Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Not exactly going to jump on the hype train on this one yet but it looks like it'll be the first worth while SW game since KoToR.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I have some faith since the God of War 3 lead took the helm of this along with the cofounder that brought us the MW1 and 2 campaigns. I didn't play Titanfall 2 but I heard the campaign was excellent. I watched the panel and the end of the very cringeworthy SW show and everything pointed to good things. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Is it me or does he run like he has something shoved up his ass? Also he doesn't act like a Jedi, some of those kills are pretty fucking brutal (sorry, Jedi lore nut here. That kind of pull toward and stab move is more of a Sith thing. Just a nit pick thing, don't mind me).

All kidding aside it looks good but still not getting hyped for it. I'll wait until after it releases to see if it's worth buying or not (not a dig on Respawn but I've been burned way to many times by EA to jump up in excitement for something being published by them).

Edited June 9, 2019 by Strider Hiryu

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Ugh yes the running animation is so weird. I hope they clean that up.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

That main character looks like Archie from the CW's Riverdale show. Lol. Aside from that the game is looking really good to me.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Let me preface this by saying that I've never played Dark Souls or that style of game. After talking with some friends who have, let me state that if you don't like Dark Souls or that type of game, this game is probably not for you.

I didn't know what to expect coming into this. The devs said DS was their inspiration and they've seemed to borrow heavily from the mechanics. When you start the game it asks you to pick a difficulty. There is Story, Normal, Hard, and Jedi Master I believe? Each difficulty has a set of meters to show you what you're getting into. Story being the easiest has the parry timing meter maxed out, and the damage taken really low. So even if you don't like DS games but you want to experience the story, they are accommodating to that. Basically the harder the difficulty the more damage you take and hitting the parry moves are unforgiving if you mistime it.

Combat is slow and methodical. You must block, dodge, parry, and choose when you attack. Only the most basic enemies can you slice down without much thought. And there aren't many of those unless they're served as fodder to allow the bigger enemies to try to get a hit in on you while you're distracted. At least at first. As I gain more force abilities I've noticed combat against mobs is getting easier. But to start out you only have an ability to slow a single target. You can block almost everything, but at the cost of a stamina meter. Which I've only ran out of once so far. Each enemy type has an unblockable attack. When this triggers they'll glow red letting you know you must parry. I'd say you can only get 2-3 swings of your saber in at a time before having to evade or parry. The bigger beasts I don't have much problem with, but Storm Troopers with rocket launchers are bullshit. They're always far away on a pearch shooting rockets while you're occupied with smaller enemies. Rockets hurt, and they can't be dodged or deflected. You just have to back roll or run away out of the blast. The only advantage is that they may accidentally shoot their own men and kill them saving you a little bit of time. One other gripe I have is trying to parry on a narrow area. This game doesn't have many if any invisable walls or any kind of mechanic that will assist you from falling off the edge. Sometimes fights take place on narrow structures and when you parry, if you do it just a little wrong you'll fall off the side and die. Also leveling up results in skill points. There are no true levels, but if you get killed by someone/thing in between skill points you lose all that XP. You can go back and hit the enemy that killed you to get all the XP back, but it has a time limit on.

Save locations act as your place to spend skill points and "rest". The HP system relies on healing canisters that as far as I can see only replenish when you choose rest at these areas. It will also refill your HP bar. When you do this it will also respawn every enemy you've killed in the area. You'll have to choose wisely on if full HP is helpful too you. For the most part these points are placed well for the pace of the story, but a few are a bit of an asshole. So far every map has had places I can't get into until I get the right force powers. While fighting mechanics can be stressful, I'd say the game is 70% puzzles and exploring and 30% battle. With that you'll find hidden chests with health cannister expansions and cosmetics. The light saber has 5 different customizable parts, and your outfit, BD1, and your ship can all be skinned by things you find in the chest.

Its an interesting experience by far for me. I never wanted to play a DS style game but here I am, it will probably be the only one.

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Wow. That sounds like a completely different style of game than I was expecting. I never got into DS games so I might be better off watching a play through off this than playing it.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

So after a little experimentation. Story mode will def let anyone play this game all the way through without much of a hassle besides being constantly staggered if you refuse to follow the rules of combat. You can still die, it will just take an idiot level of suck to not grasp the concept. That being said, once you get deep into the skill tree the game becomes significantly more easy on normal minus the last two characters you have to fight for real, as the final "boss" is just a sequence of things that made for a true grand finale ending that I found to be unique and awesome.  But back to the force powers. Pull is everything. Most enemies, even some resistant to force push can be pulled and one shotted with your saber as long as you have enough on the force meter to do so. There are times this game throws things at you that require you to string different abilities together with a certain mix of enemies. Like having 2 shock troopers, a imperial droid, and two imperial drones. You can pull the drones too you, hack them with BD-1, and they will shoot at the enemies that really are a tough combo to deal with otherwise. There are also random bounty hunters that look like Leia when she infiltrated Jabba's palace in RoTJ, they are sometimes accompanied by a battle droid. Most of these are optional bosses that are off the beaten path, or in places you already visited. They don't respawn when you rest, as they're unique enemies.

After beating this game, I'd place it in my top 3 behind KOTOR and Jedi Outcast. It could have been #2 if a few things would have been a bit different. One, the combat style just wasn't my thing. Sure for bosses, but for everything, it was a little stressful.. enough that I couldn't marathon the game. I'd play a planet and put it down for a day. Its definitely not a sit back and relax type of game. While the story was amazing, the pacing kinda went off track near the end. You pick up one of the most interesting crew members and then you're at the end with one more location to visit. I feel like that was a lost opportunity as her dialogue was really good and seemed to be a character worth investing more with, but instead it was rushed and the emotions shared the rest of the time felt forced. Once I mastered the combat, the game can be marred by camera and frame rate issues that will cause you to fall off a side, during a jump or slide puzzle which takes some of your HP away until you die. So you can easily waste stim canisters healing yourself from something thats not combat. And if you're not playing on Story, stims are precious and its aggravating to have to waste one becasue the camera is wonky and making you miss a vine or a turn. Basically, if the game wold have been a little bit longer with more casual combat (Like God of War PS4 level) outside of bosses, It would have been perfect to me.

If you like Star Wars its definitely worth the pick up. Per usual the stories told outside of the movies are better than the movies. If they make another one I'll def pick it up.