Review of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

How Respawn, without reinventing the wheel, created the best single-player Star Wars adventure in years, and immediately got the green light from EA to develop a sequel

The Star Wars franchise has gone through a lot of ups and downs over the years. A lot of time has passed since the release of the original film trilogy, and the universe created by George Lucas has expanded significantly. However, it was not successful in all cases. Fans of the series experienced a huge disappointment when they saw the first two films of the latest trilogy, which will end next year with the release of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. Sunrise" . And now, fans are looking at any franchise product with great caution.

This was applicable at the time of the announcement of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order : the game was similar to Uncharted , only the actions took place in space. However, as with the previous three games ( Titanfall , Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends ), Respawn has managed to prove that it can create an immersive experience. They managed to make an excellent action adventure, which can rightfully be called one of the best games based on the popular franchise.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a third-person action-adventure game in which the protagonist is forced to explore several different planets, the locations of which are set in the spirit of Metroidvania . There are many platform elements, vertical and horizontal levels reminiscent of the Uncharted and Prince of Persia series, as well as secrets and a variety of opponents - from stormtroopers and Inquisitors to wild animals and dangerous creatures.

What is the game about?

The game takes place 5 years after the action of Star Wars. Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" . The protagonist is Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Padawan who managed to survive as part of Order 66, which led to the extermination of the Jedi Order. For a long time he managed to hide on Brakka, working as a scrapper of old spaceships, but one day Cal was forced to use the Force in order to save his friend Prauf. Unfortunately, the source of the Force was sensed by the Imperial Inquisition, whichA few hours later, she sent the Second and Ninth Sisters to the planet - two powerful Inquisitors trained personally by Darth Vader. Their goal is to find and kill the Padawan. However, Cal manages to escape from the Inquisition and leave the planet. And the former Jedi Cere and the pilot hired by her, Grizz, helped him in this. Cal soon learns that this couple is opposed to the Empire and is trying to revive the once fallen Jedi Order, and the Padawan himself plays an important role in their quest.

The game's story is a lot of fun, paying homage to Star Wars canon and history, and developing Fallen Order's story incredibly well. Cal and the rest of the characters are constantly improving, there is a lot of secondary dialogue, thanks to which the characters feel as alive as possible and really understand what is happening at one time or another. In addition, the gaming experience develops beautifully. I would like to note that the game uses the optimal number of riddles: you understand the finale, change their number, and the effect would be completely different.

The surroundings become even more alive thanks to the numerous conversations of the shtursmovies. You can eavesdrop on them before every battle, and sometimes the conversation of your opponents even turns into criticism towards the Empire itself. Your enemies sometimes believe that they themselves are victims of the dark side of the Force. However, the complete opposite of them are Inquisitors and commanders who are confident in themselves, in a common cause and behave absolutely ruthlessly towards enemies and even allies. And on each planet you can find a huge amount of knowledge about the flora, fauna and history of each planet. Thus, the environment is not just a background, but a really thoughtful and detailed world.

Similarity to From Software games

Similar to the level design, which was taken from many popular games, the combat system is based on Dark Souls , Bloodborne , and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice . Cal uses various lightsaber and Force combos to kill enemies. Despite the choice of difficulty levels, the game requires careful study of combos, parry time and other abilities, even at standard settings. At a high level, the game shows its full potential, and we strongly recommend playing it on it. Enemies are more aggressive, deal more damage, and parry success times are significantly reduced.

You can apply creativity in combat. If you're fighting on top of a mountain, try dropping your opponent. And when you unlock a lot of other abilities, you can perform real combos. For example, pulling one enemy, throw it at another, pushing both of them off a cliff. Or, when a stormtrooper fires at you, slow down time and quickly pull it towards you. Using an attack aircraft as a shield, you simply kill your opponent with his own weapon.

Even the save and progression systems are inspired by From Software games. By killing enemies and finding various secrets, you gain experience points. Once you get enough of them, you will unlock a skill point that can be used to unlock skills in the skill tree. The tree itself is divided into three branches - "Strength", "Lightsaber" and "Survival". There are improvements to Cal himself, his lightsaber, healing, stamina, and more. All skills are very useful, they expand combat abilities and make battles even more diverse. The save system is the same bonfires from DS. At meditation points, you can rest, recovering HP, but also reviving enemies, as well as spending skill points to get new ones.skills.

Just as good as the combat system of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is, the platforming and puzzle elements are fully revealed in the game. All this contributes to an exciting gaming experience. Exploring the planets is exciting, as there are always routes that you will only get access to after a while, when you advance in the story and unlock some useful tool. You will be able to move deeper into locations using slow time, push, pull, and even BD-1's abilities.

The game has a touch of Tomb Raider too, as Cal is forced to visit multiple tombs while solving Lara Croft-esque puzzles. By the way, puzzles are not too difficult, but still throw some challenge to the gamer, making the gaming experience even more diverse.

Technical execution at the level

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is not only good gameplay and story, but also visually looks amazing. The character models and animations are excellent, as are the environments, lighting, and location textures. Especially on epic PC settings. And if there were some freezes at the start of the game, then after the release of several patches they were fixed. The game runs perfectly on epic settings with 60 FPS and FullHD resolution with i7-3770 , GTX 980 Ti and 16 GB of RAM .

Sound accompaniment, which from the first notes will cause nostalgia among fans of the series

Great attention was paid to the musical accompaniment and sound effects. You will hear the iconic sounds of lightsaber, blaster, droids and so on every now and then. The game really feels like a Star Wars product. The soundtrack of Fallen Order lives up to all expectations: endowed with epic orchestral pieces that play during important battles and story sequences.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order looks like a painfully familiar product. And this is its main advantage and disadvantage. All elements are well developed, but at the same time they are derivatives. There is no mechanic here that has not been used previously in the main franchise. Despite its lack of innovation, Respawn Entertainment's game is one of the best single-player action-adventure games ever released for Star Wars.