Pretty disappointed considering having spent a lifetime thus far loving Star Wars. On the forefront, it’s a game that is suited to everything I love about modern action/adventure video games, but it has far too many technical complications and a overwhelmingly disappointing story with a weak main character. Although the lightsaber isn’t The Leviathan Axe or Blades of Chaos, the feeling of parrying and slashing enemies and monsters is rewarding and exciting. Combining that with the limited Force abilities makes for a variety of encounters with different enemy types. For example; the game does a great job of making sure you can’t just Force Pull every enemy to you. Where the combat can be frustrating stems from a wild and nearly untethered camera during those moments. There are times when the camera hits a wall and escaping a horde of enemies is nearly impossible. Included in that is the constant technical bugs I encountered throughout the game. During cutscenes the audio would not sync with the image, Cal would be floating instead of actually sliding or wall running, and at times the game felt unresponsive with inconsistent input lag. No developer intentional puts bugs in their game, but a brief delay for release could have easily fixed these issues amongst others. On a positive note; the game looks and sounds as well as I could have hoped. Whether it’s a chilling wind, the waves crashing on some cliffs, the light patter of rain, igniting a lightsaber and going to war with the Empire was constantly exciting. Not only beautiful to look at, but a level of ambience that hasn’t been achieved in a Star Wars game...maybe ever. Disappointingly, Cal Kestus is a one-dimensional protagonist amidst a cast of far more interesting characters. Cere, the Second Sister, the people of Dathomir, and even BD-1 have so much more personality and enticing character traits that allow us to empathize with them in this story. Narratively, this game really let me down despite some genuinely fascinating moments and great set pieces. It’s one of those things where I wish they took more time to give the plot a sense of urgency. For a game focused on a pivotal macguffin, it’s alarming how unimportant it seems to feel. Even up to the very last moments of the game.

Overall, this is a game with plenty of exciting moments that promises a future of Star Wars games that are worth being excited about. This has the foundation to be something bigger and better in a few years time, and I hope EA and Respawn follow through with this and franchise it. In the end, it’s rough around the edges, but has plenty of moments that are worth investing your time into. I still can’t shake the fact that I feel this game would be received more negatively had the STAR WARS name not been attached to it.

6/10