I jumped into the new gameplay video for Star Citizen: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Squadron 42 with curiosity and cynicism. An hour-long look at a game that has been delayed multiple times, despite developer Cloud Imperium ? The standalone companion to Star Citizen, a game that hovers in some sort of limbo between early access, beta, and alp🐓ha? A largely fan-funded project featuring famous actors like Henry Cavill, Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, and Mark Hamill? I’m a bit lost and confused. I swear this game already came out, like, four years ago. Apparently not. It’s still in ♓development. Still.

The whole story feels like a fever dream, with this gameplay overview the culmination of a bad trip: an elaborate marketing stunt for future invest🗹ors, both public and private - and yes, I’m looking at you, backer 747, $10,000 deep into Star Citizen with a handful of snazzy ships to show for it.

Star Citizen has been largely funded by its players, and it’s likely a good portion of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:$700 million raised has 🔥gone towards Squadro🐟n 42. Squadron 42 will apparently be released in 2026, three years after devs called it “feature complete.” Understandably, this all throws up plenty of red flags, and yet…

I was not expecting to watch the full hour of gameplay, but wow, it looks absolutely incredible𓄧. I felt more emotion during the battle scene between the United Empire Of Earth (UEE) and the invading lizard-like Vanduul, than I did during any of the recent Star Wars films, despit🉐e knowing nothing about anyone involved.

The story follows Admiral Bishop (Gary Oldman), with his second-in-command, Captain Thomas Wade (Mark Strong) as they command the UEE fleet from their flagship. Your role as a player in the story takes the form of a regular gunner in the navy, aboard a shi🧸p commanded by Captain MacLaren (Gillian Anderson). Henry Cavill is in there somewhere, too, as a pilot of the famous Squadron 42 - an elite group of fighter pilots. Don’t worry, if you’re dizzy from all the names, it gets even more full-on when you see the cast list.

Mark Hamill, Liam Cunningham, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Sophie Wu, and Gemma Whelan, to name just a few, make up an absolutely star-studded cast. And who would’ve guessed: it works. Gary Oldman’s speech as Admiral Bishop as the Vanduul fleet bears down on them is fantastic: I’m instantly hooked even though I have no idea what’s going on. A rousing theme - a combination of bagpipes and horns - sounds like the theme of hu🌳manity. The huge spaceships 𝓀look the part, which makes sense. Cloud Imperium Games, the developer of Star Citizen, have been pumping out new ships and concepts for ships since at least 2011.

Gameplay does a great job of making your character feel insignificant, which, in the face of looming defeat from an enormous alien fleet, you pretty much are. Gameplay is largely an extended cutscene broken up with turret shooting sections, but it works. The camera pans from your turret to the control room where Captain MacLaren commands her ship, and as the story develops, the camera pans back to your turret. It’s smooth, cinemati🐎c, and acts as a pretty good introduction.

The battle rages on with some spectacular set pieces and high stakes. In terms of visual fidelity, the game looks way above average. There are a few visual glitches here and there - Gary Oldman’s hair decides to leap around mid-cutscene, for example - but this 💧only proves to me that what we’re watching is actual gameplay. I can’t believe that Squadron 42 looks this good.

And therein lies the problem. I can’t actually believe that Squaﷺdron 42 looks this good. My gamer cynicism is too strong, and that’s a healthy way to be when it comes to games like Star Citizen. I don’t want to say that the developers are squeezing as much money as possible from their fans, because that’s (probaꦍbly) not true.

Star Citizen isn’t a scam, not exactly, but rather a game that will likely be updated forever because the goalposts for finishing it keep moving. Will it ever actually be released? At this point, I doubt it. Squadron 42 feels much the same to me: a pr♏oject started with good intentions th🐻at has just got way out of hand.