STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
A dash of Sekiro here, a splash of Uncharted there – is it the game you were looking for?
“AN INCREDIBLE SETUP THAT EXPLODES OUT OF NAUGHTY DOG’S BIG BOOK OF CINEMATIC GAMING.”
This game has the best turbo lift pitch in years: it’s Uncharted meets Sekiro, doused in Star Wars spectacle. The team behind it includes God Of War III director Stig Asmussen and Knights Of The Old Republic II writer Chris Avellone, and for much of the game’s 25 hours it almost comes together. Almost.
Beginning with a bang, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has an incredible setup that explodes out of Naughty Dog’s big book of cinematic gaming. There’re quips and excitable noises as gingerquiffed protagonist Cal Kestis scurries, leaps, and scrambles across the broken ships that make up junkyard planet Bracca’s distinct environment. We’re clambering across the remnants of the Clone Wars as Star Destroyers circle overhead and the fallout from Order 66 is seen in every scrapped Jedi Starfighter.
Fallen Order is pitch-perfect for long-term
Star Wars fans. Cal’s a Jedi Padawan-in-hiding who’s struggling to embrace the responsibility of his own hero’s journey. His ship, the Mantis, is crewed by outcasts with secrets. Former
Jedi Cere Junda has a dark connection to new villain Second Sister, and amid all of the game’s problems (which we’ll get to) this group holds things together until the credits roll.
FALLEN OVER
While the introduction to Fallen Order is tightly designed boundless fun, and the first two planets, Bogano and Zeffo, are mazy maps of dovetailing routes, from there on out things stumble.
The following planets, which you can eventually revisit in any order to hunt hidden
rewards (cosmetic, Force, and health boosts), are less soulsborne in design and are closer to Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. These are large linear maps with secret offshoots and some shortcuts to make back-pedalling easier, but they’re not the densely layered levels of Sekiro. The game wants you to push on to the mission objective and there’s usually only one way to get there and back. With no fast travel even once a planet is completed, returning to these worlds can feel like hard work. While Fallen Order wants to be Sekiro it also wants to be Uncharted, and that mesh of narrative-led platforming and unforgiving combat doesn’t always gel.
Lightsaber fights ape Sekiro’s parry system – deflecting attacks eats at your opponent’s stability meter and offers the chance to inflict damage and finishers. XP earned from kills can be spent on improving Cal’s skills, and unlocked Force and lightsaber moves enable progress against tougher opponents.
So far, so Sekiro. But sadly Fallen Order’s combat is unbalanced. While the game plunders from the soulsborne genre the combat lacks the precision we’ve come to expect. Control is too haphazard, and the animation and effects cloud crucial enemy tells meant to encourage countering. It’s often hard to see what’s happening on screen through the fizz of lightsaber flashes and sparks. Respawn has found itself in the unenviable position of balancing Star Wars spectacle with soulsborne accuracy, and the eye-appealing flash of lightsabers always wins.
STAR RAIDER
Once Cal’s moveset is expanded, and a crowdcontrolling dual-bladed lightsaber is discovered, fights are more satisfying.
The soulsborne ambition is jettisoned for old-fashioned hacking-and-slashing, albeit still with a need to defend and deflect. There are few moments in videogames as rewarding as repelling laser blasts back at hapless stormtroopers, and Respawn gets this. Couple this with Force moves to slow, push, or pull enemies and combat, while sloppy, is rewarding. But it’s not Sekiro in space.
The same off-balance approach applies to much of the game. What begins as a complex metroidvania narrows into linear platforming sections anchored by physics-led puzzle tombs. The game plays loose with Jedi lore to have
Cal push and pull giant balls, levers, and platforms. Getting to and from these moments is Fallen Order’s busywork, often involving hit-and-miss leaps of faith. Akin to PS3-era God Of War the game offers cliff-top views across fantastic worlds, and challenges you to clamber up crumbling tombs and citysized trees to fight giant beasts and Force-sensitive bosses.
Moving Cal across the game’s timeworn landscapes can often feel like a gamble as the putupon Padawan fails to make a
“WHILE FALLEN ORDER
WANTS TO BE SEKIRO, IT ALSO WANTS TO BE UNCHARTED.”
jump, slides from platforms, or drifts casually over a cliff. He’ll often pause mid-animation and teleport into place as the game struggles to come to terms with its own rules. A reliance on physics ensures most runs of concurrent obstacles lose momentum as Cal stumbles, judders, and glitches in lifesapping frustration. In a game where you can be two hits from death these tumbles rack up. After surviving rooms of Dathomir’s undeadliest enemies, having to restart a level because Cal can’t stick his landing can be crushing.
JEDI JOY
The saving grace is while Fallen Order fails to be as good as any game it poaches ideas from, you have to admire the worldbuilding and artistry at work. This isn’t the dry universe of The Last Jedi, this is the myth of Episode III’s closing credits and the ‘magick’ of Knights Of The Old Republic, and Fallen
Order embraces it fully as space witches and alien trolls rub shoulders with stormtroopers and battered starships.
There are moments of fan service as we play through the turmoil of Order 66 as young Cal and battle bounty hunters in the end-game crawl. There’s true cinematic beauty too, as a giant full moon crashes into an ocean to frame the dark tower of the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors. Inside you’ll find one of the game’s most dramatic cameos – one that proves Fallen Order at least knows how to do Star Wars the right way.
While the game’s pitch may be flawed, it knows what Star Wars fans want and is prepared to break its own rules to do it.