AMC's Gangs of London: Series Premiere Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This is a spoiler-free review of the series premiere of Gangs of London on the AMC+ streaming service. Gangs of London first debuted in the UK back in April 2020. AMC+ will release the first three episodes on October 1, with the following seven dropping every Thursday until the finale. AMC+ is available on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Dish, Sling TV, and Xfinity. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's been six long years since director Gareth Evans blessed us with The Raid 2, which featured his distinct blend of frenetic martial arts mixed with a gripping crime narrative. And while his rumored involvement in DC's Deathstroke film appears to be at a standstill, streaming provider AMC+, in partnership with Sky Atlantic, is debuting a thrilling new TV series from Evans and The Raid's cinematographer Matt Flannery, titled Gangs of London. In terms of its narrative structure, Gangs of London embodies many of the themes and character studies previously explored in mobster movies of the past, most notably The Godfather. The series centers on The Wallace crime family, who, after losing their patriarch -- Finn Wallace (portrayed by Star Trek: TNG's Colm Meaney) -- appoint his son to take over the family business. In many ways, Sean Wallace (played by Peaky Blinders' Joe Cole), is similar to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone; both are ambitious, cunning, and ruthless in their pursuit of justice for the fathers they lost. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/07/25/5-brilliant-moments-of-action-movie-lists-cinefix"] Reminiscent of Pacino, Cole does a marvelous job of exuding a menacing calm, with a deadly gaze and purposeful way of speaking, as if he's afraid he'll miss a syllable. After watching Cole portray the rebellious and often immature John Shelby on Peaky Blinders for three seasons, it's refreshing to see the young actor take on a more complex character like Sean. And like any good crime story, being the new boss comes with a slew of new enemies from outside of the family, and even a few from within who are jealous of Sean's newfound power. Brian Vernel's Billy Wallace (Sean's brother) is the Fredo Corleone of the story, struggling to live up to his father's expectations before and after his death, with his excessive drug use and overall lack of ambition. Like Michael and Fredo, Billy and Sean's relationship is complicated, but also endearing, as Sean does his best to keep his brother safe from himself. Hopefully, Billy won't meet the same fate as Fredo... Time will tell. Quietly observing all of the chaos in the background while Sean runs the family business is Game of Thrones' Michelle Fairley as Finn's widow, Marian Wallace. Like the Lady of Winterfell she once was, Fairley uses her commanding on-screen presence to great effect here, duplicitously playing the hurt widow while making moves of her own without Sean's permission. In the same vein as her late husband, Marian has some enemies of her own, most notably her daughter, Jacqueline (Valene Kane), who appears to despise her mother for reasons unknown. In these first few episodes, there's a suspenseful dual threat going where it's unclear whether the Wallace family will be destroyed from within the family, or by outside forces. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-action-movies-on-netflix-right-now&captions=true"] While the other crime organizations claim to be in unison with the Wallace family, everyone has their own particular interests at heart. Thankfully, Evans and Flannery give their gangsters a bit of backstory, by including character-building scenes with each crime boss with their families or in their respective communities. The diverse offering of criminals includes a Pakistani kingpin named Asif Afridi (Asif Raza Mir), and the most compelling adversary to the Wallace family early on is Narges Rashidi's Lale, a Kurdish militant with a vendetta to settle and a diverting backstory that we won't spoil here. The writer's attention to detail with each of their characters, even if they're only in a scene or two, really makes Gangs of London stand out from other titles within the same genre. And last but certainly not least are the superbly choreographed fight sequences sprinkled throughout the three-episode premiere. Evans and Flannery, having worked together on both of The Raid films, have a keen understanding of how to create jaw-dropping action in every single frame of a fight. The majority of these high-octane brawls center on one of Wallace's up-and-coming foot-soldiers, Elliot Finch (played by Humans' Sope Dirisu). Dirisu's character has a background in boxing, so while the fights are still very over-the-top, the combat still feels grounded and somewhat realistic for a guy who knows how to throw a punch -- Dirisu isn't flipping around and doing crazy kicks like Iko Uwais or Yayan Ruhian from The Raid franchise. Elliot's storyline proves to be one of the most intriguing in the early episodes - and not just because he's the focal point of so many incredible action sequences. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/10/08/deathstroke-the-raid-director-says-talks-to-helm-dc-movie-never-progressed"]

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Sony X900H 4K HDR TV Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out “Xbox Series X or PS5?” might be the big question of 2020 on the lips of gamers, but almost as important is “What are you going to play it on?” New consoles means new features that need new TV technology, which means finding the best gaming TV. Sony is betting that its X900H is the answer. It has the all-important HDMI 2.1 standard, which has enough bandwidth over a single cable for 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rate, auto low latency mode, and eARC. At least it sort of does. Read on to find out more.

Sony X900H – Features and Design

The X900 series is historically where Sony introduces it’s newer technology. This year is no different and perhaps it’s even better for gamers. If you’ve been living in a bunker with Kimmy Schmidt (hello, 2015 reference), maybe you’ve missed the news that new consoles are arriving this November and with them comes the next step in display technology – 4K at 120Hz. Because of the bandwidth necessary to send all those 1s and 0s down a cable, in order for this marvel to reach our eyes, our displays need to have HDMI 2.1 connectors. There are three Sony 4K TVs that will support it, and the X900H is one, the least expensive at that. (The other two are the 8K Z8H and Z9G and they start at $6,000 and $8,000, respectively.) Along with 4K/120, HDMI 2.1 allows for other gamer-friendly goodies. We’ve seen these individually before, but never all on one TV until this year. Variable refresh rate (VRR) – from 48-120 Hz – and auto low latency mode (ALLM) are two. The X900H is the only Sony in 2020 that will include both. VRR will help eliminate any screen tearing encountered giving a smoother, less distracting image. Auto low latency mode will detect a game source and turn on game mode, decreasing input lag. Another auto-detect mode on the X900H is Auto Picture Mode. Since the X900H and PS5 are both Sony products, the company has made sure that the two interact well together. When Auto Picture Mode is on and a PS5 is sensed by the X900H, it will automatically switch the picture mode to either game or a chosen setting that the user can set up. With Xbox, it will switch to Cinema. There’s an enormous “But” coming. As of this writing, if you buy a X900H, you will not have the capability for 4K/120 (if you happen to get your hands on a RTX 3000 series graphics card), or variable refresh rate (VRR), or auto low latency mode (ALLM). Sony plans to enable those features with an upcoming firmware update scheduled to come out...sometime. Hopefully before the beginning of November. That said, if you have an Xbox One X, you can currently set it to a 1080p/120 output. Beyond the hot topic next-gen console/HDMI 2.1 features, the Sony X900H has what you would hope for from a mid-$1,000 TV in 2020. For HDR, it supports HDR10, HLG (which is the main broadcast HDR delivery method), and Dolby Vision. It’s a 10-bit vertical alignment (VA) panel with full-array local dimming. Sony doesn’t publish the number of dimming zones on its TVs, but it looks to be fewer than most of its competitors. Number of dimming zones isn’t what makes great local dimming, though, and while there are fewer on the X900H than, say, the Hisense H8G, the Sony performs better. The X900H has Sony’s Triluminos technology, which is basically its version of quantum technology. It helps increase color brightness and accuracy for a wider color gamut. Sony was the first manufacturer to release a TV with quantum dot technology back in 2013, and it’s now included with all of the company’s models. The visual design of the Sony X900H is pretty minimal, which I like. There’s a thin silver frame around the thin bezels and an understated Sony badge at the center bottom. The feet, which in previous years were angled at around 45 degrees, are now thinner and perpendicular to the panel. They also are not secured in with screws, just friction. It admittedly terrified me when I first assembled the X900H, but they stayed firmly in place, even when I had to move the TV on a couple occasions. They are set wide (44.375 inches on the 65-inch model), so make sure your TV stand or table is wide enough for them. Around the back left of the TV are all of the side-facing connections. There are four HDMI 2.1 ports with HDCP 2.3 (one with ARC), an optical digital audio out, two USB (one 2.0 and one 3.0), 3.5mm headphone out, composite video, Ethernet, cable RF, RS-232C, and IR blaster in. The X900H also supports Wi-Fi (and leads you through connection on initial setup). Under the bottom bezel is a push button that opens up a limited menu if you misplace the remote. Don’t misplace the remote. The push button menu is clunky. The remote on the other hand is pretty good (it’s the same that came with last year’s X950G) and an improvement over the H900F version. The majority of buttons you’ll need are clustered around the central directional pad, easily within thumb’s reach, and there’s voice control capabilities through the remote as well. The user interface is built on the Android TV platform. It’s a good full-screen interface that runs and scrolls quickly. Sony says the speed has been increased by 50-60% over previous versions and it definitely feels faster. There’s a significant number of apps available through the Google store, and the X900H comes preloaded with a few, including Netflix. There’s also a separate Netflix Calibrated picture mode that the X900H will automatically switch to when you start up the installed app. (If you use Netflix through a console or streaming stick, the Netflix Calibrated mode will not be available. Only through the TV interface.) The apps in the interface can be assigned to the TV input menu for easy selection. Over the past couple years, Sony has been working on the quality of sound that its TVs provide. The company has continued that development with a new design for its down-firing speakers called X-Balanced. It’s a new driver and enclosure which it says has more bass and clearer mids over the previous oval speakers that were used. I admire Sony for trying to make TV speakers decent because honestly, they’re usually garbage. TV speakers need to be small due to the size and width of TV chassis, and that’s a formula for thin, piercing sound. So I’m going to surprise myself and say that the X900H’s actually sound pretty decent. They are definitely a bit mid focused and high-end can be forward and surprising if the volume is too high, but they are serviceable. But I’d still budget in a soundbar at least if you can afford it.

Sony X900H – Testing and Gaming

For measuring the accuracy of a display I use Calman calibration software, a Photo Research PR-650 spectroradiometer, VideoForge Classic for 1080p SDR patterns, and HDR patterns from Diversified Video Solutions. Custom picture mode is the one Sony has tuned for best grayscale and color accuracy and is the one I used for all TV and movie watching (except for Netflix shows that automatically engaged the Netflix Calibrated mode). I also looked at accuracy of Game mode, since that is what most will be using while gaming for the input lag reduction. Out of the box in both SDR and HDR, the Sony has excellent color accuracy and very good grayscale accuracy. The grayscale brightness in HDR is a little under target in the midtones (between 60 and 80 percent of white) which can cause bright white highlights to be a bit startling. In SDR, as gray gets closer to white there can be a slight blue tint, but it’s only noticeable in test patterns, not in real world content. Color accuracy had a DeltaE value of 3.2 in both Custom and Game mode, with all the color points being slightly oversaturated (a look that many people enjoy). There’s an auto-cal feature on the Sony to be used with Calman that can improve grayscale tracking and color to near perfect values if you have the capability or want to do so, although it certainly isn’t necessary. The Sony X900H isn’t the brightest HDR TV available, but the light output is still very good and at times can seem overly bright in a dark room. With a Peak 10% window I measured 522 cd/m2 (or nits) in SDR and 508 nits in HDR. The highest brightness I measured was with a Peak 25% window in HDR that was just under 750 nits. A lot of people look to 1,000 nits as the current golden standard for brightness, and it’s a good target to strive for, but the Sony is still plenty bright without hitting it. While the full-array local dimming on the Sony performs well, its limited number of dimming zones does lead to some excessive blooming especially with small white sections on a black screen. The viewing angle is also not very good, and starts to show a loss of brightness and rise to the black level at off-axis viewing of around 30-degrees. The screen is also pretty reflective with direct light, so if you have any lamps around your sitting location, there’s a good chance you’ll get a large light flare on your screen from it when it’s on. Terra 2 of the Halcyon system popped with color on the Sony. The color variety is one of my favorite visual parts of The Outer Worlds, and the mixture of plants looked great. Play was smooth and I didn’t feel any lag from controller to screen. The input lag on the Sony in game mode measured 17.2ms in 1080p with my Leo Bodnar tester (outside game mode it was 86.2ms). The minimal lag won’t affect your game at all. Sea of Thieves recently had a major content update and it’s always one of my favorites to check HDR. Bright highlights really pop on the X900H. Scrolling by the sun at one point actually caused me to squint and glance away as if I was outside looking at the sky. Some added location sky effects, namely an enormous foreboding red tornado over an island, looked gorgeous and terrifying. The detail and rust color of the refuse leading up to the orphanage in Blade Runner 2049 accentuates the decay of our future world, and the colors on the Sony made it feel real. Once inside the orphanage, there was some pretty good detail within the shadows. There was nice depth to the stacks of books around Mister Cotton’s office. But as K explored the darkness of the orphanage looking for the toy from his memory, some of that detail in the darker areas were lost.

Sony X900H – Purchasing Guide

The Sony 65-inch X900H (XBR-65X900H or sometimes seen as X90H) has a MSRP of $1,400, but can usually be found for less. At the time of writing, it was for sale on Amazon for just under $1,000. It comes in 55-, 75-, and 85-inch versions as well that MSRP for $1,000, $2,000, and $2,800, respectively.

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Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Do you ever wish you could wipe a few underwhelming sequels from history and pick up where the last good one left off? You know, like what Superman Returns or Terminator: Dark Fate tried to do? Well, with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, developer Toys for Bob actually pulls off the half-reboot, half-continuation idea. This is a direct sequel to Naughty Dog’s original trilogy that concluded in 1998, and this team really gets Crash. It’s all the characters and action platforming I loved about the old games but with a bunch of great new ideas mixed in so well that they feel like they were always supposed to be there. Crash Bandicoot 4 makes rapid-fire homages to Crash’s past, picking up where Warped left off and having Crash’s biggest and most delightfully hammy villains, N. Trophy and Neo Cortex break out of prison along with Uka Uka and trot out a typical video game villain plan to take over the multiverse. Crash has always been about the action, but the self-aware, amusing script walks the careful line of winking self-awareness that this sequel has come so many years later while also telling a genuinely funny, personable story. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-crash-bandicoot-game-review&captions=true"] And it’s one that Toys for Bob tells well through Crash’s main campaign, which took me about nine or so hours to beat… but with only a 34% completion rating. The other 66% is, among other things, an entire gamut of challenges to complete. (More on that later.) Crash 4 keeps the main story progression linear, reverting to an overworld map similar to Crash 1’s rather than the hub rooms of Crash 2 and 3 that I personally preferred. My initial surprise with that decision aside, the setup works well enough to keep momentum going as I bounced from one pop-up storybook-esque time period map to the next, and Toys for Bob imbues even that overworld map with plenty of charm. From level landmarks to side characters waiting for their turn in the spotlight and obvious spaces for unlockable bonus levels, it’s not only easy to get around but a visual treat, too.

Time After Time

Of course, any Crash game worth its orange fur lives or dies by how fun, challenging, and rewarding its platforming is, and here Toys for Bob has not only recaptured the magic of the original trilogy but added to it in new, exciting, and seriously tough ways. Crash (and Coco, who plays identically to Crash and can be swapped to for any Crash level depending on who you prefer to play as) standards like double jumping, ground slamming, and spin attacks return, but the inventive ways in which Crash 4 forced me to improve on my longstanding skills with this arsenal is a treat. This is true from large scale decisions like building each level with more objectives (such as finding a certain percentage of Wumpa fruit, unlocking all crates, finding a hidden gem, and only dying so many times) to design choices like putting you through increasingly long and complex sequences that require perfect dashes, jumps, and spins against enemies. Those make Crash 4’s imaginative worlds some of my favorite of the series. One of the very best new ideas comes when the four Quantum Masks are thrown into the mix and you get access to powers like gravity bending, time slowdown, and more. Gravity alterations always break my brain, and I died while mistiming a quick gravity swap and falling or ascending straight into oblivion more often than with any other mask – but what could come off as passing gimmicks in a lesser game feel smartly integrated into the challenge and flow of levels of Crash 4. Toys for Bob finds more and more unique ways to kill Crash... I mean test my platforming skills as the difficulty ramps up at a reasonable pace. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=e9c7d1d2-84ee-4f81-bba3-06a4f60de733"] New enemy types like hungry sand sharks and giant lightning locusts, twisty jumping sections, and all of Crash’s new moves blend together so it never has to resort to stale carbon copies of past challenges. If a memorable obstacle is repeated, it’s often creatively revamped in a more challenging way, such as the return of Crash’s surfing jet board from the original trilogy. Not every new addition is a winner; I am not a fan of the fire-spewing crates added throughout levels. They don’t add much in the way of complexity to the platforming, they just increase time spent waiting for the crates to cool down until they can be spun. The standard moving mine obstacle courses require more daring split-second decisions as TNT-throwing enemies and water currents affecting your speed are thrown into the mix. Also, some truly devilish endgame challenges use Crash’s full arsenal, including the Masks, in some of the most difficult levels the series has ever seen. I died more times than I cared to admit, but completing them led to some of the most satisfying platforming in recent years. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/devs-reacting-to-a-crash-4-demo-speedrun-is-the-funniest-one-yet"] And while Crash is tough, it’s also largely great at teaching you its new tricks, minimizing the feeling of progress by trial and error that comes with some platformers. Yes, there are still levels where you’re running toward the camera, and occasionally a hazard comes at you without warning, but nothing felt as mercilessly tough as Crash 1’s infamous Road to Nowhere. Crash 4 doles out its challenges in smart succession, ensuring it always feel fair. The smallest addition – a circular shadow that appears underneath an airborne Crash – exemplifies this. What could be perceived as a crutch by those who find estimating their position without it to be a hardcore challenge eliminates most of the guesswork that came with earlier Crash games for the rest of us. It allowed me to better put my focus on nailing a precarious jump, rather than trying to figure out where the landing point should or might be and hoping for the best. But don't worry, purists: you can turn it off in the options. Crash 4 even makes concessions depending on your progress. For example, if you die enough times at a certain spot, it may add in a new checkpoint crate to help you along. Not that I ever had that happen, of course. Definitely not.

How Much Time Ya Got?

There’s certainly no shortage of ways for deaths to happen, because Crash 4 adds in a host of new platforming tricks beyond the Mask abilities: rope swinging, rail grinding, and wall running are all present. None of them is necessarily revelatory, as they’ve all become staples of the platforming genre in the years since Warped came out, but their challenge is well integrated into the rest of his set of tools in such a way that that ensures timing and precision remains king. The only points at which I found it annoying were a few brief sections of rail grinding where the perspective of the camera caused me to mistime a jump over an obstacle. Crash 4 removes about 98% of the guesswork of the old games, but that last 2% can still burn when you’re trying to keep your death count low. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=crash-bandicoot-4-akano-screenshots&captions=true"] And there are plenty of challenges to tackle. Beyond the main story path, there are truly white-knuckle flashback levels: of the handful I’ve tried so far, all are pure platforming skill tests. These side levels take more turns at Crash’s ensemble of playable characters, time trials, local multiplayer and co-op, and the impressive N. Verted mode. Co-developed by Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled developer Beenox, N.Verted is Crash 4’s take on mirror mode – and it doesn’t just invert the look, it adds a host of unexpected challenges that have tested me even on the levels I’ve played a dozen times already. Take, for example, the earliest levels – they turn Crash into an echolocating bandicoot (bat-dicoot?) whose every spin shoots out a burst of light that temporarily illuminates the level beyond his immediate vicinity. I had to more methodically plan each jump, time my spins so I didn’t accidentally fall off a cliff, and more. All of that is an added incentive I didn’t know I needed but now adore as I attempt to 100% Crash 4 as a whole.

A Little Help From My Friends

One of Crash 4’s biggest revelations is in widening its focus to an ensemble of playable characters, including Dingodile, Tawna, and Cortex. Each plays distinctly from one another, and that leads to some of Crash 4’s most intriguing levels. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=I%20would%20play%20a%20spinoff%20for%20any%20of%20the%20new%20playable%20characters%20in%20a%20heartbeat."]Every of these new characters could be the star of their own spinoff game, and I’d play each of them in a heartbeat. Cortex foregoes a double jump for a long dash and a ray gun that turns enemies into platforms or jelly-like bouncing spots, which means his levels are more horizontally laid out. Tawna has a grappling hook that plays into combat but is also useful for crate smashing at distances Crash and Coco could never reach. Finally, Dingodile can hover but can’t actually jump to save his life but has Lugi’s Mansion-esque vacuum mechanics that can, for example, suck up and launch a TNT crate to destroy barriers. The only real downside is Cortex and Dingodile’s weapons can be a bit tough to aim, with no target reticle or way to aim with any finesse: you just shoot in the general direction your character is facing. It led to a handful of flubbed shots on my end, and is something a full spinoff or additional takes on these ideas should consider reworking.

A Whole New World

Part of what makes Crash 4’s levels both readable and fascinating to explore is the sheer level of detail Toys for Bob was able to cram into them compared to the original trilogy. These beautiful and memorable worlds, from the frozen tundra of the 1700s to a New Orleans-esque musical city and the prehistoric era, showcase Toys for Bob’s penchant for adorable, animated design. I loved the personality the developers injected into the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, imbuing those classic adventures with more charm and personality than I ever thought possible; Crash 4 is a natural evolution of that work. Crash’s more linear track through its levels, however, allows Toys for Bob to really flesh out these landscapes like never before in the series. This not only leads to epic introductory shots of levels with a wide scope that tease trials to come, but also means every character, crate, and collectible has fun bits of detail slathered all over them. From the bits of exposed dynamite in TNT crates to the goofy designs of pirate octopi and the many wacky costumes Crash and Coco can wear, Toys for Bob has given this game the look of the Crash Saturday morning cartoon I wished I'd been able to watch as a kid. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/crash-bandicoot-4-its-about-time-gameplay-launch-trailer"] And that’s evident in the character designs. Crash stays true to his original form, but his dopey, happy-go-lucky attitude is in Looney Tunes-esque top form here, with Coco providing a more level-headed approach to the adventure. The new take on Tawna redeems the barely-there damsel in distress of the original, making this version a badass with a heartbreaking past. And Dingodile’s kind of just...there, but it works, as his personal endeavors to open and then repair his restaurant collide with the others’ story. How Toys for Bob integrates these characters’ full arcs is great — they make sense if you just blast through the story, but playing their specific levels offers deeper personality. It’s all aided by a level-appropriate soundtrack, which all sounds in step with the classic Crash scores’ affection for driving, jangly percussion tracks molded to fit all the various time periods. And, like much of Crash 4’s joys, the score has a few delightful surprises of its own: I’m a big fan of the twist on the sound that comes when you don any of the Quantum Masks.

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Star Wars: Squadrons Single-Player Review

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[Editor’s Note: This review is just for Star Wars: Squadrons’ single-player campaign. We’ll have a review of the PvP multiplayer once we’ve had a chance to properly try it out after launch.]

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Like the Force itself, the Star Wars: Squadrons single-player campaign is a balance. The balance between playing as both the New Republic and Empire, between arcade and simulation-style controls, and between fun and flashy action and blunt exposition dumps. It’s full of great references for fans and charming (if ill-used) new characters alike, all crammed into a series of cockpits that are accessible to jump in and pilot without dogfights feeling mindless.

Squadrons has found a sweet spot between the point-and-shoot simplicity of the classic Rogue Squadron series and the insanely detailed simulation of Elite: Dangerous. You can, for the most part, just pick up a controller and start chasing down enemy ships – but there’s also a nuance to adjusting your throttle for better turning, swapping power between engines, weapons, and shields in the style of the grand old X-Wing games, and countering missile locks. Things like that make flight more engaging and give good pilots a chance to shine without requiring you to literally learn how to fly a spaceship in order to play.

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The Empire Strikes Back

The campaign spends its roughly seven-hour run of missions jumping between the dueling perspectives of a crumbling Empire and a freshly formed New Republic just after the events of Return of the Jedi. The way it weaves the stories of two rival squadrons together sets up clever scenarios, sometimes letting you spring ambushes on your other half only to have the next mission swap perspectives so you can deal with the aftermath of your own actions. It’s very cool, and developer Motive Studios continues to prove it knows how to make a game fit seamlessly into the Star Wars universe.

Part of that comes down to its cast of interesting characters, primarily made up of your squads on either side of the conflict. Whether it’s the war-torn Imperial Shen with a battle-scarred helmet he never takes off or the mildly Force-sensitive former racer Keo on the Rebel side, each one is distinct and well-designed enough to stand out in their own way – so much so that I could see any one of them as a Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect companion without them feeling out of place at all.

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In fact, I hope they do appear in an RPG some day, because they aren’t used very well here. Learning about them and their backstories is almost exclusively limited to optional conversations in your hangar between missions, which frequently feels ham-fisted for a getting-to-know-you exposition-filled info dump. Those stories are well written and acted, but they are just sort of inconsequential in the course of Squadrons’ events. I always enjoyed listening to them, but it’s unfortunate that you could skip every single one and it wouldn’t affect your experience of the main story at all.

That story is an entertaining one though, centered around the New Republic’s development of a new type of warship and the Empire’s hunt to stop that weapon from joining the fight. It’s undoubtedly amusing the whole way through, but it doesn’t strike me as especially memorable. Neither side really makes much of a point about the greater conflict, you aren’t asked to make any choices or even really question anything they do, and your two rival squads never even directly clash like I so hoped they would – now that would have been fascinating. It just seems like a missed opportunity not to do something more interesting with this unique campaign format, where we have perspectives from both sides of the conflict.

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That said, it does provide more than enough reason to hop into the cockpit and fly some very fun missions. Most objectives do boil down to “you’re in space and you need to shoot X thing,” (which is the entire premise) but the story’s setup for each one makes them feel more diverse than that – especially when you’re hopping between good guy and bad guy every stage or two. One mission sees you hijacking a Star Destroyer, while another has you weaving in and out of ship debris while using old power cores as a triggerable mine field. The dogfighting itself is so good that it never got dull, even if I did occasionally wish there was a bit more objective variety here – for example, it would have been cool to see more scenarios centered around piloting through tight spaces or maybe set closer to the surface of a planet (or moon-sized space station, though the galaxy is short on those in this time period).

Thankfully, the places you do go always show off how incredibly gorgeous Squadrons is. Even if objectives start to feel similar, weaving through cloudy nebulas or around shattered moons differentiates them in stunning fashion. Missions are action-packed, but most smartly start slow and give you a chance to take in some of the grandiose sights they have to offer before the turbolasers start flying. That spectacle is present in cutscenes as well, which frequently upstage those optional hangar conversations and make them feel like an afterthought by comparison.

Climbing Into the Cockpit

Those decadent sights and sounds extend into the cockpits too, with each of the eight ships (four for each side) sporting a completely custom and impressively detailed interior. The UI is even built directly into the actual console of the ship, meaning you have to get comfortable reading each new interior when you first use them. I promise that’s more fun than it sounds though, thanks to the intuitive visual language that’s established for things like radar, power distribution, and throttle control. All that detail rocks, and goes a long way toward making each ship feel distinct – for example, the Imperial Support ship, the TIE Reaper, has you sitting on the left of a cockpit designed for two, initially causing me to have some minor collisions with things on my right as I got used to the fact that my view wasn’t centered.

And while the four ship classes – Fighter, Interceptor, Bomber, and Support – are shared between the Empire and New Republic, each faction has its own twists that go beyond cosmetics. The biggest is that the TIE Fighter, Interceptor, and Bomber have no regenerating shields whatsoever but generally make up for it with more hull strength and agility than the shielded New Republic fleet. Each ship also has different weapon, hull, shield, and engine options to further differentiate them, though what you can or can’t pick is up to whatever mission you are on at the time.

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There’s no progression or actual unlocks throughout the campaign – that’s left to the multiplayer – but it was still nice to have the reins slowly loosen as more options were introduced for me to choose from. Tweaking your loadout can have a drastic impact on the performance of your ship, and the normal difficulty allows for plenty of room for experimentation without being pushover easy. That means there’s not much in the way of replayability here beyond trying higher difficulties or different loadouts for your own amusement, but each mission does also have some basic achievement-style objectives to stretch for – there’s always one for not dying during a mission, one for completion time, and two for special mid-mission side objectives that can bring a neat bit of added challenge (though not a whole lot of it).

To Infinity and Beyond

Squadrons also has full VR support on PC and PS4, as well has full HOTAS (flight stick and throttle) support on all platforms, which is extremely impressive. I used an Oculus Quest with a link cable on PC, and apart from having to awkwardly watch cutscenes in 2D (which I imagine is partly why the hangar conversations are setup the way they are) it’s just a phenomenal way to play. You can take in every inch of its detailed ship interiors, track enemies with your head, and more easily marvel at the lovely space around you. The fact that you can play this entire game in VR is just incredible, easily earning it a place as one of the best VR games available.

Add a HOTAS into the mix and it gets even more impressive, and I almost never want to go back to a controller. It sounds cliche, but the immersion of slamming the throttle and twisting the stick to weave in and out of Star Destroyer debris is exhilarating. I’ve had a chance to try three common flight stick options out on PC with various effectiveness: The Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, the ThrustMaster T.Flight HOTAS 4, and the Hori HOTAS Flight Stick (the latter two of which were provided to us by the manufacturers for this review). Regardless of your choice, you will probably have to fiddle with remapping controls a bit, but Squadrons makes that pretty painless to do.

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Using the T.Flight was just incredible for this, with more than enough buttons to comfortably map everything important – Squadrons doesn’t have nearly as many inputs to manage as a sim like Elite: Dangerous – and compatibility on PS4 and Xbox One as well, depending on the model. I also loved that the throttle notches into place in the center position, which is important in Squadrons to let you turn tighter faster. The Extreme 3D Pro was a similarly solid option, though its small throttle and button layout does make it a little awkward to use. The Hori HOTAS, on the other hand, doesn’t feel suited for Squadrons at all. It doesn’t have that crucial stick twist you need in space flight, and too many of its inputs are mapped to double button presses seemingly designed with only Ace Combat 7 in mind (which it sort of was). To be fair, this is a stick primarily meant for PS4, and it even only showed up as a gamepad on my PC, so I’ll need to give it a shot on PS4 post-launch too.

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And for those who really want to get into the nitty gritty of their Star Wars sim dreams, you can extensively customize what UI elements do or don’t show up, tuning exactly how much you want to rely on your own eyes and the readouts of your dashboard. It’s the added touches like this – alongside a host of wider accessibility options – that make Squadrons feel like far more than the quick and dirty Star Wars-themed dogfighter it so easily could have been.

from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3n6O6E9
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