Man, it's been years since i've last played a single-player Star Wars game. In fact, the last one i played was another action game called The Force Unleashed 2, back when it came out (maybe one day i'll revisit that series and see how my opinion has held up). So when i finally got a PS4 after all this time, i knew that Fallen Order was a game i was going to play at some point and thankfully, it delivered.
As far as the narrative itself goes, it's a pretty standard Star Wars story. Most of the game is a McGuffin hunt that has you flying back and forth between planets and the planets visited are pretty neat. You have classics like Kashyyk and Dathomir and then you have new planets like Bogano and Zeffo, which introduce the long-gone Zeffo civilization to the franchise. That's one of Star Wars' strengths, that you could tell quite literally any kind of story here because of it's sandbox nature. And since i could take my time exploring these planets, this meant i was allowed to take in some impressive sights.
The characters are nothing i'd right home about. Cal Kestis is a fairly standard protagonist. The writing for him works well and i was invested but there are other Star Wars characters i'd say i liked more. Same goes for the rest of the Mantis crew, they were fine and serviced the story but again, nothing i'd write home about. Likable but standard.
The gameplay is the real treat of this game because obviously. The dungeons made good use of your abilities and there were some neat setpieces. Combat is satisfying and builds up as you go. That being said, there is one aspect of the combat that fundamentally clashed with how i like to play games. See, i'm bad at parrying. Not deflecting, deflecting is fine, it was very satisfying to deflect blaster fire. No, parrying is what i've always been bad at and as a result, i've always been more of a "dodge -> counterattack" sort of guy. And while that is something you can do in this game, it's not really as effective as parrying, which is what the game encourages way more. As a result, i always took more damage from melee enemies and bosses than i should've. I got by on the standard difficulty though i did have to switch to Story Mode towards the end because my ability to brute force and dodge my way through was no longer carrying me. It's not the game's fault, it's a well-designed game. Just don't ever ask me to parry stuff lmao.
The main problems of this game come from some weird performance issues. Even on my PS4 Pro, there'd be occasional pop-in, lag, one time i even glitched through the floor and died instantly. Switching to performance mode seemed to alleviate some issues but it was overall presence that kept occurring here and there, not enough to completely hinder the game but enough to where it's very noticeable. I must also mention that while the climax of the game is good, the ending itself is....a tad bit underwhelming.
Jedi: Fallen Order is a game i would recommend to anyone who likes action games, Star Wars or both. It's a good game and the length it has is perfect for this sort of game, as nothing ever feels like it drags for too long.
As far as the narrative itself goes, it's a pretty standard Star Wars story. Most of the game is a McGuffin hunt that has you flying back and forth between planets and the planets visited are pretty neat. You have classics like Kashyyk and Dathomir and then you have new planets like Bogano and Zeffo, which introduce the long-gone Zeffo civilization to the franchise. That's one of Star Wars' strengths, that you could tell quite literally any kind of story here because of it's sandbox nature. And since i could take my time exploring these planets, this meant i was allowed to take in some impressive sights.
The characters are nothing i'd right home about. Cal Kestis is a fairly standard protagonist. The writing for him works well and i was invested but there are other Star Wars characters i'd say i liked more. Same goes for the rest of the Mantis crew, they were fine and serviced the story but again, nothing i'd write home about. Likable but standard.
The gameplay is the real treat of this game because obviously. The dungeons made good use of your abilities and there were some neat setpieces. Combat is satisfying and builds up as you go. That being said, there is one aspect of the combat that fundamentally clashed with how i like to play games. See, i'm bad at parrying. Not deflecting, deflecting is fine, it was very satisfying to deflect blaster fire. No, parrying is what i've always been bad at and as a result, i've always been more of a "dodge -> counterattack" sort of guy. And while that is something you can do in this game, it's not really as effective as parrying, which is what the game encourages way more. As a result, i always took more damage from melee enemies and bosses than i should've. I got by on the standard difficulty though i did have to switch to Story Mode towards the end because my ability to brute force and dodge my way through was no longer carrying me. It's not the game's fault, it's a well-designed game. Just don't ever ask me to parry stuff lmao.
The main problems of this game come from some weird performance issues. Even on my PS4 Pro, there'd be occasional pop-in, lag, one time i even glitched through the floor and died instantly. Switching to performance mode seemed to alleviate some issues but it was overall presence that kept occurring here and there, not enough to completely hinder the game but enough to where it's very noticeable. I must also mention that while the climax of the game is good, the ending itself is....a tad bit underwhelming.
Jedi: Fallen Order is a game i would recommend to anyone who likes action games, Star Wars or both. It's a good game and the length it has is perfect for this sort of game, as nothing ever feels like it drags for too long.