Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order Review
Legacy Review
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Title: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Platform: PC Playstation 4/5 Xbox 1/X/S
Reviewed on: PC w/controller
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Release: November 15, 2019
Genre: Action, Adventure
It’s been a while since I gave a Star Wars game a try and I saw that Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order had a souls-like tag on steam, now me being the dark souls fan that I am, I thought I should check this game out. How souls-like is it? Is it going to be ridiculously hard, or just a couple mechanics thrown in? Well hang tight, and as Greez likes to say… we’re going for a ride.
Fallen Order takes place shortly after Order 66 in the Star Wars timeline. That was the eradication of Jedi and the destruction of their order, scattering the few survivors across the galaxy. The main protagonist, Cal, is one of those unlucky few. To hide his identity, he is working as a scrapper for the Empire until a few unavoidable events force Cal on the run again.
Thankfully he’s rescued by an odd couple with a ship, who need Cal’s abilities to accomplish their own mission. So, with a couple friends, a ship, and his freedom, Cal sets across the galaxy to help those in need and discover himself along the way.
The fighting mechanics in Fallen Order felt weak, equipped with only a lightsaber and the ability to push or pull with the force, Cal’s repertoire was not very complex when it came to fights. Some special moves could be unlocked through the story or the skill tree when meditating, but everything besides a simple swing would cost force. Now the special moves do a lot of damage, so it would make sense that they couldn’t be spammed without a cost, but it turned into a lot of button mashing until the force meter was full again. Cal isn’t all offense though, he does have a parry ability that, if time correctly, lowers the stamina of an enemy eventually leaving them open for attack.
There were a couple souls-like mechanics used in the game, but with a small twist that I thought was a brilliant change to the norm. First off, the meditation spots, that was where Cal would rest to save the game or spend XP on the skill tree. In a souls game anytime one would rest, everything respawns so it came with its own risk, but in Fallen Order there was an option to rest, refilling heals and health while bringing everything back to life. If Cal died, he would lose all xp down to the nearest skill point achieved so far, and to get the xp back he would have to do damage to whatever killed him so there was no rushing in to pick up xp and running away, he had to fight a little to get that xp back.
Fallen order was a decent sized game, with a few different planets to explore that could take hours looking for everything. One thing that really bugged me was the fact that there is no fast travel. None. At all. NO FAST TRAVEL! I can see for the sake of the story why the ability to fast travel may ruin some things, but they could block fast travel at certain points in the game and it would have been alright. Thankfully most of the hidden things were vanity items or some xp gained from an echo so I didn’t feel a need to have to go back and explore the world once I was done.
For the most part the game ran well. The only time I had some issues were on Kashyyyk, the cut scenes got a little choppy. And then on a different planet I found a spot where I kind of fell off the map but was respawned back in a falling position, so death was the only option. There were a couple places tough enemies could be cheesed because they could not leave a certain point, but that would be the players choice whether to exploit or not.
The game wasn’t terribly graphic, the only dismemberment being the hostile creatures Cal would fight, like cutting them in half or cutting a horn off. When fighting storm troopers, they weren’t cut up so the kids could watch the game. My youngest thought it was sad to cut a rat in half, until she saw how mean it was to me and felt it was deserved.
I had a difficult time getting into the game with the mechanics, but after about eight hours it started to feel better. I’m not sure if that was Stockholm syndrome or what, but the only redeeming quality of Fallen Order was the story, and the iconic Star Wars music of course. The game did offer a new game+ but I had no inclination whatsoever to start that up. Because of all this I’m going to through this game onto my bottom shelf. I got it on sale, and it feels like it was worth that. I would not pay more for this game.