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With the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor being just around the corner, I decided to dust off Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Deluxe Edition from my backlog and give it a go. Fallen Order is a Soulslike Metroidvania action-adventure game that was influenced by the popular Dark Souls games and the Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy. If you’re a fan of these games (and presumably also a fan of Star Wars), chances are you’ll enjoy Fallen Order to some degree.
Fallen Order is a great game. I grew up playing the Star Wars Jedi Knight game series, so it’s hard for me not to compare this game with great titles like Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and Jedi Outcast. There’s great emphasis on lightsaber combat in Fallen Order, giving players more control over lightsaber offensive and defensive moves. It’s very gratifying and empowering to manually deflect each blaster bolt at the press of a button in Fallen Order than to have it done passively for you as in the older games.
Players also get to visit multiple planets, each with its own unique terrain and colour palette. You start off at a scrapyard planet that serves as the tutorial level, then you’re whisked off to one with mesas and seemingly bottomless canyons. This is followed by a planet with snow-capped peaks and caves, then one of lush forests disturbed by lifeless Imperial structures, before landing on a planet with a hellish landscape that fills you with dread. The meticulously designed and rendered locales in Fallen Order are simply awe-inspiring, and are inviting for thorough exploration.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2945199088
That being said, the individual gameplay elements – while praiseworthy – don’t complement each other all that well. Specifically, I found the Soulslike combat system and the Tomb Raider-esque adventuring/exploration at odds with each other. Soulslike are meant to be difficult, but rewarding with perseverance and learning. To create opportunities to learn from mistakes, enemies respawn when you recover health and Force power by resting at save/meditation points. The idea is that with full health and Force, you are well-equipped to fight more enemies, thus having more chances to hone your fighting skills, and to earn more skill points to improve your Force, Lightsaber and Survival abilities.
This Soulslike combat gameplay works just fine. Yet, with over 300 collectibles (Force Echoes, Life and Force Essences, cosmetics chests, stim/health canisters, scans, encrypted logs, and plant seeds) scattered across the planets you’ll visit, searching for these items gets tedious quickly when you have to fight the same, respawned enemies multiple times. Plus, there is no Fast Travel (even Dark Souls games allow warping between bonfires/save points), which just makes adventuring/exploring extra tiresome. With the story directing you to revisit planets so you can explore previously unreachable places, adventuring in Fallen Order feels more of a chore than play.
Storywise, Fallen Order is…okay. You play as Cal Kestis, a Padawan who went into hiding after the events of Order 66. When the Inquisitorius were alerted to his whereabouts, he finds himself on a quest to recover a holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive younglings in efforts to restore the Jedi Order. A major problem with Star Wars stories like this, set between the events of the prequels and the original trilogy, is that many fans already know what the big picture outcome is. It’s not exactly spoilers here, but we know Cal will not restore the Jedi Order. Thus, for next 20 hours or so, you’re literally chasing a MacGuffin that has no impact on the Star Wars lore.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2945199404
So, how is Fallen Order a great game given my complaints? Because in spite of its flaws, Fallen Order oozes with Star Wars atmosphere. The intense lightsaber action, the detailed and near photorealistic environments, and the wonderful John Williams-esque score work cohesively to immerse you in the fantastical galaxy. But, it’s the characters that make Fallen Order special. Cal’s moments with them, especially his droid companion BD-1, flesh out their motivations, sins, regrets, and vulnerabilities. (One side character – arguably the best one aside from BD-1 – feels like a late addition to the crew as a deus ex machina, but should have been introduced earlier to act as Cal’s foil to allow for better character and plot development.) The actors did a fantastic job in their motion capture and vocal performances, too.
If you enjoy poring over special features on movie DVDs/Blu-Rays, I think the Deluxe Edition may interest you. I found the 1.5 hours of documentaries fascinating, but hardly worth a re-watch. The digital artbook offers a look into how character, vehicle and environment designs evolved. (Sadly, the documentaries and artbook can only be viewed in-game.) The Deluxe Edition also comes with cosmetic items like “premium content” lightsaber parts, clothing, as well as skins for BD-1 and your ship, all of which serve no other purpose than to change how things look. Aside from using one “premium content” part to customize my lightsaber, I didn’t use any of the Deluxe Edition cosmetic items.
As someone who has not played a brand new Star Wars game since 2003, I’ve truly enjoyed the challenging lightsaber combat, great side characters, and immersion that Fallen Order offers. Sure, it could have benefitted from better co-implementation of the action and adventuring gameplay, but it’s just so fun overall. And because this game series shows such potential, I’ve become more excited and curious about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor than before. I think you’ll understand what I mean once you’ve given Fallen Order a try. Though it may not be the best Star Wars game there is, it’s certainly one of the better ones.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2945199970