Following Respawn Entertainment’s development of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was just amazing. Ever since its announcement, I have been really excited about the game’s launch and really had a great feeling about it. During its first gameplay reveal, it was, to be honest, a little dull and it didn’t really pack any excitement for the fans and even me during EA Play. But after getting my hands on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order almost 3 hours ago, I have never been so happy in my life that I’ve got to finally play the game.
So for those wondering why there aren’t reviews just yet, it’s probably because the embargo hasn’t been lifted yet and I bought the game on Origin – meaning I am not required to follow any embargo rules. It unlocked last night at 11:00 PM Philippine Time (November 14). I know it’s kinda unfair that the rest of the world will have to wait until November 15 to get a hold of the game, but let me tell you this: it’s worth the wait. And I highly advise all of you to avoid any streams due to major spoilers getting revealed.
I’m currently at about 1 hour and 30 minutes in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I finished the first planet and it was nothing but an enjoyable experience all throughout on Jedi Master difficulty. Those that were mentioned in the early previews of the game have been, so far, true. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order slowly expands from a linear experience to a semi-open world after you’ve completed the first planet. It’s quite similar to that path that God of War took when you had these first few quests, it was literally linear but it suddenly exploded into what we call as an open-world experience.
The combat was just really satisfying, and the gameplay isn’t really that into Dark Souls in a way but a more grounded engagement. Again, I would highly compare this to God of War and a little bit of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as it does have a lot of similarities when it comes to the combat mechanics. You get to learn how to block incoming attacks and how it’s beneficial for you to time it correctly to brutally damage your enemies. While there is only one attack option during the first 30 minutes of the game, your abilities will slowly expand after you earn Skill Points and unlock them through meditation floors – where you also get to save and that enemies will respawn after you do that.
It’s fun and entertaining especially how deep the characters can be when you get to slowly know them in the process especially Cal Kestis and Cere Junda. I have to commend the actor behind Cal Kestis — Cameron Monaghan — for the outstanding voice acting and portrayal of the character.
Visually, it’s also impressive knowing that the game engine used was Unreal Engine 4. Respawn Entertainment did it so well that I did not even expect that they haven’t used a different game engine to develop the game. The quality of each environmental texture, the lightsaber, and the facial expressions were really jaw-dropping.
Performance-wise on PC, I had one instance of a game crash — because I think this usually happens if you first run the game, but after that, I managed to play it without any issues or stutters. I’m amazed how well-optimized Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, so far, is an excellent Star Wars game and I know I still have a lot of hours to pour into this, but with my 1 hour and 30-minute experience, it was definitely a blast. This is by far the best Star Wars game we’ve had since EA’s acquisition of the franchise. Hopefully, my full review comes out next week around Wednesday. If you’re going to ask me if it’s worth it, it is definitely worth it.