After showing mostly cinematic trailers and pre-recorded videos for years, Cloud Imperium Games eventually showcased a gameplay demo from Squadron 42, and this time around, the game director himself played on the stage.
This lengthy gameplay demo showcases the prologue for Squadron 42, from creating the character to completing the first mission of the game which includes fighting against a massive Vanduul fleet.
The demo still includes a lot of cinematic scenes, but we also get to see some FPS interactions along with the experience of taking out a lot of Vanduul ships from a gunner seat.
Vanduul is a hostile alien race, and this demo showcases just how powerful and ruthless they are when it comes to spilling human blood. While humans seem to have a solid position at the beginning of the battle, the situation goes from bad to worse for the UEE fleet, as they are eventually forced to leave the capital ship to survive.
Aside from the Alien capital ships, the video also shows some FPS Vanduul weapons near the end. The game does seem to be a brutal experience with a well-written story.
Further in the demo, the player needs to evacuate the ship, which has been raided by Vanduul soldiers. This includes some melee fights as well as stealth gunfights. We also get to see how fire extinguishers work, a feature that will come to Star Citizen in Alpha 4.0.
Near the end of the demo, the player also gets to briefly pilot a UEE capital ship. While being brief, it does seem quite exciting to control a ship that big.
Despite some technical issues and two complete crashes to the desktop during the cinematic scenes, the demo looked mainly polished, and the story and gameplay looked extremely epic.
The big surprise was that Henry Cavill is now part of the cast as well. Previously there were some rumors about Cavill joining the Squadron 42 cast, but with today’s demo, it has been officially confirmed.
According to Chris Roberts, Squadron 42 will be around 30 to 40 hours in length. The game was announced to be “Feature-Complete” last year, and now we know that it will be released in 2026.
Here are some screenshots from the gameplay demo:
