Despite this game being pretty multiplayer-centric, I'm going to start by talking about the story mode because that's what I bought it for.
The story takes place not too long after Return of the Jedi, well before the Empire's final defeat. It's a pretty small scale conflict in the grand scheme of things, which I actually thought was nice. I love seeing Star Wars stories that focus on the normal(ish) people instead of just crazy Jedi stuff. Rogue One, the Mandalorian, all that stuff is great. While the story here was a far cry from the old X-wing books, it was still pretty good.
You flip-flop between the New Republic and Empire throughout the story, but the Empire segments were a lot more interesting. Being the good guy is the default in most games and the Republic doesn't really do anything you wouldn't expect. While that same sentiment is true for the Empire, I love seeing how normal people justify the Empire's monstrous decisions to themselves. "A Rebel attack killed my friends, so I'm fine with firing on an unarmed civilian transport that's helping the Rebels." The "might makes right" attitude of the average Imperial is just so much more relatable than, say, a dark side sorcerer-emperor with aspirations of immortality. Not to mention all the flashbacks to the classic TIE Fighter game.
All your squadmates, on both sides, get a little dialogue between each mission. While none of the characters really get enough time to be super well developed, they're not 2D. They have interesting backstories ranging from a Clone Wars veteran now fighting for the New Republic to an Imperial who wants to rise in her station and use that influence to recreate the Imperial Senate and start getting their government back in working order. Plus there are lots of little references scattered throughout these sequences, like Hera Syndulla showing up in several mission briefings and Alphabet Squadron getting name-dropped, which are always fun.
And then there's the combat. Ships on both sides are fairly balanced, this being a video game, as opposed to the in-universe standard of TIE fighters being cheaply made deathtraps compared to Rebel fighters. Each faction has a fighter, bomber, interceptor, and support ship. Plus the multiplayer later added in the TIE Defender for the Empire and B-Wing for the Republic, but I'm not exactly sure how those are classified given that they're not really equivalent in-universe.
Each ship can switch out main weapons, auxiliary weapons, countermeasures, hulls, shields (if they have them), and engines. Weapons can be switched out for different specializations, like anti-fighter missiles vs. anti-capital ship missles. Non-default equipment gives you some kind of trade-off to your stats, like lighter armor for increased speed and maneuverability but decreased health.
Of the little bit of multiplayer I've played so far, the game seems pretty fun but a little sparse. I played 3 quickplay games, got the Empire all 3 times, and my team lost hard each game. Still fun though. Managed to rack up enough kills to have a good time, although like any multiplayer game the team who has better coordination (i.e. mics) is going to win. Not a ton of maps and stuff, but I tend to get bored with multiplayer games fairly quickly when I'm not playing with friends and none of my buddies plan to pick this up. But if multiplayer is your cup of tea and you like flight sims, this seems like a solid choice to me. Between this and Fallen Order, here's to hoping Star Wars is back on track as far as making good games goes.
