Squadron 42

Squadron 42 is a single player game developed by Chris Roberts and his development studio Cloud Imperium Games. It shares the same game lore and game development background; it was sold together with Star Citizen until the game "pledge packages" were split on 2016-02-14.

Development
SQ42 was announced originally in a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 together with Star Citizen. After the implementation of more stretch goals (the last stretch goal was achieved 2014-11-10) the release was subsequently postponed. In several interviews, Roberts revealed parts of the story, partly in detail. After CitizenCon in 2015, a new homepage "Answer the Call" showed the date 2016, including an 'Opening Cinematic' speech of Admiral Bishop. At CitizenCon 2016 Roberts confirmed a delay of the game. Its release date is currently unknown.

Since then, CIG has provided lore very sparsely and avoided giving any fixed release dates. Reporting about the state of the game is continued via Roadmap (introduced in 2020), Newsletter and Monthly Reports. Christmas 2017 CIG released the one-hour-long Vertical Slice Demo, part of an Around the Verse Special. Short visual teasers were presented in 2018 and Christmas 2019, including known locations from Vertical Slice. In 2020, CIG started a YouTube series called 'The Briefing Room', which discussed aspects of Squadron 42, but wasn't continued after one episode. In a Letter from the Charman, Roberts reiterated that 'it is too early to discuss release or finish dates on Squadron 42 and stated 'I am not willing to compromise the development of a game I believe in with all my heart and soul, and I feel it would be a huge disservice to all the team members that have poured so much love and hard work into Squadron 42 if we rushed it out or cut corners to put it in the hands of everyone who is clamoring for it.' Roberts discusssed in a live panel on CitizenCon 2022 that co-developement with the Persistent Universe and Squadron 42 continued, without giving any details. In the same week, a 9-minute-long video allegedly from Squadron 42 appeared on YouTube, including shots from a battle between UEE and Vanduul ships, figures from SQ 42, spaceship interiors, and some (known) locations.

Playing as a character in the army who doesn't choose what he does but does what he is told to is good for storytelling, for a story with a beginning and an end.

Features
"Take the role of a rookie UEE Navy combat pilot in a cinematic single-player epic adventure set in the Star Citizen universe.


 * Battle in the stars and face-to-face as you seamlessly transition between dogfighting and ground combat.
 * Serve aboard a massive Navy capital ship as your custom character interacts and builds relationships with a living, breathing crew.
 * Cutting-edge performance capture brings unprecedented emotion and life to some of your favorite actors.
 * Powered by CryEngine, Squadron 42 pushes gaming graphics and fidelity to the next level."


 * Squadron 42 will have "have some level of difficulty setting".
 * Squadron 42 will have first-person shooter elements.
 * Character customization.
 * Squadron 42 will have planetary landings and possibly procedural generated planets.
 * Actions you take can and will affect you when you finally join the PU.

Story
The story will begin during the Events of Vega II in 2945. It will detail the story of the player joining and flying with the UEE Navy's celebrated 42nd Squadron.

At some point the player will serve on board the UEES Stanton which is assigned to the 5th Fleet, 87th Battlegroup in the Odin system.

Cast
The cast of Squadron 42 includes a strong lineup of A-list actors and actresses including Full Cast & Crew on IMDb (As of 2018-02-19, not complete).
 * Gary Oldman as Admiral Ernst Bishop
 * Mark Hamill as Lieutenant Commander Steve "Old Man" Cotton
 * Mark Strong as Captain Thomas Wade
 * John Rhys-Davies as Randall Graves
 * Liam Cunningham as Captain Noah White
 * Gillian Anderson as Captain Rachel MacLaren
 * Andy Serkis as Thul'Oqquray
 * Jack Huston as Cal Mason
 * Sophie Wu as Cara "Web" Webster
 * Ben Mendelsohn as Julian Wexler
 * Ian Duncan as the Player character

Squadron 42 Soundtrack
Squadron 42's soundtrack, composed by Geoff Zanelli, is not yet available, however some tracks have been publicly shared.

Named Tracks by Zanelli

 * Bishop Speech
 * Cutlass Tango
 * Old Man Teaser

Trivia

 * The name is a nod to the working title for Wing Commander.