Jedi: Fallen Order is a fun game, maybe a bit short, with some great cut scenes and impressive world exploration. It also puts you directly in Darth Vader’s path for a few minutes, which is always awesome. I played on Xbox One.
You play as Cal Kestis, a young man (no choice for gender or facial customization in this one, which is kind of a bummer -- and my second biggest gripe about the game) and former padawan working as a scrapper while trying to keep his identity and abilities secret, about five years after the rise of the Empire. When he’s identified by two inquisitors, the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister, he finds himself off and running on a quest to locate a Jedi Holocron that contains the identities of all the Force sensitive children in the galaxy. Teamed up with a former Jedi who has cut herself off from the force, a strange and ornery pilot with four arms, and, of course, a droid, Cal has to find the Holocron before the inquisitors do.
The game takes you to six planets, most of which you will visit multiple times. The gameplay is fairly straightforward third-person action. The look of the whole thing is excellent.
I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It adds a solid chapter into the Star Wars canon, with a vibe not so far off from the show Star Wars Rebels. Each planet offers enough open-world exploration while keeping you moving in the right direction that it doesn’t feel forced. All that, plus using Cal's Force abilities to tackle enemies is a lot of fun.
All that said, I found a few aspects of it less than ideal. First, the lack of character cusomtiztion like I said above. Next, the game uses a save/respawn system that requires making it to specific meditation points to save. When you die, there’s no checkpoints. You respawn back at the last save, which is sometimes much farther back than I would have liked. I also wanted more customization for Cal’s lightsaber beyond just the look of it (though getting the double-bladed option is very cool). Some upgrades to its strengths and/or weaknesses with each custom piece you can find would have made all the chests and Force echo locations seem less repetitive and with more purpose.
My last gripe is minor but… I’m a little overdone on the movie timelines. How about we get back to some Old Republic stuff, or maybe even introduce a new timeline or era to the Star Wars galaxy?
Overall, this is a solid game. I could definitely see myself replaying it on a harder level, and I am looking forward to the (hopefully) inevitable sequel.
4.5 stars!