Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review

On paper, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order seems appropriate. This is a single-player game that combines the level design of "Soul Journey", "Uncharted Waters" and "Milky Warrior" to create a unique game. As a true melting pot of many of the best features of modern and retro games, I originally thought that Respawn might be a winner. Despite the enthusiastic start, the game was unable to sustain its motivation in terms of design and narrative-and eventually fell into a dull, boring situation. And, most importantly, there are a number of performance issues on the Xbox One. If you can maintain this charm.

The fallen order took place five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and the infamous order. The Jedi Order and almost all Jedi Orders were destroyed, but at least one was left as the protagonist Cal Kestis, the former being Padawan who hid as a scraper on the planet Bracca . Due to an uncontrollable event, Carl was forced to reveal his power, only to escape the Empire's investigator with the help of two mysterious characters, a woman named Cere and a barely green alien named Grace, later He was driven away to rebuild the Jedi Order. . This is a reasonable premise for a story, and the opening sequence of the game's opening through Bracca's industrial metal structure is exciting.

Once in the opening stage, you will enter the main direction of the game: adventure between the planets to complete the main story goals and new skills, while looking for other pick-ups and cosmetics to decorate Cal, your spaceship, your robot BD-1 And your lightsaber. It's a neat system that gives players a fair amount of freedom while keeping the levels tight enough to sequence the action. I am pleased to report that the outdoor area of ​​one of the earliest planets, Zeffo, is still as good as when I played them earlier this year, and it shows the best of the Fallen Order. Pleasant-paced battles, beautiful visions, epic music, and great environmental design make the game fun and successfully strike a balance between exploration and challenging games. The route is winding, but passable, and environmental challenges revolve around mobility and when you use force, such as freezing an object to climb.

I spent a lot of time scanning and reading data entries to learn more about Zeffo and piece together what Empire did. The environmental story of The Fallen Order is complex and detail-oriented, focusing on things that were rarely played in Star Wars before: the impact of the Empire War Machine and how it reached small communities on every planet in the galaxy. In order to maintain balance, I also found myself giggling on small details such as enemy placement: I could immediately find two mouse-like creatures pulling the leg of a dead commando (I know it was dark Humor), while another raid commando came to push him on the edge.

In fact, I can probably write the entire article about the Stormtroopers. Respawn has done an incredible job of resurrecting these enemies, and in a way, I really have a hard time killing some of them-maybe one of the better moral issues inadvertently creating a fallen order. In the Star Wars lore, soldiers are recruiters, not clones, and you will hear a variety of attitudes towards their work as they sneak before the battle. Some people showed a fascist attitude towards work (the purge soldiers showed an eager desire to achieve the goal by killing the Jedi), but many were only in regular conversation: expressing how they would not end the junk tax, the day before Why didn't you sleep at night? Another complained to the officers that their potential was wasted on a barren planet. During the battle, some of them ironically stated that they were the last stop or hesitant to accept the Jedi. The enthusiasm for the conversation and the honesty of their response made them both ridiculous and dear-at least one joke would satisfy the requirements of r / PrequelMemes.

Sorry, back to Zeffo: Saki: The terrain also provides a great stage for Fallen Order battles, providing players with breathing space between encounters, and leaving quite a long but challenging space between meditation points Time (effectively saving points). If it sounds familiar, it's because: The combat system used by the Fallen Command relies heavily on the From Software game. It focuses on timed blocks, dodges, and uses special tactics against various enemies, including their attack methods (including Blocking attacks), you must remember. Taking a break at a meditation point can restore your health and health stimuli-but doing so also regenerates the enemy, so you must consider whether it is worth the risk to jump next. If the ending is bad, then you will kill enemies that defeat your enemies and you will gain less experience. In turn, hurting this glowing golden enemy will restore your life, which is a little boost in a tough battle.

The XP eventually turned into skill points, which can be used to unlock various skills and privileges in the skill tree of Fallen Order. It is divided into three branches: Power, Lightsaber, and Survival-As the story progresses and Cal learns new skills, new combat abilities can be purchased. Prioritize features that are preferred (rather than tailoring to your specific game style), because by the end of the game, most of the main skills will be available.

As a soul-like game, the inevitable question is: how hard is it? Thankfully, the Fallen Order offers four difficulty options: Story, Jedi, Jedi Master, and Jedi Grand Master.The more difficult mode narrows the parry window and increases the enemy's aggressiveness, while Carl takes more damage. I mainly use the recommended difficulty game Jedi Knight for gameplay, which well balances the accessibility of challenging and unused melee combat players (although there are some difficulty peaks in later boss battles ). I also had the opportunity to wander around the Jedi Grandmaster and enjoyed the challenge in a short period of time-but I think playing the entire game like that would take me to a level of concentration. Each to himself. At least if you really hate a certain boss, you can use "Story Mode" to effectively skip it, but I don't recommend playing the entire game like this because it eliminates all challenges.

In most cases, the battle is solid: You must be patient and consider the order in which you deal with enemy groups (especially when certain enemies are fired), and which tactics will destroy the enemy as soon as possible. Arranging a parry properly to enable the enemy to take a movie-like finishing move is incredible gratification, and I also routinely move the enemy away from the edge (though you can't do this with larger enemies Become a serial thrust pusher), come on). Playing Blast Tennis with a viper robot is ridiculous and therefore great.

But the fun did not last: the fallen order began to turn to the dark side.

One of the biggest selling points of the Fallen Order is its influence in Metroidvania-even using countless expansion paths that will unlock as you acquire new skills, along with a horizontal map to help players navigate (green means the route is unlocked, Red means prohibited)). If you like, it is also the game's biggest asset and biggest flaw-the double-edged lightsaber. After initially exploring a brand new planet, traversing to find rewards and cosmetics is great: you are happy to explore the corners and gaps, everything is fresh, and you are willing to spend time because of the people who initiated the optional exploration. At that time, the map was also small enough that it didn't take much time to hike.

However, during the game, the goal of the story requires you to revisit the same few planets-this is when the Metroid elements become extremely cumbersome. It's often a long way to target your goals beyond everything you've already explored. Although you can unlock shortcuts, it's often difficult to find them in a complex level map that is all blue and is no longer marked with bright yellow (representing untapped areas). In any case, most shortcuts are not enough to significantly reduce travel time. With the buzz of exploring new worlds gone, you no longer have to endure the patience of walking through complex winding tunnels. Then, once the goal is completed, this is the worst part: you have to trek back to the spaceship, the process can take more than 20 minutes to crack the enemy that has been defeated. Even "Dark Soul" could eventually get fast travel options on about two-thirds of the journey, and "The Fallen Order" called for similar requirements.

One thing that might inspire me to keep trying is to seize the hope of story development. But a, there is almost nothing there. While writing this review, I had to go back to the chapter notes of the game, as most of the story development became my mind. You are constantly being transported between the target and the ship, chasing holographic images of the late Jedi to collect things so that you can collect more. This is an endless breadcrumb trail with no emotional reward.

The core of the narrative is a key one: I don't care about any role at all. Cal has the personality of a wet poncho. Many of his conversations led him to basically say only yes / no, or about mission goals. The best option is to joke with BD-1, and although Cere has an interesting backstory, neither she nor Cal are particularly active-their conversation (which accounts for most of the conversation in The Fallen Order) is just tedious. I found myself completely alienated from his character, instead I wish I could hang out with the second and ninth sisters on the other side of the laser gate, while the second and ninth sisters actually have personality and evil conversations . Of course, there are no other options to make a murky decision in this game (Cal never considered it), and unfortunately, when they suddenly appear in the boss battle, you will only see the villains. Poor.

Most importantly, the story is not clever except to present certain moments in the story visually. The themes of failure, dealing with guilt and trauma have flooded, but have never been explored in depth. The game just doesn't have time to do it. The other characters remain on the ship, so usually the communication between you and Cal's robot is tedious, and the cutscenes all involve the next goal. Thank God, Greez is the only one who has always maintained a humorous and engaging dialogue-but a character cannot tell a story. When Greez told Cal, his actions changed his outlook on life, which was incredible because there was no necessary foundation work before then. It's incredible.

In the end, the story of The Fallen Order hardly developed. This is a story with no clear direction. This is a story without risks.

All this makes the Fallen Order a slogan. I'm tired of trekking through the waves of enemies, and I can't find interesting stories in the end, and I can't skip the level quickly: Even running in story mode can cause you to be hit hard, tied to a rope, or trapped at the door. Chasing enemy mobs.

Perhaps the Soulsborne format is not the best fit for Star Wars. To provide a challenge, the enemy must be hit several times-this has the effect of making the lightsaber feel underpowered. Maybe it makes sense when Cal is at the beginning of the journey, but even if Cal is in its most powerful state, it will need about three slashes to knock down the overgrown rat. When you try to figure out how your enemies are attacking, the lightsaber battles won't be as epic as Cal's fall to the floor. You do gain more abilities and skills, and can increase health and strength, but the Fallen Order will never let you take off your gloves. The reason for limiting the dynamometer is for players to engage in a quick parry melee battle because you can restore the dynamometer by killing the enemy (or hitting a blocked enemy if you unlock the skill). If you can simply run across enemies when returning to the planet, you can greatly reduce reversal issues. How interesting it is to let go of Cal's force and powerful lightsaber.

When I reached the end of Star Wars: The Jedi: Fallen Order, I didn't think I would gain anything. I'm relieved. After some bending down, it took about 30 hours, but I didn't like many of them. I admit that acting like a soul in less than four days is an unnatural and painful experience: I think if I play The Fallen Order in a few months, I will be less depressed, but maybe Still boring. It's a shame, because the core of Fallen Order is an incredible gaming experience with a fantastic environment and well-designed action sequences. But it cannot be sustained due to some basic design issues.

As for the story? Well, it will never land.