Harry Situation Reviews: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Well EA kept true to their word. They actually made a really good single player Star Wars game with no microtransactions or loot boxes. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a new single-player, story driven, action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment (the company behind the Titanfall series) and published by the ever infamous empire that is EA.

Set five years after Revenge of the Sith, a young Jedi named Cal Kestis is on the run, being hunted by the Galactic Empire, until he meets up with the crew of a ship called the Mantis. A four-armed pilot named Greez and a former Jedi named Cere Junda. Together they set out on a quest to seek out a Jedi Holocron that contains a list of force-sensitive children, hoping to use it as a means to rebuild the Jedi Order. Along Cal’s journey he meets and teams up with an assortment of characters such as an adorable droid named BD-1, the rebel terrorist Saw Gerrara from Rogue One, a crazed Dark Jedi named Taron Malicos, and the nightsister Merrin; and tries to fight off against the Empire and their Jedi-hunting Inquisitors, the Second and Ninth Sister.

Right off the bat I had low expectations of this game. This was devoloped by EA after all, and they really haven’t had the best track record for Star Wars games lately. But with all the good press it’s been getting, and the fact that I got it for Christmas, I decide to give it a shot. And, yeah, I enjoyed it. Can I call this the best Star Wars game? Ehhhh, that’s a stretch.

Alright, let’s dig into the positives first. First off, the story is really good and written so well. I don’t think I’ve ever played a Star Wars game so engaging since the KOTOR series. The more I played the more I started to like each of these characters. Yeah, I like Cal. I like Cere. I like the Second Sister. But my favorite is BD-1. I don’t know why. He’s just adorable and a pal. What’s with modern Star Wars making cute shit these days? Whatever the reason is I hope they don’t stop.

The graphics are pretty damn good too. It really does make the player feel like they are a part of this universe.

This is also a very combat heavy, challenging game to play. Think of it like Dark Souls in the Star Wars Universe, that’s how difficult the game is. You battle against various different stormtroopers with your lightsaber. It’s cool to easily take down simple stormtroopers with blasters, but then you get into the ones with melee weapons and that’s where the fun begins. You can enter a different combination of buttons for some sick combo moves, use your force abilities, and block their attacks, however, you have to be strategic when it comes to combat. Your most important mechanic is to parry, which is a perfectly timed lightsaber block that gives you an opportunity to strike back. Getting to master the parry is a challenge on its own. Even I slip up every now and then. But once you master it you can deal some serious damage to your enemies and boss fights. A fair warning, some melee enemies will deal out a heavy attack that you cannot block or parry. It’s best to try and dodge out of the way or, if you can, attack before they can hit you. And don’t forget use your force powers like Force Push and Force Stasis during combat. That’ll help with most enemies.

On top of fighting the Empire, this games also has a very Tomb Raider/Metrovania feel. There’s plenty of platforms and areas for you to roam around and explore, and plenty of collectibles to find in hidden spots. The games doesn’t make it easy for you. Some of these hidden gems are beyond your reach until you learn the proper force power, which you unlock through flashbacks during Cal’s time as a Jedi Padawan during the story.

Now let’s talk about the issues. It’s not a game developed by EA without some technical bugs, and this game has its fair share. One thing I’m constantly noticing, especially during the cutscenes is the framerates are a second behind so it takes a second for everything in the foreground to look visible. I’ve also noticed moments where it looks like Cal and a few enemies are slowing sinking into the ground but thankfully it doesn’t happen often.

There’s plenty of collectibles to find in the game, but even that felt really limited too. Your basic collectibles in this game are different lightsaber hilts that you can use to design your lightsaber, along with different color crystals, different colors for your ship and BD-1, and different ponchos. Yeah, because nothing says Star Wars quite like ponchos. If a sequel is made I'm hoping there will be more and better collectibles than what I got in this game. Not that they are bad or anything, but I would like a little more.

But I think my biggest issue with the game, for me, is the skill tree. You can access it at savepoints and spend your well earned points you get when you gain experience. My problem is that the number of skills you can purchase feels limited. I was hoping to unlock different combo moves that’ll give you a edge in combat, but it doesn’t have that. In the game, you can switch out between wielding a single blade lighsaber to a double-bladed lightsaber like Darth Maul. Okay, that’s pretty boss. But even then that doesn’t offer enough attack skills. Same with the different force abilities you unlock. There's only a small addful of power abilities and combat moves you can unlock. Later in the game when you make your lightsaber so it can go from a double-bladed into two seperate blades, I thought that would unlock some extra lightsaber moves, but no, there's a skill you can purchase that's basically an attack move that makes so you can have two lightsabers. Considering that you can have three different lightsaber styles in the game you should different skill sets for which ever combat style you're comfortable with. If you wanna do single hand there should be skills for that. If you wanna do double bladed there should be more skills for that. Maybe that's something that'll be fixed in the sequel, if it gets a sequel. We'll see.

Overall, Jedi: Fallen Order is a pretty fun and challenging game. It looks like EA put some actual effort into making this game versus making a shitty game with a shit-ton of loot boxes. And this is the company that said "nobody plays single player games anymore". Hopefully EA can continue this in the sequel, and I'll be ready to fight off the Empire in a galaxy far, far away.

Positives:

-Story and writing

-Challenging combat

-Gorgeous graphics

-Great characters

-Puzzles and exploring

-Pure Star Wars fun

Negatives:

-Typical EA bugs

-Skill tree

-Limited collectibles

Final Grade: B

So those are my thoughts on Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order. Have you played it yet? What were your thoughts on it? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

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