LucasArts did a great work to offer visuals that recreate the atmosphere of the Star Wars series. First of all, the 3D models of the spaceships are perfect. The possibility to zoom onto the spaceships makes the battles extremely convincing: with Star Wars: Starfighter the era of space simulators in which farthest ships were just a mess of pixels is over. During the game you can choose between a first person view and a cockpit view of your spaceship; the HUD remains the same, but it's just great to look at your own ship while fighting.
The textures used in the levels surprise for their great quality; they are always very defined and extremely realistic. While the missions that take place on the surface of the planets offer a spectacle of magnificent environmental effects (evident for example in the care used for the sky), in the deep space missions you'll see breathtaking visuals of planets, nebulae, supernovae and other wonders.
Anyhow, particle and light effects are probably the best element in the graphics of Starfighter. Explosions are amazingly realistic, and destroying enemies' spaceships you'll actually see them breaking into pieces that will float in the sky.
The only issue with the graphics of Starfighter are the occasional slowdowns, even if they never compromise the gaming experience. These slowdowns mainly occur when the number of spaceships on the screen becomes really elevated. Anyhow, Star Wars: Starfighter can be considered one of the most visually impressive games on the system.
