Squadrons keeps multiplayer lean with only two modes: dogfights (aka deathmatch) and Fleet Battles, which are tug-of-war contests between two enemy capital ships. Over the course of the campaign I started to get a feel for exactly when to cut the throttle to make a tight turn, when to flick all my power to weapons to lay on the damage, and how to survive by focusing my shields to the rear to take a few more hits from an enemy on my tail. The central system for both factions' four ships is power management, just like in the classic X-Wing games. It's a flight model far simpler than an Elite Dangerous or Microsoft Flight Simulator, but there's enough nuance to let skilled pilots excel. The flying in Star Wars: Squadrons is exactly what I hoped for. The campaign, which took me about 10 hours to complete on the default difficulty, never really surprises, but it does manage to accomplish something noteworthy: This feels like being in Star Wars in a way no game has in a long, long time.
It's a thrill to pilot these ships a hair's breadth above the surface of a Star Destroyer, and through stunning nebulae and war wreckage more vivid than I could've possibly imagined while playing TIE Fighter in the late 1990s. Star Wars: Squadrons succeeds where it's most important.