cloud imperium games – Trekking with Dennis

Squadron 42: A Preview

I was never interested in Star Citizen. I’m not an online multiplayer gamer, I don’t like “persistent worlds,” and I can honestly think of nothing more immersion-breaking, when I’m trying to get invested in a story and a fictional setting, than seeing “cOcKwAnK_1979” griefing his way across my screen, ruining the fun. So Star Citizen was never gonna be for me.

I also think – and I’ve said this before – that Star Citizen’s development has been a shitshow; feature creep on an unprecedented scale, incredibly poor oversight and management, and increasingly shady business practices. Selling add-ons, in-game content, and DLC for a game that’s essentially still in alpha, if not pre-alpha, is just awful – and some of the in-game items available for Star Citizen literally cost thousands of dollars. That’s thousands of dollars for what essentially amounts to an I.O.U. from the developer; a promise that – maybe one day, if the game’s ever ready – they’ll make you the ridiculously expensive in-game ship you paid $7,000 for.

Promo art for Squadron 42 showing Hamill — Promotional artwork for *Squadron 42*.

But we aren’t here to dissect Star Citizen today! There are countless folks all over the internet who’ve assessed Star Citizen’s dodgy dealings, its lengthy development, its feature creep, and the current state of the game, and they go into way more detail than I have time for in this piece. Instead, I want to look ahead to the one part of Cloud Imperium Games’ project that I *am* interested in: the single-player title Squadron 42. Because I gotta be honest… at time of writing in late 2026, Squadron 42 finally seems to be showing promise.

As I alluded to, Star Citizen and Squadron 42 have had multiple controversies and issues throughout their fourteen-plus years in development. Squadron 42 was, according to the initial crowd-funding pitch in 2012, originally planned to launch all the way back in 2014, before being delayed, delayed, and delayed again. Assuming it actually makes it to release next year (it didn’t release in 2026, as we were promised last year, so that’s not impossible to contemplate), it’ll be thirteen years behind schedule. That’s gotta be some kind of record, right?!

DLC ships available in Star Citizen in 2025 — *Star Citizen* has been downright aggressive with its monetisation.

But, issues and controversies aside, I’m always going to be interested in a good, fun, immersive single-player game – and that’s what Squadron 42 promises to be.

Squadron 42 recently got a new trailer, as well as confirmation that the game will launch on Steam – which is great news for me, as Steam is my go-to shop for PC gaming most of the time nowadays. But more than that, Squadron 42 also got a closed playtest, and while there are some concerns that have come out of that… the news is sounding more positive than negative. This is certainly the biggest win for Squadron 42 – and probably for anything Star Citizen-related – in quite a long time, so I wanted to look ahead to Squadron 42 and share my thoughts.

I don’t give money to crowd-funding projects… ever. I didn’t invest in Squadron 42 or Star Citizen, and while I’ve been aware of the game because of its high-profile developer (Chris Roberts) and its seemingly ever-declining reputation as “a scam” and “vaporware,” that’s really the extent of what I know. Given that the marketing campaign for Squadron 42 seems to be kicking off in earnest, I think there’s more room than ever for this kind of outsider’s perspective – because a lot of Star Citizen news and reporting seems to come from people who are already heavily-invested in the game’s success… or its failure. I’m not in either camp; not at all. So I hope my thoughts will prove interesting, useful, or will just be a breath of fresh air given where the discourse around Star Citizen and Squadron 42 has been.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing a hand holding a badge — I’m not a backer or investor in the *Star Citizen*/*Squadron 42* project.

I’m a sci-fi fan. Star Trek is one of my biggest loves, but I also enjoy plenty of other sci-fi properties both in the realm of video games and beyond. A big-budget, high-quality, single-player sci-fi adventure is right up my alley, and if Squadron 42 is able to make good on that promise, I think there could be a lot to love in this game. I would put it on my *very* early preliminary list of “Game-of-the-Year” candidates for 2027 – again, assuming it actually makes it to release this time. I had Squadron 42 on my radar this year, where I felt it was potentially going to be in a similar space.

So… what does that mean? Well, it means that expectations are high! This game will feature voice and motion-capture performances from a number of high-profile actors: Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Henry Cavill, Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Wu, and even Star Trek: Picard’s Harry Treadaway. The total amount of money raised for Star Citizen and Squadron 42 is over $1 billion, and while that is split between the two games, it still means Squadron 42 is easily one of the most-expensive games ever developed. Even if it “only” received 10% of that billion dollars, it’d still be in the top twenty.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing Mark Hamill's character — Mark Hamill’s character.

Such a high budget – and a stellar cast of well-known performers – sets high expectations, and while I’m usually someone who forgives a lot of indie game jankiness, I’m not so sure that applies in this case! Yes, Squadron 42 is still, in purely *technical* terms, a crowd-funded “indie” project, insofar as it exists outside of the games industry’s big corporate publishers. But when so much money has been raised, when development budgets are so high, when the developer is hosting huge conventions, when they’ve hired Mark frickin’ Hamill to voice a character, and when Cloud Imperium Games has become such a big company that it employs almost 1,000 people… it doesn’t get that same free pass.

Assuming I’m able to review Squadron 42 next year, as I hope to, I will not give the game a lot of leeway when it comes to things like bugs and glitches. In my opinion, after so much money has been spent and so much time has been taken, this really ought to be a professional, polished release on day one. And given that Squadron 42′s launch could prove incredibly important to Cloud Imperium Games and Star Citizen’s future, too… they can’t afford to fuck this up, either.

Promo image of developers/playtesters at RSI/CIG — Developers/playtesters at Cloud Imperium Games.

In short, if the launch version is akin to where Cyberpunk 2077 was when it released in 2020… not only will that not be good enough, but I genuinely think Cloud Imperium Games will struggle to turn things around. Some of the folks who took part in the closed playtest – who, lest we forget, are some of Star Citizen’s biggest fans, cheerleaders, and content creators – reported that the game is not yet fully polished, and that bugs and issues are present. Now, I’m glad that Cloud Imperium Games isn’t forcing its staff through the abusive “crunch” process – which might’ve happened if the game launched this year. But I am a tad concerned that a game that should’ve been ready to go within just a few weeks is still suffering from such egregious issues that even its biggest supporters and fans couldn’t hide them completely.

That being said, I’m usually a “wait for the reviews” type of player. *Especially* for a game like Squadron 42, with all of its development issues, I think it’s more important than ever to let independent reviewers get their hands on the game and deliver a fair assessment before jumping in. Star Citizen’s biggest fans were invited to this closed playtest – so, naturally, opinions will be trending in a positive direction. But next year, when the game launches (or when review codes are sent out, if that’s something Cloud Imperium Games is willing to do), then that’s gonna be the moment where I’ll make a purchase decision.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing a cockpit — The view from the cockpit.

If Squadron 42 looks close enough to being ready, I’ll wait a couple of weeks to see if patches and updates improve the experience. If it seems awful, buggy, broken, and borderline-unplayable, perhaps I’ll just… move on and find other things to play! However, if things look good from the jump, and Squadron 42 reviews well from a technical standpoint with independent reviewers – i.e. folks who aren’t invested in the Star Citizen project – then I will certainly be jumping in within a few days of launch… time and money permitting, of course!

And that’s for a simple reason: I really, *really* liked what I saw in the Squadron 42 trailer.

The game seems to be a mix of space combat and first-person shooter, but there are also some really creative-looking puzzles that reminded me a lot of Half-Life 2. The big capital ships in Squadron 42′s space armadas reminded me a lot of Battlestar Galactica – and so did the naval uniforms worn by some of the characters, too. Obviously, Squadron 42 has long been pitched as a spiritual successor to Strike Commander, Wing Commander, and Freelancer – studio head Chris Roberts’ previous works. But there’s definitely a Battlestar Galactica influence in some of these designs, I felt.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing a first-person puzzle — Major *Half-Life 2* vibes!

One thing that impressed me about Squadron 42 was the sheer sense of *scale* that the trailer managed to convey. Scale is something that matters in a space game – something I discussed when Bethesda’s Starfield failed to impress me. In short, Starfield’s world felt limited and small; I could visit every point of interest in the so-called “city” that was, in reality, no bigger than a small town, the whole galaxy consisted of fast-travel menus, “missions” would auto-complete with minimal interactivity… the list goes on. All of that came together to mean that I felt no investment in the game’s small, flat little world.

Now contrast that to what I’ve glimpsed of Squadron 42. Space battles involving flotillas of giant capital ships, a city that actually *looked* like a city, two competing factions or empires that – from this admittedly small first look – genuinely felt large enough and powerful enough to dominate whole sectors of space. Some solid-looking customisation. And interactivity with NPCs and the environment that added much-needed depth to the world.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing a space battle — This space battle looks epic.

I know that Squadron 42 is more of a linear thing that Starfield aimed to be. They aren’t even in the same genre, really. But my point isn’t that the games are direct competitors, but rather that the world-building – even from just this short tease – felt so much better from Squadron 42, and really succeeded at building up that sense of scale; that feeling that my character (“Gill,” is it?) is going to be just one person who’s part of a world that persists beyond the confines of the game map. Starfield never convinced me of that. But games like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077 did. It’s the difference between good and bad world-building – and I have high hopes for Squadron 42 based on what I’ve seen so far.

Then there’s the three gameplay components: ship combat/spaceflight, first-person shooting, and puzzle-solving. All of these looked solid.

Jumping into a fighter ship and blasting away at enemy spacecraft has been fun for me since I played the Star Wars TIE Fighter game in the mid-’90s, and I really enjoyed Star Wars Squadrons, too, just a few years ago. First-person action games can be fantastic – like Cyberpunk 2077 – and Squadron 42 seems to have “gravity gun” environmental puzzles that reminded me a lot of Half-Life 2. Even if these individual elements aren’t as good as they might’ve been in some of the titles I mentioned, bringing them all together in a single experience could still be a blast.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing the player character — The player character.

However, a single-player title like Squadron 42 lives or dies on the strength of its narrative! And at this stage, the game’s world is brand-new to me. As I said, I haven’t followed Star Citizen, so I know basically nothing about this world, its factions, or its alien empire. Battlestar Galactica may be present in some of the designs and theming, but I’m not even sure whether *that* is a good starting point to understand the kind of story Squadron 42 aims to tell.

Chris Roberts has said on the record that the game’s story will be a “good guys versus bad guys” kind of thing: the Empire of Earth being the goodies, the Vanduul aliens being the baddies. And there’s definitely a place for this kind of black-and-white storytelling in fiction when it’s done well. There’s also a place, to be honest, for games that don’t demand a ton of thought or emotional effort; games that just point you at waves of enemies and say “shoot them.” Whether either of those things will be part of Squadron 42, though, is unclear to me. And if they are… maybe it’ll work just fine. Or maybe it’ll feel a bit narratively underwhelming. It’s hard to say at this stage.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing a Vanduul alien — A Vanduul alien.

I mentioned that Squadron 42 has an all-star cast of well-known actors from the sci-fi space and beyond. Voice lines that I heard in the trailer seemed great, so I’m optimistic on that front. Some projects can struggle, even with great performers, to really make characters feel fully fleshed-out and real, though – the way voice acting is directed, as well as twists and turns in the narrative itself, can lead even some genuinely fantastic performers to either fall flat or for their characters to just not stick the landing. Because expectations are so high, and because this is the kind of all-star cast most video games could only dream of, I’m really hoping to meet a fun and engaging cast of characters!

But at the same time, I’m also trying to keep any potential hype in check. It’s a little odd to me that Squadron 42 is so heavily emphasising its cast rather than showing off the characters they’re meant to be playing; I saw a lot of digitally-recreated famous faces in the trailer, but I don’t think I could tell you, even having watched it a dozen or so times, what any of their characters’ names are. Gary Oldman’s the admiral, Mark Hamill’s some kind of squadron leader, maybe Gillian Anderson and Liam Cunningham are starship captains? The game will have to do a better job than that of building up these people – having them look and sound like famous celebrities can only take a project so far.

Still frame from the Squadron 42 promo trailer showing Liam Cunningham's character — Liam Cunningham’s character.

It’s also news to me – though it won’t be to Star Citizen and Squadron 42 followers – that the game is effectively “part one” of what’s planned to be a three-part story. That always raises concerns for me when we’re talking about a brand-new, untested project – and that goes double or even *triple* for Cloud Imperium Games, given how long it’s taken them to get just one part of this story ready to go! In short, I hope that the Squadron 42 story will feel complete enough; that it won’t just end on a cliffhanger that either may never be resolved or that I may not live long enough to see the conclusion of!

There’s a lot to be said for a carefully-planned story – for not just trying to “wing it,” or to tack on sequels to stories that already feel functionally complete. Squadron 42, if indeed it’s planned as a three-game or three-episode arc, could very well succeed in that ambition. But if “part one” took fifteen years to be ready… well, all I can say is that I hope the final chapters will be developed a damn sight quicker! There’s a non-zero chance that I don’t have another five years in me, let alone fifteen, and with arthritis already affecting my hands and impacting my ability to play games… I’d hate to miss out on the continuation of this story – if it’s as fun and engaging as I hope it’ll be – simply because Cloud Imperium Games couldn’t get it ready in time.

Promo art for Squadron 42 showing a space station — A space station as seen in promotional art.

So that’s where Squadron 42 sits right now, at least in my estimations.

There are reasons to be concerned, if not downright sceptical, about this game. Cloud Imperium Games has not covered itself in glory since its Kickstarter project began a decade-and-a-half ago – and that’s the understatement of the week. This is also a brand-new and untested fictional setting that might not have what it takes to really get players immersed and interested in its story, its characters, and its world. The game is also ambitious, seeming to blend elements of well-known and beloved first-person, puzzle, and space-sim titles into one cohesive package. Ambition is to be commended – but it can go awry.

However, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t impressed and even excited by what I saw in the trailer and what I’ve heard from some of the folks who participated in the playtest. If Cloud Imperium Games can use these remaining months to squash bugs, polish the experience, and really get Squadron 42 ready to launch on day one… as I said, I think it could be in contention for a “Game-of-the-Year” award, if all goes to plan.

Promo banner/art for Squadron 42 — Could this really be 2027’s “Game-of-the-Year”?

So… join me for my annual End-of-Year Awards in 2027 to see if it makes the cut, I guess!

I hope to play and review Squadron 42 next year, so I hope you’ll consider checking back after the game releases to get my thoughts on the story, the world-building, the characters, the various gameplay elements, and more. I think every gamer has been burned by hype before, and I’m acutely aware of the fact that, no matter how good the game may look in its own promos and marketing material, it could still end up being a dud… or a disaster. There are plenty of examples we can point to for things like that, and Cloud Imperium Games doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation when it comes to honesty and transparency.

But it’d be dishonest of me to say that I’m not at least slightly excited for Squadron 42 right now!

Thanks for joining me for this preview. I hope my take on this upcoming space adventure has been interesting and informative. Happy gaming, friends, and I’ll see you… out in space!

Squadron 42 will be released in Q2 2027 for PC. Squadron 42, Star Citizen and other related properties discussed above are the copyright of Cloud Imperium Games and/or Roberts Space Industries. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Crowdfunding and pre-ordering are completely different

Mon 25.10.21Tue 14.12.21Dennis

One method of raising money that some game developers started using in the late 2000s and early 2010s is crowdfunding. Check out popular crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo and you can find plenty of video game projects on offer, all of which are asking for your money.

In exchange for supporting a project or helping it get started, many crowdfunded games offer players their own copy – which can be a digital download or a physical boxed version depending on the title and the amount of money invested – to be delivered when the game is finally ready. This transactional approach to crowdfunding, combined with prices that are often comparable to the “standard” price of a brand-new game, has led many players to consider crowdfunding as an extended form of pre-ordering.

Logos for Kickstarter and Indiegogo – two of the web’s biggest crowdfunding platforms.

Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth, and this fundamental misunderstanding has caused an awful lot of disappointment in recent years. It isn’t the fault of individual players, many of whom simply saw an exciting-sounding game and wanted to place their order as early as possible. Instead the fault really lies with the way these crowdfunding platforms and individual developers market their products.

When placing a pre-order for a video game, players are almost always committing their money to a project that is already fully-funded. Perhaps an indie developer has taken out a loan, or maybe we’re talking about a game produced by a larger publisher with the financial resources of their corporation. Regardless, by the time pre-orders go live for practically every title, the game’s development costs are covered and a release is assured. Some games receive delays even after accepting pre-orders, but even then a delay is usually a matter of weeks, months, or a year at the most – and the title is still being worked on.

A visualisation of buying things online…

Pre-orders are purchases – they’re a transaction between the player and the platform, shop, or publisher. As such they’re subject to a range of consumer protection laws, the most significant of which is the right to be refunded. If a pre-ordered game is cancelled, or even if a player changes their mind before release, they can simply contact the retailer or publisher and request a refund without too much hassle.

Crowdfunding, as many players have found to their cost, doesn’t work this way at all. At a fundamental level, crowdfunding is akin to a donation or an investment. As anyone who’s ever played the stock market or cryptocurrency can tell you, the value of investments can change over time, and as the developer or company you’ve donated to takes your money to use in the process of developing their game, there are no guarantees. Caveat emptor indeed.

Creating anything is an incredibly difficult and complicated process, and all manner of different unforeseeable situations can adversely impact a project. The current pandemic is an example – many films, television shows, and video games saw their production disrupted by events completely beyond their control. In short, a project may not always go as intended, and even if production goes as smoothly as possible, the end result may be radically different from its creator’s original vision.

For players who’ve donated to a crowdfunding project, this can be incredibly hard to take. They feel they were promised a particular kind of game within a given timeframe, but for any one of a thousand different reasons the game they got doesn’t align with those initial expectations or developer promises. Unfortunately there really isn’t much that can be done about this.

Many people end up angry or upset when a crowdfunded game fails to deliver.

Two examples come to mind of crowdfunding projects that didn’t go to plan. On a personal note I’ve got 2019’s Shenmue III. This title, which dedicated fans of a long-dead pair of games managed to raise an astonishing $7 million to help create, had one job as far as I was concerned: finish the story. Shenmue II had ended on a cliffhanger, and fans wanted to see protagonist Ryo Hazuki bring his quest for revenge to a conclusion. But for reasons I find utterly inexplicable, that didn’t happen. Shenmue III didn’t finish Ryo’s story.

The second example is one of the most egregious crowdfunding disasters of all time: Star Citizen. In development now for over eleven years, the game is nowhere near ready for release. While a small part of the game is available in an early alpha state, developers Cloud Imperium Games have mismanaged the project in truly epic style. With well over $300 million raised – almost all of which has been spent – Star Citizen is a complete disaster, with many of its original backers and fans now calling it a “scam” for the way it took their money.

Logo for the unreleased game *Star Citizen*.

Shenmue III had specific problems with its story as a result of its creator being unwilling to make cuts to the game’s bloated narrative. Star Citizen is an example of a developer getting completely out of their depth. With the amount of money Cloud Imperium Games raised growing, they felt the need to promise more features for the game. But more features meant more development time, which meant more money was needed to keep the lights on, and in order to raise more money they promised more features… leading to a catastrophic spiral from which the game will never escape. It’s a case of feature creep on an unprecedented scale.

There are plenty of other examples of disappointing crowdfunded games, including titles that ended up baring little resemblance to what had been originally promised and, of course, many games that simply never made it that far, being cancelled or simply vanishing without ever releasing so much as a teaser trailer.

*Shenmue III* is one of the biggest crowdfunding disappointments to me personally.

These things will always happen. In the games industry there are many examples of titles that entered development but never made it to release, including some whose details have subsequently leaked out – like Star Wars 1313, Rockstar’s Agent, and Prey 2. The key difference with those titles is that they were never being “sold” – players didn’t have to part with their money, meaning the only negative consequence of these cancellations is disappointment. On the rare occasion where a game has been cancelled after pre-orders were available that money is able to be refunded.

Because of the way crowdfunding works, players can be left out of pocket – some to the tune of thousands of pounds or dollars – if a project doesn’t go to plan. And because of the way many crowdfunded titles are marketed, players who believe that they essentially pre-ordered a game or engaged in a transaction are understandably upset. This is why we all need to educate ourselves and understand the fundamental difference between pre-ordering a game and participating in a crowdfunding campaign.

Some people invest vast sums of money in crowdfunding campaigns.

The best way I can explain it is like this:

Pre-ordering means you’re buying a game and engaging in a transaction with a company. They have already committed the financial resources to making the game, and while it can still turn out to be disappointing for all manner of reasons, your money is safe and in almost every case you’ll be able to get a refund.

Pre-ordering is a purchase; the proceeds go to the developer, publisher, and/or shop as proceeds for work already completed.

Crowdfunding is donating to a project. You aren’t purchasing anything – not even if a copy of the game is listed as a “reward” for investing your money. Your money is going to be taken by the developer to be used as part of the game’s creation, not to make a profit on a game they have already committed to making. Because a lot can go wrong or simply change during the creation of a video game, there’s a higher chance that when the game eventually releases it won’t be exactly what you expected – if it even releases at all. In any case your money is almost certainly gone, and unless you can afford to lawyer up or prove that a project was a deliberate scam or con, perpetrated by someone with no intention of creating a video game, you won’t be able to get it back.

Crowdfunding is a donation; the money is a gift which goes directly to the developer so they can fund the game’s creation.

Most projects are *not* scams – but that doesn’t mean things won’t go awry.

Speaking for myself, I’ve never donated to a crowdfunding campaign. Even when it came to titles like the aforementioned Shenmue III I simply concluded that I don’t have the money to lose. As someone on a low income my budget for video games – and any other entertainment product – is already low, so the idea of investing in the creation of something, no matter how “cool” it might sound, is something I’m unwilling to commit to.

Sadly, some of these failures and disappointments will lead to fewer players being willing to donate their money to crowdfunding campaigns in future. That will have an effect on some smaller independent developers for whom crowdfunding may be the only viable method of fundraising to bring their dream to life. In some cases we can lay the blame at the feet of large companies or wealthy individuals who essentially “abused” the crowdfunding model to create projects they could almost certainly have afforded to fund out of their own pockets. But some of the blame also lies at the feet of developers like Cloud Imperium Games, who have failed to deliver what they promised after more than a decade – while trying to convince players to buy in-game items that can cost upwards of $1,000. The whole thing gives crowdfunding a bad name.

Cloud Imperium Games is the company behind *Star Citizen*.

Your money is your own, and how you choose to spend it, donate it, or invest it is up to you. I would never tell anyone not to participate in a crowdfunding campaign, because at the end of the day it’s a personal decision. The gambler’s advice is always worth bearing in mind, though: “never invest more than you can afford to lose.” That’s true of poker games and it’s true of crowdfunding too.

I’ve been meaning to write this piece for a while; it was one of the articles I had in mind when I first created this website almost two years ago. Having spoken with several acquaintances who felt “scammed” by a crowdfunding project gone wrong, and seeing many comments and criticisms online of titles like Star Citizen from irate backers who feel – wrongly, I’m afraid – that they had something akin to a purchase guarantee or pre-order, I wanted to add my two cents to the conversation.

It’s my firm view that crowdfunding and pre-ordering are very different things, no matter how a project may be marketed. Some companies and individuals definitely cross a line, or come close to it, with how they talk about their projects and try to convince people to part with their money. But at the end of the day it’s up to us as individuals to make sure we understand what we’re getting into before we make any kind of financial commitment.

All titles mentioned above are the copyright of their respective developer, studio, publisher, etc. Some stock images courtesy of Pixabay. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.