rebel pilot's X-Wing only added to the sheer joy of the experience.

Looking to my left and right, I spotted the laser cannons I'd impersonated on the playground all those years ago, and looking behind me I saw my very own R2 unit sat atop my ship.

The sense of scale, flying around capital ships as they emerge from hyperspace is truly unmatched.

Read More: Star Wars: Squadrons loadouts guide: Best beginner builds

Luke, you switched off your targeting computer!

Perhaps most impressively, Squadrons does a good job of negating the feeling of VR motion-sickness - at least it did in my experience.

Your mileage may vary, but with customisable control schemes (and support for a flight stick), I made my way through mission after mission without needing to have a lie down at any point.

Being able to switch off HUD elements in order to achieve a more immersive experience is a neat touch, and brings out the incredible detail found in each ship's uniquely modelled cockpit.

Strong With The Force

In many ways, the same complaint of the non-VR version of the game holds true here, that being mission objectives that rarely stray from dogfights and bombing runs.

And yet, when you're sat inside a starfighter, hurtling toward a Star Destroyer as its laser-fire bears down on your ship, cracking your cockpit, there's simply nothing that comes close.

Add to that the game's excellent multiplayer suite and the ability to literally take your custom loadouts for a spin, and Star Wars: Squadrons might just be PlayStation VR's best title in 2020.

Review Code Was Provided By The Publisher