Star Citizen might be finest recognized for its eye-watering, incomprehensible finances – a fast verify in on Cloud Imperium Video games’ crowdfunding tracker exhibits a determine north of $925 million. I nonetheless do not totally imagine it. Regardless, Star Citizen itself is evolving at a speedy tempo lately, however so too is Squadron 42. This cinematic, single-player spinoff is considered one of my most anticipated video games of subsequent 12 months, and in its finish of 12 months message to Star Citizen followers, Cloud Imperium has confirmed that issues are transferring alongside very properly certainly. Not solely does it declare that the sport is now playable “from starting to finish,” however it additionally says that Squadron 42 can be over 40 hours lengthy.
Whereas Star Citizen is all about nerdy spaceship tinkering and making a crust in a persistent galaxy, Squadron 42 presents the identical universe as a dramatic blockbuster. Mixing boots-on-the-ground FPS recreation fight and exploration with enormous spaceship battles, it is the sort of linear, narrative-driven single-player recreation that you just’re seeing much less and fewer of lately as purse strings tighten – in fact, purse strings aren’t too massive a priority for Cloud Imperium, so it is splurged on some wonderful visuals and a solid full of big-screen names. You may see performances from greats like Gary Oldman and Gillian Anderson, Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, and even Superman star and Warhammer enjoyer Henry Cavill.
Cloud Imperium has kicked the can down the street for a few years with Squadron 42, however eventually 12 months’s CitizenCon, it lastly unveiled some prolonged gameplay and locked in a 2026 launch date. It truly seems like this date can be met, too, with the studio’s boss, Chris Roberts, revealing some promising data in his new letter to the group.
“On the Squadron 42 entrance, our focus all through 2025 was to construct on the progress of 2024 and what we confirmed eventually 12 months’s CitizenCon by bringing the sport to content material full and shutting out remaining core duties in preparation for Beta,” he writes. “All chapters at the moment are totally playable from starting to finish, and we have been taking part in by means of the sport ourselves frequently. Squadron 42 is a big recreation, over forty hours in size, and it is turning into more and more clear how particular will probably be as soon as the remaining polish, optimization, and bug fixing is full.
“An enormous a part of what makes this attainable is the expertise we have constructed at CIG over a few years,” he continues. “The flexibility to maneuver seamlessly from on foot, right into a automobile you possibly can fly and transfer round inside, all the way down to a planet or throughout star methods, all with out loading screens, creates a degree of immersion that is very tough to copy. That mixture of close-up interplay and galactic scale is on the core of what is going to make Squadron 42 so distinctive.”
Roberts additionally says he’s “extremely proud” of the standard of Squadron 42’s writing, efficiency seize, environments, ships, lighting, sound, cinematics, and design.
It additionally seems like Squadron 42 may seem in beta fairly out of the blue subsequent 12 months with out a lot warning. “We all know a lot of you’re desperate to play, and we’re wanting ahead to placing it in your arms,” Roberts says. “We do not plan on an extended, drawn-out advertising marketing campaign as we have already completed our share of trailers and gameplay previews. When it is time, you (and the remainder of the gaming world) will hear much more from us.”
With loads of improvements deliberate for Star Citizen itself (examine them in Roberts’ put up right here), the extremely doubtless likelihood of funding hitting the $1 billion mark, and the launch of Squadron 42, 2026 goes to be a seismic 12 months for Cloud Imperium.
Whereas the complexity, depth, and incompleteness of Star Citizen has meant that I have never actually been compelled to play it, I’ve all the time admired its universe and what it is making an attempt to construct – Squadron 42 appears like a glitzier, extra accessible approach for me to get immersed in that world, and I am hoping that the performances and writing are as persistently robust as Roberts says they’re. In that case, we might be a very nice recreation.
