STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
The gameplay is strong in this one
Format PS4 ETA 15 Nov Pub Electronic Arts Dev Respawn Entertainment
Young Jedi-In-Training Cal Kestis hid after the Empire’s Jedi extermination order. But when we catch up with him in the thick of the action during our E3 demo, he’s far from shy about using his force powers. He runs across walls, clambers up metal gratings, and force-pushes objects down to make bridges. In combat he force-pulls enemy stormtroopers close before finishing them with his lightsaber, flings said ’saber at enemies like a boomerang, and even freezes foes in place. These actions drain a force stamina meter, but it refills quickly enough for Cal to be able to switch between a huge suite of moves on the fly.
After one particularly tough encounter that leaves his health depleted, Cal asks BD-1, his droid companion (who spends much of the demo hanging off Cal’s back), for a “lil’ help”. BD-1 shoots him a health injector. He can also hack panels to help Cal progress, and display a 3D holographic map of the area. The two have been infiltrating an Imperial Refinery on Kashyyyk – the Wookiee homeworld – where he’s ended up helping a young Saw Gerrera on a mission to liberate enslaved members of the species. Forest Whitaker himself has returned to lend his likeness and voice to his character from Rogue One.
We know Gerrera’s a tough character – well, so is our new hero. “Cal has this death sentence,
and survival is definitely one of his primary motivations,” says Aaron Contreras, the game’s narrative lead. “It would not be wrong to characterise him as a survivor – somebody who survives in the worst situations.”
JE-DIE HARD
For the most part, individual standard troopers don’t offer much of a challenge to Cal. They pepper him with blaster fire and he deflects it. He can even freeze the blasts mid-air before knocking them back at the troopers.
Some of the challenge lies in how groups of enemies are placed in the environment, and having to work out how to pick them off before they can become a threat. The Purge Troopers – strong enemies with melee energy weapons that can match blows with Cal’s lightsaber – exacerbate this. When fighting them, the game becomes much more about duelling. You have to swat away attacks and knock down their stamina bar until you can take out a chunk of their health. It’s not dissimilar to the swordplay in Sekiro, but a lot less punishing. Empowerment, and that sense of wide-eyed adventure that made the Original Trilogy so special, are at the core of Fallen Order.