Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order Review

Respawn Entertainment’s 2019 game was a pleasant surprise considering their publisher’s seeming hatred towards single player games. The game is a narrative focused, single player experience that has no DLC or microtransactions. There is a deluxe edition but both the art book and soundtrack are well worth the extra, with the skins a nice bonus. We’re doing this Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order review because it’s free on PC for Twitch/Amazon Prime subscribers until February 7th. You can also get this game as part of the EA Play subscription on PC, Xbox or PlayStation. EA Play is also included with the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier for both Xbox and PC users.

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Story and Characters

The story is based around five years after order 66 (the Jedi purge) in Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith. You are playing as Cal Kestis, a former Padawan who’s been working as a scrapper, salvaging in a spaceship junk yard. Through a series of unfortunate events you are forced to reveal your past as a Jedi and end up on the run from an Imperial Inquisitor. You are rescued by Cere and Greeze, putting you on an adventure to try to restore the Jedi Order. You will visit multiple planets, meet many memorable characters and fight many challenging foes. I don’t want to spoil more of the story except saying it’s well written and it felt like a Star Wars story.

The cast of characters are memorable, BD-1 being remarkably emotive considering he can only communicate with beeps. Cere is a bit cold but opens up to you as you progress, eventually revealing her guilty past. Greeze is the reluctant hero in the game but really warms up and opens up about himself as your progress and prove yourself capable. The main antagonist the Second Sister is an excellent villain, she is well written and outclasses Cal in almost every encounter. There are other characters that are well written but these four get the most screen time. My only complaint is I wanted to know what happened to some of these other characters but they seemed forgotten after we left their planet.

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Level Design and Platforming

There are eight total locations in the game, they all have their own aesthetic with unique enemies and wildlife. Three locations are only visited once and of those one of them is an event tied to losing a boss fight. There are chests to open, memories called force echoes to find that will grant you XP and some lore. The locations are impressively massive, really giving you a sense of scale and mystery. Backtracking is also a major part of this game with you unlocking skills, opening up previously inaccessible areas in a Metroidvania style. Some people will complain it’s just padding but going back when you’re stronger really does help with the Jedi power fantasy.

Platforming in this game though is where the level design really shines. There are puzzles where you are forced to combine your force abilities, experimenting with combinations was quite enjoyable. Some areas were a little linear though, seeming more like a COD set piece but this style still works with Star Wars. Meditation points (this games equivalent to Dark Souls bonfires) are well spaced out. There’s usually a meditation point before a boss or tricky section which really helps reduce frustration after dying. Boss arenas are very well constructed, giving you a decent amount of space to dodge without making it too easy.

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Bosses

Bosses are divided into two main types, it’s either giant beasts or humanoids. Giant beast bosses are my personal favourite, feeling very much like a God of War boss. This isn’t a surprise considering the director was also the director of God of War 3. There is only one mandatory beast boss but there are four other optional animal bosses hidden throughout the game. I would highly advise hunting all of these optional beasts as they give substantial XP and there’s an achievement for killing all four! There’s also a few other things they tend to be guarding like secrets or force echoes.

Humanoid bosses are a bit different, some are very easy, others are quite challenging. The first humanoid boss you’ll fight is the Second Sister, she is melee based and you need to break her guard like Sekiro. Once her guard is down you can hit her for some damage, her guard is restored and you’re back to breaking it. Later on you’ll be facing none-inquisitor bosses which use ranged weapons like blasters. These are easier and can have their normal shots reflected while charged shots and stun grenades needing to be dodged. Most of the bosses will have some form of weakness, exploiting this weakness will bring victory (especially on higher difficulties).

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Combat

Combat in Jedi Fallen Order is an interesting hybrid between the methodical Soulsborne combat and the bombastic God of War combat. Unlike the Souls games though there is no stamina bar for regular attacks, blocking or dodging. Force and other special abilities use force stamina, you charge this up during combat by landing regular attacks. Normal enemy attacks can be blocked or parried, if your guard bar drains while blocking you become vulnerable. If an enemy glows red it means they’re about to do an un-blockable attack which you must dodge. Parrying is almost Sekiro-like and is used on melee humanoids to break their guard (shown as a white line under their health). Once the guard is broken (or the enemy is in an attack animation) you are able to deal damage.

Force abilities like force push or pull are great for disrupting enemies, causing them to momentarily drop their guard. Force push is also an excellent way to quickly dispatch enemies on high platforms, especially ranged enemies! I don’t really like using the freeze time ability on enemies because it ends as soon as your first attack lands, push or pull is more effective. Creature enemies don’t have a guard bar but are generally faster and use more un-blockable abilities. There are special black armoured enemies called Purge Troopers, the melee ones especially are relentless. You will get competent at dispatching them but they can still kill you in moments if you miss a few parries or dodges.

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Gameplay and Difficulty

Exploration, platforming and combat are the three gameplay pillars this game relies on. There are Souls-like bonfires (called meditation circles) but you don’t automatically rest there like you would in a Soul game. This means you don’t have to rest if you only want to level up as resting will respawn all the enemies in the area. Meditation circles also act as save points, meaning you can save without respawning enemies. You also refill your healing stims and force power stamina by resting at a meditation circle like a Souls bonfire. There are also shortcuts in levels which you unlock as you progress, some are doors and others are ropes. There are also force echoes (lore and experience) and BD-1 will want to scan fallen enemies and things you find. While not essential it definitely adds some detail to the story that might not have been apparent otherwise.

For context I was playing the game on the Jedi Master difficulty, my opinions are of course based on this setting. The difficulty curve is definitely a bit strange in this game, tricky at the start and becoming a joke towards the end. Similarly bosses are a bit all over the place difficulty wise too, the Inquisitor bosses were especially annoying at first. Some of the bosses were far too easy though, me one-shotting them without much effort. The only time the game gets really difficult is towards the end when you’re fighting large groups of ranged and melee enemies. Fortunately by that point you have some area of effect abilities like a mass push or lightsaber throw.

Jedi Fallen Order Review – Differences From a Souls-like

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is many things but it is NOT a Souls-like. It borrows many elements of those games like the bonfire mechanic but it puts it’s own spin on things. Bonfires for instance don’t automatically rest you, this is because they’re save points too. In a Souls game the game constantly autosaves, it does this so you can’t save scum to make things easier. You can save scum in Fallen Order, it doesn’t properly save until you rest at a bonfire. I found this out when the game crashed after I died, my experience was still there when I loaded again. Also Souls-like (with the exception of Elden Ring) don’t have maps, mini or normal. Personally it doesn’t bother me, I’ve wasted far too many hours getting lost in some Dark Souls areas!

The way death is handled is also quite different, a full experience bar turns into a skill point. On death you only lose experience, not unspent skill points which really makes things a little too easy. The lack of a stamina bar also really sticks out to me, you can just dodge and do normal attacks with no care. Force ability stamina is there but it only effects your force abilities and special attacks. This makes combat less tactical than in Souls but it does have the advantage of being more accessible. Similarly the game has four difficulty settings. If it were a true Souls-like the game difficulty would have been fixed at Jedi Master with New Game+ being Jedi Grand Master. Let me be clear I’m not calling Fallen Order bad, it’s just tiring hearing uninformed people call it Souls-like.

More Jedi Fallen Order Stuff – Keep Reading Below For Game Pros/Cons & More!

Did you enjoy this Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order review? Please leave us a comment below to let us know.

Did you know that Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order made it to our Top 10 Best Games On Google Stadia 2021? Check it out to see Li’l Ninja‘s much shorter Jedi Fallen Order review.

Check out IGN’s Fallen Order review here: Jedi Fallen Order Review – YouTube

Check out more articles by Reyeme here.

Finally, The Completionist has an awesome video Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order review here: Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order – No One Said Being a Jedi Was Easy | The Completionist – YouTube – Definitely check it out!