I don’t know about you, but a Dark Souls inspired, lightsaber-heavy, Metroidvania explorative platformer game is not what I would have expected to come out of the Star Wars universe. Your typical Star Wars game is all about flying x-wings and tie fighters, blasting battle droids in massive wars, or leaping around like a crazy superpowered Jedi or Sith. It’s exceptionally rare to get a grounded, combat-focused adventure that really puts you right in the boots of a young Jedi trying to both fight back against evil, and also just try to survive in a hostile galaxy.
And yet, in 2019, we got everything I just mentioned and more with the release of Jedi: Fallen Order, a game we would quickly learn was to be the beginning of a new sub-series saga in the Star Wars universe. After all, the game received a canonical novel continuation, and now a straight-up full sequel has released. This all came about because of Fallen Order‘s overwhelming sales success and critical praise. But is a game of this make and scope truly worth all of the hype?
Come on…obviously it is. This game rocks!
As mentioned earlier, this game serves as a fusion between the Metroidvania and Soulslike genres. You explore massive planets, frequently reaching dead-ends that can only be accessed further once you return with improved traversal skills (wall running, double jump, etc.). Along with this, you face down tense and dangerous enemies in reactionary combat focused around dodging and parrying, where a few simple mistakes will end with your death. But don’t worry! You’ll simply return to the nearest “definitely not a bonfire” meditation point, sans a bit of your gathered experience.
Sound familiar?
Rest assured, while Fallen Order does not even attempt to hide its inspirations (in fact, a lot of the platforming and puzzle solving is extremely reminiscent of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy that I love so much), the game still manages to be exceptionally entertaining. After all, the source material that it bases its gameplay off of has provided some of gaming’s best experiences, so obviously these developers were working from a solid baseline! No bit of gameplay will blow your mind here, but it’s all really solid stuff.
Although, to be fair, maybe that’s underselling the parrying system. While not revolutionary, the act of thrusting out your lightsaber to knock enemies back at the very last second is kind of the basis of securing victory in Fallen Order. It feels incredible! The developers’ really nailed the timing and auditory feedback of slapping back attacks and creating openings for your own counters. It takes a while to wrap your mind around this system, and even longer to truly master it, but you’ll eventually feel like an unstoppable Jedi sowing fear through the Empire!
Nowhere is the combat more incredible than in the edge-of-your-seat showdowns with the game’s big bosses. Minus a single tussle against a dumb oversized bat (in contention for one of my least favorite video game bosses ever), the climactic clashes in Fallen Order are the stuff of legends. These boss struggles are easily the highlight of the gameplay, and the tough-but-fair way in which they each push your skills to the limit makes for some of the most memorable showdowns in recent gaming years, particularly the extremely challenging final boss fight.
The story is also a cut above many of the Star Wars plotlines we’ve received in recent years from the films and other avenues. Taking place a few years after the third film, we’re able to follow a Padawan who lost his master during Order 66 and is now in hiding. However, he was chosen by the Force to be a Jedi, after all, and it isn’t long before his inherent desire to help others at his own expense paints a target on his back by the Empire, and forces him to run with another surviving Jedi. The rest of the game involves trying to track down an old artifact that would let the Empire kill generations of Force-sensitive children if it fell into their hands.
Like a lot of modern big-budget games, Fallen Order places a lot of emphasis on characterization through frequent, gorgeously animated (the whole game is really pretty, in fact) cutscenes heavy on dialogue. I know that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I eat that stuff up, and I often found myself enjoying the slow talking scenes just as much as the lightsaber-swinging action. Cal Kestis is incredible as the main hero of the story, but supporting characters like the troubled master Cere and the dark witch Merrin are highlights too. And, of course, the game’s main antagonist (The Second Sister) is awesome, and I relished every single showdown with her.
The inherent challenge in a game of this nature won’t be for everyone (even on the Story Mode difficulty setting you’ll still have to contend with the platforming and puzzles), but if you’re a passing fan of both Star Wars and other action/adventure games, you really owe it to yourself to give this game a try. Or, at the very least, you should look up the “movie version” of the game online, which compiles all of the important story beats into a single bingeable video. As I mentioned, the story of this game is quite good, and worth experiencing.
My biggest hope is that the sequel (which just released yesterday) continues to live up to the hype and deliver an experience just as great!
The Contrarian Corner 