Thursday, December 21st 2017
System Requirements for Cloud Imperium Games' Squadron 42 Outed
Squadron 42 is the single-player, story-driven portion of the world's most successful Kickstarter project, Star Citizen. The game, which originally made use of Crytek's CryEngine, has made the move to Amazon's CryEngine-based Lumberyard engine, which should deliver impressive visuals as well. Squadron 42 is being sold in a standalone version costing $45, and for that price, Cloud Imperium games is promising an epic sci-fi story, populated by more than 10 hours of performance capture of top-tier actors like Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, and Gillian Anderson, just to name a few (Andy Serkis also makes an appearance, he who is one of the most talented performance-capture actors of our times.)
With all those features, you'd be forgiven for asking "But will it run Squadron 42'" out of your current or future hardware - especially considering the history of CryEngine-based games. however, the system requirements are at the same time vague and, for the most part, unimpressive. They call for Windows 7 through 10 (DX11 title), a DX11-capable graphics card with minimum 2GB VRAM, and 4GB strongly recommended, a quad-core CPU, and the outlier of this sample, 16GB+ of system RAM. An SSD is also strongly recommended for the experience, which isn't all that surprising considering Lumberyard's roots.
Source:
Squadron 42 Landing Page
With all those features, you'd be forgiven for asking "But will it run Squadron 42'" out of your current or future hardware - especially considering the history of CryEngine-based games. however, the system requirements are at the same time vague and, for the most part, unimpressive. They call for Windows 7 through 10 (DX11 title), a DX11-capable graphics card with minimum 2GB VRAM, and 4GB strongly recommended, a quad-core CPU, and the outlier of this sample, 16GB+ of system RAM. An SSD is also strongly recommended for the experience, which isn't all that surprising considering Lumberyard's roots.
31 Comments on System Requirements for Cloud Imperium Games' Squadron 42 Outed
And I'm going to circle back a little to the iron triangle rule. The rule says the quality of the project is constrained by the deadlines, the scope and the budget. In this case, we see there is simply no deadline (so no pressure on quality there), just constant scope creep with perpetual budget increase to compensate. It's hip to be anti-system these days and think that this project is simply revolutionary, but any project manager will tell you this is just a messed up setup. Sure, nice things can come out of chaos, too, but most of time they simply don't.
One thing I'm still not clear on... the bucket of junk space craft I get for my original $50 pledge... I'm assuming that is my starting point in the game. Can I acquire the amazing space crafts that higher paying pledgers might have spent hundreds on with my general progression through the game? If I can't get those ships or better ships, why would I play? If I can, I'm wondering if it was worth it for the people who pledged the big bucks through pledging.
This game is nearly 4 years behind schedule, has received nearly 50x MORE cash then was originally asked for, and all it has to show for it is pre alpha level gameplay and delay after delay. This game has now cost more to develop, and taken longer, then GTA V, one of the best selling games of all time. It has been split into two nearly separate projects. Squadron 42 has been delayed two times, and now has been delayed a third time, as it was supposed to be out at the beginning of December. The MMO shown maybe a year of effort, not 5-6. The company has been rife with accusations of mis use of funds and employees, and the game has been subject to horrific feature creep. Roberts has had a long track record of making products that went way over-budget and were horrible disappointments, both in product and sales, such as "lucky number sleven" and "whose your caddy".
When Chris Roberts shuts up knuckles down and delivers the space sim of our dreams, then I'll eat my hat. But I would be comfortable betting cash that star citizen, if it ever comes out, will be a massive disappointment, as it has shown every red flag for a mis-managed kickstarter disaster.