Cloud Imperium Games’ ambitious sci-fi adventure Squadron 42 is now available to wishlist on Steam, giving players another way to keep track of the upcoming single-player game ahead of its planned Q2 2027 release. Set in the Star Citizen universe, the cinematic space epic combines large-scale space combat with a story-driven campaign featuring an impressive cast of film and television actors.
Set in the year 2945, Squadron 42 follows a rookie recruit in the United Empire of Earth’s Navy as humanity faces mounting threats from hostile alien forces and outlaws. What begins as a journey through military service soon places players in the middle of a conflict that could determine the Empire’s future, with their decisions, relationships, and performance helping shape their path through the ranks.
Rather than focusing exclusively on piloting spacecraft, the game aims to deliver a broader military sci-fi experience. Players will take part in intense space battles, ground-based combat missions, stealth operations, and quieter interactions with fellow crew members aboard a massive capital ship. Cloud Imperium Games is looking to combine blockbuster-scale action with a more personal story about the people caught up in an interstellar war.
Squadron 42 also boasts a substantial ensemble cast, including Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Andy Serkis, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, and Ben Mendelsohn, among others. Using performance capture, the actors bring the game’s characters to life through performances that extend beyond traditional cutscenes and are integrated into the interactive experience.
Although it shares its setting with Star Citizen, Squadron 42 is designed as a standalone single-player adventure rather than another multiplayer-focused space experience. While Star Citizen centres on an evolving online universe, this campaign follows a more focused narrative, taking players across spacecraft, space stations, frontier outposts, and active battlefields as they discover their place in the conflict.
The game is powered by StarEngine, Cloud Imperium Games’ proprietary technology, which the developer is using to deliver detailed environments, realistic characters, and transitions between cinematic sequences and gameplay. With its combination of space combat, ground operations, and performance-driven storytelling, Squadron 42 is aiming to bring a Hollywood-style science-fiction epic into an interactive format.
Squadron 42 is planned for release in Q2 2027 and is now available to wishlist on Steam.