Review
Played on: Xbox One X & Xbox Series XReleased: 2019
What happens when you combine Tomb Raider and Souls-like mechanics, then set it in the Star Wars universe? Well, then you get Star Wars Fallen Order. EA’s, Titanfall developer, Respawns take on the famous sci-fi franchise.
I played Fallen Order back in 2019, when the Xbox One X was still my main console but have sadly never come around to reviewing it. It’s undergone a transition in resolution and framerates to run on current gen hardware. I completed the campaign last gen, but did a sweep-up of exploring unopened areas on current gen hardware.
Let’s beam up our lightsaber and take a closer look!
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In a smart move, Fallen Order builds its own main character and story within the Star Wars lore, not relying on being a movie tie-in. You play as a young Jedi Padawan, named Cal Kestis, voiced and modelled by Cameron Monaghan. In his journey from planet to planet in order to restore the Jedi Order.
What happens when you combine Tomb Raider and Souls-like mechanics, then set it in the Star Wars universe? Well, then you get Star Wars Fallen Order. EA’s, Titanfall developer, Respawns take on the famous sci-fi franchise.
I played Fallen Order back in 2019, when the Xbox One X was still my main console but have sadly never come around to reviewing it. It’s undergone a transition in resolution and framerates to run on current gen hardware. I completed the campaign last gen, but did a sweep-up of exploring unopened areas on current gen hardware.
Let’s beam up our lightsaber and take a closer look!
.png)
In a smart move, Fallen Order builds its own main character and story within the Star Wars lore, not relying on being a movie tie-in. You play as a young Jedi Padawan, named Cal Kestis, voiced and modelled by Cameron Monaghan. In his journey from planet to planet in order to restore the Jedi Order.
Along the way he's accompanied by a little droid, named BD-1, who sits on Cals shoulder as a parrot. Assisting Cal in pushing buttons, cutting ropes and hacking computers. A former Jedi knight turned to mercenary, called Cere, guides and teaches Cal on his journey. Travel between locations is done with cool take-off and landing segments, in a spaceship nicknamed the Mantis, flown by a loud-mouthed and comic relief called Greez.
There's a neat set of varied characters with cool personalities, friend and foes alike are well voiced and ooze the right Star Wars vibe. Same goes from the planet locations you visit along the way. With varied scenery like deserts, swamps, snowy mountains and high-tech spaceports. Very much keeping in alignment with how everyone perceives the Star Wars universe, with that 70’s sci-fi vibe.
While the story progresses the players in a linear fashion from planet to planet, it soon leaves them to wander about. Allowing Cal to board the Mantis at any time, choose a planet and travel back and forth to discover and gain access to previously locked areas with newly gained abilities. It’s a Metroidvania structured affair, spanning over many planet maps.
Each planet has a few open areas, but otherwise is structured like a network of corridors, leading to various key elements. Revisiting a planet later in the story will unlock new routes and doors, thus opening the map up further. It’s a great design and doesn't go over the top with its size. My main gripe though, is the lack of fast travel within each planet, making back-tracking for hidden items a tedious affair.
That said, the traversal of the planets and exploring is amazing. It brings back vibes to the latest Tomb Raider releases. Free to explore areas, modest in size on open areas and connected by corridors. Complete with hidden treasures, climbing walls, ziplines and even wall running from Titanfall! It's a fantastic experience for the traversal aspect and platforming alone. The pretty scenery helps elevate the experience further with some great atmosphere.
Combat is melee based, lightsaber fighting. It’s a dance of parry, blocks, evasions and attacks. Not my personal strong suit and the normal setting ramps up the difficulty fast, thus I had to go with easy as I progressed further. It’s a meticulous combat system, requiring skill, patience and openings to attack. Fans of Demon Souls, and the like, will love the combat system.
Furthermore, the checkpoint system is also souls-like. In other words, if you die you're thrown back to the last save point. Each save point allows you to regenerate health, but doing so will respawn all the enemies. It’s a tough system, which forces you to rethink if you need to refill your health, thus having to fight enemies over again, or just move forward and hope to survive.
The overall presentation is high budget, with neat transitions from cutscenes to gameplay, perhaps only disappointing are a few generic looking areas and some unstable framerate areas in performance mode. Otherwise, the artwork, environment design and overall effects are top tier. Throw in a fantastic movie styled soundtrack and you're set for a great Star War experience.
Probably one of the best Star Wars games I’ve played, it sold itself to my love for Tomb Raider, but pushed my limits of melee fighting to kneel to easy mode. For the exploration aspect I really loved it, while at the same time, and not my thing, Demon Souls fans will find a lot of love in the combat.
There's a neat set of varied characters with cool personalities, friend and foes alike are well voiced and ooze the right Star Wars vibe. Same goes from the planet locations you visit along the way. With varied scenery like deserts, swamps, snowy mountains and high-tech spaceports. Very much keeping in alignment with how everyone perceives the Star Wars universe, with that 70’s sci-fi vibe.
While the story progresses the players in a linear fashion from planet to planet, it soon leaves them to wander about. Allowing Cal to board the Mantis at any time, choose a planet and travel back and forth to discover and gain access to previously locked areas with newly gained abilities. It’s a Metroidvania structured affair, spanning over many planet maps.
Each planet has a few open areas, but otherwise is structured like a network of corridors, leading to various key elements. Revisiting a planet later in the story will unlock new routes and doors, thus opening the map up further. It’s a great design and doesn't go over the top with its size. My main gripe though, is the lack of fast travel within each planet, making back-tracking for hidden items a tedious affair.
That said, the traversal of the planets and exploring is amazing. It brings back vibes to the latest Tomb Raider releases. Free to explore areas, modest in size on open areas and connected by corridors. Complete with hidden treasures, climbing walls, ziplines and even wall running from Titanfall! It's a fantastic experience for the traversal aspect and platforming alone. The pretty scenery helps elevate the experience further with some great atmosphere.
Combat is melee based, lightsaber fighting. It’s a dance of parry, blocks, evasions and attacks. Not my personal strong suit and the normal setting ramps up the difficulty fast, thus I had to go with easy as I progressed further. It’s a meticulous combat system, requiring skill, patience and openings to attack. Fans of Demon Souls, and the like, will love the combat system.
Furthermore, the checkpoint system is also souls-like. In other words, if you die you're thrown back to the last save point. Each save point allows you to regenerate health, but doing so will respawn all the enemies. It’s a tough system, which forces you to rethink if you need to refill your health, thus having to fight enemies over again, or just move forward and hope to survive.
The overall presentation is high budget, with neat transitions from cutscenes to gameplay, perhaps only disappointing are a few generic looking areas and some unstable framerate areas in performance mode. Otherwise, the artwork, environment design and overall effects are top tier. Throw in a fantastic movie styled soundtrack and you're set for a great Star War experience.
Probably one of the best Star Wars games I’ve played, it sold itself to my love for Tomb Raider, but pushed my limits of melee fighting to kneel to easy mode. For the exploration aspect I really loved it, while at the same time, and not my thing, Demon Souls fans will find a lot of love in the combat.
Looking forward to a sequel and enjoying more of this great side-story in the massive Star Wars universe!
