izigame.me

A wise man once said: "He who wears a poncho is either a peerless warrior or a complete idiot".


RATING:
🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5
GOOD GAME



Context

Star Wars is a decent franchise, but I was never really interested in the games. This is my first Star Wars game ever. I think I can give an unbiased opinion on it more honestly than most fans. And I will answer that one question that surprisingly nobody has made; "Would this game be worth it if it wasn't a Star Wars game?" Let's find out.


Atmosphere, Visuals and Music

The atmosphere of the whole game feels exactly the same as in the sequel movies, they achieved that vibe, especially the transition between the planets and the landing cutscenes. It is true that it lacks a large sand planet, like Tatooine, but I can't complain, the truth is... I don't like sand neither.
There's a magical feeling of loneliness associated with each planet, perhaps because most of them are abandoned outposts, and since there are no secondary quests, it gets lonely.
Visually speaking it's glorious, and it's where it shines the most, from the ship's hyperspace traveling where the entire ship shakes to the mountains of Zeffo, where mud, snow, rocks, water and vegetation combine to create one of the smoothest tileset I've ever stepped on.
The music is composed and played by an orchestra, just like the OST from the movies. Personally, I don't like this kind of music, but I can tolerate it and it's one of the most popular signatures of Star Wars.
The sound effects are excellent though, they captured the lightsaber motion, drawing, deflecting blasters and ship sounds perfectly.
All art and sound design is completely tailored to the game and it's like watching a brand new Star Wars movie.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2814347813


Plot overview (spoilers free if not marked)

Generic script, as expected.
It takes place 5 years after Order 66 when the clones turned against the Jedi with a couple of Order 66 flashbacks meaning this story takes place somewhere between episodes 3 and 4. ~Five years before Obi-Wan Kenobi's series.
The story tells us how a youngling who survived order 66 tries to rebuild the Jedi order. His name is Cal Kestis and he is beying played by my boy Cameron Monaghan(Shameless, Gotham, etc...)
Cal Kestis will have to forgive himself for being weak during order 66 first minutes and finish his training by healing his connection with the force while he is beying chased by the Second and Ninth Sisters, who are Inquisitors of The Empire that chase down Jedis.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809477309
All this will take you to different planets where you can complete said training while trying to find an artifact that will reveal a list of force-sensitive children and their location, so that one day you can rebuild the Jedi order. If you've seen the original movies: you know this is definitely not going to happen.
During your journey you will find your crew, who consists of a unit droid called B-D1 who looks like Wall-E and is suppossed to be Cal's best friend. A Female Morgan Freeman coach. A four armpits bare chested pilot. An invisible gremlin that hides inside the walls of your ship. And a space waifu that simps for Cal's inexistent charisma. The kind of things that you will only see in Star Wars.
And, before you ask, yes, you can hug a Wookiee while visiting Kashyyyk.


Gameplay

Combat turns me to the dark side and here's why:
This is where it all starts to fall apart. Healing for example isn't instant, from the moment you press the button until the heal is applied you can't do anything but get stuck in a slow walking animation that disrupts you for almost two seconds where you can't run, block, parry, attack, jump, you can't even dodge. And by the way, getting hit disrupts the healing animation and you have to recast it again.
This game is the clear example of a reverse hack 'n slash. Instead of ragdolling enemies, here are the enemies who stagger and ragdoll you around.
There are strong attacks that can break the enemy's posture (you need to exhaust them first), but while casting these strong moves that require force, they can easily disrupt you, so you waste your force meter in vain.
The combat isn't hard per se, not even on the highest difficulty. I mean, you have enough stimulants and health to resist 30+ hits, but what makes it bad are the constant disruptions. I don't mind taking damage if I can deal some damage back, but that doesn't happen here.
Easy to play and hard to master only makes sense if it has replayability, and this game doesn't have it, trust me, I did replayed it.
Consider yourself lucky If you get disrupted less than 500 times while playing it.


World

The "world" is actually four big planets and a small one. You can travel between them whenever you want using your friend Greeze's spaceship, The Mantis.


Exploration

The exploration feels rewarding… sometimes. This is because 90% of the rewards you'll find are ponchos and recolors, but I think it's worth it anyway
The game focuses heavily on exploration and you can increase your health and force bar as well as the maximum amount of healing stimulants you can carry (max 10) by simply going in all directions until you hit a dead end. There is a reward box everywhere you go, even underwater.
Not having fast travel can make this quite frustrating if you're going for 100% and you have to walk for 20 minutes on its labyrinthine paths to grab that poncho you missed your first time around.
It requires a lot of backtracking, I personally enjoy this and I had a good time getting each one of the collectibles.


Misc


The game includes mediocre premium content, such as an orange light saber crystal.
It requires Origin launcher.
It doesn't have microtransactions. (Having to mention this shows how trash EA can be.)
There is a "new game+" (I'll explain why the quotes in the negative section.)
It has a training mode... once you finished the game. (mindblown)
Full Story Mode with 100% Achievements takes about 30 hours.
There are no side quests.



Cons


Unskippable cutscenes, even on New Game+.
Awful disruption focused combat.
Multiple enemies attacking you at once and staggering you with every single hit.
Trash healing animation casting.
General audio problems, such as having to restart the game to hear the voices, awful lip sync, etc.
Too many recolors as proof of their lazyness, low budget and/or lack of immagination.
Lightsaber can't be upgraded, the pieces you get are simple skins.
No collectable map.
No waypoints to show you the way. Where is The Mandalorian when you need him?
Parry is not instant.
Impossible enemy animations, such as instant recovering to run away and avoid damage. I personally hate seeing this in modern videogames, is feels like a poor battle design.
New game+ only carries over skins. This means you will have to level up your character again and unlock the skills, find the simulants, health upgrades, etc.
No replay value.



Conclusion

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a smooth, elegant game with a souls-like inspired combat that failed miserably, a Sekiro parry and stance mechanic that worked pretty well underneath a beautiful Tomb Raider skin of exploration and movement. It's a good game overall, but mostly because it's a Star Wars game.
Would this game be worth it if it wasn't a Star Wars game? No, I don't think so, if we take away the lightsaber, the force powers and the Star Wars universe we have an average game with nothing to say to the gaming industry.


To buy or not to buy?

Yes. Get it during a sale, but only if you like exploration and Star Wars universe.