The 10 best Star Wars games on PC
You wanna buy some death sticks?
Most of our Bestest Best lists cover one nice, tidy genre that makes ranking and comparing games lovely and straightforward. That's not so true with our list of the best Star Wars games. There are a lot of Star Wars games which cover a lot of genres, and comparing a Lego platformer with a racing game from over two decades ago is no easy feat.
Fortunately, I've whittled them down to a nice, digestible list of the 10 best Star Wars games you should play on PC today, the emphasis very much being on the word 'today'. This is not a list of the best Star Wars games of all-time. Rather, these are the games we'd recommend you play right now, perhaps in anticipation of the upcoming Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, or one of the many other Star Wars games developers Respawn et al are making right now. So, grab your glass of blue milk and a healthy serving of roasted Porg, and let's get stuck in.
Best Star Wars games
With the focus of our best Star Wars games being on what we'd recommend playing today, that means a lot of the great Star Wars games from yesteryear Dark Forces, X-Wing Alliance, TIE Fighter, and Jedi Academy have been stripped out. They all deserve honourable mentions, though (as captured in the video below, which we also made in 2019), and we'd still recommend checking them out if you're looking for a deeper, more complete look at Star Wars PC games.
Of course, there's always a strong chance that our picks are not the Star Wars games you are looking for. With that in mind, please do get in the comments and try to perform a Jedi mind trick while explaining your fave. Just don't be a stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder about it, okay?
10. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed isn't perfect, but it's a personal favourite. The roughly 10 hour campaign is filled with big, bombastic, and brutal boss battles that feels like Star Wars meets classic God of War. Even the QTEs, which might detract from the tension for some people, just add more flashy flips and force powers that never fail to make me grin.
While the story doesn't tread much new ground in the long run (every Star Wars story has a baddie that inevitably flips into a goodie at an integral moment), Starkiller's initial quest to hunt down scattered Jedi for Darth Vader feels particularly thrilling. Fighting grizzled masters like General Kota and Shaak Ti on higher difficulties so early in the campaign forces you to master every move, and sells the vibe of a sith acolyte who's desperate to prove their power. Also, look at Starkiller holding a lightsaber behind his back in the image above. That's a very cool stance.
9. Star Wars Episode One: Racer
Star Wars Episode One: Racer plops you in a podracer and sends you hurtling through ravines and around tracks as you compete to be the best racer in the galaxy. Let me tell you, podracing has never felt so good. It might look old, but the sense of speed is still incredibly real. Blazing around corners at breakneck pace is dangerous, so it demands focus and precision to come out on top. Or just to survive in general.
As you complete races, you earn credits that you can spend on podracer upgrades, introducing an incremental sense of progression that feels incredibly rewarding and takes Racer beyond the treacherous Boonta Eve Classic on Mos Espa. Of course, you can also just replay the race made infamous in The Phantom Menace, endlessly crashing into Sebulba in a desperate bid to win on the Tatooine wastes.
8. Star Wars: Squadrons
Star Wars: Squadrons was a lovely surprise at the end of 2020, bringing back the tactical combat simulator gameplay of Tie Fighters and X-Wings of old and making it look gorgeous. As you zip and soar around pockets of space filled with rubble or merchant space ports, you need to manage your speed, shield, and weapon systems to survive dangerous dogfight encounters.
The short Squadrons campaign quickly teaches you the ropes, but it's the multiplayer that forces you to become an ace pilot. Sure, sometimes you'll just get shot down unceremoniously, but the rare occasions in which you take a tight corner and slam the throttle into overdrive to blast forward towards your target are tense and terrific. Mastering those maneuvers and perfecting your loadout in the Dogfight and Fleet Battle modes are crucial to succeeding, and it all feels wonderfully cinematic.
7. Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic is not only one of the best Star Wars games on PC - it’s also one of the best MMOs. The Old Republic plops players into the KOTOR universe, and BioWare's narrative mastery takes full advantage of a setting that fans adore. You can choose from a bunch of class roles, each with their own individual storylines that force you to make choices, build alliances, and forge rivalries that shape your journey through a galaxy far, far away.
Like many other MMOs, The Old Republic has a subscription model that grants access to the full game for around £9 a month. However, you can play until you reach level 60 for free, allowing you to see the base game class stories and the first two expansions without spending a penny. If that all makes you fall in love, some of the best Star Wars storytelling lies in the following expansions. If you’re eager to dive into Star Wars for hundreds of hours, The Old Republic has you covered.
6. Star Wars: Republic Commando
I tend to say that regardless of the Star Wars content, lightsabers make something good. They're colourful laser swords that make cool noises. Very cool. Star Wars: Republic Commando is an FPS that doesn't need any of those laser swords, as it weaves the tale of a clone squadron without a single lightsaber in your inventory.
As the lead soldier of a clone squad, you'll need to fight with your fellow commandos to complete objectives. It's a tough gig, and the Geonosian baddies that plague the campaign force you to work together to survive. While those AI squad members can move and attack freely, you are also given control and can command them to follow set actions if needed. These include more objective-oriented actions, such as hacking a security door or blowing up an enemy ship, but you can also tell them to assault or defend a particular location. These orders prove essential if you want to survive some of Republic Commando’s later missions, forcing you to think like a leader if you want to reach the end.
5. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
My thoughts on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 have changed a lot over the years, but they were always filled with love. As a kid, I'd scream and panic as those pesky droids clanked ever closer to my command point while playing Conquest. Now, it's a very fun party game to play with pals, with everyone hopping into Heroes VS Villains to decimate each other with lightsabers. The real highlight, though, is the capital ship space battles, which haven't been rivalled since. Whereas its 2017 successor's Supremacy mode opts for a more linear take, the original Battlefront 2's space battles feel scrappy and unpredictable. All it takes to secure a surprise victory is one rogue soldier and a ship, and Battlefront 2 is worth playing for that mode alone.
As I mentioned in our 2005 Time Capsule, it's that heroic fantasy which Battlefront 2 nails. Whether you're playing as a literal hero charging around with your laser sword, or you're chucking time bombs on the core of a capital ship as a rogue pilot in space, you can become a one person army and pull off some fantastic feats. Sometimes you're a lightsaber-swinging Jedi cutting down droids, others an underdog pilot sacrificing themselves to destroy a Star Destroyer, but one thing is certain: Battlefront 2 will make you feel like a badass.
4. Star Wars Battlefront 2
Nope, we haven't just listed the same game twice. This is Star Wars Battlefront 2 from 2017. Admittedly, its disastrous launch went almost as poorly as Luke’s attempt at starting a new Jedi order, albeit with fewer attempts to kill his nephew. Fortunately, those who revisit this shooter five years on will find one of the best Star Wars games on PC. Whether you want to zip around in space, zap stormtroopers on the icy scapes of Hoth, or zoom around while swinging a lightsaber, Battlefront 2 has it all. Well, it doesn't have space battles to rival the previous entry, but it has everything else.
While the campaign isn’t much to shake a Wookie at, with a fairly bland series of levels that fail to tread any new ground, it’s the multiplayer and co-op modes that are must-plays. Walker Assault demands teamwork to win, and exchanging shots with enemy troopers feels particularly epic as AT-ATs stomp through the map.
If you’d rather play a hero power fantasy, hop into co-op with some buddies. You'll join a team of AI troops as you assault or defend a base while fighting an opposing army. They’re often quick battles, but they have all of the laser swords and one-liners that you’d expect when Jedi and Sith take to the field. Sometimes the difficulty can ramp up unexpectedly, but the tense battles that follow only make co-op more exciting. It's a brilliant mode that I can't stop playing, and it's a shame that many might not have experienced it, as co-op arrived in an update two years after its shaky launch.
3. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is like cracking open your toy box as a kid. Each movie offers five levels of tight platforming and some fun force-imbued combat that weave through the original saga pre-Disney. Chuck in some slapstick visual gags that made it much easier to digest the plot as a child, and I think The Complete Saga might be why I originally fell in love with Star Wars.
Running through the levels once is a blast in the not-so complete saga, but revisiting them in free play is where the toybox imagination really comes to life. Seeing Darth Maul, R2D2, Kit Fisto, and a Gamorrean Guard charge through the forest of Endor was a fever dream for little me, and unlocking all of the hidden secrets and extras with their powers rewards you for that fun.
While the more recent Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has better graphics that make for some stunning screenshots, its levels are mostly cut down to little more than a few quick puzzles, skipping the longer platforming missions that were Lego standard for so long. The Complete Saga lets you run through each movie in Lego form and gives the puzzles as the cherry on top, and it's a formula that I much prefer.
2. Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
From Taris to Tatooine and beyond, Knights of the Old Republic is a sprawling journey that captures the feeling of a true underdog adventure, which is what Star Wars is all about, right? Well, that and lightsabers, but KOTOR has those as well. Knights of the Old Republic is set thousands of years in the past, which rids it of almost any ties to the Lucas' Star Wars. That gives it lots of freedom to carve its own path through the galaxy. Sure, it still revolves around the Jedi and Sith and takes you to familiar -tooines, but the new setting and exciting twist make Knights of the Old Republic's story stand out.
More importantly, that story is your own, with a light or dark side meter that not only affects the powers you can learn, but also the ending you receive. When so many games are about capturing one aspect of Star Wars, such as flying ships, fighting in clone squads, or podracing, KOTOR goes for the feel of being in the Star Wars galaxy and is still worth experiencing today, almost two decades on.
1. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Like Disney animations that always need their animal pals to sell toys, Star Wars stories always need a good droid. It's commercialism, without a doubt. But also, have you considered that BD-1 is very cute and I want one? There's even a big LEGO one! Adorable robot companion aside, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-packed adventure that sends you through infamous Star Wars locales while battling equally infamous villains. While Knights of the Old Republic's RPG system lets you tell your own tale, Jedi: Fallen Order is a more linear adventure (which I personally prefer).
The excellent lightsaber combat looks flashy and feels ferocious, with tense battles forcing you to embrace the flow and learn the combos to feel like a Jedi master. It's a soulslike-lite that demands focus to succeed, with limited health stims and checkpoints making long-term survival feel incredibly satisfying. Taking further inspiration from FromSoft's greats, the maps weave together in classic Metroidvania style and hide plenty of brutal boss battles. The Inquisitors offer some luscious laser sword battles, but you'll also face off against a range of weird and wonderful Star Wars creatures. We won't spoil them all here, but Oggdo Bogdo is the worst and I hate it. But I love to hate it. Like Elden Ring's Morgott, but more of a massive toad.
If you like your Star Wars lore as much as gutting baddies with your lightsaber, then Fallen Order has plenty hidden away for fans of the force. Well-known allies and destinations await on your journey, and fans of animated series The Clone Wars will certainly find plenty that they recognise. Regardless of your prior knowledge of the war in the stars, though, Jedi: Fallen Order is just a fantastic third-person action-adventure that deserves your time. If you like it, the recently announced sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, means you won't need to wait long for more of that lovely B1 unit. Oh, and Cal is there too, I suppose? Maybe we could get a more interesting protagonist? Anyone?
If all these games have whet your appetite for more space adventures, then why not check out our list of the best space games on PC as well?
