Light at the end of the tunnel? After 14 years of development and over $1 billion in crowdfunding, Star Citizen is still in alpha phase, with no final release date in sight. However, its single-player offshoot Squadron 42 seems closer than ever. A new Steam page lists particularly modest minimum system requirements, and streamers recently started sharing their hands-on impressions after a demo event.
If you still believe in Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts’ vision after 14 years of repeated delays, you can wishlist Squadron 42 on Steam now. The space simulation action game is a solo spinoff of Roberts’ MMO Star Citizen, which is still in development.
There is a new trailer on Squadron 42’s Steam page with some gameplay excerpts and a list of the minimum system requirements. Many influencers and streamers were invited to play the game for around five hours on October 9th and 10th, and have since offered their thoughts and explained in more detail what players can expect when (if?) Squadron 42 goes public.
Previous demonstrations have featured a mix of on-foot first-person shooter action and flight simulation combat, with a strong focus on immersion. Hands-on reviews also explain that Squadron 42 is not an open-world game, but rather a more linear experience that may feel unusual compared to other recent AAA games.
Previews also point out the heavily cinematic presentation. Following the FMV cutscenes of Wing Commander, Squadron 42 features a star-studded cast including Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn and Henry Cavill.
Recent updates also suggest that the game may not be as demanding as this year’s biggest releases. Although Squadron 42 requires Windows 11, CPU support extends to AMD Bulldozer and Intel Sandy Bridge quad-core chips from the early 2010s, like the legendary i5-2500K.
Additionally, the game requires DirectX 12 support, but appears to support any DirectX 11.1 compatible GPU with at least 8GB of VRAM. PowerGPU founder Jese Martinez, who attended the preview event, claims he saw Squadron 42 achieve an average of 180 fps in native 4K on an RTX 5090, leveraging the game’s proprietary “StarAA” anti-aliasing solution. However, the game requires 150 GB of storage space.
Squadron 42 and Star Citizen have been in production at one level or another since 2011, which could explain the system requirements. There were repeated delays in both cases. While Star Citizen remains in alpha after $1 billion in crowdfunding, the solo spinoff’s content has been completed since late 2025.
Roberts had initially targeted a 2026 release in 2024, but recently used the impending release of Grand Theft Auto VI as an excuse for a further delay. Squadron 42’s Steam page now lists a release window for the second quarter of 2027, and a more specific date could be announced soon.
