My first impression on playing Star Wars: Squadrons was simply being pleased by the way they handle diversity in what your character can look like, without overthinking it. There are 20 heads/faces you can choose from (for your 2 characters). Only 4-5 of those I would consider Caucasian. There are more Asian-ish faces to choose from than Caucasian! I feel seen.
And there’s a good gender ratio, which I can’t even determine exactly because maybe 4 of the faces are pretty androgynous and could go either way, which is even better! And they’re not labelled male/female or in separate columns etc.. it’s kind of random and they’re all labelled “human.”
Plus you can choose any voice (which are also not labelled male/female, but “A” and “B”).. so nothing stops you from having a more female-looking character with a more male-sounding voice, etc. And the bodies are “unisex” which makes sense ‘cause you’re just gonna be wearing a lumpy pilot suit the entire game, so no need to get all fancy. (So are the character name suggestions.)
PLUS, there is supposedly a non-binary character (non-playable but part of the story) later in the game, who uses “they/them”, and who is voiced by a non-binary actor!
Never thought I’d see the day when I wouldn’t be forced to choose between the strapping hero dude and the busty femme fatale! Now I can just play as a person and focus on pew-pewing targets down and not crashing into space debris.
