Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order

 

Jedi - Fallen Order is a fantastic game that follows the story of Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan living in hiding after escaping Order 66. His cover was blown when he uses the force to save his friend from a fall. He is found by two Empire Inquisitors and subsequently rescued by Cere, a former Jedi in hiding who has discontinued using the force. While being hunted by the Inquisitors, Cal and Cere go on a mission across the galaxy to locate a Holocron which gives the locations of force-sensitive children, in order to restore the Jedi Order. 

I liked almost everything about this game. Using the Unreal Engine, the planets and environments visited looked fantastic. The gameplay is incredibly fun. The game feels similar to Uncharted in that there is a lot of climbing and swinging from platform to platform. However, there are two characteristics about this game that improve upon Uncharted's gameplay. The first is that as the game progresses, Cal's skills with the Force and fighting improve, making him more powerful and changing gameplay. The second characteristic is use of the Force. Using the Force to push stormtroopers off ledges or to pull them close to you to attack them is quite satisfying. Use of the Force combined with lightsaber fighting makes the melee action in this game very fun. In fact, I think it is some of the best action I've experienced in a game. So much more satisfying than simply using a gun.

The story is good as well, fitting perfectly in the Star Wars canon after the Clone Wars and before the events of A New Hope.  In addition to all of the fun that having the ability to use the Force allows, it's also neat to visit the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk and interact with the Nightsisters on Dathomir. 

My biggest complaint about this game, and it is a minor one, is that you have to do a lot of backtracking through stages. The correct path isn't always obvious and at times it was confusing to know where to go next. Making a trip back to your ship to fly to the next planet makes sense, but once I trek through a stage once I typically don't want to immediately repeat the trek. Also, the game is somewhat buggy. It never locked up or anything like that, but occasionally there would be odd graphics glitches. At one point, I had to quit the game because I was unable to escape a room because I hadn't defeated all of the enemies because the game never sent the next wave of stormtroopers. 

All things considered, this really is a great game and definitely worth a play for a Star Wars fan. It has a great story, looks fantastic, and the lightsaber and Force action is hugely satisfying.