Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order developed by Respawn and published by EA is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order puts you in the shoes of Cal Kestis, you first meet Cal on the Planet Bracca. Cal was a Jedi but due to the traumatic events of Order 66, he must hide from the newly risen Galactic Empire salvaging old clone wars era ships for them and not letting anyone know of his existence. As an ex Jedi Padawan, this is harder than it looks and eventually all goes wrong when Cal’s friend Prauf has an accident, the only way to save him is by using the force. This sets of a chain of events that throws you into the main story arc of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. The story is fantastic, from a lost and lonely Padawan you rebuild your skills as you go on, learning more and more about how Cal ended up in this situation and how Order 66 affected his life. Cal and other main characters are so full of personality and interesting backgrounds that I fell in love with them wanting more adventures with them when it all ended. Through-out the game I loved seeing the growth of these characters, at first Cal is a broken man just wanting to do good and put an end to the suffering caused by the Galactic Empire, Cere a mysterious woman with a shrouded past that eventually comes to light and Greez the pilot who ferries you both around the Galaxy. Greez starts as quite the snappy character but ends up becoming one of the greatest in the Star Wars Universe in my opinion. How can I forget the lovable droid that assists you through-out the game, BD-1, I love this droid more than R2-D2 and BB-8 put together. I truly enjoyed every second of seeing Respawns take on the Star Wars Universe and I hope a second one happens.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order takes inspiration from such games as Uncharted, Zelda and Dark Souls. The combat is mostly Dark Souls orientated, each enemy learns the moves you make if you fail you lose XP and have to regain it and to recover all of your health stims you must meditate at certain points. The traversal of the environment is up there with Uncharted and Tomb Raider which really throws it up and gives you the perfect combination of different forms of gameplay. It’s especially great when going back to Planets to explore and using the new skills you’ve learnt to access chests and secrets which aid Cal’s customisation and lets you learn more about the current era you’re in and what’s been going on on the Planet. Customisation in this game is great, you can build your own lightsaber essentially with so many options that suit the way you play, you can also customise your clothes, BD 1’s looks and the ship.

I often use to say that the best Saber Combat in any Star Wars game was Star Wars the Jedi Knight Series. After playing Jedi Fallen Order for so long, I have to admit, it’s a top contender, I cannot decide which is best. While Jedi Knight had more control on what you did with it, Jedi Fallen Order made it brutally satisfying and so smooth and enjoyable. Duelling against the purge troopers and bosses is just so addictive and fun, it felt like the closest thing to the movie battles which is just perfection in my eyes. I’ve always preferred Star Wars games and if you get it right as Jedi Fallen Order has, I’m sold. Sadly though, I really hate mentioning this because to me the game is absolute perfection, easily up there with one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in recent years. The game is riddled with bugs, some game-breaking. I’ve had issues with falling through things, enemies being stuck in walls, crashes, very slow FPS drops on the PlayStation 4 Pro and many other things. It’s sad because Respawn managed to create one of the best Star Wars games in a long time and these bugs do dampen the experience a little bit at times. In the screenshot below I fell and got stuck within the background and had to reset to get back.

Graphically the game looks stunning, the details on the characters bring them to life, the environments look so alien and unique and the polish on these details is unreal but sadly it takes a strain on the FPS. The graphic designers though, they know their Star Wars stuff and they created such a fantastic world, none of it ever feels copy-pasted. The sound design, the lightsaber being ignited, the saber slashing the enemies, my god, satisfaction isn’t the word. The environment around you, the voice acting, it is all perfect I cannot complain at all.

Verdict

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order would have been a 10/10 for me, the story was amazing, the design perfect, the gameplay, a unique blend of many popular titles done right, but the bugs, you cannot ignore them. I have to remove a point or two due to the sheer amount of them. If Respawn can fix them I’d easily rescore this as I believe it to be a 10/10 game and one of the best to come out of 2019 and one of the best Star Wars games that we’ve had in a very long time. No matter what though I can’t recommend this game enough, if you can put up with the slowdowns and bugs, you won’t regret it.

8.5/10

Published by Jake Smith

Hello, I'm Jake, I have loved all things gaming since the SEGA Megadrive days. As a kid, teenager, young adult I loved playing games, but I always wanted more, I wanted to see what went on behind the scenes, talk to the amazing people who work in the industry. That's how I got into gaming sites and that's why I created my own.

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