Jedi Fallen Order

So, before we get into this it’s best to deal with the massive elephant in the room first. I can’t stand dark souls, and I generally think these games are ruining a lot of franchises by conflating repetition with skill. For me, and a good number of others judging by what I’ve seen posted elsewhere, this makes for very, very boring games. I mention this now, because JFO has been described as having ‘souls’ mechanics (something else that bugs me, because it is far from being the first game where if you die you lose all your progress, but I digress). This made me hesitant to try the game, because as much as I have loved previous Star Wars games, that one detail has killed any enjoyment of a game for me before.

Luckily, there is a delightful way around this problem and it’s called story mode. I found the game to be most enjoyable when the general environment was set to a higher difficulty, and then switching over to story mode for the boss fights, because otherwise they are needlessly dumb. Sadly, these fights are one of, if not the weakest point of the whole game. Unlike actual dark souls games where there is at least some variation in the pattern of attacks to learn, JFO really lacks even that, making the majority of the fights reduced down to this – block, block, block, avoid, hit, repeat a dozen times, try not to sleep on the keyboard. Story mode speeds up this whole process, increasing your damage to enemies and letting you get on with the actual fun bit.

Good news, the game is actually pretty fun, and gives you some pretty cool challenges to overcome using a variety of Jedi techniques. Environmental combat is actually pretty good too, though I mostly enjoyed the deflecting of blaster fire, or just launching things off into space with force push, when you do get into a proper fight there is a nice mix of abilities and lightsaber techniques to throw about, keeping combat from feeling stale for the most part. The way you explore the world and unlock new data files is also pretty cool, and it does a great job of building up the world around you and rewards players for seeking these out with experience. There are also a dozen or so secrets and bonus to be found on every planet, which gives you extra reasons to really look about and take in the level design.

The story is also pretty decent, if not a little typical of a Jedi plotline for a survivor of the purge. It does feel a little similar to Ezra from Rebels, but I think manages to keep itself different enough with the various characters you meet along the way. The soundtrack is also fantastic, with some classics popping up at certain key moments. One of my particular favorites is at the gladiator pit, where I believe the music of the HU can be heard (haven’t been able to confirm, but it’s certainly very similar.)

If you are lucky, you might still be able to catch this one on the steam sale, and at that price it is well worth the money with nearly a good 14 hours of gameplay just in the story alone, assuming you don’t try and speed run it. While it doesn’t come close to the epic that is Knights of the Old Republic, it’s still a decent entry into the Star Wars game franchise, and provides a fun and engaging experience as a young Jedi up against the ever closing grasp of the Empire.