We live in a time when Star Wars is basically inundated with new content. The sequel trilogy, Rogue One, Solo, Rebels, Resistance, the Clone Wars (again), Battlefront, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan, and a whole assortment of books, comics and tie-ins. And the problem with having so much content is that a lot of it isn’t very good. And it’s not always the ones you expect. Those sequels: that’s where they’re bound to put in all their effort, right? Yet somehow they’re painfully generic; a remix of ideas rather than anything new. How about a sequel to one of the most popular Star Wars games of all time? Yeah, let’s make the levels tiny, remove story mode, and then throw out a sequel where you’re basically drowning in microtransactions.

Okay, I think everyone could guess Solo was gonna suck. Score one for easy predictions.

So the good news here is that this is very much one of the good ones. Like a lot of the best tales in this new galaxy the plot here doesn’t try to be big and central and surrounded by familiar faces. There are a few, most notably Saw Gerrara, but they fit in well to the plot and there’s no indication that your actions will be more than a footnote in their diary. Instead, the focus is very personal. Cal is a former Padawan living as a scrapper about five years after Order 66. And then suddenly his relatively mundane life gets blown away and he finds himself with a new crew seeking a Jedi holocron with a list of all the Force-sensitive children in the galaxy. Plenty of future Jedi to rebuild the fallen order. There are some sillier elements as well, most notably the apparently obligatory lost civilization whose ruins you need to visit to recover the holocron for some reason.

If I’m focusing a lot on plot and characters that’s because that was the part of the game that is the most impressive. After all, you don’t buy a Star Wars game if the universe doesn’t interest you, right? The gameplay is rather more mixed. The basic structure is that of Dark Souls, with checkpoints that respawn enemies and a maze-like level design. While Dark Soulsish, the difficulty has been dialed back substantially. You can ramp it up high enough to be challenging, but you can dial it down to almost zero with story mode. That’s not a bad thing to me. I hate games that force me to play them a certain way. However, the Dark Souls system can be a bit of a rough fit for a Star Wars game. Why, for example, are you encouraged to get revenge on the enemy who last killed you? Each enemy requires a distinct strategy, although Force powers can be super OP when used right. Deflecting blaster bolts can be highly satisfying.

While the gameplay and story are mostly good, the game can get a little frustrating. The levels are labyrinthine and trying to navigate them with the help of a holomap is not particularly intuitive. There’s no quick jump from campsites, so if you’re looking for items in a specific level your only way to achieve it is to work your way through the whole level again. Ditto when the story returns you to the same planet. I found my memory wasn’t up to remembering the exact route I had followed if I took a break, so six-hour or more sessions became a requirement.

This is the best Star Wars game in a long time. The story is interesting, the characters fun, the worlds inventive and distinctive, and the gameplay challenging but fun. I look forwards to the inevitable sequel.

Let me start this by saying that I have never cared about Star Wars. I was the jerk who said "oh it's overhyped, who cares, blah blah blah". (Doesn't it suck to look back on yourself and realize you were that guy?)

Anyways, my friend bought me this game for Christmas and that made me feel obligated to play it. Him and I always talk progress in our games, so I wanted him to know that I appreciated the gift. I started it with little to no expectations, aside from what little I had heard from various internet sources(Spawn Wave I'm looking at you).

I was immediately impressed with the presentation of the game. No, it's not perfect, or the most beautiful game ever made or anything like that, but it looks and plays great. And the first time you swing the lightsaber(dare i say it), you FEEL like a jedi. Nah, but seriously, the combat feels great most of the time, and the progression system is paced well enough that you learn your new moves before you get new ones. I never felt overwhelmed by options there.

The story is nothing to write home about, but it has some compelling characters, and I am a big Cal Kestis fan now. Dude is badass. Did I mention BD-1? I LOVE BD-1. What a great little droid. We must protect him at all costs.

If you're looking for a sci-fi souls-like that isn't too hard, definitely give this a try. Especially with how often it goes on sale. I think I've seen it for like $5 on steam? That's a steal for this game. I'm going to be picking up the sequel ASAP.

I am really glad I had the opportunity to experience this game. I am never drawn to this type of game since combat is really not my cup of tea. But I was curious about the story and characters which is why I was so relieved and appreciative of the option to play in story mode. Even though the enemies were less aggressive and dealt less damage it was still so amazing to take on the mantel of a Jedi and embark on the journey to take down the Empire.

The gameplay mechanics were so well done. Running, climbing, and fighting with the light saber all felt so smooth and well executed. Each environment was beautifully crafted in my opinion and made me feel immersed in each different world that was explored. All of that just helped to increase my interest in the story which is where this game really shined for me. I can't say I am the biggest fan of Star Wars but I know and follow along with the overall story of the series casually. This game introduced new characters that quickly have become some of my favorite and I was so invested in seeing their stories and relationships develop. Also BD-1 might be my favorite droid of all time.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this game. I definitely didn't explore every nook and cranny this game had to offer but what I did see was amazing and I really enjoyed the main plot that was being told throughout the game. It left me interested to see what the sequel is going to bring to the table.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is not only a great Star Wars game, it’s just a great game in general. It’s hard to believe that Respawn Entertainment, the same people who made Apex Legends and Titanfall 2, were able to make such an awesome action/adventure hack and slash game especially when you consider that this is their first attempt at that genre - they’ve historically only have done first person shooter games.

The story was easy to follow, the supporting cast and main character Cal Testes was excellent, the gameplay was engaging for the most part, and honestly… I would probably group this game up with The Mandalorian series, in a sense that even if you’re not a big fan of Star Wars, you will probably enjoy this game - it’s able to stand on its own, I mean having knowledge of the Star Wars series is beneficial, but it really isn’t required.

Unfortunately, as much praise as I have given the game, there are quite a few glaring flaws I can’t ignore. And it could just be the PS5 version, but the game had quite a few bugs - even more so towards the end. Texture popping, animation issues with characters doing strange things like standing in their seats, or characters initiating dialogue thinking that they’re outside the ship, when they’re actually inside the ship and they aren’t even facing each other - there were some weird things I saw… and can’t unsee.

As great as the game is, I just feel like Respawn Entertainment should have spent a little more time further refining the game a bit more - again this could just be the PS5 version though. Makes me wonder how the game was at launch….

I know this game is kind of divisive and all of the major complaints I agree with, but there was still enough fun for me to end up really enjoying my time with the game.

Let me preface this by saying that I've never played a soulsborne-like game at all and typically shy away from games that are "fun because of the challenge". I also have never played Uncharted and only played one of the new Tomb Raider's years ago.

The game started incredibly slow for me. I sucked at the combat and didn't love the exploration side of it, but I was pulled along by the fact that it was a unique Star Wars story and I wanted to see what happened.

Some point around Kashykk this all flipped on its head and I stopped really caring about what was a slightly boring story and really enjoyed using my skills to navigate the planets and really started savoring tough combat engagements. While I used to cheese some of the tougher non-boss fights, I started getting the hang of it and having a lot of fun fighting 10 troopers.

I kept it on Jedi Master the whole time and ended up really loving the final 2 boss fights even though they took me about 10-20 tries each.

Agreed with everything about the horrific maps and backtracking and I also found the combat was sometimes not as responsive as I would have wanted. These things kept me from 100%ing the game after beating the final boss.

I would eat a spiritual sequel up if one came out.