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Author Topic: Jedi: Fallen Order Spoilerrific Review! (Very Long)  (Read 9584 times)
PsychoSith
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« on: November 18, 2019, 03:27:45 PM »

Right so, over the weekend I decided to be a full basement gremlin and power through Fallen Order, finishing the story fully (don't worry I took a nature walk break with the gf, so I guess only half basement gremlin). I have not 100% the game (yet), but I feel after finishing the story, ready to make my final judgment on the game. I'm going to start with the score and then move on to reasoning - EXECUTOR CLASS SPOILERS AHEAD.

Final Score: 9/10. - If you own Battlefront II (2005) and KotoR, you should own Fallen Order; a must-have for Star Wars enthusiasts and one of the greatest SW game titles.

So there's a lot to unpack here so I'm gonna go by different aspects of the game, starting with, well, gameplay.

Gameplay: This game plays like a very odd mix of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Uncharted, and The Force Unleashed. The lightsaber combat is weighty, with a sense of momentum and power, without feeling held back or sluggish. Early on in the game, you upgrade Cal's single blade to a saberstaff, where you can hot-swap the second blade on or off in the heat of combat to address different threats. You unlock a small handful of force powers (slow, push, pull, double jump, saber throw, repulse) but use them in creative enough ways and often in puzzles so that the force abilities feel very diverse. When you die to an enemy (which WILL happen) your accumulated experience toward your next skill point attaches to that enemy. When you strike that enemy again after respawning, not only do you regain your xp, it fills your health and force meter, a handy helping hand if your struggling with a particular enemy. Bosses are visceral and satisfying to fight, lightsaber combat feels fantastic, especially against an opponent also wielding the familiar weapon. Most enemies outside of bosses are killed in only a couple hits, even Purge troopers only needing 3-4 blows to go down, but the skill is in the dodging, blocking, and parrying. An enemy with another melee weapon can pose a serious threat if you are not skilled at these things. Cal obviously acquires more skills and power as you go through the game, but he never quite feels overpowered; in the final area, there was a particular room containing a purge trooper armed with a blaster and a KX security droid; which I struggled against despite my large pool of abilities and powers. The game has a metroidvania aspect to it, every planet containing secret pathways and whole areas waiting to be discovered once you obtain the right force ability.The maps are quite large and intricately twist on themselves leaving a puzzle or maze like experience that heavily rewards exploring and going back to previous planet to unlock new areas and secrets. The Planets in question are Bogano (think Utapau with more green), Dathomir, Zeffa (boreal mountains and tombs), Kashyyyk, and Ilum. The game expertly breaks up large cinematic setpeices with small to medium combat encounters and a healthy dose of downtime exploring. Also NO FAST TRAVEL. If you get lost, youre left with a map and your wits. Lastly, difficulty settings! I played through on the hardest, and had my friends input for the lower settings. They go something like this, to put it succinctly:
1) Story Mode
2) Normal Mode
3) Hard Mode
4) Dark Souls Was for Pansies Mode
And just as the cherry on top, there is extensive lightsaber customization that allows you to make that weapon completely your own.




Story: Is REALLY blasted good. Those of you who like Disney Canon? You'll love it. Those of you who hate Disney Canon? You'll love it too. Tonally it is way darker than average. I'm talking dead friends, failed redemption, torture, and a full-fledged Order 66 scene which really emphasizes the confusion and heartbreak of a young Cal being hunted by people he saw as friends. The Villain is even a three dimensional character, The Second Sister, the Padawan-turned-Inquisitor of your crewmate spends most of the game hunting you down and resisting Cal's insistence that she can change. Only in the final moments after Cal has soundly beaten her and her old Master begs her to save herself does she reconsider. But this game is dark, and the change of heart comes too little, too late for poor Trilla.


So i could talk about all the little ins and outs that makes the story great, and Ive still a few points to cover but I need to talk about this scene. You thought Vader was intimidating? You thought the Rogue 1 scene was vicious? You dont know what that word means. A problem I have with some other Star Wars games is the tendency of the player character to be overpowered. And you kind of start to feel that by the end of the game, finally beating down Trilla, who has much more experience than Cal does. And then Vader shows up. You thought you were strong? The game lets you get about two swings in before Vader absolutely man-handles Cal & Co. Dismissing entire assaults with a wave of his hand and launching people on a whim. Meanwhile is he enraged? No. He is calmly telling Cal "It would be wise to surrender." Thanks for the understatement of the millennia. Surprisingly, the main cast survives, due to not overpowering Vader, but using the environment to their advantage, flooding the hallway they're in and escaping into the ocean outside (obligatory underwater evil lair, for reference.) This scene is such a nice cherry on top for Vader fans, like myself.

Otherwise as I said the story is excellent, Cal, where he can feel a little bland, does have a very satisfying arc from a kid thats barely keeping himself together...


to a full-fledged warrior of the Jedi:


Even the side characters have depth to them, Cere's arc is tragic but fitting, Greez is not only a good "smuggler" arc but also fantastic comic relief. The main cast are not these incredible heroes, as Cal himself put it: a bunch of screw-ups. And that is one of the best areas for Star Wars to work in. The final addition to your crew, the last surviving Nightsister; where she doesnt have the screen-time (unfortunately) to say she has much of an arc, she is a surprisingly well-written and endearing addition to the Mantis' crew.


Believe it or not, the is the abridged version of what I wrote for this, but this is already incredibly long. I could talk for hours about this game, it is truly excellent. The heroes feel like they're against stacked odds, the Inquisitors feels legitimately terrifying, The planets feel alive, and the flashbacks give such good context of the Clone Wars. Also while I'm here, favorite scene besides the Vader:

So Cal has the ability to sense the history of any object he touches (the name escapes me right now) and this is used to great effect in the story. However, it is mentioned early on he has difficulty controlling this. Near the end, he is dueling Trilla, the Second Sister, when he attempts to disarm her. His ability immediately kicks in as he is forced to relive Trilla's tortuous transformation from a Jedi Apprentice to an Imperial Inquisitor. As Cal reels from the intense memory, Trilla smirks and comments "Careful, that's been through hell." Which IMO was just a superb way of addressing Cal's ability and adding depth to Trilla's already surprisingly deep story. 

All-in-all this is one of the greatest Star Wars videogames ever made. In deserves to be held up in that same realm as the KotoR titles, original Battlefront II, and the Force Unleashed. Play this game!
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Greywolf
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« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2019, 01:22:42 PM »

Nice review!

Now I just have to do some research to find out if FO would run on my (ages old) machine Grin
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Racona Nova
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« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2019, 04:59:24 PM »

What specs? I have a Ryzen 5 1600, GTX 1060 (6 GB) and 16 GB of RAM (all on regular specs, no overclocking). Get 40-60 FPS out of it, which makes it playable. Slight stuttering in combat while having much environment, but good overall performance - on Epic, Full HD (1920x1080) and all graphic features on (including VSync and Dynamic Resolution Adjustment). I'm quite happy, especially because I don't meet the recommended specs Grin

A side note: you might get extremely low FPS when you have an anti-ransomware program (or program feature). I had that problem with Acronis Active Protection. Added J:FO to its whitelist, that solved it.
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PsychoSith
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« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2019, 05:31:30 PM »

What specs? I have a Ryzen 5 1600, GTX 1060 (6 GB) and 16 GB of RAM (all on regular specs, no overclocking). Get 40-60 FPS out of it, which makes it playable. Slight stuttering in combat while having much environment, but good overall performance - on Epic, Full HD (1920x1080) and all graphic features on (including VSync and Dynamic Resolution Adjustment). I'm quite happy, especially because I don't meet the recommended specs Grin

A side note: you might get extremely low FPS when you have an anti-ransomware program (or program feature). I had that problem with Acronis Active Protection. Added J:FO to its whitelist, that solved it.

PS4 Pro, sadly I cant help with PC specs
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chalion
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« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2019, 10:21:44 PM »

I'm taking a much slower pace to playing this. I'm only just set foot on Kashyyyk, the world one of the devs demo allowed you to play in pre-release. I also am using a PC so i'm slightly disadvantaged in the combat since i'm all thumbs with a console controller.
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Greywolf
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« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2019, 08:19:03 AM »

What specs? I have a Ryzen 5 1600, GTX 1060 (6 GB) and 16 GB of RAM (all on regular specs, no overclocking). Get 40-60 FPS out of it, which makes it playable. Slight stuttering in combat while having much environment, but good overall performance - on Epic, Full HD (1920x1080) and all graphic features on (including VSync and Dynamic Resolution Adjustment). I'm quite happy, especially because I don't meet the recommended specs Grin

A side note: you might get extremely low FPS when you have an anti-ransomware program (or program feature). I had that problem with Acronis Active Protection. Added J:FO to its whitelist, that solved it.

My rig is more than four years old now Wink : i7-6700K (4x4.0GHz), 32GB RAM and a GTX 970 (4GB)
Well, if I fine-tune graphic options, it might still run fine Smiley
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Racona Nova
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« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2019, 01:20:51 PM »

It's above the minimum specs, so yes, a bit of fine-tuning and you should be able to play it. You may get less FPS on Epic than I do, though, so prepare for noticeable stuttering in some environments or situations. I think more than "High" with advanced graphic settings disabled (Camera Blur etc.) is not possible on your machine without severe performance issues.
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Darth Tepes
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« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2019, 02:52:21 PM »

My rig is a few years old and it plays fine..I only get stuttering on the pause menu funnily enough
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ElvenSkywalker83
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« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2019, 07:35:33 PM »

I finished the story a few minutes ago and then came here to see some spoiler reviews XD. And yes, I loved it! I kinda wish it was longer, and I hope they either add updates and side missions to this game or do a Fallen Order 2. I'd like to see how Cal continues his life and if he ever died since, well, Yoda did tell Luke that Luke was the last of the Jedi.

My legs are still shaky from when Vader showed up! TRILLA GET OUT OF THE WAY!  Cry
Oh and then Cere was tossed into the abyss, that freaked the kriff out of me! You're so right, Vader in Rogue One was terrifying, but this was even more scary due to how close players may have gotten to Cal at this point. Cal's character has a lovely spot in my fangirl heart and I would've been so upset if Vader succeeded in killing him, and thank the Force Cere survived! I'm all for Vader destroying everything the protagonist loves, but I'd rather Cere get run through while saving Cal instead of just being tossed into the abyss. And I loved the panic and desperation to get away. Vader's presence is one you must escape, not fight, especially since Cal isn't a fully trained Jedi and Cere, though strong in her own right, would never have stood a chance.

My favorite part though, would have to be Cal's trek through Ilum. The part where he fell got knocked into the water, came out hurting and practically crawled to his crystal only for it to break. Ugh my heart, I love how low Cal went after that vision on Dathomir, only to be picked up by his friend. Bd-1 is friendship goals!

Anyways, all in all I really enjoyed this game, I'd go as far as to say Cal is the best character Disney canon has produced! The only complaints I have would be that the story felt kind of short, the length may have been better for a movie, and that the holo-map confused me on a number of occasions XD. I sure hope there will be more content for Cal and his band in the very near future.
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Racona Nova
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« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2019, 08:58:12 PM »

Finished the story yesterday - amazing and intimidating to watch Vader emerging from the shadows! That was the point where my opinion of that game changed from "great" to....actually, there's no expression for my current opinion Grin

I only wished that Merrin would've gotten more screen time after joining the crew. I think her story has much potential...and I'd like to know if she fully integrates into the crew. Greez doesn't seem to think much of her...I do Tongue
« Last Edit: January 04, 2020, 03:49:10 PM by Racona Nova » Logged

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« Reply #10 on: November 30, 2019, 04:55:33 AM »

Good review there and I agree with the rating. As with EA games that are good, the story's typically short. I beat the story in 3 days but I was also stuck to bed, just finished Need For Speed Heat two days ago and that's with me playing it for two weeks with one week spending time with the kiddos. Another EA game and again, short. Sure, there's all the side stories and achievements but the main story is shorter than the first three Mandalorian episodes...

I like it though, they spent a lot of time with it, I just wish they added more content
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ElvenSkywalker83
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« Reply #11 on: November 30, 2019, 07:51:05 PM »

After I finished the game, a thought came to me. Vader is a horror character. And I wish the horror aspect was explored more. What I love about Vader is even though we know his ultimate fate and the person he once was, we still fear him, he still encourages anxiety to the viewer (save for the part where he kills Ozzel. I cheer for that part XD) and panic even. When Vader arrived to the scene just as Trilla is about to renounce her evil and join Cere and Cal, Vader's breathing, his clanking steps, the absolute power and dread he gives off is suffocating.

"You would be wise to surrender."

"Yeah, probably..."

While I do love the depressive, miserable side of Vader I feel like he should never be humanized til he finally comes to his senses and saves Luke from Darth Sidious. I hope Vader's horror element gets explored more cause honestly, Cal's flight from Vader was thrilling, frightening and caused me a lot of anxiousness for Cal and the others. This horror side of Vader is something that really needs to be shown more now that technology can allow such things to happen. I'd love a horror film of Vader even, anything to bring out the greatest thing going for Darth Vader. Inspiring fear.

What do you think of Vader's horror side? May the Force be with you.
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Greywolf
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« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2019, 12:16:55 PM »

... I kinda wish it was longer, and I hope they either add updates and side missions to this game or do a Fallen Order 2. …

Well, looks like they want to  Grin
https://www.gamesradar.com/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-breaks-sales-records-suggesting-respawns-wish-to-keep-telling-that-story-is-officially-on-the-cards/
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GeddaTheHutt
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« Reply #13 on: December 19, 2019, 03:31:46 PM »

I really enjoyed this game! I agree it is a little short and would like to see more content or a sequel. My favourite bits were the train section in the first part of the game and piloting the ATAT the first visit to Kashyyyk. I did find the sliding sections of some areas frustrating but I enjoyed the challenge of completing them. I could have spent hours just checking the various customization options for Cal's lightsaber. The characters were interesting and engaging, Merrin could have been more fleshed out but her addition to the crew spiced things up. This is one of the best starwars games that I have played.
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« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2020, 06:26:15 AM »

If anything the lighsaber combat alone sells the game for me. Nothing like deflecting a whole barrage of laser blasts and putting away your lighsaber to continue walking forward before they even hit their targets. The fights with other melee weapon users are incredibly intense and satisfying. The story was a bit rushed I felt, but it was cool to see an actor from shameless in a star wars game. I liked it so much I ordered the Fallen, just got it today actually, what a badass saber they came up with for him.
     Hoping to see more stuff like this from ea, good review!
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