Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Star Wars Month 2 - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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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