When thinking about upcoming action-adventure game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, it’s easy to look back at previous failures in Star Wars games and feel disheartened. After hearing about an upcoming Star Wars game again in 2019, it’s understandably difficult to let yourself be excited, but despite the doubt and disappointment that hovers over the Star Wars game franchise, perhaps not all hope is lost.
As a single-player game with no microtransactions, Fallen Order avoids the primary criticisms of EA’s previous entries in their series of multiplayer Star Wars games; Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II.
This time around, EA seems set on proving everyone wrong. And although this won’t right any past wrongs, it could provide us with a great Star Wars game after a long time spent waiting for one. Clearly, EA wants to be taken seriously judging by their choice of hires – such as Stig Asmussen, a Sony Santa Monica developer who worked on the first three God of War games.
The thought of developers getting a Star Wars game right is really exciting and has been a long time coming for some fans.
Iconic Fight Scenes
Fighting new villains such as the purge troopers (former Jedi knights and masters) or iconic existing ones will make Fallen Order all the more exciting, as Star Wars is known for its large scale space battles and memorable fight scenes.
Playing out such intense grand scale and high-stakes battles accompanied by some climactic John Williams orchestration is what a large number of players dreams are made of – and we could be nearing that reality.
The villain titled the ‘Second Sister’ from the trailer looks a lot like Kylo Ren and Darth Vader, and we’re hoping they too will be a hateable yet complex character with clear motivations who we will at one point get to fight.
Never has a Star Wars game truly met the vision of a truly immersive large scale fight scene that presents the perfect mix of challenging gameplay, powerful soundtrack, outstanding visuals, and great level design – all within a battle with an unknown outcome that hasn’t been presented beforehand in other media.
Immersive Level Design and New Planets
Opting for a non-open world game is somewhat of a relief, as sticking to a more linear experience makes it easier to focus on the story. So many developers focus on the selling point of huge open worlds – with a large percentage of them ending up feeling empty.
The Star Wars universe is known for being expansive but its events have mostly taken place within only a small portion of the universe. This means there are so many unheard stories to be told within un-visited planets, filled with new species and cultures to discover, interact with, and fight.
On top of the great level design, navigating these worlds has to be enjoyable, and wall-running appears to be making a return, a mechanic previously found in Respawn’s Titanfall games. Considering we haven’t seen any gameplay footage, this could just be part of a cutscene and not an indication of true gameplay features.
Either way, navigating the worlds should be enjoyable and the levels should themselves be detailed and challenging.
A New Story
After hearing confirmation that the game will be a story-driven experience, we’re excited to see Respawn and EA explore other areas of the Star Wars universe. Although a gameplay trailer would’ve given us more to analyze, the CGI trailer did hint at a few story elements and let us take a look at our new protagonist and Jedi padawan, Cal Kestis.
Cal is said to have survived the events of Order 66 and spends his days scrapping derelict ships.
Fallen Order is set when the Jedi were being sought after by the Empire, between episodes III and IV, meaning there is huge potential for intense conflict within the story. As the game is set right after Revenge of the Sith when all of the Jedi have been wiped out, this is a pivotal time for the force and those on either side of it.
It will be interesting to see how characters like Cal tie into the larger events surrounding the Jedi and how significantly his actions relate to existing canon if at all, or if Respawn strays further and takes some more risks. There have already been hints towards familiar faces making an appearance but it is currently unclear how significant these characters and their stories will be.
Hearing of Stig Asmussen’s involvement with Fallen Order has our hopes raised. Already we’re thinking about how damn good God of War (PS4) was, and what made its story so special that could translate into the Star Wars universe. An iconic character such as Kratos getting a next-gen game was an exciting yet daunting thought, and I think that’s a similar feeling to our current thoughts around this new Star Wars game.
Santa Monica took Kratos and fleshed out his character in ways most never anticipated. Thus, maybe their developers can do it again and expand on existing aspects of this huge franchise with a memorable story.
Strong and Memorable Characters
Getting to know new characters is also exciting but also daunting. Boring characters in story-driven single player games can completely kill the mood and relinquish any investment in the story, as developing an interest in the plot of a game usually starts with caring about the characters on top of the story events.
Characters from the films such as Luke and Rey work because they are relatable. As nobodies, the characters don’t require the viewer to have a certain understanding of their status or situation. Viewers can empathize with things such as Rey’s loneliness and fading hope for her parents return to Jakku. These characters experience relatable emotions but are also complex, as Rey and Luke have strange and complex relationships with the force and with the dark side.
Hopefully, Cal’s appearance is deceiving – as some fans found him to appear bland in screenshots and trailer footage. Maybe this appearance is intentional or part of his shtick as a character who spends his life in hiding and blending in.
Fallen Order’s Cal Kestis is too seemingly a ‘nobody’, as he seems to value remaining invisible to the Empire after the fall of the Jedi. Cameos from familiar faces would also be welcome, but maybe this Star Wars experience should take a step away from the expansive and beloved characters for now and see what the rest of the galaxy has to offer.
We want to learn more about Cal and hope he undergoes a powerful character arc throughout the game, one which explores his connection with the force and the reconstruction of the Jedi order. In the trailer we already see Cal battling between remaining hidden and saving a friends life, using his force powers to do so and risking his detection.
Cal’s droid companion BD-1 is also a key character in most ways, and we hope that his companion lives up to the surprisingly colorful personalities of R2D2 and BB8. The droid companion has a retro vibe, and takes a step away from the modern and spherical design of BB8.
BD-1’s design is already adorable, and the droid appears to travel with Cal wherever he goes in concept art and images. Thus, it’d be great to have the droid be lovable as well as useful in actual gameplay – perhaps BD-1 can help Cal navigate the world, find items, or obtain new force powers.
Hard to Master Combat and Customizable Weapons
In order to really shine above all else, Fallen Order needs to get combat right. Story-driven games are great, but the Star Wars universe needs a strong combat system to appeal to fans, one which works alongside a riveting story. To really capture the essence of the Star Wars universe combat is key, as the majority of Star Wars media portrays combat regularly.
Respawn refer to the combat present in Fallen Order as “thoughtful combat” during the Star Wars Celebration broadcast, meaning that the player will have to consider how to take down each enemy as they approach them. The broadcast also disregarded the idea of the game being a “button masher”, providing a more tactical approach to combat.
Ideally, Fallen Order will present a variety of weapons and clothing. We’re mostly interested in lightsaber combat and customizing our own to make it unique – perhaps for different fight situations. Choosing between the available varieties of lightsaber and maybe even adding new variants would make combat feel a bit more unique and less bland if the weapons available to use can be altered. Perhaps Kyber crystals can be swapped out to alter Cal’s lightsaber to stick to Star Wars canon.
Force powers are back, and are presented in the trailer and Fallen Order’s website, which states: “Use your Jedi weapon and the Force to take on any challenge”. Force powers have always been fun and desirable, even in the Lego Star Wars games, and they provided a more interesting combat element in games such as Knights of the Old Republic.
In Fallen Order, we hope to see a variety of force powers, some which are new and unfamiliar to us. The force has experimented with quite a bit in the last two movies, and Fallen Order has a chance to present some really cool and out-there ideas in this game – which is something to be encouraged.
With all things considered Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks to be promising, and there are no major concerns based on its content alone right now. Despite the public perception of EA, they certainly couldn’t have picked much better developers to collaborate with them on this project, and Respawn appears to have free reign on a lot of aspects which gives us a lot of hope.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is scheduled for release on Nov. 15, 2019.
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