At the turn of the 2010s, there was a belief amongst game developers that single player games were a dying art. This in spite of games like Uncharted and the Batman: Arkham series doing great sales-wise despite being single player (Arkham Origins did have a multiplayer component, but we’re not mentioning that here) even my favourite franchise, Ratchet and Clank had a couple of multiplayer titles.
EA Games, a company that should immediately be followed by
the Darth Vader theme, have held the license to Star Wars titles for a while,
though at time of writing no longer exclusively. And whilst they’ve had
success, the disaster that was the launch of Battlefront II in 2017 had to have
an impact on the trend toward multiplayer. Follow that one with the critical
and/or commercial successes of the Ratchet and Clank remake, God of War,
Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption and, of course, Spider-man, all
single-player games from the latter half of the 2010s.
Anyway, Star Wars Month
EA had shut down previous efforts to create a single player
Star Wars title, focusing primarily on its two Battlefront games, yes EA’s Star
Wars exclusivity period had 3 titles in total which is kinda pathetic from one
of the largest video game developers out there with multiple studios at their
beckon call.
OK, so Star Wars: Fallen order was released in 2019, an
in-canon Star Wars story taking place between episodes 3 and 4 because that’s
where every in-canon Star Wars story with original characters takes place,
until the Mandalorian came along anyway.
First thing of note is the game’s utilisation of the Unreal
Engine. I hear there had at a time been a push from EA for their games to
utilise their internally developed Frostbite Engine, as had been used in the
Battlefront titles. It was designed for FPS shooters and was a poor fit for a
lot of games, Anthem suffered for this.
Unreal Engines have housed a wide variety of games from the
Arkham Series to Gears of War and from Crash 4 to Kingdom Hearts. So, a
cinematic game that utilises set-piece moments isn’t unfamiliar territory to
them and they’d likely have a deal of support building their own framework.
But let’s get to brass taxes and dive into the game itself, I’ll start with the story.
Story
It’s been 5 years since the events of Revenge of the Sith,
known as the Great Purge, occurred. Padawan Cal Kestis is in hiding as a
scrapper on the planet Bracca, but when he uses the force to save the life of a
colleague, he ends up accosted by two Inquisitors, the Second and Ninth
Sisters. He barely escapes with the help of Former Jedi Master Cere Junda and
Han Solo stand-in Greez Dritus.
They take him to the planet Bogano, they believe he might be
the answer to opening special vault, containing a jedi holocron with a list of
force-sensitive children, I presume this is a different one to the one in the
Clone wars which required a Kyber crystal to open since that isn’t mentioned.
It was hidden by Jedi Master Eno Cordova, but the temple itself was built by a
race of force-wielders known as the Zeffo. To access the vault and the
holocron, they must follow Cordova’s path.
OK, at this point I’ve only talked minor spoilers, if you
haven’t played this game and don’t wish story spoiled for you, I’d advise
skipping the rest of this section.
Cal is introduced to a small droid named BD-1, a friendly
droid with access to archived recordings of Cordova which are revealed when
scanning certain artefacts and monuments. He serves as a guide to take you to
the next 3 planets of the list. First off, we have the planet of Zeffo, not to
be confused with the species.
The Empire had taken some interest in the Zeffo temples but
its storm defences was wiping out troopers, so they withdrew leaving only a
small contingent to dissuade anyone else getting access to their tech. Cal
manages to work his way through the defences and further heal his connection to
the force. But in doing so he’s caught the Empire’s attention and lowered its
defences and as they leave for now, the Empire is bringing in re-enforcements.
A clue on Zeffo has them searching for the Wookie Chief
Tarrful, so they head to the Wookie Planet of Kashyyyk, the planet is under
heavy imperial assault, but Cal is able to take control of one of their AT-AT
walkers and turn the tide, helping him along the way is freedom fighter Saw
Garrera. Cal and Saw rescue a bunch of Captive wookies but at this point, Chief
Tarrful is out of contact.
They head back to find to find more information on Zeffo but
the increased imperial presence is clear pretty quickly, making matters worse
The Second Sister confronts Cal, telling him that she was once Cere’s padawan
and that she sold her out to the Empire. He makes it out of the temple but The
Second Sister has already taken an artefact from the Temple.
On his way out, Cal is ambushed and captured by a bounty
hunter serving the Haxian Brood. He is forced to fight by Sorc Dormo, and this
is apparently related to the gambling debt of Greez. Cere and Greez come in for
the rescue and whilst there’s no major animosity shown, the atmosphere is a
little chillier.
They head back to Kashyyyk where imperial re-enforcements
have arrived and forced Saw and his crew to withdraw. Cal fights his way
through, finding Chief Tarrful who tells him what he’s looking for is atop the Life
Tree, Cal climbs it and fights the Ninth Sister, ultimately defeating her. No sign
of any artefacts, just a message that such an artefact could be found on
Dathomir.
They head to Dathomir where they find the last surviving
Nightsister, Merrin. She blames the Jedi for the massacre of her people and
uses her magic to reanimate the corpses of her dead sisters. We also meet
Former Jedi Taron Malicos a kinda-sorta ally to Merrin, promising her revenge
on the Jedi in exchange for power of his own. You might realise this is very
familiar to the dynamic we are told of in the early years between Siddeus and
Mother Talzin, just be glad you don’t have a son for him to kidnap and torture.
Cal reaches the Zeffo temple but is confronted by a
flashback to the Clone Wars, where he escaped Order 66 but at the cost of his
master Jaro Terpal. He blames himself for not being strong enough and during
the fight he breaks his lightsaber. He’s forced to run as Merrin unleashes the
undead upon him.
Cere reveals the full truth, she was captured by the Empire
and tried to resist, and even did successfully for a while until a dark shadow
came. Gee, I wonder who that could be. She was forced to watch her Padawan get
twisted into an Inquisitor and upon seeing the results of her decisions, she
tapped into the Dark Side of the force, killing everyone except her Padawan.
She had since cut herself off from the Force.
They head to the Jedi Temple on the Planet Ilum and with
some light puzzle-solving and platforming, Cal completes his vision quest and rebuilds his lightsaber but
the Empire are there also mining for Kyber crystals and Cal faces a huge battle
to escape. They head back to Dathomir and Cal confronts Merrin telling her that
Malicos has lied to her and is using her, something she’d already begun to
suspect. Together they defeat Malicos and Merrin decides to join up on their mission.
They recover a Zeffo Astrium they can use to unlock the vault, but Merrin makes
a good point that if they use the Holocron to restart the Jedi order, they’d be
immediate targets for the Empire.
They head back to Bogano and Cal opens the vault, his unease
growing. Trilla, the second Sister arrives and they fight. Cal manages to
disarm he but she escapes with the holocron, leaving stormtroopers to cover her
escape.
Cere decides to enter the fight and officially deems Cal a
Jedi Knight using Trilla’s saber. They head to a moon of Mustefar named Nur, an
inquisitor base where Cere was held after being captured, Merrin uses a spell
to hide their ship whilst Cal and Cere fight their way through and Cal
encounters Trilla, defeating her in combat. Cere tries to turn her but she’s
killed by the dark shadow, Vader.
And no, this isn’t one of those games where you can fight
and defeat Vader, you have to run and even then, you only barely escape with
your lives. Cal ultimately decides not to take the risk and destroys the
Holocron.
Analysis
This is a perfectly good Star Wars story that fits with the
current Star Wars Canon. The Inquisitors first introduced in Star Wars Rebels
are made good use of here, though I would call their effectiveness into
question given how their Jedi kill count across non-comic mediums is currently
at a steady 0, while we have 6 dead Inquisitors.
The problem is that whilst the story is woven into the
gameplay, it’s not done often. Usually, the com-link is used just for information
not character banter. There is some optional dialogue at the beginning of each
level but it’s just that, optional. Cal’s distrust of Cere feels less impactful
because of this, we get barely any dialogue between the two that isn’t purely
expository.
Cere’s background and relation to Trilla is done really
well, again, their backstory is pretty tragic and Trilla’s hatred of Cere is
understandable, she’s also a reflection of Cal, the path he could be on if he
continues to run from his mistake, more on this in a minute. The Ninth Sister
gets basically nothing to work with, she’s a nothing antagonist unfortunately.
Greez’ material needed more expansion, his history with the Haxian Brood only
serves to bring a few additional mini-bosses into the game. The Haxian Brood are also a nothing
antagonist, I hope future instalments give them a little more time.
Again, Cal’s forgiveness of Greez for his role in his
capture feels almost instant which feels at odds to his complete distrust in
Cere. Malicos isn’t much better as an antagonist, he’s a fallen Jedi that
sought power in Merrin’s magic and promised her vengeance but also wants to Cal
on as an apprentice, he’s basically gone full Sith but we don’t know what his
grander schemes are and that’s a missed opportunity.
Merrin is at least more interesting as an antagonist, but
she suffers from the problem that they by-and-large have to keep her out of the
action as she could solve all their problems in about 5 minutes. She’s
unfortunately far less interesting as an ally as a result.
Cal himself serves as a decent protagonist for the film.
He’s decently heroic, but has issues trusting people, especially as a first act
of kindness in the game, saving a co-worker, got a good number of people
killed. His connection to the force had been damaged after the death of his
Master and flashbacks at key moments conveniently allow him to reobtain those
skills. He does learn to trust more and bonds with his team I just kinda more
of it was in the narrative and not optional dialogue.
The game has a decent amount of fanservice, with Saw Garrera
and Vader both making an appearance, Dee Bradley Baker voicing the clone
troopers in the flashbacks, and expansions on Dathomir from the Clone Wars, the
return of Kashyyyk and the Wookies and little details like Jaro Tepal being of
the Lasaat species like Zeb from Rebels.
Little of the fanservice feels intrusive, we don’t get any
details that aren’t necessary for the game’s story but everything that is
necessary is here. I can’t say I play from the perspective of a new player but
someone who’s only seen the pre-Disney era films shouldn’t worry too much about
being bogged down in continuity. The fanservice isn’t just there for the sake
of it though, it all has purpose in the grander narrative, so it avoids the
problems The Rise of Skywalker had.
Speaking of something of the sequel era trilogy there is a common theme between this and the Last Jedi, how to move past failure. Luke’s arc is TLJ is about accepting and learning from failure, and how failure can be instructive. Cere and Cal both have failures that weigh down on them, and both have the choice, to quote The Lion King “To run from it or learn from it” up until the events of the game they’ve both been running from it, Cere cuts herself off from the force and Cal goes into hiding, but through the events of the game they both choose to learn from it and become better people.
Cal and
Cere have the advantage of being new characters without fan’s expectations on
them. Failure is hardly anything new in a story, it’s a crucial element of the
hero’s journey after all, what this and the Last Jedi truly have in common is
that failure permeates their entire story.
Trilla is the other side of this, not only does she reflect
Cere’s failures but let’s not forget that she is her own character with her own
agency, she has embraced the darkness and let her trauma win over her, Cal has
PTSD and survivor’s guilt from order-66, and Trilla is what he could become if
that trauma and all his distrust won him over.
But story is only half the battle, let’s get to gameplay
Gameplay
As you play as Cal you’ll spend a good chunk of the time
doing lightsaber combat. The lightsaber comes with a block, which if timed
correctly will do a perfect reflection of a blaster bolt or parry a sword
attack, and a light and heavy attack. Your block is limited by block stamina,
which both you and any non-creature enemy with melee weapons will have. It
recharges once you stop blocking.
As you progress through the game you’ll unlock more
configurations, saber types and combos to make the experience more interesting.
When it comes to utilising the Force, you’ll start with a slowdown ability, and
later gain the ability to pull and push enemies as you heal your connection to
the force. These are also used in some light puzzles, though they are rare and
relatively easy. Use of the force in-combat, including some lightsaber combos
take up your force-bar, this refills slowly through lack of use.
There’s some light platforming in the game, as you have the
ability to climb, which you will be doing a lot of, rope swing, wall run, and
mud-slide. The rope swinging in particular makes use of your force powers, as
you can pull a rope toward you. You get a gadget later on that improves your
climbing speed and thank god, it can be a little slow.
Cal has the ability to sense force-echoes on objects, this
allows you to attain a little more of a planet’s lore, which is then logged in
the pause menu for you to check out. Certain force echoes can allow you to
increase your health or total force energy.
BD-1 is more than just a cute robot companion, he has a few
abilities of his own which you can command. He provides Stims that increase
your health, he initially can provide 2, but that increases when you find
special hidden chests in levels, he can also overcharge or remove charge from
objects, allow you zip line and hack into various computers with its stomp
link.
On Kashyyyk, you get a rebreather, allowing you to swim
underwater. There’s also a level where you control an AT-AT is a segment I wish
there was more of because there’s not a lot of variety in this game.
Whilst exploring you can find chests containing various
cosmetic upgrades for your lightsaber, the ship and BD-1.
The levels themselves are huge, or at least the main 4 are, the temple level is comparatively short and the levels on Bracca and Nur are short and linear. Across the levels you’ll find meditation points, these serve as checkpoints and allow you to refill your health and Stim count, though at the cost of restoring previously defeated enemies to the map. You can also upgrade your abilities as you level up through the course of the game and once you’ve completed the game you can access training battles from there as well.
If there’s one thing I think is missing, it’s the ability in the post-game to
teleport between these meditation points. The levels are long and if you’re
just exploring for chests there’s a lot of empty space, you can unlock
shortcuts but this only removes a small chunk of the level. I know there’s no
in-canon explanation for it, but there isn’t one in the modern Tomb Raider
games either, you just have to accept it.
The lightsaber controls are pretty solid, you always feel in
control and the various combos are good to use. The parry-counter system is
forgiving on easy difficulty but you have to be good to counter on harder
difficulties. I personally played most of the most of the game on the standard
difficulty, dropping to easy for last Trilla fight, I am a noob and suck at
gaming, I know.
The lock-on is a bit finnicky but I never found myself
having major difficulties with the combat, though the combat is not easy either.
There is a good amount of enemy variety, with various stormtrooper varieties
and plenty of indigenous fauna and in some cases flora to battle. Most of them
have decently telegraphed attacks to allow you to time your parry or dodge.
OK, a little note on the technical side:
Technical
I played the PS5 version of the game, available for free for
who own the PS4 version, though it still requires the PS4 disk to function. It
has a fidelity mode, exchanging a slightly lowered resolution for 60 FPS
gameplay. I have to say, knowing what the PS5 is capable of with the SSD, the
load times I experienced after dying were too long. There is loading on the
ship too, with it going into hyperspace but it’s usually done by the time the
little conversation is done, I am yet to test whether or not the load times are
lower once all of these are used.
The game looks graphically quite impressive, capturing the
look and feel of the Star Wars universe, the Wookies look weaker than most but
animation of fur is difficult at the best of times. The worlds look
appropriately vast, with some nice background details and everyone looks like
they belong in a Star Wars movie. The motion capture is handled well, though I
experienced some glitches with the audio-sync, that happened twice.
Cere’s look is probably the most alien a humanoid character
has ever looked on Star Wars, her eyes are really unnerving.
The levels are well designed but there aren’t that many of
them, and the main 4 levels each get a return visit for what feels like a need
to reuse assets as much as possible. Sure, new segments of the level get
unlocked with each visit but I would’ve liked to have seen shorter levels with
more variety.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a solid story-based Star
Wars game, it made you feel like you were playing a Jedi, with good lightsaber controls and a solid use of force-powers. The long levels make you wish for
some-kind of fast-travel system, especially if you’re a completionist looking
for those last few chests on some of these massive levels. The game isn’t
lacking for enemy variety but could use some variety in its gameplay and more
levels to prevent replay fatigue. The game performs adequately though I have
encountered an audio bug.
Rating 75/100
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