“Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” was officially released in 2019 (same year The Mandalorian’s first season streamed on Disney Plus) on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It received positive reviews from critics, fans and gamers alike. Besides good reception, the game sold enough physical and digital copies worldwide. Fallen Order is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
“The Book Of Boba Fett” will stream this December on Disney Plus. An upcoming remake of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic is currently in development intended to come out in 2022 on PS5. As a Star Wars fan, I wanna share what’s good or bad about Fallen Order before the aforementioned two are out separately.
Today’s review contains no SPOILERS whatsoever.
Light & Dark Elements
Light: Cameron Monaghan & Debra Wilson (MadTV) both did an excellent job for their respective performances as Cal Kestis & Cere Junda.
Gameplay is presented as a third-person platform adventure game. You navigate to your main objective. Use your Jedi abilities solving puzzles, climbing, wall running, squeeze your way through tight spaces. After obtaining new powers, you can revisit a planet creating new shortcuts and your droid sidekick BD-1 scans enemies, a planet’s habitat and other stuff on the tactical guide/databank via pause menu.
Graphics brought many aspects to life like character models, lighting, level design, fluid animation and environmental locations.
Combat lets you strike down foes using your trusty lightsaber. You can use force powers on baddies. Block, parry and dodge attacks. To paraphrase Patches quote from “Dodgeball A True Underdog Story.” “If you can dodge a blaster, you can dodge a lightsaber.” As you progress, you’re able to equip a double-bladed lightsaber.
Sound Effects retain the franchise’s iconic sounds like the lightsaber ignition, blaster shots etc.
You can customize Cal’s lightsaber, give him ponchos, BD-1’s color scheme and give the ship a new paint job.
Once you reach a certain number of points, you can spend some on the Skill Tree by meditating. If you recover all your health and medicine, enemies will respawn. Be wary.
Enemy types showcase a variety of stormtroopers, wildlife & ferocious creatures. You can always pause the game and look up an enemy attributes using the tactical guide/databank.
Boss Fights such as Sith Inquisitors are hard. They won’t go down without a fight. Here’s a tip, study a specific foe’s attack patterns.
The game is difficult yet fun. If you play on very hard mode, you’re gonna die countless times. Think you can conquer the game on the highest difficulty setting?
The game is influenced by notable game franchises including “Dark Souls,” “Tomb Raider” & “Uncharted.”
After surviving Order 66, Cal severs his ties to the force, because of a traumatic event. He comes out of hiding embarking on a scavenger hunt to find a holocron tied to The Jedi Order. As he gains new allies, Cal retraces his steps as a former Padawan gaining back his abilities.
Forest Whitaker reprises his role as Saw Gerrera. Unlike his appearance in “Rouge One,” Forest’s performance isn’t unintentionally funny, it’s actually an improvement.
A free update allows you to enable Photo Mode. Another free update is partaking in challenges found in meditation spots.
Fallen Order is set five years after Revenge Of The Sith.
Cal’s mentor Jaro Tapal has the same species as Zeb Orrelios from “Star Wars: Rebels.”
Without giving anything away, a familiar face will put a smile on your face.
Cal said “I’d rather not talk about it.” A possible Code Lyoko reference. A running gag involving Jim Morales’ bringing up his past jobs. Whenever somebody asks why he had a specific job, Jim would obviously rather not talk about it. Code Lyoko is one of my favorite shows.
When Cal encounters a night sister, he said, “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” A reference to Hal 9000’s quote from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Microtransations and loot boxes are not featured. A miracle EA didn’t go too far as they did with the Battlefront reboot games.
Once you beat the game, New Game Plus is optional.
Dark: The game lacks side quests. It would’ve been awesome to let you hunt down additional Sith Inquisitors as the light side version of “The Force Unleashed.” What about rescuing surviving younglings?
Although creatures can be severed, stormtroopers are never shown getting their limbs cut off. It’s not a gory game like “Dead Space.” It’s a hypocritical stormtroopers never lost an arm ignoring the fact any creature’s limb is cut. Isn’t it like a guy getting spayed and neutered losing a part of his “manhood?”
The Final Verdict: B, FOR BRAVE WARRIOR!
From my point of view, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. EA knocked it outta the park without relying on loot boxes. If you’re gearing up for the upcoming Knights Of The Old Republic remake, I highly recommend this game. Don’t forget to play EA’s other game “Star Wars: Squadrons.” Besides Knights Of The Old Republic, I’m looking forward to Ubisoft’s future Star Wars game & “ Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.”
Nickthemoviecritic.com 