Like any good Star Wars story, Respawn Entertainment's first installment in the tale of Cal Kestis wears its influences on its sleeve.
Just as anybody who watches George Lucas' original trilogy will immediately be able to pick out his reverential nods to the westerns, samurai films and war flicks that inspired him, players of "Fallen Order" should quickly be able to pick up on the various bits and pieces from across the modern gaming landscape built into the game's foundation.
Like the padawan of many different masters, "Fallen Order" displays the distinct characteristics of several of its gaming forebears; the skill-driven difficultly of a "Soulsborne" game, the cinematic platforming and puzzle-solving of the "Uncharted" series, and the basic skeleton of Metroidvania-esque world exploration and vicious close-quarters combat found in 2018's "God of War," with a bit of "Mass Effect" planet-hopping sprinkled in for good measure.
Some persistent but not game-breaking technical issues hold the game back from the kind of effortless playability that would have propelled it to greatness, but the solid story and writing, challenging combat and often exhilarating platforming plant it firmly in the upper echelon not only of Star Wars games, but Star Wars stories in general.
Just as anybody who watches George Lucas' original trilogy will immediately be able to pick out his reverential nods to the westerns, samurai films and war flicks that inspired him, players of "Fallen Order" should quickly be able to pick up on the various bits and pieces from across the modern gaming landscape built into the game's foundation.
Like the padawan of many different masters, "Fallen Order" displays the distinct characteristics of several of its gaming forebears; the skill-driven difficultly of a "Soulsborne" game, the cinematic platforming and puzzle-solving of the "Uncharted" series, and the basic skeleton of Metroidvania-esque world exploration and vicious close-quarters combat found in 2018's "God of War," with a bit of "Mass Effect" planet-hopping sprinkled in for good measure.
Some persistent but not game-breaking technical issues hold the game back from the kind of effortless playability that would have propelled it to greatness, but the solid story and writing, challenging combat and often exhilarating platforming plant it firmly in the upper echelon not only of Star Wars games, but Star Wars stories in general.