Electronic Arts Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order by Author’s Name

The game is surprisingly good and while I had optimism as a fan of Respawns Titanfall series combined with the underrated great single player campaign they delivered in Titanfall 2, EA has unfortunately been EA while on a bad run lately. There have also been issues with both Battlefront games so while the gameplay looked interesting in footage that was shown I feared a bait and switch. Luckily this is not the case as you feel like a powerful Jedi who escaped Order 66 and without spoiling too much of the plot seek redemption from your own guilt. The graphics are beautiful (although some NPC characters clearly have less detail) and with this being the last big name multiplayer title release for the year it ends 2019 on a high note.
The game is so much fun because it truly has the best light saber feel I have felt in any Star Wars game so far. I do wish there were some more force powers but honestly not too many makes the most sense within the context of the story and they are used well. The combat is great too and feels very satisfying especially when you execute some instant kill animations. A possibly helpful recommendation that helped me is take out the ranged attackers first before focusing on others.
The story is pretty good so far and the characters like your mentor Cere Junda and new droid BD-1 are well done. Without spoiling things there are also some cameos of Star Wars characters we know and references to other legendary Star Wars events. It feels like Respawn did a great job of taking elements of other great video game series and incorporating them into the game with their own spin. There is definitely a Souls feel to the combat with an importance placed on timing and blocking. I also love the instant kill reward if you time things correctly with an enemy. In no way would I say this game is as difficult as a Souls game but it has a challenge that can ramp up considerably (however after each “death” the game does not get even more difficult). The enemies do all regenerate on a level if you decide to heal yourself though. There is of course a skill tree as well to develop Cal over time. There are also clear elements of Metroid Prime when you move around the map and an Uncharted/Tomb Raider style adventure feel as you traverse certain areas. You will also definitely revisit previously unreachable areas on planets but it’s fun to go back to areas in planets with more power/skill and the shortcuts you unlock allow for a different path. The game feels very rewarding when you play through and pretty smooth with limited pop ins.
I hope we see more games in this series and that this is a sign of where EA’s future single players games will go. A quality experience not bogged down with microtransactions. I love this game and recommend it highly for any Star Wars or Adventure game fans or for any people who want a more forgiving Souls experience. It is actually hard to put down and I look forward to playing through it again on the highest difficulty.

To be honest, I already own this game digitally on Xbox One, and Steam. I just bought a copy for my partner’s grandfather’s birthday because he likes Star Wars, and space in general. That being said, I’ve played through the entire game some two and a half times. The graphics are great, and it runs buttery smooth even with the details turned up high! The combat is easy to learn, and fun to master, but never gets too repetitive because of the different ways to attack. On top of all this, the story is new, unique, and in depth. I haven’t had the luxury of playing the sequel yet because I prefer my Steam Deck for most games, and they haven’t optimized the sequel for Linux yet… but, this game is awesome altogether on its own.

10/10 Highly recommend!

Great game.

It feels like it’s been [ stares into the far distance ] many, many years since we’ve been graced with a truly well thought out, evocative, fun, single-player Star Wars game. Maybe the last one was The Force Unleashed, but even then … I just kind of found that game not in the spirit of Star Wars and too much like a generic slash ’em up action game.

Anyway, Fallen Order isn’t in that style. As a game, it’s not easily categorized. I’ve heard people compare this to Sekiro, but I haven’t played that one yet. Basically, you play as a Jedi fleeing THE LAW (the law here meaning Palpatine’s Inquisitors). The idea of the game play is simple, but ramps up throughout the whole game and continues to be challenging from beginning to end. There are no guns to use, but you do get some upgrades to your light saber over time, and a relatively simple skills tree that adds some new combat abilities, some of which are a must-have. But don’t fret too much about what to pick; as long as you invest time in looking for MOST of (like 75%) of the random collectibles, and you spend some time killing everyone in your way, even when you pass through a previously cleared area that respawned the baddies, you should be able to grab nearly all, if not all, of the options.

The game itself is solidly in the middle between a through-and-through linear story, and offering the player some choices. By that I mean you can decide fairly early on how fast you want to blast through the campaign; you can choose to bounce back and forth between 4 worlds and grab some XP, collectibles, and discover a few other things independently of your primary objective. But doing this really doesn’t impact the story, or who shows up and when, or who you fight or don’t fight, anything like that. So it’s closer to an illusion of choice than anything like Mass Effect levels of variability. Still, it’s a nice design decision.

Combat for this game seems to make people love the game as a whole, or hate it. Personally, I loved it. I found it to be solidly in the range of “challenging to the point I was cursing repeatedly at being absolutely squashed for the 12th time, but satisfying in that there were clearly ways to defeat the enemies that didn’t rely entirely upon luck”. Truly, combat in this game requires patience, intellect (IE, studying your opponent’s attack patterns, their style of combat, little things like that), excellent timing, and using the full range of your character’s combat abilities. There are four levels of difficulty, each of which clearly advertise what they change, and I played at the 2nd hardest level. It was a challenge, but a fun one. At no point in this game can you just go super-hero and run through a group of bad guys, laying waste to everything, and coming out the other side with barely a scratch. Even groups of lowly, basic Stormtroopers can kill you, because blocking blaster shots is not automatic, and blocking each shot uses up a “stamina” meter (although you can improve various attributes to blocking as part of your character’s skill tree). Additionally, ranged weapon enemies frequently fire in staggered order; IE, you can’t just wait for them to shoot all at once, block a wave of shots, and then rush in. And as you get further through the story, the range of enemies you’ll face, not all of them being Imperial, will get more challenging, each having different types of attack patterns, speed, and vulnerabilities (so once again, forget about just rushing and chaining an endless series of hack-and-slash attacks; not happening). I think the enemy type that I hated most was a surprise cameo by the interrogation droid from Rogue One, which basically just rushes in, does an unblockable power attack, then body slams you, sapping nearly half your health each time, and like 90% of the time I’d always over-extend my own attack and forget about this droid’s insane abilities.

Finally, story in this game is pretty good. It’s an original idea, with a surprising lead villain, and lots of cameos, homages, and call-outs to fans of all things Star Wars. Two of the planets you visit are unique to this game, but you also see Dathomir and Kashyyyk, and also … a planet that may or may not be the one used to create Starkiller base in Episode VIII. In any case, no real big surprises or twists, and sometimes things are a little hard to follow given the ability to meander around on various planets at your own leisure before bothering with the primary objective. I found the cast of characters to be wonderfully diverse and not at all like the typical people found in Star Wars stories. The protagonist, Cal Kestis, is refreshingly young but capable, driven, and morally set in his ways. The events that drive the story are a little forced and murky, but getting to play at Star Wars: Tomb Raider Edition is pretty fun. And the ending is a little weird with a completely unnecessary and artificial cameo. But I found the very last scene of the game to be satisfying, and hopefully the beginning of a sequel (don’t worry, the game doesn’t end on a cliffhanger; the story as presented has a clear beginning, middle and end).