- Star Wars Jedi : Fallen Order
- Rated T
- Respawn Entertainment
- Xbox One, PS4, PC
- Unreal Engine 4
- Release: November 16, 2019
- Purchased personal copy on Xbox One X
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place during the time between Episode III and IV. In the aftermath of Order 66, you take control of Cal Kestis, a former Jedi Padawan on a quest to survive the Empire’s quest to hunt all Jedi.
The basic combat loop is similar to Dark Souls, in which you slowly make your way through an area defeating enemies that can provide a good challenge. While Fallen Order doesn’t incorporate an equipment buffs/debuffs system, it does include a stamina/poise system with refillable health stims. Each section of combat is broken up with rest areas known as meditation points. Here you can bank earned xp and assign earned talent points. Resting will refill your health packs, force meter, and respawn most enemies.
With enough XP, you can earn skill points to upgrade Cal through three paths. The force path will give you more force points and upgrade any powers you have unlocked. The lightsaber path will unlock new combat abilities. The survival path will give upgrades to health and other defensive abilities.
Outside of combat, the game includes an exploration system akin to Tomb Raider. Each map you travel to is filled with areas and paths locked behind the next ability upgrade. The game rewards exploration with extra bits of lore and customization options. You have the ability to customize Cal’s wardrobe, lightsaber, and ship. Most of these options are purely cosmetic and offer no gameplay bonuses, aside from finding more health stims.
While I’m not a big fan of the Souls games, Fallen Order is a blast to play. Through my playthrough on Jedi Master difficulty, this game doesn’t hold your hand. Aside from the basic tutorials, the game doesn’t shove hints and solutions in your face. It nutures the idea that the player is competent can think for themselves. Even in puzzle situations, the game doesn’t highlight every puzzle piece in gold nor does it immediately tell you the end goal. If you take enough time however, the game will ask if you need a hint. The only other break is on platforming. Where if you miss a jump, it only penalizes you a fraction of health instead of the respawn screen.
The movement system is very polished, running around the world feels great. Respawn Entertainment continues their reputation in having very fluid and fun movement systems. Chaining wallruns, jumps, and rope swings makes you feel like the agile Jedi you are. Each area has a nice variety of enemies and puzzles to solve. There are also optional paths to explore throughout the game. Exploration is rewarding, but trying to retread the entire map to 100% the game is a pain. Some maps eventually turn to spaghetti with new abilities unlocking new routes that add more map density. This makes trying to figure out your path difficult and not worth the headache of trying to remember which route you took to get to this specific part of the map.
Combat is challenging from start to end, but you earn alot of tools at your disposal that can give you the edge in battle. Where in the beginning, a single large crab creature can pose a significant threat and by the end you’re chaining combos, force powers, dodges, and parries on groups of enemies. Defeating enemies is exciting and finding the flow of complex Jedi combat is something that hasn’t really been done since The Force Unleashed. Like Cal, you eventually grow into becoming a more competent Jedi. While tough, I feel that it is very fair. Seldomly did I find myself saying that something was cheap. I also never found myself wanting to turn the difficulty down just to pass a section. Every death handed to me was from something I knew I could overcome the next time I tried.
Narratively, the game is great as well. Cal’s journey is filled with great characters and fantastic settings. Exploring a dark time of the Jedi that hasn’t been fleshed out too much in canon is refreshing. Going off the beaten path will reward you with extra bits of lore through Cal’s special ability to read the past from force echos or items with strong connections to the force.
Graphically, the Unreal Engine does a great job at rendering the Star Wars universe, especially in 4k on Xbox One X. The game will however, dip in frame rate and chug for brief moments in later stages. Another gripe I have is the occasional twitching of certain fabrics and strands of hair. While both are small, it is very distracting when it does happen it can pull you out of the moment. There is a performance mode in the settings that should stabalize the frame rate but it locks the game at 1080 instead of 4k. The game does a good job at hiding loading screens, though occasionally if you try to return to a previous section of a level too quickly after entering a new one, you are met with the game pausing itself to reload the section.
Overall
Fallen Order is a fantastic game but is blemished by a few problems. These small gripes though aren’t enough to overcome the great gameplay and a fantastic story.
- +Great Challenging Combat
- +Fantastic story
- +Great upgrade system
- +Doesn’t hold your hand
- -Few technical problems
- -Retreading areas can be a pain
Codigo Aztecha 