Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review!

Star Wars is a science fantasy adventure space opera with charming gunslingers, epic music and space wizards. There, all of Star Wars summarized within a single sentence. But with all due seriousness, it really is a special series, having inspired an entire generation with a mixture of technical innovation, world-building that could compete with J.R.R. Tolkien himself, and some really cool sword fights.

So today we're talking about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, an action-RPG Star Wars game that sold itself on a simple concept. It's a good, SINGLE PLAYER modern Star Wars game made be EA. Seriously, this game is so unlike everything EA has made in the past decade that if it wasn't for their logo being plastered in the corner of the box art, I'd assume this game was made by someone else. Though, technically, it was. It was developed by Respawn, a dev team mostly known for its Titanfall series... Which is also nothing like this game. So we have TWO game companies stepping outside their comfort zone! And all it took was EA releasing a shooter game so controversial it caused them to scrap their entire business model. Anyway, Fallen Order had some strange advertisement. All the pre-release footage highlighted the platforming and speed of combat, making the game look similar to Uncharted. But Respawn stated repeatedly that their biggest inspirations for Fallen Order's game play style was both the Metroid series and, without a hint of irony, the Dark Souls trilogy. As someone who has played through the entire game, fought every boss, explored every area, and collected (almost) everything there is to collect, I can confirm that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is, in fact... A game that combines the exploration and power ups of Metroid with the methodical, precise combat of Dark Souls. So the dev team was right, which makes the marketing campaign making the game look like a linear Uncharted style game more baffling.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order tells the story of Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Padawan who managed to survive the Jedi Purge/Order 66. Passing himself off as a humble shipyard worker, he lays low and disconnects himself from the Force for five whole years. But when his best friend's life gets thrown in danger, Cal instinctively uses the Force to save him from a lethal fall. This act of kindness blows Cal's cover, his friend is executed anyway, and he has no choice but to team up with a shady duo of rebels to survive the brutal regime of the Sith Empire. One of said rebels, a woman named Cere, is also a survivor of the Purge, and plans to atone for her sins by tracking down an artifact that one of the old Jedi Masters left. So together with Cere, a sassy pilot named Greez, and an adorable utility droid known as BD-1, Cal travels the length of the Star Wars universe with the goal of one day rebuilding the Jedi Order. But they must watch their backs and cover their tracks, for the Sith Inquisitors led by the mysterious Second Sister will be hunting them down with no mercy.

This bat thing is literally just a Dark Souls boss in all but name

The story is actually really good. And I can confirm that it is leaps and bounds better than Last Jedi. And no, I will not stop treating Last Jedi like it is the root of all evil, because at this point, trashing on Last Jedi's story is a permanent meme here. But in seriousness, I like Cal as a character. At first I didn't care for his design, but the more I played, the more it grew on me. But the main reason why I like Cal is because his story arc is a rather unique take on "survivor of the Jedi Purge" stories. And believe me, when your favorite franchise has 40+ years of background lore and side stories to delve into, you notice a few trends. Namely, a lot of the side stories tend to focus on Jedi Purge survivors. But to the extent of my knowledge, none of them really examine the psychological effects that living through such a genocide would bring. Except for Cal. He's still hurting from the guilt of watching his Master die without being able to do anything to stop it, and his fear of re-experiencing that trauma is what handicaps his connection to the Force. This is reflected in game play as Cal starting out with only one Force technique; Slow. As he progresses on his adventure, he starts opening up, eventually coming to terms with his past and becoming both physically and spiritually more powerful than ever. Which is reflected in his Force abilities expanding to more complicated techniques, such as Force Push and Pull, advanced athletics, and more.

I also liked pretty much all of the supporting characters. Greez is a funny comic relief character with a gambling addiction, but as the adventure grows, he too opens up, and reveals himself to be a lonely little space alien in need of some friends. Cere is the closest thing Cal has to a mentor, and is still recovering from her Purge-induced trauma herself. Much later on, the gang recruits Merrin, a Nightsister of Dathomir (basically a space witch) who wants to avenge her people, who were butchered in the same Purge that wiped out the Jedi. Really, a lot of the characters in this game deal with past trauma. I guess that is otherwise known as the Central Theme. BD-1 is the odd one out here, though given that his previous owner erased his memory, that should be a given. Also, BD-1 might my be new favorite droid. He's adorable, and insanely helpful, like all Utility Droids should be.

The game play in Fallen Order is actually rather brilliant. Combat is precise, intense, and requires you to be aware of your surroundings at all times. It can, at times, be really challenging (not sure how hard it is compared to its inspiration, as I have never played a Dark Souls game myself), though the game never really felt unfair or broken. I would advise against button mashing. This is not The Force Unleashed. You're not invincible. In fact, this game seems to strongly encourage a defensive play style. Cal can block almost any attack in the game (attacks that can't be blocked are telegraphed by a red flash). If you tap the block button right before an attack hits you, Cal will preform a parry, stunning his opponent or even reflecting projectiles back at their source. Learning how to do parries is essential, since stunned enemies take more damage, and until you get the Saber Throw ability, parrying projectiles is Cal's only real way of fighting at a distance. I know this is a lot to take in, but when you get a hang of the controls, it manages to strike that perfect balance of delivering the Jedi Knight Power Fantasy without making you so strong it feels unfair. I will say that the Force powers present and usable are on paper quite limited, but you can use them is some really creative (and brutal) ways. Example, you can use Force Slow to freeze an Imperial Stormtrooper's blaster fire in the air, and then Force Pull him into his own projectiles to dispatch him. Or using the Saber throw to bring down a Probe Droid and, as it is self-destructing, Force Pushing it into another enemy, destroying them both.

The exploration in Fallen Order is also enjoyable, but not perfect. You only have access to five (six if you count the final boss's lair, which cannot be revisited upon beating the game) planets from the Star Wars universe. And while that number may seem low, the maps and areas on those planets are so enormous and full of detail and secrets that it more than makes up for it. And surprisingly, there isn't a single appearance of Tatooine, Hoth, or Coruscant, the three most iconic planets in the series. I am happy with the planets they chose. Between The mountainous vistas of Zeffo, the overgrown jungles of the Kashyyk, the grotesque wasteland of Dathomir, Fallen Order has a lot of places that are simply fun to run around and explore.

Fallen Order's biggest highlight, at least for me, were the boss battles. All of the bosses in the game are tough, and require you to pay attention to attack patterns that shift as the battle progresses. My favorite boss would have to be Taron Malicos, a Jedi Purge Survivor driven mad by the Dark Side of the Force. He dual-wields a pair of red Lightsabers, moves with more speed and agility his age would imply, and can use almost all the same Force Powers you can, but turned up to eleven. He can throw one of his sabers and pummel you with melee attacks while the saber is spinning like a boomerang behind you, forcing you to divide your attention from Malicos to the saber coming towards you, lest you get literally back-stabbed. He can grab a bunch of debris from the surrounding area and throw them all, either one at at time or all at once. And what makes this fight better (in my opinion) is that during the second stage, Merrin will help you, peppering the deranged former Jedi with projectiles while you catch your breath. I love this boss battle, and I also like Malicos as a character. He's a creepy old man who became disillusioned by the Jedi Order shortly before the Purge, and wants to use the Dark Side to rebuild the Order. Malicos is perhaps yet another character dealing with trauma, but unlike the rest of the cast, he is unable to move on, and despite claiming to want to build a better future, it seems even more stuck in the past than Cal.

You notice how I said that the game wasn't perfect? That's because there are a few flaws that I noticed. The biggest negative I have with the game goes back to the huge maps. They are great for exploring, and running around in them is fun... But if you wanted to backtrack for all the collectible items (such as color schemes for BD-1 or new ponchos to customize Cal), those huge maps become a pain to navigate. Don't get me wrong, they're great the first time around. And if the game had some kind of fast travel system in place it wouldn't be as bad. But aside from using Greez's Star ship (the Mantis) to travel from planet to planet, it doesn't have anything of the sort. This is especially bad on Kashyyk and Dathomir, the two largest planets in the game. They both have a lot of goodies on them, but said goodies are spread out really far, sometimes on exact opposite ends of the map. On more than one occasion, I wondered why you couldn't warp between Meditation Circles (the game's equivalent of save points). They are spread out enough that you could feasibly cover a lot of ground and save a lot of time.

The other main flaw of Fallen Order is that the game is a little rough around the edges. At least when it comes to the behind the scenes technical stuff. Most glitches and hiccups are minor annoyances without too much consequence. However, one glitch I myself encountered (which has thankfully been patched out in a free update) would make it if you die to a certain optional boss, and run back to where the boss is supposed to show up, it won't spawn at all. Ergo, you can't beat the boss if you die to it because it disappears forever. Again, this boss is optional and can be skipped over, but if you're a completionist who likes seeing the number 100% on your save file, this will rob you of that satisfaction.

On the subject of technical hiccups, while the game does run at a smooth 60 frames per second (on PS4, frame rate quality will vary based on system), said frame rate dips on Kashyyk. It doesn't seem to dip anywhere else in the game, in my experience, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce why. Kashyyk is the largest planet in the game. And it has a lot of individual rooms. From what I understand, the reason this planet specifically has such a reduced frame rate is because the game is trying to load in the entire map at once, instead of loading each area one at a time. Of course, as a single player story-focused RPG, frame rate isn't that big of a deal. The game is still playable, and even enjoyable, but I dread having to do anything on Kashyyk because the reduced frames make it feel like you're moving in slow motion. And not in a cool, action movie kind of way, more in a tedious, overlong way.

But let's talk about my favorite planet in the whole game; Dathomir! This planet is AMAZING. You can actually visit Dathomir very early in the game, as soon as you get access to Greez's ship. If you come to this planet as soon as possible, there's not much here to do on top of all the enemies here hitting like trucks. But if you are willing to look around, you can find a workbench containing a permanent upgrade for Cal's Lightsaber. With the push of a button, your saber can switch from a single blade to a Darth Maul style Saber-Staff. Which not only looks awesome, but is surprisingly practical. Single Blade mode is slower and can only hit on target at a time, but deals more damage. Staff mode is faster, can hit multiple enemies at once, and gives you a better parry. Depending on what difficulty you're playing, the difference in damage is negligible, so you can get away with rolling with whatever mode you like more personally (I used Saber-Staff constantly in my play through, because Saber-Staves might be my favorite weapon in the Star Wars universe). Plus, I just like the lore and aesthetic of Dathomir, being a wasteland corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, causing the plants and wildlife itself to become twisted perversions of what they're supposed to be. Heck, the Nightsisters are Force Users just like Jedi and Sith, but their version of the Force is so eldritch comparatively that it looks like a completely different magic system. I may not know much about Dark Souls (I know about as much as someone who hasn't played can know, thanks to the Power of Google), but even I can tell that Dathomir wouldn't be out of place in that game series. Horrific wastelands and eldritch magic is practically Dark Souls' bread and butter. But at the same time, it works surprisingly well with the preexisting Star Wars canon.

Nobody expects the Sith Inquisition!

In regards to presentation, this is a beautiful game. The environments are well-designed (even Kashyyk, for the most part), the character design is on point, and the lighting (ESPECIALLY on the Lightsabers) is perfect. The only real negative I have to say is that the facial animals on the human characters can sometimes look a little... Off. Cere is the biggest offender. Her eyes seem to be a bit too large in relation to the rest of her facial features. Of course, this negative is rendered slightly moot by the fact that Cere's voice actress, Debra Wilson, looks like that in real life, and all of the human characters' faces were designed to emulate the likeness of their respective voice actors (granted, it isn't as pronounced on Wilson's real life face as it is on Cere). I also take some issue with Cal's sprinting animation, which looks unusually stiff compared to his other animations. Seriously, the same guy that can twirl a sword/staff with blades made of literal laser beams with the grace and stylish flair of Robin Hood and Zorro combined runs like he has weights taped onto his wrists and ankles. Admittedly, I might be nitpicking, but still, for such a well-animated game, Cal's running animation (when his Lightsaber is sheathed) sticks out like a sore thumb. On a more positive note, you can customize Cal's Lightsaber! And the customization is flexible enough that you can make some really cool looking Sabers. I don't know why Lightsaber customization makes me happy, but it does.

Oh yeah, Saw Gerrara makes a cameo when you first visit
Kashyyk

The music and sound design is perfect. I have literally nothing bad to say here. The hiss the Lightsabers make when activated is here. The sound blasters make when fired is here. And the music fits right in the signature orchestral style that John Williams created all those years ago. The voice acting is also really good. Cameron Monaghan brings life to Cal Kestis, Elizabeth Grullon kills it as the Second Sister, and Danial Roebuck gives Greez a kind of snarky wit. Those are the highlights for me, but everyone else did a great job as well. Then there's a scene towards the end of the game, and you hear an all-too-familiar theme rise amidst mechanical wheezing. I won't spoil it too much, but anyone with at least passing knowledge of Star Wars knows what I'm referring to.

In conclusion, Fallen Order is a great game that is admittedly rough around the edges. But the things it does well, such as the story, combat, and exploration are good enough to outweigh the game's flaws. It has potential, and should EA realize that this kind of game works for them (and more importantly, them realizing why it works), I can see a whole series of video games inspired by Fallen Order's mechanics and story. Even for people who aren't that into Star Wars as a franchise, it's still a great standalone adventure that serves as a good entry point into Dark Souls-inspired adventure games. Possibly even Dark Souls itself. With that being said, I give Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 8 traumatized Jedi Padawans out of 10.