REVIEW:  STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order

So let's star this off with a confession. About 20% of the way into the game, I thought it was incredibly bad to the point of being laughable. In effort to save people from wasting money, I made a "Public Service Announcement" on Facebook stating that the game was terrible. To say that 99.9% of the comments vehemently disagreed with my assessment would not be much hyperbole. But this lead to a revelation. I was battling a sluggish, unresponsive combat system that was simply no fun. I knew there could be no way that everyone was enjoying the gaming experience I was having. My issue was known as "environmental." It was either an issue with my system or a loose nut behind the controller. I'm far from a gaming expert, but I've been playing video games since Space Invaders cabinets showed up in bowling alleys (it's literally the game that got me hooked), so I didn't think that I was the problem.

Unfortunately, I didn't conduct a proper scientific experiment. I tried too many adjustments at once. I did a force restart of my Xbox in case it was a memory issue. I also cut the resolution down to 1080p thinking my Xbox One S could not keep up with the output. Some combination of these factors resolved my issue. I assumed it was the resolution issue, but in testing that hypothesis for this review, I set the resolution back to 4k and the combat mechanics were smooth. I now suspect that it was a case of my Xbox going too long without a reboot. Suffice it to say, if you find yourself repeatedly saying "I know I hit 'block' in time" or watching your lightsaber swing well after you pressed the button, try one of those two measures. Thank you to everyone on Facebook who helped me sort this out because I was honestly ready to quit on the game at that point. And apologies to Respawn, as I unfairly disparaged this game.


As you navigate the story playing as the protagonist Cal Kestis with his droid sidekick BD-1, you are presented with basically two types of challenges. One are the navigation puzzles. This is pretty standard video game fare and has become the norm for the genre. As a way to constrain your navigation through the maps, certain areas are inaccessible until you unlock new Force abilities or discover upgrades to BD-1's arsenal of tools. If you've ever played any of the LEGO video games, it's similar to how those games progress. Blocked areas on the holomap are marked in red. Unfortunately, there isn't a great indication if the area is blocked here because it's a shortcut you haven't opened yet, or because you lack the corresponding ability to do so. That is something that should be improved for Fallen Order II (which is inevitable). If an area is blocked because of the latter, you should get some sort of on-screen indication to let you know that you're wasting your time. This is actually what those aforementioned LEGO games do. A little "Hey bozo, you can't do this yet," would be great. The areas that must be accessed to progress the story are generally achievable. Areas that contain secrets can be a challenge to access, but they offer big rewards such as additional stimpack slots for BD-1, or increases to your health or Force bars. You certainly do not need to get these secrets, but they do offer a big advantage. One secret area on Bogano requires you to perform several difficult navigation tasks in a row. It may test your patience. I can't express the relief I felt when I finally succeeded in the last jump of that challenging sequence.

The second aspect of the gameplay is of course the incredibly fun melee combat system. Yes, this the very thing that nearly had me quit the game out of frustration when I was experiencing the aforementioned sluggish performance of my system. Again, I can't thank our Facebook followers enough for helping me clear this issue up because in reality, the combat system is a blast. I suspected that it was similar to the combat system of another great game, Wolverine Origins, and it actually is. It relies on blocks, parries, dodges and timed attacks (all of which are impossible if your system becomes unresponsive). This isn't a button masher. Pressing attack as fast as you can will get you nowhere. Your enemies will block and counter. Enemies have two styles of attacks which are blockable and unblockable. Your enemy will signal unblockable attacks by flashing red. Most such attacks need to be dodged, but some offer a moment of vulnerability for you to deal a quick surprise attack, and it's quite satisfying. Here's another suggestion I would like to make for Respawn for Fallen Order 2. Because the enemy AI is so varied and complex, it would be good to have a combat simulator. As BD-1 scans the various enemies into his database, instead of just a character sheet which explains the attacks, it would be great if they were unlocked in a combat simulator within the Mantis so you could get in some consequence-free practice.

In the end, how much did I enjoy playing Fallen Order? I actually completed it to 100% including all Xbox Live achievements. I rarely do this. I was actually sad when I earned the last one and there were no more worlds left to conquer.



One of the achievements is called, "What goes around." To earn it, you have to kill an enemy with their own slowed blaster bolt. I initially thought this meant deflecting it back into them, but by the time the shot is returned, it's no longer slowed. Then I realized what needed to be done. You have to Force Pull the enemy into their own slowed shot. And so, one of the coolest ways to dispatch a Stormtrooper in a Star Wars video game is born:




The story is incredibly gratifying and emotional at times. I'm not going to lie: one aspect of the story actually got me choked up. For such a fantastical universe, the plot leans on some fairly universal and accessible themes, which really gets the player invested. It is reminiscent of the OT in that respect, in my opinion. Speaking of the OT, the plot opens some holes with respect to the events of A New Hope through Return of the Jedi, but it closes most of them by the end of the game (and in one decisive action). One canonical plot crater remains open, however, and I expect LFL to close it at some point. I doubt that will come via Fallen Order II, which is all but ensured by the early success of Fallen Order, because that wouldn't be a satisfying game experience. I imagine that would come via a comic or novel at some point.



Shockingly, for such a polished title, some video game cliches exist. One is running into the much maligned invisible wall. True, they are not the classic "invisible walls" from days of yore where a complete unseen force stops your character while their feet continue to churn. In this case, the character's path is blocked by objects over which you could easily leap, but you encounter that invisible wall midair. In one case there is an invisible ceiling during a swimming level (and the "water level" is another video game cliche most recently mocked in South Park™: The Fractured but Whole™).

You can also lock yourself into certain rooms with no chance to get out. Specifically, there are some doors that operate on a pull rope that you have to anchor to keep the door open. Once inside the door, you can actually Force Pull the rope from the anchor with no way of getting out. You have to exit back to the title screen which will then bring you back to the last save point. That's another minor gripe. You can only save progress at designated meditation circles (i.e. the old "check point" mechanics). I get why this needed to be done, but it does stink when you use your lunch hour to play, and you're late getting back to work because you have to find a save point. [Editor's Note: Nobody feels bad for you if you get to take your lunch hour at home and play video games.] If you could save progress arbitrarily, you would be able to use the old Doom "save cheat" to progress without ever really learning the game.

Some of the combat takes place in tight quarters and you may accidentally back yourself into a corner, at which point the camera basically has no idea what to do. The game appears to automatically attempt to switch to 1st person in these cases, and it basically becomes a guessing game on how to extract your character from the situation. It's annoying, but not damning. Finally, I twice fell into the nether. My character was meant to fall off the map, which would then cause him to respawn back on map (minus a little health as punishment), but instead, I fell to an invisible plane between the map and death. One time I was able to find a way to complete the fall. On Dathomir, I couldn't find a way out and had to quit to the title screen.


Those gripes, combined with the ones mentioned under "Gameplay" regarding the need for better indication of areas that are blocked due to insufficient character advancement, along with the need for a combat simulator, has this fall just short of a perfect game. I've noticed most professional outlets score this game a 9.5/10, and that is exactly right. It's just fractionally short of perfection. We don't have a fractional scoring system here (unfortunately). We score out of 5. I can't bring myself to take a full point away, so it's an imperfect 5 out of 5. Fallen Order should definitely be a Game of the Year candidate.




This is an incredibly toyetic video game and it's a sin that it has received ZERO Vintage Collection support to this point. If this were the good old days of 2009, it easily could have supported a basic figure wave, two 5-packs, and a handful of exclusives. Sadly, those days are gone.

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