Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Thoughts and Opinions)

Last October, I completed all my work extremely early to ensure that I had a completely empty weekend in preparation for this game. Being a long-time Star Wars fan and having watched all Star Wars movies and shows the summer before its release, I was beyond hyped to get my hands on Fallen Order. In total, I’d say the game took me two and a half days to complete. While I did have a few Issues, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. These are a few of my thoughts after playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The Star Wars Connection

In general, the game did a great job at being a Star Wars game. What do I mean by this? Well, Fallen Order is filled with connections to the larger Star Wars universe and rewards you for having background knowledge of what has happened before the time period the game takes place in. For example, the game opens in a shipyard where everyone is tasked with breaking apart old star destroyers that you’ll be very familiar with if you’ve watched clone wars at all. Beyond connections to past Star Wars events, the game also gives you previously known and beloved characters while introducing new ones that don’t feel out of place within the larger universe. At one point in the game, you even cross paths with Saw Gerrera. Fans may know Saw from his appearances in Rogue One and the Clone Wars. These types of characters inclusions and references to Star Wars’ past is enough to make any fan feel right at home when they pick up the controller.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Boy oh boy, did this game have cool planets. To start off, the first planet you have access to is Bogano which, in my opinion, does a great job of giving the player a feel for what to expect from the game. The Bogano map is a large enclosed space with many different routes for the player to make their way through. Bogano also has plenty of secrets for the player to find as they explore and fight the planet’s inhabitants. These two aspects of the games enjoyable level design are present throughout the rest of the game’s planets. Apart from the way these levels are laid out, some of the locations are just super cool for the role they play in the larger Star Wars universe. Not only do you have fan favorite Kashyyyk and Dathomir making an appearance, but you also have very interesting new locations like the planet Ilum. Ilum is particularly interesting because this is one of the planets where Jedi go to find a kyber crystal for their lightsabers.

This Is Not the Consequence You Are Looking For

The only major problem that I had with Fallen Order, after all was said and done, was the importance of the story. The driving force behind the characters actions is to find a list of all the force sensitive children to try and rebuild the jedi order. However, if you know anything about the Star Wars material that takes place after the game’s timeframe, you know that this never happened. Your end goal throughout the game is something which you know will never come to pass. Don’t get me wrong, the game does do plenty for fleshing out even more of the Star Wars universe, but you never really get the sense that anything your doing is important to the larger story.

Geonosians and Explosions

Bugs and crashes plagued this game’s release. At least I couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about a new issue someone was running into. I, however, was luckier than the rest. During my playtime with the game, I ran into very few issues. It wasn’t until after my playthrough, when I went back to explore and gather collectibles for the platinum trophy, that I began to run into bugs and crashes. For example, I began to work my way backwards along a path on the left side of the map. However, it seems the game never expected anyone to go down this path backwards because when I tried to return, my player would fall straight through the platform I needed to land on to progress. Occasionally I did have a crash here and there, but luckily my data never got corrupted. Even with these issues, I never thought that these were enough to ruin my experience with the game.

In Conclusion

It was fun to play a Star Wars game where I got to play through a Jedi’s story. The characters and environments brought out feelings which were equal part nostalgia and wide-eyed excitement. While I did feel like the story was more inconsequential than I originally though it was, I never failed to enjoy the game, or the story beats it presents. I love Fallen Order and can’t wait to see if Respawn will continue to deliver these types of Star Wars experiences in the futures.