Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video

rockpapershotgun.com:

It's been 11 long years since the unveiling of Squadron 42, Star Citizen's singleplayer campaign, seven years since developer Cloud Imperium Games broke Squadron 42 off into a standalone purchase, five years since Crytek took them to court for allegedly breaching their CryEngine license, three years since Crytek and Cloud Imperium settled that lawsuit, and three years since director Chris Roberts sought to justify the game's long development time to Kickstarter backers, declaring that "it would be doing a huge disservice to everyone working really hard on the project and all of you that are looking forward to it to deliver something that isn't great." Well, all that waiting has finally paid off, as Squadron 42 is now officially... "feature-complete" and "into the polishing phase", meaning that the Wing Commander-inspired space sim is almost guaranteed to release before the death of our sun.

Cloud Imperium have released a new trailer walkthrough to celebrate, which does admittedly look spaceworthy. It's a whistle-stop tour of Squadron 42 gameplay and story materials - from dogfights in asteroid belts that use a new precision targeting feature, through "OMG my CO is Gillian Anderson" cinematics, to physics-based puzzling malarkey involving a Half-Life Gravity Gun-adjacent gizmo. If I were, say, Starfield developer Bethesda, I'd be particularly worried about those planetary surface flyovers. Mind you, by the time Squadron 42 launches we'll probably be playing Starfield 2. I kid, Roberts, I kid!

"As we move into the polishing phase, we're fully focused on optimizing and fine-tuning all aspects of the gameplay experience to deliver an unprecedented cinematic adventure," reads the accompanying blurb. "To celebrate this