Squadron 42: Everything we know about Star Citizen’s singleplayer campaign (2024)

After a series of delays—Squadron 42, like Star Citizen, was initially due to launch in 2014—we still don't really have an idea when it will launch. The roadmap that CIG was using initially has since been retired.

While we still don't have a release date, developer Cloud Imperium Games announced at CitizenCon in October 2023 that Squadron 42 is feature-complete. "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," Cloud Imperium Games said alongside a 23-minute game overview video, which you can watch below.

While the game's development has moved into its later stages, we don't have a timeframe for its release, and we're still too far out to estimate a potential release window without more information.

Released alongside the feature-complete announcement, this 26 minute-long overview video gives our latest look at Star Citizen's singleplayer campaign. We get a sampler of in-ship space combat and on-foot first-person gameplay, with the later featuring Half-Like 2-esque puzzle sections with a military multi-tool that functions like the Gravity Gun.

There's also a mountain of CG celebrities, with appearances from Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, and Liam Cunningham.

It's been tricky to gauge the status of Squadron 42, but you can glean a vague idea of where development is at by checking CIG's monthly Squad 42 reports on the RSI comm-link website. These updates are pretty granular, describing individual tasks that different development teams have been focusing on during the last month. Even so, they don't provide the best overall context for the game itself. There's also the CIG development roadmap, which theoretically tracks current studio team tasks.

Earlier, Cloud Imperium had been releasing quarterly video updates called The Briefing Room to talk development on S42, which they'd maintained into 2021. Here's the first one, an over one hour video with developers.

Squadron 42 is a standalone singleplayer campaign in the Star Citizen universe, fully playable offline and blending spaceship dogfighting with on-foot, first-person combat and puzzle-solving.

You play a new recruit in the United Empire of Earth Navy, an elite military unit fighting to protect humanity against both aliens and bandits. You’ll live aboard a massive capital ship, and from there you’ll be dispatched to various missions, which will take place both in the co*ckpit of various customizable spaceships and on foot (it’s roughly a 50-50 split between the two). Expect a mixture of large-scale space battles and first-person shooting, and some missions will have multiple paths to their conclusions.

While backers were able to purchase Squadron 42 separately with a $45/£43 pledge, that option has disappeared from the Star Citizen pledge store. Responding to questions about the removal of the standalone purchase option, CIG said on the RSI forums in May 2023 that "Squadron 42 has been removed from the store at its current price but will return at a later time. This change is not meant to signify anything other than an expected price change."

Currently, the only way I can find to get theoretical access to Squadron 42 in the CIG pledge store is to buy it as part of a $1100 USD bundle. Despite that, however, you can pre-order the Squadron 42 digital strategy guide for ten dollars.

Lauren started writing for PC Gamer as a freelancer in 2017 while chasing the Dark Souls fashion police and accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as the self-appointed chief cozy games enjoyer. She originally started her career in game development and is still fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long books, longer RPGs, has strong feelings about farmlife sims, and can't stop playing co-op crafting games.