OK so I spent some hours on this yesterday in practice and campaign mode. Here are my thoughts (PS4)...
TLDR - I should have waited a month until they fix bugs and it gets down to $25.
A) Your teammates will prattle on about nonsense aka "backstory". It's not interactive. Listen to it, or don't, it doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the game. I listened to them drone on a couple times, after that I just skip it.
B) Implemented in-mission "fix it" powerup that allows you to repair damage in your ships, yes even the lowly tie fighter. It is unlimited but you do have to wait for it to cool down / recharge. Also I noticed in practice mode some of your ships have a "repair" field that basically does the same thing. Why is this worth mentioning? Because now the tie fighter is just as powerful as an x-wing, even though you don't have shields. You can attack, run away, repair, and resume attacking. Now maybe in multiplayer games this won't be as much of a problem since those go faster and humans are probably smarter opponents than the AI is.
C) The controls are similar (gamepad anyway) to BF2, but not exactly the same. And I usually am in the habit of slowing down to turn faster anyway, but in Squadrons, I somehow keep reducing my throttle to zero instead of just reducing it. I don't recall ever going to zero in BF2. Maybe it's just something to get used to.
D) You are locked into cockpit mode, although I read you can turn off the hud in multiplayer. But you're still in the cockpit. For the xwing, this isn't too bad, but in the tie it SUCKS BALLS because your field of vision is so tiny. I really, REALLY, do not like this. I would much prefer the ability to either switch to a 3rd person (BF2) or floating hud in space with no cockpit (which was how I played xwing).
E) Switching between targets is a PITA. You can hit X (or whatever it is on pc/xbox) to target next enemy, but this isn't always the closest and doesn't always mean it's the guy who's blasting you to bits from the rear. I have not discovered a way to target my attacker yet. Or target what is directly in front of me. This might be a control learning issue on my end. (for example, in BF2 you used left trigger to lock on and zoom on an enemy. This was fine, they didn't need to change this. But it's gone, now left trigger pulls up this mission wheel with game options. WHY??? That could literally be ANY other button, not a trigger button. Maybe I can re-arrange, still messing with it. But the left trigger zoom/lock from BF2 is gone and no replacement.
F) The campaign is boring at best so far.
G) I do not know this for certain because I am still new, but I read on reddit there is not private lobby for multiplayer. This blows, if true.
H) The controls are touchy/fiddly and it gets worse the faster you are going. And one thing I really hated about BF2 was tons of floating debris to crash into... well it's worse here when you going full throttle and trying to evade missile locks and there is tons of space trash everywhere.
I) While on the topic of missiles.... finally we get countermeasures, but you only get like 3. Those go really quick. And sometimes I would get popped with a missile immediately after I hear "enemy is trying to lock on to you" then pow, dead.
Bugs... I haven't run into any game breaking bugs on PS4 like PC gamers are reporting. But there are lots of little ones. Texture pop, missing textures, weird sound issues, etc. The textures/graphics quality is very different when you are on the frigates rather than in the cockpit, almost like different resolutions... this thing needed more time to polish, but in typical EA fashion they shoved it out the door and will patch it later (maybe).
Anyway, some decisions were made about gameplay that I don't agree with. Like they could have just taken BF2 fighter squadrons and added missions or multiplayer. They didn't have to change how the game plays, but they did. And I'm not certain I like it.
I don't know who this game is for. It's not for hardcore x-wing fans, way too simple for that. It's not for the BF2 fans, too different/complicated for that. Hell it's not even as good as Rogue Squadron.
Right now, until they patch/change some things, this game is a 6/10 at best, and I don't have a multiplayer opinion yet. As a huge xwing fan, this was not what I had hoped.
Skip it for now and wait for it to be $20. I am kicking myself for thinking EA had improved.
edit - ok I figured out how to target in front (quick L2/trigger, holding brings up the stupid wheel) and target attacker, double X. That helped a little
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