Squadron 42 looks like it cost the millions it should have, but we’re not sold on it yet

Over a decade after announcing Star Citizen, mastermind Chris Roberts has finally declared that its Squadron 42 singleplayer campaign—just a piece of the bigger Star Citizen “persistent universe,” which has raised over $600 million in crowdfunding—is feature complete and entering the “polish” phase.

No release date has been announced, and polishing may take “some time,” Roberts warns in a nearly 30-minute trailer celebrating the milestone. I’ll refrain from trying to guess a release date—who knows with Star Citizen—but the video does give us a wide-ranging tour of a big and complete-looking singleplayer campaign with space combat, first-person shooting, and performance-captured war speeches. Here are the biggest takeaways from our best look at Squadron 42 so far, as we see it:

• They really went wild with the celebrity actors
• The puzzles look straight out of Half-Life 2
• We’re not blown away by the space combat
• No surprises in the first-person shooting
• But maybe stunning planetary approaches can carry it?

There are so many celebs