Stars Wars in the gaming universe has been both a disappointment and an unflattering joke for years now. It’s been incredibly hard to be a Star Wars fan and enjoy some good old fashioned Star Wars games due to some blunders from the dreaded EA in past games like the Battlefront series.
Many gamers have had to suffer from laggy matches, mediocre stories, broken progression systems, and many more in the Battlefront games. What was supposed to be the ultimate Star Wars experience for fans, has turned into a frustrating disappointment for many fans with the dark side of EA glooming over the Star Wars gaming community and not in a cool way.
After experiencing two crappy Battlefront games and the confusing and disappointing viewing of The Last Jedi in theaters, I had nearly given up on the future of the Star Wars franchise all together. However, Stars Wars: Jedi Fallen Order serves as a “New Hope,” if you will, to making Stars Wars an enjoyable and playable gaming experience again.
I’ll admit, despite how interesting the game looked when it was first announced, I had my doubts that this game was truly up to snuff. I couldn’t really put my trust in a game with EA attached to the name, but the force was calling me to play this game, so I went to my nearest Redbox and dived in.
After spending a few days playing through the campaign, I gotta say...the game is not bad. It’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s pretty darn good. Jedi Fallen Order revitalizes a great Jedi experience that players haven’t be able to truly appreciate since Star Wars Force Unleashed 2, which was released 10 years ago. It has a solid story, engaging combat, amazing scores, beautiful worlds that really fit into the Star Wars universe, and best of all NO microtransactions, loot boxes, or game breaking bugs at launch. It truly is strong with the force when it comes down to Star Wars games. So let's dive in and see what makes this game so great!
An Epic Star Wars Adventure Starts with One Jed
Jedi Fallen Order places you in the role of Cal Kestis, one of the few Jedi that escaped the purge of Order 66 in hiding from the Empire. Kestis works a hard life as a scrapper taking apart old crashed republic and separatist ships from the clone wars that the Empire recycles to create new imperial ships and artillery. However, after being discovered as a Jedi, Cal is hunted down by the Inquisitors, a regime orchestrated by the Empire to hunt down any straggling Jedi left behind after the Purge. After nearly being cut down by an Inquisitor known as the Second Sister, Cal is saved by some unknown saviors of the galaxy, Cere and Greez. Once they’re safe from the Inquisitors reach, Cere explains that her old master Edo Cordava hid a Jedi holocron on a distant planet, known as Borgano, that houses a list of the next generation of Force-sensitive children that could be the key to restoring the Jedi order. After some deliberation, Cal agrees to help Cere and Greez with finding the holocron and the quest of Jedi Fallen Order begins.
Jedi Fallen Order starts off strong and continues to hold and build that momentum throughout the entirety of the game’s campaign. With engaging bosses and plot twists, the game’s narrative never grows dull and continues to draw you in to play more. There are plenty of iconic movie-like moments that make you feel like you’re watching the next installment of a Star Wars film rather than playing a game. Given the track record of EA making competent Star Wars stories in the past, this is definitely a major step up.
A New and Interesting Cast of Characters
I found the characters of the game were all interesting, diverse and had their own motives for restoring the Jedi Order. Cal is a failed Jedi who couldn’t save his master during the Purge and is trying to find his destiny. Cere is a ex-Jedi Master who betrayed her padawan after revealing her location to the Empire going through vigourous torture and has to deal with the consequences of her actions, hoping to find some kind of redemption in restoring the order. Greez is a pilot with a gambling problem and acts like he’s only there for the credits, but grows to love the crew and comes face to face with his vices. And, of course, who could forget BD-1, the droid that accompanies Cal on his adventures through the galaxy.
BD-1 Is easily one of my favorite characters in this game. He’s a funny and loyal droid with a ton of personality to him. Like a lot of iconic droids in the Star Wars universe, BD-1 holds sensitive information that could save the galaxy, sparking the beginning of Cal’s journey.
Not only does BD help advance the campaign with his encrypted information, but he also helps Cal in many useful ways through his adventures. BD can scan the environment giving you lore about the different worlds you travel to. He can also open doors, overcharge panels, hack droids, and even give you stim packs that you can use to heal yourself in combat. BD-1 is so much more than another droid in the Star Wars universe.
He’s a true companion and I couldn’t imagine completing this game without him by my side. During the course of the campaign, I grew close to all the main cast of characters, even the antagonists of the story. Without spoiling anything, the game ends in an epic conclusion that is reminiscent of a true Star Wars ending and is honestly one of the best Star Wars narratives I’ve seen in years.
Beautiful and Expansive Worlds to Explore
No good Star Wars story is complete without some awesome worlds to discover and explore on your Jedi journey. Respawn does an excellent job in creating visually impressive environments of both familiar and new planets that Cal explores. From the dark and gritty atmosphere of Bracca to the lush forests of Kashyyyk, every world is beautifully constructed and fits perfectly within the Star Wars universe.
There are a total of 6 planets that you can to travel to, with 4 main ones you’ll be spending most of your time exploring. While there aren’t a lot of planets to explore, the game makes up for the lack of worlds with how vast and expansive each planet is. I was genuinely surprised of how much depth each of these planets had in exploration. Even the smaller planets you explore, are bigger than they seem. With so many nooks and crannies and collectibles to find you’ll spend hours and hours combing every corner of the world to get everything. From planet lore to customizable lightsaber parts, every bit of the world has something for you to discover.During my several visits to these planets, they’ve never seemed dull or had any area that were empty or tedious to get through.
Big Worlds, but No People
While Respawn did an amazing job with the level design of the different planets, I still wanted to explore more vibrant and busy worlds. Almost all the planets you visit are devoid of any kind of society besides imperial occupation.
One of the coolest parts of exploring the Star Wars universe is meeting interesting characters through your travels. However, you meet most of the main characters in the beginning part of the game and the characters you meet further in the campaign are brief and don’t have any real significance in the greater narrative of the game.
One of the cooler highlights of Fallen Order, was meeting Saw Guerra from Rogue One and being captured by a crime syndicate, known as the Haxion Brood, as a result of Greez’s gambling debts. However, there’s not a whole lot of face to face time with these different characters and, after a story mission or two, they become completely absent from the rest of the game.
I personally would have loved to have the Haxion Brood have more a presence in the campaign besides just breaking out of their prison. I think there was some missed opportunities to add that extra level of diversity and chaotic adventure into the Fallen Order’s campaign. As great as planets look and the different creatures and places you encounter, it feels a bit lacking without some key characters or even some background NPCs adding a bit more life to the galaxy.
An Intentional Combat System
If you’re hoping to unleash some awesome power like you did in the Force Unleashed games, then you might want to curb your expectations a bit. Cal’s fighting style isn’t nearly as fast-paced and sporadic as Starkiller’s. Fallen Order adopts the playstyle of the Dark Souls franchise making you deliberately think about every attack you land on enemies. Charging through the game swinging your lightsaber around like crazy is most likely just going to get you killed. The key to mastering your moves and feel like a true Jedi master is understanding your enemies moves and learning when to parry, dodge, and strike. It forces you to carefully read the situation and adapt accordingly, instead of just spamming buttons.
While I was a little disappointed I couldn’t mow down large groups of enemies and feel the thrill of being overpowered force wielder, I can still appreciate the flow of gameplay in this game. The fighting in Fallen Order, resembles a lot of the saber battles that took place in the original Star Wars movies. There were no fancy moves or crazy rapid attacks. In iconic battles between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader there was a lot of focus and deliberacy in each of their attacks knowing one wrong move could kill them. This game adopts this same kind of mindset in battles by playing with the Souls formula without making the combat seem dull or cheap.
As you advance in the game and start mastering your powers and abilities, you’ll soon be able to slice through waves of enemies parrying and dodging accordingly to stay alive. It combines the intentionality of the old school Star Wars movies and the fast paced and cool action of the Force Unleashed games to strike a nice balance in the force when it comes to combat.
Once you’ve mastered the ways of the Jedi, using your lightsaber attacks along with your force abilities makes you feel unstoppable.
A Lack of the Force in Boss Battles
The only issues I’ve had with the combat, is with the boss battles. The boss battles themselves are awesome. There’s a lot of unique main bosses that really invoke fear and power, making you very cautious when first approaching them. Whether it's the Inquisitors or giant beasts, Fallen Order doesn’t skip a beat when it comes down to creating intense boss battles. However, there’s a significant lack of force abilities that you’re able to use when fighting these epic opponents.
Several of the enemies that you fight in Fallen Order are masters of the force or giant creatures, so when you try using a force ability such as, force push or a lightsaber throw it’s pretty ineffective. When fighting the Inquisitors, for example, I’ll try to use a force push to give myself some distance, but they’ll just use the force to cancel out my attack and storm after me. With beasts, using force push or pull barely has an affect on them since they’re so massive. Really the only force ability that’s proven to be of any use in boss battles is the force freeze move, which slows down enemy movements giving me an opportunity to get a stim from BD or charge in for an attack.
Besides that, most of the time you’re just fighting using your lightsaber making you feel like you’re just playing another souls game rather than a Star Wars Jedi game. The force is pretty open when fighting regular enemies, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity for force usage in the boss fights portion of the game. There are some cool lightsaber clash moments where you have to rapid press a button to overpower your enemy, but I would have loved to engage in force clashes or use the force in my surrounding environment to throw objects at bosses, but the force was pretty absent during those times.
In fact, the bosses I fought, had no problem force pushing me away from them and using their full arsenal of powers against me. It was clear in these situations that the force was not strong with me, which was disappointing in feeling like a true Jedi Master.
Conclusion
Stars Wars: Jedi Fallen Order marks a step in the right direction for not only restoring the Jedi Order but also the Star Wars reputation in the gaming galaxy. Despite its fall backs such as, a lack of a thriving galaxy and performance issues, it delivers a great Star Wars experience with it’s noble story, diverse characters, and thrilling Jedi gameplay. Respawn has set the bar for a genuine Star Wars gaming experience and I hope other game studios who take on the IP take this game into account and strive to go above and beyond to grow the Star Wars universe. That being said I’d have to give this a solid 8/10. This has been the most enjoyable Star Wars game I’ve played since Force Unleashed and I definitely think it’s worth playing!
Dean Willms
~Gamer. Designer. Friend.
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