Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review (HoneyOTU)
I don't think anybody can blame me for being sceptical for Fallen Order when it was coming out, given how EA treated the Star Wars license in the video games department. But after playing the game myself way back in 2019 on consoles, I ended up really liking the game. Its been a while since I played it, so I decided to start the game again on Jedi Grand Master and go for the 100% achievements here on Video Cassette and DVD...uhh I mean PC, and I have a lot to say.
The story of course takes place in the Star Wars universe, some few years after Order 66 where you take the role of Cal Kestis who survived the whole predicament and now finds himself being hunted down by the Inquisitors after hiding for so long. He meets a new crew and sets out on a new mission to help save the Jedi Order. Although simplistic, some of the story events that happen are absolutely bizzare and help to elevate the narrative. That being said, I don't think you'll miss anything important if you choose not to play this. I can say its still better than Rise of Cringewalker Mary Sue which came out the same year.
Gameplay as you expected for being a Jedi, you swing around a lightsaber and use force powers. Game overall feels very familiar to anybody that has played a game like Sekiro with it's progression being similar as well as the combat being parry-based. There's also a ton of exploration across the game's 5 planets, where you find Lightsaber parts and tons of skins for Cal, BD-1, and your ship. Then there's Force Echoes and tons of lore to read if you scan certain areas. Very solid gameplay overall, but now let's have a new Star Wars game that let's us have Sith powers, hopefully the KOTOR remake will be the one to have this. Bosses are honestly very underwhelming to the point where the most memorable ones were the ones against other Lightsaber users. As I said I played the whole way through on Grandmaster, the hardest difficulty, but even then the game gets way easier as you get more Lightsaber and Force abilities.
Graphics overall look really good, given I was able to play at the highest settings at 1440p, but I've had so many issues with the game such as some fps drops, somewhat fixed when I got new RAM in the middle of my playthrough, but I've also had plenty of crashes. Luckily though, the game does have a pretty good autosave, so at least I didnt have to worry about loosing any progress. I have heard stories about there being a save wipe glitch but I can't clarify that for myself.
Overall, I loved the game, but as someone who did 100% completion, the backtracking stood out like a sore thumb. Your map does a good job at tracking how many secrets and chests you have missing in said section, but it doesn't record Force Echoes, audio logs, and other important stuff needed for certain achievements. This wouldn't be so bad if the game had fast travel except it doesn't, and the maps are usually very large and often have many points of no return causing constant circling.
Jedi Fallen Order is the closest thing we'll get to a proper modern Jedi game in the era of Disney Star Wars, in a legacy where many games like this have come before and probably better than this title. I had a fun time with Fallen Order again, and I still think it's worthy of checking out if you are a Star Wars fan.