Following the abysmal reception of Star Wars Battlefront II, fans have been questioning what kind of future Star Wars would have in EA’s control. When Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was revealed, fans were hopeful that these mistakes were in the past. Given Respawn’s involvement and a number of interesting design choices, it looks to be the game fans have been waiting for. With a seemingly well-written storyline, intense action and everything else Star Wars fans expect, does it live up to expectations or should you wait until Star Wars has a new publisher? Here’s our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sits right between the events of Episodes III and IV movies. With Order 66 in place that eliminates the Jedi across the galaxy, there are a few that manage to survive and one of them is the protagonist of the game, Cal Kestis. After being exposed to the Empire and with the help of Cere, he must travel across the galaxy in search of a “holocron” that shows the location of the remaining Jedi. Of course, as he journeys himself to a perilous journey running like a fugitive, the Empire will be after him, especially the game’s main antagonist, the Second Sister. With so many surprises and plot that the game has, Jedi Fallen Order has a good story that is worth checking until the end.
While trying to find the Holocron, Cal and Cere will travel in tosix planets along with Gris, the captain of the Mantis ship that you will be using. It is expected that the game can be finished in roughly twenty hours or so. The length of gameplay can be extended if you are a completionist as there are a lot of other things to do such as fully exploring the planets searching for lightsaber parts, or digging into the lore that rewards experience points.
Gameplay-wise, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is purely an action-adventure game. Playing through the twenty-hours of Cal’s journey, I see some similarities to his adventure with Nathan Drake of the Uncharted series and Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider games, except Cal wields a Lightsaber. Every area that you come across t will give you an easy puzzle to solve to progress to other areas, while there are times it’s really challenging that requires a little bit of thinking where some might find it too annoying. Unlike in past Star Wars or adventure games where the game offers a linear path when it comes to exploration, the six planets that you will get to visit will be massive, allowing you to explore it freely and find items that you can use. While some areas will be locked in early parts of the game, it will open up as Cal manages to learn more of his Jedi powers along the way. If there is one thing that I find annoying in the game, that would be the backtracking, which is aplenty.
As far as combat goes, it’s pure action where Cal will have to use his Force powers and a Lightsaber. With the ability to wield both single and dual-lightsabers, Cal can unleash devastating combos to his enemies. Adapting part of Souls’ mechanics in combat, Cal will find something similar to a bonfire where he can rest and use an ability points that he earns from taking down his enemies. Whenever he is rested, the game automatically saves and the enemies respawn. Think of it somewhat of a Dark Souls game but with a Lightsaber. Though comparing it to Dark Souls may mean it will be as hard, but it’s not. The game offers a decent difficulty under the normal game mode, which is dubbed as Jedi Knight. For those looking forward to a challenging playthrough, there’s also Jedi Grand Master mode where you will really have to master the combat by parrying, dodging, and hitting at enemies at the right time.
At the beginning of the game, you might find Cal to be a boring character to use in combat as he uses the same combos over and over again with his Lightsaber. Luckily, as you progress through the game and unlock powers through the main story, Cal unlocks more abilities that he can learn. When using the savepoint to rest, remember that you can use your points to learn several combos to make him tougher in combat. For every enemy that you take down, it fills up your experience bar gauge. Once it fills up, you gain an ability point. Be warned though – whenever you find yourself killed in combat, you will lose the experience points you earned but they can be earned back if you land a hit to that the enemy that took you down. Don’t worry about the ability points you already earned as those won’t be taken from you when you die – only those experience points you had before you can fill it.
As we all know, there are a lot into the Star Wars lore that you can explore and in Jedi Fallen Order it’s no different. Exploring through the planets will only give you more background as to what has been going on with the game. With Force Echoes that are scattered throughout the areas, you can learn more about the planet’s lore. It acts like an audio log that divulges information of what left it there. Aside from learning a lot of things about what had happened, you also gain experience points that can easily give you a boost in getting that ability point. As far as treasure, there are a lot scattered as well and getting them is a must if you want Cal to have a variety of outfit he can wear or even his BD-1 droid to use. Not to mention, you can change the design of the Lightsaber Cal is using by simply finding parts that are hidden in the game’s world.
With a planet so huge that you can explore, there will be a Holomap that you can use. Unfortunately, there are no fast-travel points in the game, thus you really have to either take a long way back or use the shortcuts you unlocked whenever you are tasked to return to your ship. Just note that whenever you are exploring or doing a mission, always look at your story objective or the map to find where you are going.
In terms of visuals, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks phenomenal. Playing it on PC with RTX 2080 and a 43″ 4K monitor from ASUS, I was able to max its setting and being able to manage to maintain at a steady 60-70 frames per second with HDR on. The environments look very detailed from the six planets, to the temples and other unique areas that you get to explore later on in the game. Using the Unreal Engine instead of Frostbite Engine, expect some performance issues here and there but it’s not game-breaking that detracts you from fully enjoying the game.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – Verdict
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the Star Wars experience fans have been waiting for. With several already considering it the best single-player Star Wars experience to date, there is plenty of reasons to be excited. From a captivating plot, challenging combat and plenty of secrets, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order makes up for previous disappointments.
[Editor’s Note:] Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was reviewed on the PC platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]